A Day of Recovery

Day 112  |  Ottawa 

Although we had decided to remain in Ottawa to recover from the very long and stressful trip from Joliet, Barry was up at 6:00 am to see Change of Pace off as they continued south. I slept for another hour or so before rising and first making the blog post for yesterday. Barry gave it a quick proofing and then we moved outside to clean up our lines and fenders that were left in a mess last night. We had a nice lunch at the Red Dog Grill (marina restaurant) and then had to move Crossroads to a new slip for tonight. Once resettled and plugged in, Barry went into the electrical cabinet to activate our cable TV input. There is no over the air channel reception here so the marina provides free cable. In the two years we've had Crossroads, we had never before hooked up. Once connected, we had 110 channels to flip through. After 10 minutes of cycling, I located the three networks for football and Barry found the SyFy channel.

It was absolutely gorgeous here today and we got out and walked around for a while. I hopped up in the oversized adirondack chair and got the picture to prove it. This top hat monument serves as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. Ottawa was the site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate and has a great deal of Civil War history. We walked down the Illinois & Michigan Canal Towpath trail for a while. The narrow path is probably best suited for mountain bikes, but we found it to be relaxing even if we walked single file most of the time. The old canal is basically a swamp now, having silted in long ago.

We circled around the back side of the marina on our way to the bluff overlooking the Illinois River. We came this way the previous night in the dark so this was the first time we actually saw channel markers. Monarch butterflies flitted around and abandoned farm equipment sat by the construction site of new resort homes.

Heritage Harbor Marina may be the nicest marina we've ever been to. It is clean, modern, safe, has a wonderful staff and great amenities. Too bad its 1800 miles from home. We'd love to come back.

At 4:00 Jeremy, the harbormaster, presented a Great Loop briefing that covered our route leading just beyond St. Louis. No guidebook is a substitute for local knowledge and he shared information on anchorages, marinas, currents, and attractions. We will leave early in the morning with five other boats. We have one lock to pass through and, depending on how quickly we get passage, could make it as far as Peoria. If we look like we're running out of daylight, we'll stop in the middle somewhere and spend the night on the hook.