While I was in Colorado, Craig diligently studied our new drone, a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum. What an amazing machine – it’s highly intelligent, intuitive and takes stunning 4K video. Between Craig’s good teaching and the drone being so easy to use, I was able to create this video on my first day.

With our slow internet connections it takes about an hour and a half to upload a two minute video (!), but the results are worth it. Craig captured the sunrise from Chicago’s DuSable Harbor here:

And I can’t give up still photography completely, especially since we can’t fly the drone at night…

Our view from DuSable Harbor

Navy Pier’s famous ferris wheel and carousel

Our view from a mooring ball in Monroe Harbor

We are now in Spring Valley, IL, on the Illinois river. Traveling down the rivers is so different from the Great Lakes. As Coloradoans, we live in a dry and arid climate, so we are DYING in the high humidity. Temp today is 89 with a Real Feel of 97. I am reminded why I hated living in Louisville, Kentucky, another river city.

Huge tows pushing gigantic barges pass us regularly.  We were told these are “babies” compared to what we’ll see on the Mississippi. We’re passing through locks and often have to wait for these big boys to come up or go down before we can proceed.

“Passing on the 1 whistle.” Translation: passing on our port sides

Squeezing by…

One good thing: no more waves! Scully and I are very happy about that. Tomorrow we head to Peoria, IL, where we plan to visit our nephew Paul and friends we met in Wisconsin last year.