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| Yes, that is ice. Today we drove to an area known as Starved Rock, on the Illinois River near the town of Ottawa. We were interested to see the Bald Eagles that are known to frequent this area. |
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| Here is the lock and dam with 7 barges in it. There is open water on the river, so the barges are still working their way up or down the river. |
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| We thought they were all in the lock, and ready to be lowered to the other side of the river. The Park Ranger came up to check on the progress. Ron started talking to him, and found out that there were too many barges in the lock for safety sake. They had to back out three of the barges, then they would lock the gate, and start draining the water. There was too much ice in the lock. It was interesting to watch, but we found out it was going to take at least an hour and a half longer. |
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| This is the pusher of the barges. He got the barges ready that could go through. The barges were going to have to be manually pushed through once the lock opened. The second phase, would then have the actual pusher come through the lock. There was massive locking and unlocking of the barges. It is fascinating to watch. |
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| You can see how much ice is on the upper level of the river. |
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| There looked like there was only one section of the dam open The lower part of the river hardly had any ice on it. |
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| We saw 11 Bald Eagles on the river today. We enjoy watching these fascinating birds. Hope you are having warmer weather where you are. Happy stitching Mary |