Starved Rock Canal Boat Tour, Reprise

The day after the 60^th anniversary, Dad, Hilda, Terry, Jane, and I went to Starved Rock for another Canal Tour. You may recall we went back in June for my birthday. We did not intend to take the Canal Tour twice; our River Tour in June was canceled because of flooding. Picky, picky.

The Lodge was nicely decorated with a fall scene. We particularly enjoyed the paintings and decorations around the giant hearth in the dining room.

Decorations around the hearth

I saw on my way down the hallway that Missy and Karl were having a wedding reception in one of the big party rooms. Apparently, our trolley was also going to be pressed into service at some later time to transport wedding guests.

Wedding decorations on the trolley

It was a nice day if one had enough layers. The sun was shining. Due to heavy winds in the recent past the trees were more bare than resplendent in fall colors. Oh well. It wasn’t raining, and that counts for a lot. Here is a picture of Hilda and Jane.

Hilda and Jane sitting on the bench of the upper deck

We didn’t learn too much that we didn’t know before. One new bit of information, which the mule driver shared with us before he started his walk, is that the boats used mules because horses will literally work until they drop dead. A mule will work until it’s tired and stop, refusing to go further. Thus the expression “stubborn as a mule.”

On our way down the canal pulled by the mule on the right

Our guide, Riley, was a young woman who had majored in Anthropology and was now working on a degree in Physical Therapy. I wonder why. She was very pleasant and knowledgeable. Unlike our last tour, she did not use a microphone. After the safety lecture, we were dismissed to move to the upper deck if we so desired. Most of us went up. Riley talked to the lower deck first, then came up to give the spiel to us.

Terry and I saw many fish in the river as we poked along. Our trolley guide told us that the canal had just been stocked with trout in preparation for a fishing event. We saw one. The trolley guide walked along the mule path with the boat rather than waiting in the trolley. He liked the exercise, he said.

When we got to the aqueduct where the canal passed over the Vermillion River, I could see all the flotsam from the June flood backed up against the supports for the canal. In June, of course, the water had been much higher.

The mule turned around when we reached the aqueduct

Aqueduct for the canal over the Vermillion River, which was much lower than it was in June

Driftwood piled up on the aqueduct supports

I had a better view of the process of turning the mule around. He got it into his head that he wanted to stray to greener grass. The trolley driver intercepted the mule and held it until the mule driver could take over. The driver had to pull the mule over to the fence and tie him up while he switched the rope to the back of the boat. The video shows that process as well as the begining of our trip and shadows of Terry and me watching the fish.

I had Jane take a picture of me by the boat.

Me in front of the boat (right)

Before I got back on the trolley, I walked down to see the historic locks, which I  had not noticed in June. There was even a statue of a man moving the lock gate.

One side of the historic lock with the new permanent wall (and the canal boat) behind it

The other side of the lock with the statue of a man moving the lock on the left

And then it was back to work for another week of grading lab papers. I was jubilant Thursday evening when I finished all of Wednesday’s papers. With a light heart, I took to the garden Friday morning, eagerly anticipating getting everything crossed off the to-do-at-home list during my three-day weekend. I got all the drip irrigation pulled up and made good progress on rolling up the landscape cloth. I was sore and tired by the end of the day, but had that good feeling of accomplishment.

As I was drifting off to sleep, random thoughts flitted through my head. “Lab manual due to duplication on October 26….today is..hmm…October 23…Saturday, 24, Sunday, 25…uh-oh.”

Did I have the lab manual at home? I did not. Saturday morning, I went into my office to pick up my lab manual and copy the latest version to a flash drive. I spent an hour in the lab trying to figure out the best way to stain the nuclei of onion epithelium. As long as I was out, I did some errands. My regular ATM was out of order. I stopped at another branch to get my allowance. I filled the gas tank and drove all the way to Bed Bath and Beyond only to find that the spice rack I saw in the sale flyer was out of stock. When will I learn to never expect sale items to be available? I did my grocery shopping on the way home.

Today was a beautiful day. Probably the last nice day before winter. And I spent it sitting at my computer revising the lab manual. But I’m not bitter, that’s the important thing.