September 17, 2012


September 17, 2012  Day 129      Peoria, IL      Total miles to date:  2596.0


Early morning fog!
Yes, our fourth night in Peoria!  This is getting redundant.  Other Loopers, The Zone and Why Knot left by mid-morning after the fog cleared and once again we were alone.  But by late afternoon, Attitude Changer and Bama Belle had arrived to take their place. 
The Riverfront area is considerably quiet today since it is Monday.  Joyce did some reading to pass the time. When the stairs are up to the engine room, access to the galley is blocked, which was the case most of the day.

In the meantime, Bill spent the day in the engine room with the Caterpillar mechanic who diagnosed our “starboard engine with the white smoke problem”. (You can tell which one of us writes the blog!) After ruling out some potential causes, he discovered it was a bad gasket – not a good thing to hear – we were hoping for something minor!  Hopefully the parts are available and they can get everything replaced soon.  We will definitely be here again tomorrow and maybe Wednesday.
We had dinner on board (frozen pizza does come in handy sometimes!) and watched television, something we have done very little of since we have been on the Loop.