Views along the Illinois River

This is the flag for the organization that we joined, which is all folks like us traveling the Great Loop.  It is the American Great Loop Cruisers Association.  We have already met several couples that may be at the end of their loop, the middle, or the beginning like us.

This picture was taken at anchor on the Illinois River.

This is a large grain operation along the river, they have at least 40 grain silos.  The larger silos are two to three times larger than the farm silos we are used to.  This is a railroad and barge loading and storage area.

This is a house along the river, as you can see it is built on stilts for the rising waters.  All of the houses are built high.  There are not a lot of houses along the river.  We did see some of the houses that did not survive the last flood.

This is a bridge at Hardin, it is posted on the charts as 21 feet.  We only need 16 feet to clear a structure.  As we approached it did not look right, Erwin (captain) decided to slow down.  As we were within feet of the bridge we were clearly no going to make it.  We had to go back against the river current.  I called the bridge tender and he explained the river was high.  We did not realize the Mississippi flooded and backed up the Illinois River as well.  We found out later from another boater the bridge clearance was only 14 feet.