September 15, 2014 - STILL AT IVY in Peoria, IL

We decided to spend a second night here at IVY Club because there are many Loopers here with whom good, helpful information can be shared.  We had a very restful night and awoke to warmer temperatures and sunshine.  Jim washed the boat...filthy from the debris falling from the locks and all the rain residue, bugs, etc. that had collected outside.  While he cleaned the outside, my job was cleaning the inside...another task long overdue.  It's looking pretty good right now!  

At the Yacht Club today they had a rib "cook off" with 3 different chefs vying for the title. We were invited to join the festivities and they provided everything to us for free. Everything was absolutely delicious!

This afternoon some friends took us in their truck to the grocery story so we could stock up on provisions for the trip ahead. We have met SUCH nice people!

A couple of days ago we sheared a pin on our bow thruster so as I write this, Jim is tearing it apart and hopes to fix it before our journey. He has received some great instructions from 2 other Nordic Tug owners...one in Evanston and another right here in our marina.

They have officially closed the Mississippi to pleasure crafts until further notice because of high water and dangerous conditions.  Many Loopers are ahead of us, waiting in Grafton, IL to make the treck down the Mississippi.  We had called a couple of days ago to the Grafton Marina and reserved a spot, so we will be able to leave here tomorrow and join other loopers there until conditions improve sufficiently on the Mississippi.  It is likely that we will be there at least a week and maybe longer. As long as it takes to have safe, debris-free traveling on the Mighty Mississip, we will be content.

Our plan is to depart tomorrow from the slip here in Peoria at IVY and drop anchor at an anchorage for tomorrow night and then make it to Grafton on Tuesday afternoon.  When we make it to Grafton I may be able to solve the problem we've had with your ability to track our location.  I have been given some information by another Looper and hope it will work for us.  It has become very clear that Boat Beacon and Boat Watch are not reliable sources of real-time information.  Stay tuned...

Other Loopers snuggled up next to us at IVY Club

Little Patriot waiting for the next part of the journey