Integrity Cruise

Day 150: At Kaskaskia River Lock, IL

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Day 150: Thursday, September 15th: Thunderstorms came in last night and stayed. The prediction was for showers and thundershowers all day, so we stayed put at the Kaskaskia River Lock wall. The price (free) recommended the place, and we were not in a hurry. All the other boats moored with us also decided to stay.

We did chores inside, read and did logs for the web site. Ruth decided to bake brownies and the whole boat began to smell like chocolate.

We started the generator to charge the batteries and heat water. However, in a few minutes the generator quit. A little investigation indicated a high temperature cutoff had activated. Bill discovered the cooling water pump impeller had broken loose from its shaft, so the next couple of hours were spent replacing the impeller. All was fine after that.

The rain finally stopped around 3:00pm. Four more boats came in and moored. People started walking the dock and socializing. We decided to gather on the dock for happy hour about 5:00. Everyone set out chairs, tables, munchies and held something in their hand. We dubbed the whole occasion the Kaskaskia Lock Yacht Club Happy Hour:

We got on the radio and invited the lockmaster and crew to join us for some snacks and fun (this was a very un-busy lock). One of the lock hands was game to come down the ladder to see us:

Meet Stephanie, US Army Corps of Engineers lock worker. That's Stan from Kokopelli on the right:

This is her boss (name unknown). He was a super-nice guy, but had to stay and mind the lock:

We all went to bed early so we could get an early start. The next few days would be long runs, because there still aren't any real boating facilities between here and Kentucky Lake - some 200 miles away.

Supplement:

On September 21, 2005we received an email from Stephanie of the Corps of Engineers. She sent this picture of our boats and the gang, taken from her lofty perch atop the lock wall:

And here are the happy crews of all those boats; we don't know where Ruth was; Oh! She's taking the picture!:

Many thanks to Stephanie for the contribution to our portfolio!

Position tonight: N37 58.905 W089 56.640

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