Day 126 September 26
Did a few chores, defrosting the refrigerator and cleaning the boat. Exciting stuff. Bill was busy trying to figure out a small oil leak.
Had a nice visit with Marshall from MV Escape who has completed the Loop. He invited us to go to dinner with Diana and he and another Looper couple, Mike and Sue on MV Sun Dancer. Unfortunately Bill was not able to join us because he was waiting for a mechanic to look at the pesky oil leak.
Marshall picked us up and drove us up Lake Shore Drive so we could see downtown from the south. We ended up at Diana's lovely apartment on the North side of Chicago which overlooks Lake Michigan and the Lincoln Park and Zoo.
We walked to a local Italian restaurant for a great meal. We certainly cleaned our plates. On the way back to the Diana's apartment, she found a wallet on the ground. After trying to find a way to locate the owner via phone, I took it back to the restaurant and believe it of not, the hostess recognized the name and verified that it was her science teacher from High School. Luckily she had a way to contact him. So that was our good deed of the day.
Continuing back to the apartment we went up to the roof deck and took in the spectacular view of Chicago all lit up.
Bill waited for the mechanic who did not show up- but he did attend the Loopers for docktails so he got to party a bit. His dinner was leftovers, not nearly as good as what we had at the restaurant.
Day 127. September 27
Woke early to call around to get a mechanic to come and found someone who could come out this afternoon. The mechanic, Martin showed up right after lunch and diagnosed the problem of a bad gasket which fortunately they had in stock. A few hours later, we had it fixed. I had the exciting prospect of doing laundry and finishing planning for our trip down the Illinois and Mississippi.
Unfortunately, we received communication that one of the locks on the Illinois River would not be ready to open until Oct 3 for commercial traffic and would not open for pleasure craft til Oct 5. That puts a kink in all our plans. So all the Loopers here and coming down Lake Michigan have to change all their plans moving everything back 5 days. Always something so we have to stay flexible!!
We all commiserated at docktails on the main dock and then we went out to dinner with Jody and Mike on MV No Agenda.
Day128-129. September 28-29
Woke to cloudy weather and a breezy day. Spent the morning doing chores and invited Jody and Mike to come over for lunch to discuss our trip down the Illinois. We talked about bridge clearances, locking and rafting with 16 boats and radio communication. We enjoyed a quick lunch and then just enjoyed each others company.
We were joined by Sandra and her daughter from MVWhat's That, whom we first met before they started the Loop in Midland Canada.
After dinner, the whole flotilla did a Zoom call to go over aspects of our trip together. It was good to see those who will be traveling with us and connect names to faces. The boats are scattered around the Chicago area and we will all meet at Joliet to go through the three locks on October 6.
September 29
Today the sun finally came out and we spent the morning studying our route through the Mississippi River and its small towns and St Louis. We then invited Mike and Tricia from MV Darlin Lea for lunch and enjoyed catching up with them. We gave them the highlights of places to visit by boat on the West coast of Florida. After lunch, Mike got roped into helping Bill try to dislodge a stubborn broken bolt in the bowsprit.
Mike left his hat on our boat and he and Trisha came back in their dinghy to retrieve it.
Then Bill had the auspicious task of replacing the impellers in the propulsion engines which he accomplished just in time for us to meet our flotilla group on the dock for docktails.
At the flotilla meeting it was good to attach the faces and names to the boat names. We seem to have a good group of people to spend about a week with as we travel down the Illinois River.