Return to the Rivers

After bidding farewell to Laura, Eliza, and Leslie in Chicago, Adagio turned once again to the rivers of America’s great heartland - the Illinois, the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Tenn-Tom - and home. With the vagaries of winds and tides behind us, the rivers bring new challenges, including lots of new Loopers learning to use their boats for the first time; huge barges filled with petroleum, grain, and coal; heavy morning fog, hidden debris floating in the water; and grass in our engine strainers. Still, it feels good to be on the home stretch of our trip.

Heavy commercial barge traffic on the Illinois River just south of Chicago turns the narrow, steel-walled canal into a washing machine, and pleasure boats often get caught in the chaos. Towboats pushing as many as 15 barges receive priority going through the seven locks on the Illinois, and they take a long time going through. After waiting for several hours on the barges, we were finally able to lock down with about 20 other Looper boats to Joliet, Illinois, where two great American highways, Route 66 and US Highway 30, the Lincoln Highway, intersect.

The Loopers began to spread out south of Joliet as the Illinois rolled past oil refineries, grain elevators, coal plants, soybean and corn fields. Bald eagles soared overhead while we listened to the tow captains chatter on the radio as they guided their loads up and down the river. One captain came ashore nearby to re-provision, and we gave him and his mate a tour of the Adagio. Turns out he was from Galliano, Louisiana and dreams of doing the Loop when he retires.

We anchored out twice just below a wicket dam next to a lock. Wickets are metal stakes at the top of a low dam that can be raised or lowered based on the water level. When the water is low, as it is now, the wickets are up and one can anchor facing upstream into the current just below the dam next to the lock. While we slept peacefully through the night, barges carried their cargo through the locks just a few dozen yards away. We woke up the next morning grateful for those who keep our country’s food and energy supply chains running so smoothly.

The Illiniois meets the Mississippi River in Grafton, Illinois about 20 miles north of St. Louis. We rode Grafton’s ski lift 500 feet to the top of the town bluff to see the confluence of the two rivers below before continuing to Alton, Illinois, our first stop on the Mighty Mississippi.

Loopers at a Railroad Bridge, Illiniois River