Ottawa to Henry - Sept 12

Up at 6am to get a report from a fellow looper on what time we can get through our next lock, just 10 miles down river.  The report was there was a tow coming up that would take 2 lifts to get all his barges through. By being at the lock at 9am, we could ride down between his sets of barges. Our timing was perfect and six Looper boats locked down together. We snuck around the barges waiting on top and again on the bottom. Fun! The captain of the Pura Vida was fabulous!

We had a smooth ride on to Henry, Illinois.  We travelled from mile marker 242 to mile marker 195. Easy day!  We dropped anchor around 2pm in an abandoned gravel pit off the river, 1/2 mile south of Henry.  We are the only boat in this small cutout.  Very neat!  After lunch on board we jumped in the dinghy to check out the town of Henry. Sheli was hoping we would scare up some Asian Carp, but Steve was happy we didn't.  The town was pretty much closed up except for a hardware store and a grocery store.  We made purchases at both.  Even though it's cool and rainy, we plan to grill out tonight on the boat.  This is our first night "on the hook" (anchoring out) since we left, so we will see how well we sleep!

 Captain Adorable!

 Pelicans!

  We are here!

 Our home for the night.

 Very cool old time hardware store!