Just another day of parking the boat
Peoria, Illinois - We Were So lucky!
After a long 45 miles and one lock
(1 1/2 hours waiting at the lock) we
arrived at Peoria. Bill had been
noticing that one of the boat batteries wasn’t holding a charge. We had trouble just starting the boat at the
gas dock. He wanted to get a new boat
battery, but the question was how?? The boat battery needed is specialized and very
hard to find, weighs about 150 lbs. so it’s difficult to get out of the engine
room, and we are in the sticks. When we
arrived at the marina he did a lot of checking around and the marine stores
were closed for 3 more days. However we got so lucky!! It turned out that he
found a store where they had special ordered that same battery and no one
picked it up. With the help of several
men on the dock he was able to get the battery out of the boat, into a cart,
and up the dock. We shared a taxi with
someone else to town (which was a long way), took the old battery to the store
and got the new one. Again people helped
Bill get the new battery to the boat.
And…….Bill installed it and it works great! Whew, what a relief!!!!! Bill is awesome and
I always feel “safe” with him!
What I have noticed is that almost
all the men we meet doing The Loop are “handy” and able to fix things. You have to be! It seems like there is something always
needing attention. Much of the time you
aren’t near a town so it’s up to you to take care of it.
The Illinois Valley Yacht club where
we are is really something. It is 100
years old and kind of snooty. In order
to eat dinner in the dining room you need a sport jacket. However for the bar you don’t – guess where
we went! They even have chocolate mints
in the foyer with the name of their yacht club printed on them. There are big white pillars on the entrance
to the yacht club and a great swimming pool. The people are as friendly as can be and
anxious to talk and hear our stories.
The yacht club flooded this year in
April. The river was 29 feet above normal. It routinely floods around here in the
spring, but this was the highest water in history. The yacht club sits high above the river, but
they got 5 feet of water inside that sat there for a week. They went a mad dash to get it rebuilt before
prime time summer season.
Bill and the other men we are
traveling with have a great time talking on their radios while traveling down
river. They are so into this. Listening to them you’d think they were kids
with their walky talkies. Most Loopers have a lot of expensive electronics on their boats.
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