Stats for October 2, 2018

Origin:  Heritage Harbor Marina, Ottawa, IL

Destination:  Ottawa Free Wall

Distance:  3 miles (shortest trip to date!)

Speed: 6.9 mph

Time on the Move:  30 minutes

After hearing that there was a great town dock in Ottawa for FREE, we decided to move a few miles downriver from the marina and stay there.  Free dockage is hard to pass up!  We ended up arriving at the free dock mid-afternoon and Deb and Rhett from Twin were there to catch our lines.

After we were tied up and satisfied with our spot we took off on a walk/scooter ride to check out the town.  We ended up in Washington Park which is the site of famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858.  We quickly learned this after seeing giant statues of the men and murals around town.  These debates are famous mostly because Douglas accused Lincoln of secretly planning to abolish slavery, while he believed each territory should decide on the issue of slavery individually.  We had a great little history lesson, thanks to the plaques around the park!!

 

We did some more exploring around town and found Tangle Roots Brewing Company which had great games for us to play while we tasted the brews and ate appetizers.  Mike and Colin played Connect 4 while Hayley, Toby, and I attempted REAL Monopoly, which of course we didn’t finish.  We also found an old movie theater with great discounted tickets and planned on seeing “Small Foot” the next day.

 

We found this beautiful old courthouse that replaced a courthouse where Lincoln worked when he practiced law in Illinois.

 

We were happy to see a big soccer field right around the corner from the boat and we watched some tows go by.  It was a beautiful spot on the river, but parking underneath a bridge is just always so loud.  Honestly, though, we were parked right by bridges in several areas in a row, so I started getting used to the constant road noise.  And you can’t be too picky when dockage is free!!

The next day we headed off to see an early showing of “Small Foot” at the theater, checked out an amazing kids’ book/toy store called Rock, Paper, Scissors, and brought Papa Johns pizza back to the boat for lunch.  It was excellent being able to scooter so many places around town!

The winds were forecast to be around 25 mph that day, and while we didn’t think the winds would effect us too much on the river, we knew that was too windy to travel, and boy were we right!!  The wind picked up mid-morning and blew like crazy until bedtime.  It was soooo windy that Mike put extra lines on the boat, and I still got so nervous when he was gone playing soccer with the kids that I made a plan for what I would do if the winds broke our lines and blew us off the dock.  Of course my plan was that I would start the engines and drive back to the dock, so it wasn’t rocket science, but that would be an awful lot of boat maneuvering for me, so I tried to figure out exactly how I would turn us.  Good thing I didn’t have to test my plan!!  Not only was it WINDY but it was HOT as can be, also!!  We tried to open windows but the wind just blew in tons of dirt right through the screens so we ended up turning on the air conditioning.  We went to sleep with temps around 90* that night which was craziness because we woke up to 50* the next morning.

The Ottawa Free Wall turned out to be a great stop for us.  We loved the things to do in town and the history of the area.  We loved getting to know Twin better and even met a new boat friend, Brian, who single-hands his sailboat, Serenity.  However, when we woke up to that 50* weather, we knew it was time to get moving south!!  Thanks for reading and following along!