Hooray! Yesterday morning we woke to find the water down enough that we can now walk to shore instead of boat to shore! No need to coordinate trips in the taxi boat. Now we need to clean that boat because we've seen a lotta mud over the past week and much of it has ended up on the taxi!
Things have changed a lot here at the marina over the past few days. Friday four more boats came in, then one yesterday, making a total of twelve transients now at Heritage Harbor. Then the weekend hit and (hey!) we're in a marina! Folks who keep their boats here came out for the beautiful weather yesterday and by 5 PM the place was jumping! We've practically had the marina to ourselves over the past week, but as Susan on Marbles said, we're learning to share.
We can't believe, either, how quickly this marina staff has controlled the mess involved with the flooding. They've been out every day spray washing the sidewalks, grass, you name it...They even scraped down the gravel driveway to even out the surface and clean up the look.
And, of course, Heritage Harbor continues to amaze us with their customer oriented service. If the courtesy van is in use it's not at all unusual to have one of the staff take a marina vehicle to shuttle someone to town. Thursday they gave a luncheon for marina staff, corporate officers, and the River Refugees, as we now call ourselves.
We keep threatening to do some work on the boat while we're stuck here, but the days pass by and we still haven't jumped into it. Friday several of us took the van to Starved Rock Lock to check out the conditions there. Starved Rock Lock is just south of Ottawa and will be our next lock to go through. They are still not open and were working with lots of heavy machinery around trying to clean up debris and get the lock back to functioning. They think they'll be able to open on Monday...but then they'll need to deal with debris for a few more days. We can't leave Ottawa until we can be assured of a place to land in Peoria, IL...and they are still about a week from being back to even somewhat near normal. (Places further down on the Illinois and Mississippi got more water than we did here.)
Yesterday a group of us went to the farmers' market and picked up some fresh produce. Here are Nat and Ellen loading up on veggies...
Wayne and I then walked back into town for lunch and a movie. Ottawa has some lovely park areas and a lot of beautiful old churches.
We have a jigsaw puzzle going in the boater's lounge boat...we've learned to make spring rolls, courtesy of Nat and Ellen...swapped books and read a lot...and, of course, socialized. :-) Some have gone home for the time and left their boats here. We're trying to just enjoy this time. We'll be home soon enough and back into old routines. More later....
Tuesday, September 23 - Sunday afternoon several of us borrowed Captain Moe's truck and went to the Illinois Wine Festival at a nearby park. There was quite a crowd out that afternoon and everyone had brought chairs so we could sit around and enjoy the mingling and music. Pictured below are Judy and Rob from Danny's Fault...and the rest (Nat, Roy and Ellen) sitting on the back row.
Last night we had a "community" supper with a ham we purchased yesterday. Tonight there's talk of a split pea soup from the ham bone and Mexican corn bread...We'd better do some more walking into town and back soon!!It's still looking like this Friday might be the earliest day for travel to Peoria, IL. More later...
Oh, I almost forgot. We saw this birdhouse as we came down to Ottawa at one of the locks. The lockmaster gave me the blueprints if anyone out there wants to take on a little project...
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