We had another beautiful day of
sailing across Lake Michigan. The temperature is getting warmer and we are now
in a different state. The lake was a little rough earlier on in the day,
but again no clanging dishes and nothing broken. We left St-Joseph's around 7am
and made it here by 2:30pm. Jeff and
Susan ran a different course to Chicago so although it is only 8 miles up the
lake it was not long before they were out of our sight. Hammond is at the south
end of Lake Michigan and is home to the Horseshoe Casino (see picc). Since we
are not gamblers I am afraid you will only see a picture of the outside. When
we arrived here in Hammond Indiana we decided to walk over to the Walmart to
get that much needed chip for our US phone. We received a text from Stephanie
asking if we had fixed our phone issue yet because we had not talked to her in
a few weeks. I believe her exact words were "I know what's going on with
you because I read your blog but you have no idea what's going on with me!"
Before leaving for Walmart I set some ribs on the BBQ at 200◦ The
Walmart was only a mile away so I figured we'd be back in no time. When we got
back, about 2 hours later, the BBQ had actually gone out and so our ribs were
not quite done. It was another 2hr before we could eat dinner. While we got the ribs cooking again and took the mast down. The river
system has a lot of bridges. Chicago way the tallest you can be is 17 feet high,
on the Calumet river the tallest you can be is 19 feet 7 inches. With our mast up
we are 28 feet above the water line, so we have to put it down to fit under the
bridges. Once it is down we are now only 19 feet high so we will make it under
the bridge with 7 inches to spare....unless they had a lot of rain recently,
then the water level might be higher and we may not make it!
We noticed a new neighbor who was flying a gold AGLCA flag. The AGLCA is
the American great looper's association and a gold flag means you have
completed the loop. We waved hi and then exchanged a few words. After I called
Stephanie; who by the way had nothing new happening; (child if you are going to
give your parents a guilt trip you need to be able to back it up with some good
stuff) we ate dinner and then Randy (our neighbor) came over to invite us for a
drink. We went over and chatted for about an hour and a half. Randy and his
wife Sherry will be traveling down the Calumet river same as us, so we will be
traveling together for the next few days. Lose one friend gain another. Jeff
and Susan had invited us to go join them in downtown Chicago tonight. It is
only a short cab ride and their slip is right in the middle of the city,
surrounded by all these building (see picc) however given all the work we had
to do and the late dinner we declined the invitation. Too bad, to be this close
to Chicago and not go into the city is a bit of a disappointment but I guess
you just can't have it all. We has hopped to be here at least 4 days ago, but
now with all of the delays we just can't wait any longer to get down the river
system to Rogersville Alabama. It would suck if Liz and Stuart's hotel room did
not show up in time for the Rendez-vous!
Tomorrow we are hoping to make it to Joliet. Randy and Sherry tell us
this should not be an issue at all. Only 45 miles, go under 34 bridges, through
2 locks and 1 electric fence. Should be easy as pie. Oh yeah, for those of you
interested stats, we have now traveled just over 1,038 miles, used 505.6
gallons of fuel or 1,956.68 litres for my Canadian friends and averaged 3.2
gallons per hour for fuel consumption.
Good night all and Stephanie;
Mommy loves you and I am interested in all the little details, even if nothing
exciting is happening. I promise to call more often now that we have a US phone
: )
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