Locks: 3; LWT: 40 mins; TTT: 7:25 hrs)
We are taking a mini vacation here because it is so nice and the people here have been great.
Of course Linda loves the pool and we are getting in at least once a day. Tracey's Restaurant and Bar which is on-site is not bad as well. I can honestly say that I tried all of their draft beers (about 7) and only found one that I did not care for.
The highlight of the stay however was a visit to the Bade's estate, where we were privileged to have a meal of his "competition" style ribs. It takes most of the day to prepare and they were superb; better than many that I have tried at different Rib Festivals. We liked them a lot.
We got lucky on the river once again. The Brandon lock was ready for us when we called from Joliet and the trip was good although the river
was very busy being that it was Saturday and the weather was perfect. The tows cooperated but we are starting to see larger configurations now that we have left the narrow canals. At one point we were following a tow pushing three 379 x 54 foot barges in a very narrow area. I called the captain and asked him to let us know when it would be safe to pass and I added that there was no hurry. Well he told me to come on up closer "he ain't throw'n much sweat". I creeped up assuming he was not going to bash me with his prop wash. At that point he had all of the channel covered. Sure enough though he called and said as soon as I clear the corner of the stationary barge on the side you can swing on by. I had about 30-40 feet so I dipped around him and immediately ran into a tug coming out of a side channel so I backed off and followed him and eventually passed the tow. That was the closest yet that I have needed to be when passing on of these monsters.
We came across a ??? trailer park of houseboats. I guess that is the closest thing to a gated community that Phred and Candy can belong to. lol
Then another first at the Marseilles (pronounced Mar-sells) lock. There were three tows waiting to go down, one waiting to come up and one already in the lock. After talking to the captain of the third tow in line and almost resigning myself to the fact that the afternoon would be spent anchored near some dam, he convinced me to get closer and call the lock master. I did and lo and behold the lock master said 30 minutes. Wow. When we got to the actual lock, there was a tow with three barges in the holding area to the the left and six barges, 3 across, being winched out of the lock. Sorry Lisa, Linda was too stressed to take any photos. When they were clear we were given the go ahead to enter the lock. We could not see any opening. We worked our way between the barges, a long narrow chute of rusty steel, to the end wall of concrete where we could finally see that the barges were pulled about 25 feet past the wall of the lock. Linda kept saying that we can't fit, we won't fit, oh s!@#. After two 90 degree turns we squeezed between the last barge and the wall and then into the lock. No worries. It saved us a whole day. Thank you Marr-selllsss.
 |
| Mmm, Mmm good!!!! |
No comments:
Post a Comment