Visiting Chattanooga, TN on a side trip while doing America's Great Loop by boat is an absolute MUST!

Yesterday we took half a day off from work to explore and it felt like a little mini vacation all wrapped up in just a few hours! Our...

After 3 long days of travel, 4 locks, 2 nights at anchor and about 250 miles with 95 degree weather and no AC, we finally reached Green...

We got up around 4:45am the day that we left Alton, IL. We wanted to get an early start because our next leg of the trip was about 250...

We had originally planned on staying in Grafton for 2 weeks, but decided to switch our plans up a bit and leave earlier so that we would...

On our first day in Grafton, we got up and took the scooters out to explore the town a bit. There is a nice bike path along the river in...

After our time in Peoria, we were up with the sun to travel to Grafton, IL where the Illinois River converges with the Mississippi River!...

After traveling about 70 miles from Starved Rock Marina, we arrived at our new marina, the Illinois Valley Yacht and Canoe Club (IVY for...

Dustin needed a hair cut so he found a place online, made an appointment, and then we took the dinghy about 5 miles up the river to the...

Yesterday afternoon when we were done working, Dustin and I decided to go to Starved Rock State Park to do some hiking. We were...

Yesterday we started out the day by watching church on the boat. Our pastor has such good sermons and we are so blessed to be able to...

Asian Carp are an issue in the river systems so in an effort to keep them out, Illinois has built an aquatic barrier that is basically an...

The past two days have been both exhausting and exciting all at the same time. What we thought would be a few short hours of boating...

Yesterday we went though the Lockport Lock in Illinois. Since our first lock was so easy, we didn't expect this one to be any different....

Tomorrow we traverse our first real leg of the river system and will encounter our first lock and dam!! These are the types of ships we...

Dustin changed the engine oil/filters and water pump impellers on both motors today, in 96* heat I might add. While doing so, he found...

Day 3 at the shipyard in Chicago. We are forced to sit in solitary confinement during the days and work like slaves in exchange for food....

We spent yesterday re-caulking the shower, un-wiring the mast, taking the sails off (and killing about a bazillion spiders that crawled...

And we're off!! Spent a wonderful night in our hometown last night (South Haven, Mi). My family had said goodbye to us a couple of nights...

I'm doing one last sweep through the boat to see what we can get rid of that we don't absolutely need and I realized that Bella has three...