Sunday September 21st

Hard to get internet from the middle of no where--but finally arrived in port this afternoon.  Now for all those who have worried about us on this trip--here is my good luck shirt!!!

--so you need not worry any longer.  Today we have finished the Illinois River-and we are not sad!!  It was running very fast, in a flood state, with logs, debris, mud and dirt.  Miles of just water and bush, with an occasional corn field thrown in, and sometimes if we were lucky we might see a bald eagle.  Most times we were the only ones on the river so when we met a tug--that was fun.  And calling the tow captains was interesting--their response might be "pass me on 2"  Huh???   We soon learned that 'pass me on a 1' meant for us to go to the right and 2 would be go to the left--1 and 2 are horn blasts--or as they call them 'whistles'.   Its a whole new river language.   Now we have this all figured out--we hope the tugs on the Mississippi talk the same talk!  We anchored out last evening behind an island but still in big currant--and this morning this huge tree came sailing down and caught our anchor line.  After much reefing and hauling the guys hooked a rope around it and Ralph had to tow it off the front of our boat.  Another good reason for boating together, or we might have still been sitting there!!    We are now just at the Mississippi river and will head downstream tomorrow---and as you can see I'm all ready for this adventure.!! 

 A couple of other pictures--some interesting grain elevators, tied up to an old barge along the river, and finally a lovely sunset at one of our anchorages.