Old friends, new friends, and one cranky old man! (not me for a change)

 Monday, Sept 22:

We got up at our normal time.  I began working while Wes did some small boat projects.  Scott and Narissa from Lemonade stopped by to say goodbye before they got in their rental car to head to Washington state for some boat parts.  My parents came down around late afternoon to come get me.  They brought our many packages that we had delivered to their house.  Among those packages was one from Mike and Lori.  They sent us a sign with my new nick name that Mike gave me.  Mick showed up and we visited a bit and invited him to join the 4 of us or dinner.  We went out to dinner at Hi Way Restaurant in Ottawa, then we dropped Wes and Mick at Heritage and we headed north to their house.  We relaxed a bit then we all went to bed.

 

Tuesday, Sept 23: 

I worked all day.  Wes saw Mick off and then did some boat projects.  He replaced our anchor light while the mast was down, then worked on our drink fridge that went out.  He got both projects done and so far so good!  Then he defrosted our fridge/freezer and ice maker and let them air our overnight.  I went to my daughter's house for dinner and a nice visit with her and her husband.  It was so good to see her and catch up!  I also delivered the goodies I got for them from Bronner's in Frankenmuth.  Then I headed home around 2100 and went to bed shortly thereafter. 

Wednesday, Sept 24:

I got up and went into the office.  I caught up with several co-workers and went out to lunch with my team.  It was a busy day of meetings, then our leadership team took all of us Client Executives out to dinner at Capital Grille in Schaumburg.  It was delicious!!  It was a great time catching up with my companies leadership and my fellow CE's.  Wes got the mast up and did some other boat projects and visited with several loopers (he was unsupervised so who knows what mischief he got into).  I didn't get back to my parents until 2200 and I went straight to bed!  It was a long day, but a good one.

 

Thursday, Sept 25:

I got up and got things packed up to head back to the boat.  Then I worked all day.  When I was done, my parents drove me back down to Heritage Harbor.  They had things to do, so it was a quick goodbye then I started putting things away.  John and Kelly from WTF again stopped by to visit as they knew we were leaving in the morning.  Their boat is on the hard getting repaired.  They are both ready for it to be done so they can start their loop!  We visited on the aft deck, then we all went out to dinner at Hank's Farm.  I even say a peacock there!!  Once again it was a great meal and even better company.  We went back to the boat for a nightcap and visited some more.  Then they decided to head to their son's as they were off to Wisconsin in the morning for a wedding.  We went inside and relaxed for a little bit then to bed for us!

 

 

Friday, Sept 26:

Wes was up and moving right away.  I was a little slower but not far behind him.  He called the lock and they wanted us there around 0930, so I got some work done, then we dropped the lines around 0800 and started down the river.  There were 11 of us all leaving from Heritage, so we made a nice line of looper boats on the river.  We got to the lock a little before they were ready for us, but it wasn't bad.  There were 3 usable pins, so we rafted to a boat, then we had another boat rafted to us on the port side.  It was a smooth ride down in the lock.  They did a great job getting us all in there!  Then we all continued downriver.  Some boats were faster than us and passed us, but some just hung along with us.  Some went into a marina, but we went near Henry and anchored out.  We dropped the dinghy and went over to Our Journey and had a nice visit with Wayne and Karen.  Then we headed down by the other anchored boats and visited with some more loopers.  It was getting dark and the bugs were coming out, so we went be to Toscana for dinner, watched the Brewer game, then went to bed.

 Saturday, Sept 27:

I didn't sleep the best but it was a peaceful night at anchor.  Wes was up at 0600 as usual, while I didn't get moving until about 0645.  Today is a short day, so we relaxed a bit then pulled the anchor and started heading down river around 0800.  It was a beautiful morning on the river!  We arrived at IVY Club around 1130.  We churned some mud but made it in without any issues.  We visited a bit with the Commodore, then a quick visit with Constant Sea.  We then checked in and went to the bar for a couple of beers.  More loopers showed up.  We greeted many, then we were going to go back to the boat, but started talking with Rose and Greg from Rosalinda. The Miss Peaches and Summer Breeze arrived.  They joined us and we ended up having docktales out on their outdoor patio.  They were having their annual Commodore Ball that evening, so we decided to walk across the street with Angie and Greg from Summer Breeze (and their friend Carlos).  It was a bar and grill (I don't recall the name).  We enjoyed a few drinks and dinner.  While the food and drinks were good, the company was better.  Carlos took an Uber to his hotel (he is flying back to AZ in the morning) and the four of us walked back to our boats.  We relaxed for a short bit then went to bed.  

Hammss Holiday Harbor (next 3 pictures)

Sunday, Sept 28:

Wes was up at 0600 and I was up shortly thereafter.  He called the lock and they said to come on down, so Wes shared that with the fellow loopers that wanted to travel today (not just those at IVY, but others at the city dock and other nearby places).  We dropped the lines around 0645 and started downriver.  It was a beautiful sunrise and you can start to see some fall colors.  It was such a peaceful morning.  We got to the Peoria Lock around 0800.  We went through with 6 other looper boats.  We got through and were moving again around 0835.  It was a beautiful day on the river again!  We got to Quiver Island about 1300.  We dropped the anchor then Our Journey rafted off to us.  We went in to Tall Timbers in their dinghy.  We picked up our friends Casey and Chris, had a drink, then back to the boat to cook dinner for Aurora, Summer Breeze, Our Journey, and Armadillo.  Others joined us as well.  Our aft deck was full but it was so much fun!  It was hot so we didn't eat until about sunset, then all visited until about looper midnight.  Wayne from Our Journey was kind enough to take Chris and Casey back to Tall Timbers to their car.  By that time, we were both ready or bed