The best laid plans of mice and men - or boats and captains. We got a great start out of Chicago Friday morning, water topped off and holding tank emptied. We went through the first lock of the Chicago
Rivers without a hitch. It is only a two foot drop so was a very brief journey :)
A brand new lock control building that has the look of a ship
It was an easy travel through the river - the only other traffic was water taxis, no tour boats this early. It was fun recognizing buildings we had seen by both land and sea this time. The bridges along
this stretch were mostly draw bridges, but we had dropped our mast and antennas to the point where we could fit under without requesting a lift. We arrived at the Amtrak Bridge just to the south of town to find it in the lowered
position. It is an active bridge but is usually in the up position unless a train is coming through. Another boat arrived just before us and discovered the bridge was stuck and there was no time frame for the repairs. The
water taxi dock is very close and they said we could tie up to their unused portion. The other boat - "Intuition" - turned out to be a VERY new Looper - only 2 days into their trip. Their boat is much smaller than ours and with a little alteration (removing the windshield and chart plotter on the fly bridge),
they were able to slip under the bridge with 3” to spare! Can you say “DUCK!”
The bridge was repaired by 5:30 in the evening, but by this time it was too late to go anywhere so we spent a very uncomfortable night, due to little boats causing a lot of wake and all the trains going by! Shortly before
7 AM we requested a bridge opening only to be told they had problems again! We were starting to plan the long trip around the city when the bridge opened - yay!!!! We were so happy.
It was a little higher than when Intuition went through!
Later, we approached this railroad bridge that does NOT go up! This is why we had to lower our mast and antennas
It looks so low!
Are you sure we'll fit??
We did but it was a very uncomfortable feeling being so close!
A boat storage that can hold 600 boats, all inside and warm. The cranes are ready to lift the boats out of the water.
Dumping more gravel on an already huge pile
Loved these cranes - the first two are filling barges with scrap metal and the second two are emptying barges full of dirt. Near the end of the video notice the little guy pushing dirt into a pile for the
big scoops to get it. I feel like a big kid watching these guys. I could watch them for hours!
One crane was moving this bus around like it was a toy
Filling a covered barge
There are a number of types of “tow boats” (not tug boats!!!).
My favorites are the tow boat bridges that are on hydraulic lifts that lower to go under the bridges. Kinda reminds me of Wall-e!
This one is especially large and pretty
A tow boat on “the hard”
Here you can see how the tow boat is attached to the barge.
The barges are stored here, several barges deep. We must be careful going through here because the barges come in and out of the “slips” with surprising speed and we must keep out of their way.
You can just make out an entrance to a "slip" on the right.
The locks here are much larger that any we’ve seen so far so these huge barges can get through. We feel so insignificant tied up to the wall in them. I'll take a picture next time we go through one.
They move the barges 1, 2, 3, or more at a time. The most we have seen so far is 9 (3 long by 3 wide) but we’ve heard they do even more! Just three for this tow!
The tow boat operators have been very polite so far and slow down for us to pass as their stern can produce a strong current. Here is the same tow picking up speed just after we passed. How they move so close
to the edge of the canal is a mystery!
Getting between these two was a little nerve wracking for Bob. The right side are stationary but the left is moving. Again the tow operator slowed down for us to squeeze through.
The edge of the canal is mostly stone and is so overgrown it has the feeling of an Indiana Jones movie
Part of it looks to have been carved out of rock
The scenery is exquisite through here - lush and green and so straight!
The are so many herons through here but so hard to photograph as we are moving and often they are too. Such beautiful creatures.
We passed through 1/2 mile of electrically charged water designed to kill invading fish (asian carp) that would replace the native fish. I don’t think we’ll go swimming!
We stopped for the night in Joliet on their free wall with free electricity! The area of town we were in is sadly dying although they are trying to revive it. Joliet has the largest number of operable lift bridges in the Midwest. The 6 bridges built around 1930, represent three of only 4 design styles of lift bridges made in the world.
1. Verticle lift bridge - like the one we got stuck behind over night in Chicago.
2. Bascule Trunnion Bridge - What we would call a “draw” bridge at home.
3. Scherzer Rolling Life Bridge - It raises the span by rolling on a track resembling a rocking chair base.
Sorry - but the pictures didn’t turn out!
We wish we knew more about this piece of history. She looks like she has quite a story and we hope someone is starting to help her relive some of her past glory. 
Docked at Joliet Free Wall 7/26/17
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