Ottawa, Illinois

Travelled today from Joliet to Ottawa, through 3 locks, and under several bridges.As we moved south from Joliet, we started seeing some fishermen out on the water, as well as marinas and cottages. Hadn't seen anything like that since Lake Michigan. Yesterday, once we left Chicago, all we saw were docks for industries and big industrial plants, with some trees in between. Today, there were still some industries, especially oil and chemical places. The further south we came, the more beaches we saw, then we got into farmland, saw corn, wheat, even saw some cows along the water. We even saw one farm with irrigation equipment, but we couldn't see what they were growing.
The three locks that we went through were great, the staff were helpful and very friendly. Each lock had floating bollards to tie to, made locking down easy, we just tied to the bollard and it floated down with us.
You do need to watch your ropes to make sure that the bollard floats down with you. The lockmaster told us that they have only been letting recreational boaters use the bollards for the past 3 years, before that the commercial boats and tows used the bollards and recreational boaters had to use the ropes that the lock staff threw out for them.  Easier to tie to a floating bollard than than to hang on to one of their ropes.
Met a couple of tows, and passed two tows; again the captain of each tow was friendly and helpful. When we requested permission to pass, he told us which side to pass on, and waited until we were past to turn back into the channel. One tow that we passed was three barges wide and three long. I can't imagine controlling all of those barges by pushing them from behind.

A little deer swam across the river right in front of our boat. As he/she walked away, he/she was limping. The lockmaster at the next lock said that deer hunting season is soon, so this poor thing may not fare well.

Tonight we are docked at Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa. Very nice place with good secure docks. Captain Mo met us as we arrived, helped us to dock and gave us all kinds of information, kept the restaurant open a little longer so we could get something to eat.  He has offered us a courtesy car for tomorrow to go into town to do whatever we need to do, so we are well pleased.




One of many duck blinds we saw today along the river, right beside a place where several ducks were resting on the water.

This is one tow that we met today, three barges wide and three barges deep.

One marina that we passed had several of these floating cottages tied up the a dock.



One of the many industrial sites that we passed along the river.

Guess this is what happens to old barges.