" Sent up the river to Joliet"

Blog of S/V Visitor 12 September.  2011
I dictated this to Jan last night from my cozy lair in the v-berth .  I was going to correct it this morning, but, I thought it might be funny to leave it as is. Life is easy, comedy is hard.  Cannons = canyons, royal= roil.

Left Chicago 7am and locked through Chicago Lock.  Our first lock through did not go well since we got yelled at for no life jackets, fumbled the lines, and lost a bumper in the water.  What a trip going through the city cannons!  All the folks hustling to do battle.  Oh there's Water Mitty crossing the State Street bridge with Silas Marner close behind.  Is that Emma Boveary with her satchel on Dearborn Street?  And is that a glimpse of Citizen Kane in his gothic tower? The energy of the city soon gives way to the raw muscle of the industrial waste lands.  MasterBlaster with his huge bucket- handed arm unloads a gravel barge in a whirling, repetitive dervish.  Trains racket over great structures of century-old  riveted iron which are still mostly operable.  Seems like all we can rivet today is our attention to the little screen.  Who said America's needs move by truck?  Well, they move by barge and train too.  Trillions of ounces of raw steel and cargo crush down the river oblivious to all obstacles.  While sinuous trains tremble the surrounding terrain.  Chemicals, gases, electricity, lubricants, plastics, coal, stone, fission, sand, and smoke all in a jumbled royal of hectic activity.  Whew!  Just missed that barge!  Thankfully the river gives way to banks of cottonwood and corn behind the shoreline thickets.  Herons, cranes, ravens, turkey's and buzzards hunt and feed along the banks.  My favorite story of Joliet is when someone told me he was in the pen with Chuck Berrey.  Well we were in lockdown too at the Lockport Lock, dropping 40 feet into the slimy walled well.  Quite a day on the river.  Finally tied up at the wall in Joliet, exhausted. "May the Good Lord shine his light on you, Like the evening sun."  Glimmer Twins