Day 46, September 17th, 2009
Today we had intended to do just a short trip to the little town of Chilicothe where the book told us there was another free dock. We like that word "free"! The book also said you could stay there overnight! As Twice 's Nice only draws 3.5' they went in first to the dock and managed to tie up but it was shallow. Paul took his boat hook and walked up the other end, sticking the boat hook into the water until it touched bottom. It seemed as if there was probably 5' at the other end of the dock so we started to edge in - no go, we touched bottom about 2' from the dock. A soft bottom but we got out of there very quickly. Paul and Sue wanted to walk up to the shops but noticed a sign on the dock to say that overnight stays were not allowed after all.
With no obvious anchorages John and I decided to move onto Hamm's Holiday Harbour Marina where we had booked for the Friday and Saturday nights. We hadn't tied up very long when Paul and Sue followed us in.
We had also tried to get into another marina further up at Peoria but they didn't have sufficient depth at their entrance and told us that if they didn't have the depth then nobody else would in Peoria either. Hence, Hamm's!!! I had made arrangements with my two cousins that we would get together here. Cindy and Mike live in Galesburg,IL and Diana and Kevin live in Bloomington, IL and Peoria is right between the two! We hadn't seen each other since we were kids when their family stopped by in England on their way home from Okinawa, where their Dad was stationed for a couple of years.
Anyway, Hamm's was a big place, pretty run down, owned and operated by this fella "Dick".
He's an interesting kind of guy, 72 years old and runs around from morning till night. He's got diggers and tow boats and backhoes - you name it. The cruise book said he had laundry but that wasn't quite right. He kindly loaded us up in his truck though and took us into town to the laundrymat! The bathrooms left a little to be desired - a door on the toilet instead of the shower curtain, would have been a nice touch! And we thought we had spiders in Collingwood! Hamm's can match CYC any day!!! However, everybody was very friendly and we enjoyed ourselves there. Dick directed Periwinkle to a slip in a shed - it was a little tricky to get in there and the mast sticking out the front was sticking out over their walkway which runs through the middle. After a little line handling we managed to move it back enough so people could walk by and threw a red towel and a life jacket over the end so our motor cruiser friends didn't kill themselves on it!
I was so happy to be there and was looking forward to meeting my famly the next day.
Today we had intended to do just a short trip to the little town of Chilicothe where the book told us there was another free dock. We like that word "free"! The book also said you could stay there overnight! As Twice 's Nice only draws 3.5' they went in first to the dock and managed to tie up but it was shallow. Paul took his boat hook and walked up the other end, sticking the boat hook into the water until it touched bottom. It seemed as if there was probably 5' at the other end of the dock so we started to edge in - no go, we touched bottom about 2' from the dock. A soft bottom but we got out of there very quickly. Paul and Sue wanted to walk up to the shops but noticed a sign on the dock to say that overnight stays were not allowed after all.
With no obvious anchorages John and I decided to move onto Hamm's Holiday Harbour Marina where we had booked for the Friday and Saturday nights. We hadn't tied up very long when Paul and Sue followed us in.
We had also tried to get into another marina further up at Peoria but they didn't have sufficient depth at their entrance and told us that if they didn't have the depth then nobody else would in Peoria either. Hence, Hamm's!!! I had made arrangements with my two cousins that we would get together here. Cindy and Mike live in Galesburg,IL and Diana and Kevin live in Bloomington, IL and Peoria is right between the two! We hadn't seen each other since we were kids when their family stopped by in England on their way home from Okinawa, where their Dad was stationed for a couple of years.
Anyway, Hamm's was a big place, pretty run down, owned and operated by this fella "Dick".
He's an interesting kind of guy, 72 years old and runs around from morning till night. He's got diggers and tow boats and backhoes - you name it. The cruise book said he had laundry but that wasn't quite right. He kindly loaded us up in his truck though and took us into town to the laundrymat! The bathrooms left a little to be desired - a door on the toilet instead of the shower curtain, would have been a nice touch! And we thought we had spiders in Collingwood! Hamm's can match CYC any day!!! However, everybody was very friendly and we enjoyed ourselves there. Dick directed Periwinkle to a slip in a shed - it was a little tricky to get in there and the mast sticking out the front was sticking out over their walkway which runs through the middle. After a little line handling we managed to move it back enough so people could walk by and threw a red towel and a life jacket over the end so our motor cruiser friends didn't kill themselves on it!
I was so happy to be there and was looking forward to meeting my famly the next day.
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