6/21/14 - 7/1/14 We were in Seneca, IL on the morning of Saturday June 21 doing last minute preparations and planning to leave in a few days. We got a notice via email that the electric fish barrier in the Illinois River was going to close for maintenance on Monday morning and that no vessels would be allowed through until the following weekend. We were a day and a half away so we just had time to make it through before closing, if we left immediately. We did that and after stopping in Joliet for the night made it through on Sunday afternoon. That gave us just enough time to make it through a couple of more locks and through downtown Chicago and finally into Lake Michigan in late afternoon. We got a slip in DuSable Harbor in the shadow of Chicago. It was the most expensive one night slip fee we had ever paid ($131). Just by chance, our friend Helen had flown in that afternoon for a seminar so we had a great supper with her in her hotel. The next morning we started up the west coast of the lake and after three nights landed in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. We were looking for a town to stay in for a while so we could investigate places to stay for the summer by car. Sheboygan is centrally located in the lake, large enough to offer good services and shopping, small enough to feel secure at night, has a farmers market downtown on Saturdays and Wednesdays, a YMCA across the street, a shuttle bus, a great moderately priced marina, and best of all, the daytime high temperatures at the end of June are around 75 degrees! We paid for a month, rented a car one way, drove to Seneca and picked up our car and brought it back to Sheboygan. We felt like we had arrived at our goal.
