Today will be another long day.  We are finally heading to the "Big Chute" hoping to get a place on the wall and be in line for the last few locks until Chicago.  We are looking forward to NOT having locks to go through.  It really puts a monkey wrench in the planning.  You never know how many boaters are waiting to go through the next lock and therefore how long it will take.  

It was another beautiful weather day having a relatively warm start at 57 degrees.  It will be important to travel as far as we can today as the weather outlook is for rainy and windy weather the next several days.  

Our first hurdle today was a train swing bridge prior to our first lock.  We began our travels today with "Faith", "Journey", and "Esseylium".  Unfortunately we could not all fit in the second lock and we ended up with just one other boat moving onto the "Big Chute".  

The "Chute" was not as scary as I thought.  It was much like being on a roller coaster in slow motion.  It was a bit unnerving when they initially placed our tug in the slings, but it soon settled and we felt limited swaying as we moved across the road.