Down the Illinois

Ottawa

Ottawa City Dock

Statue commemorating the site of first Lincoln - Douglas debate

One of the many beautiful murals in Ottawa

Peoria

The Caterpillar equipment manufacturer is headquartered in Peoria and has a very nice visitor center that is a short walk from the city dock.

Caterpillar Visitor Center

Left Peoria and headed downstream to Grafton where the Illinois river flows into the Mississippi.

Scenes on the Illinois River 

Tow fleet - easy to pass them when they're not moving and pushing 15 barges

Illinois River "castle"

Small tow at work

  

Confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi from the dock at Grafton Harbor.  We passed here when we left Muscatine in the fall of 2012.  We will complete the Great Loop when we enter the Mississippi River about a mile from the marina where we will turn north up the river to get back home.