So we once again started the day early. Which was a little hard as you know I wrote the last post at 11:30pm! Got up and took Memphis for a walk at 5:20am and then got the boat ready for a 6:45am departure from the Joliet Wall.

Did get a few pictures this morning before sunup on the wall!

We filled the wall with flotilla #3.

Off the wall and then started through the 3 locks that have been closed since June 1st for repair. I would tell you that they are about 90% complete!

The lockmasters did allow our entire flotilla to pass through all 3 locks as a group. They did not on the first two flotillas! We were lucky, but they did raft us up 3 and 4 across the lock. That was fun when we were the boat on the wall holding the others in place!

We did have some long waits before entering today on the second lock, but we made the best of it with some new friends moving their new boat to Minnesota.

Have to love their lifejackets of choice for the locks!

Lots of milling around before the locks, and it was a little cold outside today.

Amy tried to make the best of it though!

There was a lot of barge traffic today, and they can be very pushy in THEIR RIVER! One tug forced our group into shallow water and two of our boats ran aground. One of the boats did enough damage that they had to be towed to a marina 15 miles away by another from our group. Their boat will be pulled out of the water tomorrow morning to assess the damage.

We lead the group for most of the day, after the original leader went aground. I did not care for being the leader, and also having the deepest draft. We made it safely into Ottawa, without any further incidents.

We will once again be leading the group out tomorrow morning past Starved Rock and down the river to Peoria. Hopefully no more incidents!

Hope you had a great weekend and more to come tomorrow from Peoria if all goes well!