We left early this morning (42*) for the Joliet wall where we will wait for an additional 10 boats to progress through the locks down the river. On our way we passed through the electric fence barrier maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers to protect the Great Lakes from Asian Carp. It is recommended that you shut down all electronics as you pass this area and remain in your boat. One of our looper friends actually lost power when traveling through the barrier earlier this week and others needed to be towed through the area. No flying fish were seen today!

Overall today was full of challenges. It is difficult to hold position in our boat and we were asked to do so or to tie off to large “protection cells”. By the time I had the line attached to these enormous cement structures they were calling us into the lock! It will be interesting to see how we coordinate these locks when there are 15 boats locking though at the same time.

Along the way we did see some beautiful sights. There were a number of great egrets, turkey vultures and even a bald eagle. We are also beginning to see the change of the season with several trees beginning to show some color.

Our trip today.

As expected our thoughts are still with our son Adam, Gal and their family and friends in Israel. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. At this writing they are all doing well.