Starved Rock Tour

In my ongoing quest to do something fun on my birthday, we got tickets some time ago for the trolley and river tour at Starved Rock. We hoped it would be better than the lame Lake Geneva boat tour we went on last year. We had to go on Wednesday, the day before my birthday, because the tour did not run on Thursdays.

The first plus is that the weather was not cold and rainy. It had been raining down south, however, and the river tour was deemed unsafe because of floodwaters. Starved Rock substituted a canal tour instead. We met Jane in Sycamore at 9:30 and drove together in Jane’s car to Starved Rock, arriving at 10:45, as planned.

We began our tour with lunch in the lodge. We were pleased that there were 5 lunch choices: Caesar salad, hamburgers, pot roast, grilled chicken sandwich, and chicken salad on a croissant. Everyone had a burger except me. I had the grilled chicken. All of our lunches came with house-made potato chips. I should not have eaten all of them, but they were so good!

When we checked in, we were told that we were on the green and red trolley. Just before noon, we boarded our trolley along with a number of elderly ladies with two—what should we call them?—activity directors, one young man and one young woman wearing black polos with a “Friendship Village” logo embroidered on the left. There was also a man, a woman, and a teenage boy. Because the tour was sold out, I was afraid there would be no empty seats, but Jane was able to get a seat by herself. A party of five can be awkward when the seat are for two. And mighty uncomfortable seats they were. 

The trolleys--we were on the red and green one

Hilda, Dad, and Terry on the trolley

We all got a souvenir fan because it promised to be a hot day. The trolley was air conditioned, which made the purpose of the fan unclear. But the day was not over.

Souvenir fan

We made a little tour through Utica before stopping at 12:20 at the Cattails Gift Shop. I walked in and walked out with my nose itching from the potpourri. There was a little pond outside with water lilies in bloom, koi, and a lovely statue of great blue herons.

Cattails Gift Shop

Heron sculpture

Water lilies and koi

After killing 25 minutes at the Cattails, we drove to the canal boat. Here is Terry looking at the mule and talking to the mule driver.

Terry with the mule and mule driver

This is the boat. There was no air conditioning. I made the right decision taking my souvenir fan with me. All the people working on the boat were in period costume. The first mate also wore an orange life vest, which looked funny over his hand-sewn shirt.

The boat--far left, first mate in period costume with life vest; right, the tour guide in period dress with straw hat

Ever since I learned about canal boats pulled by mules, I have wanted to go on one. I can now check this off the bucket list. The boat was 73 feet long but had a draft of only 18 inches. Our tour guide compared it to a Styrofoam cup floating on water. Any one of us could pull that boat, she said.

Once we got under the railroad bridge, we were free to go to the upper deck. The air temperature was in the 90’s, and it was hot in the sun. Still, the view was better from up there, so up there we stayed. Jane sat on the bench, but I found I was cooler standing. I made good use of the souvenir fan.

The Illinois and Michigan (I & M) canal opened in 1848. It connected the Illinois River to Lake Michigan. The mules were changed every 10 to 12 miles, but the mule drivers, mostly teenage boys, went 30 miles on a shift.

There were two kinds of boats on the canal. The packet boat carried passengers. The entire 96 miles from LaSalle to Chicago took 18 to 22 hours and cost $4 per person. It seems slow by modern standards, but when the canal opened, that was the quick way to go, compared to stage coach. The boat had a piano for entertainment. Card games were popular. The lower deck was divided by a curtain so people could sleep, males on one side, females on the other. There was a bucket for a latrine. It was emptied over one side of the boat, and “clean” water for washing up was hauled up from the other side. The wash bucket also had a communal comb attached by a string. The passenger trade on the canal was largely replaced by rail travel in 1852, which shortened the trip to 8 hours.

The second kind of boat was the cargo boat. Cargo boats carried local crops, such as grain and glass (made from the very pure sandstone found in the area) as well as more exotic products that had come up the Mississippi, such as tobacco and cotton.

Our tour went down the canal 0.8 mile. We returned to our starting point by going backwards. When the canal was operating, however, there were wide spots that both allowed the boats to turn around and stored water for the operation of the locks.

A fascinating aspect to the canal was an aqueduct over the Vermillion River. I hoped that we would go through it, but we only went up to it before we headed back. It was obvious that the water was a good deal higher than usual.

Aqueduct--the canal on the left goes over the Vermillion River on the right.

There was also a point where we could see the Illinois River.

Illinois River through the trees on the left

The trip back was not as smooth as the trip forward. They didn’t hook the mule up to the back of the boat. As you might imagine, the boat pulled to the side that way. The guy with the rudder did his best, but we bumped against the back frequently. The first mate had a pole, but from the top of the boat, I was not able to see if he used it.

Our boat trip lasted about an hour. The trolley took us to the Visitor Center next, where we had a half an hour to look around. The Friendship Village bus came to collect all the elderly ladies. Because we were at the visitor center when we came down to see the eagles last winter, I took the opportunity to go take some pictures of the pelicans. They floated on the water down to Plum Island, and then flew upstream to float down again. It wasn’t clear that they were doing anything other than entertaining themselves.

Pelicans floating to the left and flying back to the right

More pelicans

The trolley stop was by a mobile made of glass. It was beautiful. I took a video, but forgot to put the camera back to horizontal after taking the vertical still picture. I often forget that videos cannot be rotated.

Glass mobile (chain saw carving of eagle in background)

I was very much looking forward to getting ice cream after the tour. I had a Rocky Road cone. So nice to sit in the air conditioned ice cream shop and eat ice cream after such a hot afternoon.

Hilda coming out of the Country Cupboard Ice Cream Shop

Detail of ice cream cone sculpture on the deck

Overall, the day was MUCH better than the Lake Geneva boat tour on my birthday last year and MUCH, MUCH better than moving the chicken coop and setting up drip lines two years ago!