5/26/14 - 6/20/14 After the Mississippi River, the Illinois was almost boring. It has far less current, far less debris, far less traffic, far more anchorages, and it is straighter. We began to see the Asian Carp junping out of the water and saw fishermen gill netting them. We were told they use them for cat food. Once, as I was tying the boat to the dock, an 18" carp jumped out of the water, slapped me on the leg and then flip-flopped back in the water (honest!). Groups of barn swallows circled the boat frequently. Two actually flew through the door of the cabin and got stuck trying to get out of the windshield. The cats thought it was meal time but I captured and freed both before they were injured. With only two more days cruising time to Chicago we decided to take a breather. We found a great marina at Seneca, IL and paid for two weeks. I had some business in Houston that needed my presence so I left Lace and the cats on the boat, rented a car and made the 1100 mile trip to Baytown in two days. We had long talked about the fact that our little Toyota RAV4 was too small to make the commute to Wisconsin with luggage and two cats so while in Houston, I traded it in on a 2013 Toyota Venza. On the way back to Illinois in the new (used) car, I dropped into Dallas to visit with my brother and then stopped in Falls City, NE to check on the farm. I got back to Seneca with five days to catch up on maintenance, do some repairs (while attempting to get anchored in a narrow waterway, I ran the boat into a tree and broke off one of the radio antennas and that's all I want to say about that) and take down the mast (there are low fixed bridges in Chicago that we can't get under without lowering our air draft). Next stop Chicago
