Peoria, Illinois

We threw the lines at sunrise and had an enjoyable cruise down the Illinois River traveling 64.6 NM. The sun was bright and the south winds were fair.  We locked down one lock 18.7' and had minimal traffic all day.  We shared the lock with a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter and two other Loopers.  This stretch of the Illinois River is very beautiful and lined with trees along with many Wildlife Refuges and Nature Preserves.  Plenty of wildlife flying high. Several Golden Eagles were flying along the rivers edge!  We came upon a sandbar that had thousands of migrating American White Pelicans on it!  We are docked at Illinois Valley Yacht Club (IVY Club), in Peoria, Illinois.

Underway at sunrise.

 

A Golden Eagle perched on rooftop.

Grave site of the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. (It's awesome how they posted this sign on the waterway wall so it's visible by boats.) 

Starved Rock State Park

Again, we phoned the lock ahead of time to schedule our lock through.  When we arrived as instructed we were delayed almost an hour for barges to lock through.

 We locked through with this U.S. Coast Guard Cutter.

G-Man supervising the locking process.

Peru's Fire Rescue Station

Golden Eagle.

Swan Lake (really).

Migrating American White Pelicans riding the thermals!

Migrating American White Pelicans.

Thousands of migrating American White Pelicans!

They've been migrating through this area for the past 10 years.

http://www.starvedrockstatepark.org/pelicans-starved-rock/

Garmin doing a great job at the helm today!

This heatwave will be here for the next several days.

At port.