Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018

We took off from the lock wall at Henry about 9:50am on a misty morning that turned into a cool, cloudy day. During the morning, we saw a bunch of Asian carp jumping in the prop(eller) wash of a big tow pushing along 15 barges. After a short day on the water, at 1:15 we arrived at the IVY Club (Illinois Valley Yacht & Canoe Club) through a very tight and shallow marina approach. We were greeted by an extremely helpful and friendly guy. Later, we discovered we both had the same thought due to the way he was dressed – reminded us a bit of Carl (Bill Murry) in Caddy Shack. (I’m glad no one said “It’s in the hole!” when we were finally tied up.)

The IVY Club, established in 1907, has a beautiful building, nice folks and it was Taco Tuesday night for dinner! During the taco feast, we saw the Spirit of Peoria paddlewheel boat out on the river (aka Lake Peoria).

Bo got some exercise running along the top of the levee wall that separates the harbor from the river. After the 4th time the ball bounced 15 feet down the rock strewn levee wall into the harbor, we got a stick to throw instead.

Bo’s vertical leap was challenged due to the low dock. He’s used to jumping up 33 inches to get onto our boat at our dock in Kenosha, but here he actually cleared 40 inches... one time. The other times he was able to get on the boat but with a slight bump or two, which he seemed to prefer to Brian picking him up. As we were celebrating his leaping ability, he decided to bark repeatedly at something in our cabin… it was a shirt hanging to dry on a rack on our bed. Athletic – yes, smart – not always, but we love him.