Travel Day 43 to Ottawa, IL 8/31/21

All the Loopers left Joliet wall early for a ride to Ottawa. Most of us were headed to Heritage Harbor Marina. At the first lock, Brandon Road Lock, 8 of us locked through all rafted up, we were tied on floating bollards in the lock. Again the lock tenders were extremely helpful putting our lines around the bollards for us. It was a smooth ride down 38 feet.

Three miles out from Dresden Lock and Dam we called to find out the situation and let them know 9 of us were coming. He told Hal that he had a 15 barge tow going through the locks and we would have to wait a few hours. After 1.5 hours we meandered closer to the locks. Drifted around awhile and then finally anchored. The area we anchored was beautiful and a nice change from all the marinas. We chatted with a couple from their dock for a while. They were happy to see our little flotilla. Finally after a 4 hour wait we were able to scoot between the tugboat and his barges to get into the the lock so we could lock through. We were on the wall with Cashelmara and New Hope rafted on us. Ahead of us was MS Hanne. Behind us Jackpot was on the wall with Spirit on them, Imagine on them and then Turn The Page. Turn the Page had some difficulty getting rafted and there was a 65' boat also trying to get in. After getting squared away we went down the 20'.

At Marseilles Lock we had a short wait and scooted in to tie up. We contacted Heritage Harbor as we exited and they stayed at the marina to help us get settled.

Heritage Harbor was a great stop. We stayed for 3 nights. There was a courtesy car that we used to provision and run some errands. Hal and Chris were able to get haircuts. The restaurant was decent and we had a great meal with Jack and JoAnn, Karen and Ron, Mary and Chris and Hal and I. The pool was at a perfect temperature! We also met Ron and Sonja on Helluva Life.

Some scenes of downtown Ottawa.

Dinner at the Ted Dog Grill.

Drinking Goldschlager with Jack, JoAnn, Chris and Mary.

Sign at the marina.