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!