9/25/2016
We rose early to get under way again for a planned 60 miles or so to Hardin, IL. We had heard of a great restaurant with some old barges to tie up to, so that was our destination. We hoisted anchor early in the morning with just a bit of fog, and we were on our way again.
It was another beautiful day, and with this guy greeting us, it was going to be a great day. Pearl Lee was running great and we were passing Pearl, IL today. Yes, it was a good day!
We encountered our first Army Corps of Engineers dredge. It’s a big operation keeping the river channels open for commercial traffic that’s even deeper than our 5.5′ draft. We thanked them for their work as we passed by.
We had the river mostly to ourselves after passing the dredge. Once again, there are interesting things to see when you’re watching from a slow boat traveling the river.
We found houses on stilts, nice places to watch the river go by, and a decaying riverboat, no doubt someone’s broken dream.
And of course we passed Pearl, IL. All we could see was the Pearl rail road bridge, but that was enough for a small salute.
We reached our goal of Hardin and Mel’s Illinois Riverdock Restaurant by mid afternoon. A friendly guy in a pontoon boat was happy to move down the dock to give us room. He later confessed he just wanted to see how we were going to dock such a big boat.
There’s not much else in Hardin, but we stayed a couple days to do some minor boat work. Mel’s serves down-home food and they’re very friendly. In fact, the whole town seemed friendly.
Again, you’ll notice that Pearl Lee is facing up river. In cases like this we have to go past our destination, turn around and then come into the dock going up river.
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