The Houseboat

Well, last Wednesday afternoon, we officially became river rats. We now own a Houseboat without a motor. And a 22’ pontoon boat (which we will wait until spring to launch).

Brian now has an optional 10 minute commute. While trying to find rental property, we found a unique community at Harborside Marina. They have a group of floating cottages and homes on the Des Plaines river just before it merges with the Kankakee and turns into the Illinois River.

We are in a temporary slip in the back marina (we are the one on the left), but we will be moving to the front marina in the next couple weeks. The preceding blog talks about the rains we encountered last week-end. The marina had the highest water they had ever encountered and all the docks in the back marina were under water on Monday. The crew at Harborside worked around the clock cutting and tightening lines so that none of the boats were damaged. Coincidently Deb picked up contracts on Monday and saw the state of affairs (and our houseboat with its newly painted bottom happily in a large shelter having “missed” all the rain indoors.)

Wednesday we closed on the boat. Deb spent the night on the boat “moving in”. The “Harbor Home” was fully furnished, so mostly it was making beds and loading the refrigerator and figuring out meals for Brian’s funky schedule. Thursday morning Brian arrived at the boat after work at about 6:30 am. After a 10 minute commute, with the only traffic being a deer and a grey heron. A large vodka martini was the first course of business. He got a lot of respect from the people working!

The marina crowd is a very friendly group. George and Susan are our temporary neighbors. They have the only other “Harbor Home” (versus cottage – which is smaller and may not technically be a boat.) They were very helpful when we were considering the boat. The Harborside staff has been incredibly helpful.

Thursday night Deb’s parents were coming through on their way to Hudson for the JDRF walk with Katie and family. Interstate 80/94 in Indiana was closed from Monday through late Thursday and opened in the nick of time for their drive from Naperville (Deb spent Thursday night in Naperville) to Hudson.

Friday Deb drove. A lot. From Naperville to Chicago for a meeting. Chicago to Naperville. Naperville for a brief boat stop to drop some things off for Brian (he was still sleeping). The boat to Bloomington-Normal for Christina’s cross country meet. She did great! A PR – 18:55 for a 5k. Finished 14th overall, 5th for U of I. Then an about face and drove back to the boat (less than 75 minutes!)

Our "moving day" is tomorrow, so we will add additional photos later!

Ths is about Deb’s Road Trip! Brian (Dad) is working the ExxonMobil Turn-around –the night shift – 5:30 pm to about 6am. Add an hour+ compute each way….

As ana side, in order to address the compute issue, we looked at some properties- ideally a rental near the refinery. So, Deb got infatuated with a houseboat without a motor. But that will follow later!

Deb had a Vistage meeting in Galena Friday morning, and Chris had a XC meet in Peoria Friday afternoon. Great trip down IL-84 to US-74 on Friday. Many amusing sites starting in Hanover with a gas refill. A cool old motel. Well a Bait, Tackle and Motel. I do not think I want to think about this…. Not a shock, but there was vacancy. Thank goodness Rick is Live. Dead Rick’s bait has no appeal.


Anyway IL-84 is beautiful. It follows the Mississippi past the Mississippi Palisades through many small towns. If you like country and “very-classic” rock, your radio choices are good.

Besides Rick’s Motel, Hanover is the home of the Mallard Fest. The weather was iffy so the shadows were wonderful. After Hanover, another key town was Savannah. Highlights included Poopy’s Tattoo (do we worry about infection?). And an Illinois State sign pointing to the Mississippi Refuse Frog Pond. For all the frogs needing refuse.

The town of Thomson had a couple of highlights including the local correctional facility. The sign pointing to the correctional facility was quickly followed with a “Do Not Pickup Hitchhikers” sign.

I had lunch in Port Byron at the Brother’s Restaurant. Quite nice- definitely small town. Then it was time to get on I-74 for the remainder of the trip. The rain started. And didn’t stop much for the next three days.


Anyway, after Port Byron, the trip was highway, rain and other “crisis’s”, but I did make it to Peoria in time for Christina’s race. At that point, the rain turned into a drizzle. (As an aside, the ACE biking trip, including Deb Kamykowski was BIKING down –and up- gravel into town in the pouring rain.)

Illinois did well at the Bradley Invite. They took off in a Pack (this was the group below the ‘top 7’). http://fightingillini.cstv.com/sports/w-xc/recaps/091208aaa.html. Christina who “walked on” as a Senior, finished 3rd for U of I -8th overall, did great! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLg0pHBkq08

After that, Deb headed to the Holiday Inn City Center – Peoria for a quiet evening. The Peoria weather announcer that evening used an over-emphasized “copious” when describing the rainfall we experienced Friday. Little did he know (or maybe he did) what Saturday and Sunday were going to look like.

Deb made a quick stop by Detweiller where NCHS was running (as so was Erika Danckers from Libertyville). Being a fair-weather fan, Deb left before the 3A races (in the 2006-2007 season, an additional “class” was added- after Chris & Brian graduated). In case you care!! 10 miles north of Peoria, the rain started. And the rain didn’t stop for a good 30 hours. Made a stop in Morris – which was a very pleasant surprise considering our recent purchase (follow-up later).

After a couple stops and errands, went to the hangar to wake Brian up (I wish I had photos for this….). Brian spent the last 2 days sleeping in the hangar during the day (due to working nites for the turn-around) to the sound of pouring rain. This cut his commute by a good 30-40 minutes each way. The refinery has a shower. The hangar has a refrigerator, microwave and Brian had “pre-packed” meals.

As you know we have been deluged with rain. Working at the refinery at night has been dicey to say the least. As Brian described it, it is like driving in pouring rain, with headlights shining in your eyes and your wind-shield wipers don’t work. (One must wear safety glasses in the refinery, and there are flood lights everywhere at night, with pools/floods of water and unknown hidden hazards.)

Here are a couple “daylight” pictures of downtown Naperville (~6pm Sunday Sept 14th_ possibly post-crest). Many roads were closed due to the water.