Chicago to Peoria, Il

We left Chicago and had a great cruise through the city. It was amazing from the water to see what rush hour is like in the mornings. People were everywhere walking across several bridges, taking water taxis, trains and etc. It was a beautiful morning for cruising and the weather was great. The locks went smooth until later in the afternoon and it started getting busy on the river with barges. We had to wait an hour and half for the last lock so we pulled into Starved Rock marina(wonder how they got that name)for the night near Ottawa, Illinois. Very nice people and marina. It had been so hot that day that I thought we might had somehow been beamed back to Florida. The humidity was about 85%. After not much sleep we topped off the fuel tanks and headed south again. The river was busy again today with barges so we had to wait for locks. We stopped and fueled up again at the Illinois Valley yacht club and had a great lunch. They called ahead at a marina for us near Peoria to expect us. We arrived about 5:30pm and tied up for the night. They are expected Gustave here tomorrow so we will see if we are going to travel. It has really been interesting on this leg of the trip watching the barges and how they operate. They have 3 or 4 barges and sometimes 2 wide that they are pushing along the river. Seems like barge traffic is up this summer, which I am sure has to do with the price of fuel and the economy.