Plans are coming together and motivation high as the cool weather sets in here at mile marker 0 on the Illinois River. Our working plan for going south is to leave Grafton Harbor Monday November 6th with the goal of getting to Key Largo before Thanksgiving. We have several contingency plans in case we are delayed and I'm sure we will need to make adjustments to our schedule as we go down. We plan on keeping this web site up to date with updates every night we have good Internet access.

Its unbelievable how hard it is to plan for something like this. There are so many unknowns. Our Journey will take us down the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Kentucky Lake, Tenn-Tom and then out into the Gulf at Mobile. We have 16 to 18 locks to go through any of them could add a half day delay if there is a lot of commercial traffic. Total miles covered estimated at 1,585 with time in route to be 16.02 days based on 8 hour days. This is going to be three weeks of running hard.

I have just a few things left to do before we go. I need to change the oil in both engines and go through everything one more time. I have attached a shot from the bow cam on Daddy. Charlene and I will enjoy hearing from all of you on this site or over eMail to help pass the long nights.

Best Regards,
John