Beardstown, Il.

We had an early start form the old lock on Tuesday.  The trip went well and we were in many "river lakes" quite large but very shallow.  We contacted the marinas above Peoria and were told that we required more water than they had.  We ended up at the town dock with plenty of power and water and had another free dock.  we took a walk through downtown and say lots of office buildings but not much else.  We stopped at the visitors center and got a lead on a nice Italian restaurant just a few blocks away.  We decided to celebrate John's Birthday early because we weren't sure what would be available Wednesday.

Old Peoria Train Station

Shave and a hair cut two bits.

Peoria City Hall

Passport at the dock.

Old John Schawlb grocery store.

We left Peoria Wednesday morning with a beautiful sun rise. We just missed getting in the Peoria Lock, we had to wait about an hour and a half for a chemical barge to lock down. Lock through with five other  Looper boats. We saw many jumping Asian Carps along the way and were fortunate not to have any jump on board Passport. Also saw two bald eagles.

An indication of how low the river is.

And how high it can get.

Passport and the other Loopers in Tall Timber Marina

We decided to dock for the night in Havana. IL. at Tall Timbers Marina, even thought the depth was a question. Spent an nice evening, celebrating John's birthday for a second time at a little restaurant in town. When we left Thursday morning it was quite cold 45˚, first time for jeans.

Chris from Southern Belle, took this shot as we were getting ready to leave.

The stairs down to the barge in Beardstown.

Don, this is a collection of stone arrow heads.

Eric, we stood in the same place where Lincoln won his most celebrated case.

Tied up on our barge.

The only place to tie up in Beardstown is along a barge tied to shore.  We were able to tie up without any help.  Two other Looper's tied up after us.  The town of Beardstown is like so many we have seen along  the way, struggling.  They had an extensive museum about the the town's history which included Abraham Lincoln's celebrated Almanac case.  Our tour went on forever.   We had a quite night without any power, very peaceful.  The plan is to leave at first light and if we are lucky tomorrow we will be in Grafton.

Good Night for now,
John & Mary