Tall Timbers to Chillicothe

Sunday, June 7

After the strong winds finally died about sundown, we watched a nearly full moon rise and had a peaceful night. We both slept well. I got up and checked the internet, weather new etc. The radar showed a mass of rain to our north plus a couple of strong cells to our west that appeared to be headed our way. We made no great effort to get under way; we had a brief thunder shower with a fair amount of rain but no wind. When it cleared the radar showed a line of showers building about half an hour behind the first, I went over to the marina office and socialized with the owner and several local boaters.

It seems most of the locals are farmers, a couple hundred acres part time if not full time. The talk is about the fields that are still too wet to work, even into June.

Finally the rain quite, I went back to the boat checked the radar, and VHF weather. It looked OK, so we got organized and pulled out of Tall Timbers about 9:30. Our plan was to run 60 miles to the Chillicothe Town Dock, if that proved to be too far or the weather turned against us, there were several marinas in the Peoria two to three hours shorter.

The weather was not great but the temperature was mild and just an occasional light rain shower, we drove from inside all morning. After lunch it was looking better and I went up top to drive I was there maybe 15 minutes when there was just enough sprinkles to make spots on my charts, so I returned inside.

By early afternoon we came to the Peoria Lock, this is the second with the wickets that where down and we motored right on thru. The chief line handler says all locks should be like that. Unfortunately that is probably the last one for the trip unless the Illinois is in flood when we come back in September.

We were soon into the city of Peoria. The outskirts of town have a lot of commercial activity on the river banks, then, when you get to downtown the river is very people friendly. They even have some boat slips for temporary dockage to enjoy the waterfront establishments and park. There is a three hour max so no overnight.

As you leave Peoria you enter Peoria Lake, then Upper Peoria Lake. These are two and three miles wide and in total run about 16 miles up the river. For my Minnesota friends think Lake Pepin. The nice wide body of water reduces the current and or speed jumped from the upper 6 mph to the high 7s. We decide to try driving from up above again and were up there for the last two hours. Just about 6:00 the Chillicothe town dock came into view and we got the lines and fenders ready. The dock is just 150 feet of floating dock along shore, next to a boat launch.

Just ashore from the dock is a parking lot both for boat trailers and Banana’s Beach Club. Things were a little busy. There were four jet skis in the area. As I write this, things are quieting down and I think they will be fine for the night.

It is nice of these smaller towns to provide free dockage to the boating public; I am reminded of the nice facility at Clarksville, TN last summer.