We saw the Caterpillar world HQ today as we passed the city of Peoria. Some of the people we met at the yacht club last night work there and had visited the Australian distributors Waugh and Josephsons in Sydney and Hastings Deering in Brisbane.

We are holed up in the neat little Tall Trees Marina tonight which is only three blocks from the centre of Havana. We learnt today that a planned fuel stop at Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi no longer sells gasoline giving us a 240 mile hop to the next fuel stop. That would be at the limit of our range. I called the local American Great Loop Cruisers Association member at Cape Girardeau who gave me contact for the local Farmers Co op who can deliver fuel in a tanker down to a nearby boat ramp. In another example of great local knowledge we were advised to eat at the Townhouse bar in Havana and had an amazing beef frijoles for only $9.90.

We are now well across Illinois and approaching Missouri. The Illinois River has been much nicer than what people had told us. Trees and beaches along the shoreline and not the bland corn fields we were expecting..