Tuesday, September 19 - Peoria

Tuesday, September 19 - Peoria

It was foggy when we headed out from Henry Wall. 

And then it got foggier!  Both of us were on “high alert,” and Danny kept blowing the horn so small boats could hear us.  Our AIS shows the tows where we are, but small boats don’t have AIS.  We went in and out of several fog banks, but finally came out into clear skies. 

These houses in Chillicothe show just how low the water is.  So sad. 

Jeannie had been holding a package for us with prescriptions, new credit cards, and Boy Scout popcorn.  It’s hard to know where to have things shipped, but we had picked a marina in Peoria and hoped the timing would be right.  We should have been hoping the water was right.  First, the channel was on one side of the river, actually Peoria Lake, and the marina was on the other.  

It was pretty shallow all the way, but we did OK until we got past the marina breakwater.  Depth readings went down below a foot, and we churned mud the whole time.  To make it worse, nobody would answer the phone for so we couldn’t ask about depth, or about location for pick-up.  We just stopped at the end of one dock and tied off.  We walked toward what we thought was the office and ran into a man walking toward he dock that didn’t have his key, so we let him in in return for information.  (He was accompanied by a very young, very made-up girl, and it was lunchtime.  We wondered.)

He directed us to the other end of the marina.  I stayed at the gate while Danny went in search of our package.  One of us had to stay inside the gated area so we could get back in.  Danny finally found some landscaping guys who showed him where the office was, but nobody was there.

Finally, the two people who work at the marina pulled up - they had been to lunch!  Good, right?  Nope, they couldn’t find our package.  I called Jeannie, and of course she was able to track it, it had been delivered yesterday.  After searching several places on the property, they finally located our package, and told us to back out as we left, nothing to try to turn around.  Not our best package pickup.

And now to Peoria. 

A municipal marina was listed in some places, others said no overnight stays.  When we pulled up to take a look, Midas Touch was anchored there, and Marian said the boat behind them had been there more than a week.  Slight problem, there was not a slip long enough for us, only those two.  Danny did his masterful parking job and got us into a short slip with very narrow fairway. 

Next problem, we couldn’t get electricity.  The Nina and Pinta reproductions were pulled up on the outside wall, no they had used the outlet.  It was just one 30 amp, so wouldn’t have really helped.  We decided to stay the night and brave the heat at bedtime.  We had enough frustration for one day.

The Caterpillar Museum is one block from the dock, so we headed over after we had cooled off and recovered a bit. 

The first thing you see in the museum is a mining truck, the largest vehicle Caterpillar manufactures. 

The theater for the orientation movie is in the truck bed!  This is built to scale, but only the cabin is metal, the other is made of lighter material!  I wish I could remember more of the statistics, but I can tell you, because I read it in the picture, it is shipped on 13 separate trucks and assembled on site.  Danny had seen trucks like this on mine sites, but still we were both amazed at the size. 

Here are some other shots from the museum, including Danny at one of the simulators.  We both failed. 

Danny will disagree with this, but I thought the whole set-up was more for public relations than information, including the movie.  At the end, I still wasn’t sure what Caterpillar made.  And visually it was way too busy, displays and information got lost in the graphics.  I’m sure corporate would be glad to hear my critique!

At the Caterpillar Museum, the docent told us to be sure to see the new Lincoln statue that had been added to River Park yesterday. When we saw from a distance that it was two men, we assumed it would be Lincoln and Douglas. Nope, it was this guy. There was nothing to tell us who he was. Maybe one day I will Google him. 

We picked up pills, now we had to divvy them out.  No electricity, remember.  Thank goodness for battery lights.