September 18 in Milwaukee

On our way to Chicago.  At 6am no less!  Calm conditions but rain in the forecast.  Oh well.

We had intended on leaving Tuesday, September 17th but the lake was still pretty rough so employing the age-old adage, comfort trumps schedule, we just stayed in Milwaukee another day and let the lake settle down a bit.  Actually leaving Wednesday will give us a good chance to attain the 31st street marina in Chicago in one day (90 miles).  Leaving Tuesday would have hindered our progress enough to likely meant a stop in Waukegan.  That would then have required us to stay at the 31st street marina anyway before heading into the rivers.

I've been asked a number of times about "this loop thing" and trying to explain it occasionally adds confusion than clarity.  And we all know my explanations aren't at fault ... ;-)  Anyway I was cleaning up some computer stuff and stumbled across this rather nifty Great Loop site which I think provides a pretty good explanation of the whole loop and its various segments.  For those who are interested go to this web site and see what you think: Captain John's Loop 

Saturday we had a phalanx of visitors.  We were actually able to fit everyone on the sundeck couch... sort of.

Saturday was also the day of Al's run.  We didn't know otherwise I might have tried to relive past glories and run the thing again.  Knees?  What knees.

Slackers that we are, we instead sat on the curb and watched several thousand runners and walkers trot on by.  They even had some high school cheer leading squad out there doing encouragement cheers.

After everyone left we took a ride out to Ixonia to see grandkids!  Did I mention we rented a car Friday? Another red Toyota.  But Enterprise does have great deals!

Seany examining train wheels

Sunday Mary had stayed over night in Ixonia while I was on the boat playing with a new computer.  I drove back out to fetch her so we could visit Dave and Dana, some old friends from Oconomowoc,   We then headed over to our sons house for more grandkid time and went out to dinner at the Depot.  And we saw a train go by too!




Monday we spent involved in last minute errands and preparation for a morning departure Tuesday.  But while I was waiting at the car rental place I checked the marine forecasts again and saw they had altered their earlier forecast with the addition of small craft warnings Tuesday.  The boat can certainly handle most any weather, its the weaklings riding along that get too beat up and pooped.  So as I mentioned earlier we elected to stay another day and delve into researching the Illinois river system and what we'll be seeing down that way.

The Illinois river runs about 330 miles to the Mississippi.  Another few hundred miles down the Mississippi to the Ohio and 50 miles up that river is the beginning of the Tennessee. All told, from where we are in Milwaukee to the mouth of Mobile bay, it;s another 999 miles.  Fall is a great time to travel down that way.  Water is reportedly rather warm and swim able too.  We'll see.