Happily Wherever After

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Happily Wherever After We're filming daily videos of our 6,000-mile Great Loop waterway cruise aboard our good ship Swamp Puppy, a 45-foot, solar-powered, 1989 Carver motor yacht.

We'd love to share our journey with you on YouTube! - 🍻 Tom & Elyse 🏴‍☠️

It's hard to admit sometimes, but Swamp Puppy isn't the only good-looking boat our here cruising the Loop! On our way to...
10/15/2026

It's hard to admit sometimes, but Swamp Puppy isn't the only good-looking boat our here cruising the Loop! On our way to Havana, we spotted this beauty, Lamplight. Lamplight is a 49-foot Krogren Express trawler. Wowza!

Leaving Peoria downbound on the Illinois River, we quickly encountered the Peoria Lock and Dam. This was the fastest we'...
10/15/2026

Leaving Peoria downbound on the Illinois River, we quickly encountered the Peoria Lock and Dam. This was the fastest we'd ever gotten through a lock, on the whole Great Loop!

That's because the river water levels were high enough for the USACE to lower the dam wickets, allowing us to cruise right over the dam. We were pretty impressed with ourselves, how many people can say they've boated over a dam?

🔒 Lock #7 on the Inland Waterways
🔒 Lock #124 on our Great Loop

Leaving the Peoria town dock, we went under a number of incredible bridges. This is the Peoria & Pekin Union Railroad Br...
10/14/2026

Leaving the Peoria town dock, we went under a number of incredible bridges. This is the Peoria & Pekin Union Railroad Bridge, also called the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad Bridge.

The original bridge at this location was built in 1860!

We walked from the Peoria town dock and across the Bob Michel Bridge to Bass Pro, Lowe's, Walmart and more! We did a ful...
10/13/2026

We walked from the Peoria town dock and across the Bob Michel Bridge to Bass Pro, Lowe's, Walmart and more! We did a full reprovision, picked up a few supplies for more boat projects, and Tom topped off his fishing lure stash with baits designed for muddy/stained waters. We even caught another Looper passing beneath us on the bridge!

We didn't want to overstay our welcome, so after three nights we finally said goodbye to Peoria and shoved off the dock. Hopefully the next round of Loopers enjoys their stay as much as we did!

Thank you for having us!

📅 181 days on the Loop
🛥️ 89 cruising days
🔌 186 days since shore power
⚓ 125 nights at anchor (69%)
🪢 28 nights at free docks/walls (15%)
🍁 29 nights at Parks Canada docks ($14.93/night)
💲 $2.39/night average
🧭 3,328.8 miles traveled from Florida
🔒 123 locks transited
🇺🇲 13 states visited
🇨🇦 2 provinces visited

For future cruisers that have concerns about the safety of the town dock in Peoria, here's a little more information abo...
10/13/2026

For future cruisers that have concerns about the safety of the town dock in Peoria, here's a little more information about the dock and our experience.

Whenever we leave our boat, we always set up security cameras which we monitor remotely via our Starlink internet. Tom set the cameras up shortly after our arrival, and at no point during our ~65 hour stay did anyone approach our boat. It's over 500 feet from the dock entrance to our boat, and our camera had a staright line of sight the entire distance. The only people who came down the dock where Swamp Puppy was tied were other boaters who had also docked their boats here.

The green space and the riverfront walk adjacent to the dock were very popular - just like most riverfront walks we've been to. Who doesn't want to watch the boats cruise by? I know I do! People would stop and posit that we had certainly trailered our boat here from Florida. Sometimes we'd come out to tell them exactly how we got here, and enjoy the shock on their faces.

And that's the Peoria town dock!

Something that's central to our travel philosophy is going to see things for ourselves! We want to develop our own opini...
10/13/2026

Something that's central to our travel philosophy is going to see things for ourselves! We want to develop our own opinions, based on our own preferences, values, and experiences -- rather than relying on what's touted as word of mouth, but what sometimes ends up just being one person's bad experience.

The city dock in Peoria is one of these places we went to see for ourselves. And we had such a great time that we stayed for 3 nights! We were in a perfect spot to visit Peoria -- we went to the museum and planetarium, reprovisioned, and walked across the bridge twice because the Bass Pro sign visible across the river demanded it 🤷🏼‍♀️

Our next stop on the Illinois River was Peoria! We tied up to the defunct town marina. It looks like it was a really nic...
10/12/2026

Our next stop on the Illinois River was Peoria! We tied up to the defunct town marina. It looks like it was a really nice marina at one point, but the birds and weather have taken it over.

There are a lot of slips for smaller boats, but only two spots for a large boat, like Swamp Puppy, to tie up. We were hoping there might still be potable water lines, but no luck. Still, $0/night is hard to beat!

We're seeing all sorts of different commercial vessels on the Illinois River! From abandoned tugs to tugs pushing barges...
10/12/2026

We're seeing all sorts of different commercial vessels on the Illinois River! From abandoned tugs to tugs pushing barges, all the way to barges pushing hot dogs...

10/11/2026

Free ninety-nine a night is our favorite way to travel ⚓️ We've been traveling on the cheap since 2018 🏴‍☠️🍻

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Fort Pierce, FL

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