Continued from Saturday, September 29

 

So after that looooong exciting travel day we were planning on heading out of Joliet the next morning.  However, you’ll remember that we heard that there was a lock a few days down river that was closed for repairs.  When that happens the tow traffic gets quite backed up, and since they have the priority when locking, we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get through that lock anytime soon.  We had a perfectly sunny Sunday in front of us, and we were all set up at a free dock with power, so we decided to start thinking about what kind of adventures we could get into.

We had a few ideas in mind right away.  The Tigers were playing their last match-up of the season in Milwaukee, which was about a 2 1/2 hour drive.  Six Flags was about an hour and a half drive.  Between those 2 ideas, Mike stopped looking for things to do and started looking for rental cars.  Before we knew what was happening, we had an uber ride on the way to take us to our rental car.  Thinking we were probably heading to Six Flags I quickly threw together sweatshirts, snacks, toys for the car, water bottles, phone chargers, and at the last minute, I grabbed swim suits in case there were any water rides open.  We grabbed the booster seats from their hiding place waaaay in the front of the boat in a tricky closet and locked the boat up tight just before we jumped in our uber.  It was a blur, but we didn’t want to waste good amusement park time thinking through all the details.

After waiting a long time at the rental car place and getting a hot and ready pizza, we headed towards Six Flags.  We quickly realized we needed change for all of the toll roads, so I scrambled to look through my purse for any loose change I could find.  Luckily, I found just enough, and Hayley brought her purse which is always loaded with quarters (just in case she sees any quarter machines!), so that was a help, too.  We were halfway into our drive when the sky started clouding up and we realized it wasn’t looking like such a nice day anymore.  I looked at the weather and sure enough, it was supposed to rain for the rest of the afternoon.  Hmmmm….not such a great day for Six Flags after all.  We remembered that the waterpark we went to last year with Kelly’s brother was around here somewhere, so we threw that in the running as well.

As we got closer to Six Flags we decided to head to the waterpark instead.  Hanging outside for the rest of a rainy-ish 65* day when we weren’t really sure if the littles would like roller coasters vs. inside waterpark when we all brought swim suits and could relax at a nice cushy hotel room.  Decision made.  And the kids were thrilled!!

Wave pools, lazy rivers, and water slides for hours.  The kids loved that place just like they did when we were here before.  However, Mike and I started to wonder/worry about our boat, tied up on the wall in Joliet.  We started to think that driving 2 hours away in haste was maybe not the best idea.  Maybe we should have tightened the lines.  Or added another line.  Or told a neighbor we were leaving.  Mike worried someone could get on the boat and find all of our gold and jewels to steal.  I worried someone would untie the boat and it would float downstream in the current until it crashed into a bridge.  They both sound crazy, but that is the stuff that runs through your head when you leave in a rush and end up hours away, just floating down the lazy river on a TUBE and not your BOAT.  Eventually, I tracked down one of the boats we saw slam into the lock wall the night before and we got in touch with them.  It turns out they left their boat, as well, to run some errands, but would be returning to the wall soon and would check on the boat for us.  Sure enough, an hour or so later, the call came in that all was well and they would keep an eye on everything for us until we returned back.

We were relieved to hear all was well, and that helped us enjoy our last few hours at the waterpark.  However, it didn’t ease our nerves enough to convince us to stay the night.  We actually relaxed on those cushy beds, watched “The Lion King” on that big TV, and took hot showers (with lots of water) in that hotel room, but we did not stay the night.  We were too nervous to leave the boat overnight, and we figured we would need to get an early start the next day, anyway.  Let me tell you, it was hard to leave that hotel room with 2 beds unslept in.  We checked out around 10 pm and walking away from those soft beds and unlimited water was very hard to do.  But in the end, it was good to get back to the boat, too.  We were anxious to get underway and get further down the rivers.

Thank you for reading and following along on our INNTW adventures!!