Day 37 (arrival in New Orleans) 01/11/2010
Daily stats Start: 6:45 AM- On the river Finish: 3:00 PM - New Orleans (staircase in French Quarter) Time: 8:15 Daily dist: 61 miles Total dist: x miles Companions: None Weather: Chilly with clear skies and almost no wind Notes: Launch was delayed due to frozen gear. Probably the coldest morning of entire trip due to heavy frost. Very heavy tow and ship traffic kept me out of the main channel. Picked up by Bill Strickland to spend the night at his place.  While all the stories of the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans being all industry and boat traffic was not true yesterday, it was most certainly the case today. In the 61 miles I paddled today I would guess that the shore along almost 45 of those miles was lined with either loading docks, parked barges, or moored super tankers. Add to that a dizzying number of tow boats running every which way while they jockey barges into rafts and a few super tankers coming and going in the river, and chaos barely describes the scene on the river today. I was able to handle the rough water created by all the traffic but my hat is off to anybody that has done that run in an open canoe. Camping would have been a challenge along the way today but there was still a few spots that would work if one was not too fussy. The cold snap we’ve been experiencing is due to lift but it was still very cold around here over night last night. I may not have been the lowest temperature I’ve seen on this trip but with the heavy frost that accompanied the cold my gear was iced up worse than I’ve ever seen. I ended pulling out my cook stove to thaw my tent poles so I could take them apart and stow then in my boat. Getting into my frozen boots proved to be challenging and I had to stand in the river to use the somewhat warmer river water to thaw them enough to squeeze my feet into them. It took about three hours of vigorous paddling until my body warmed the inside of the Ikkuma enough that the tube leading to my water bag was thawed enough to drink from. The cold and shipping traffic conspired to delay me today and I ended up in New Orleans a bit later than I expected but it worked out well giving me enough time to empty the Ikkuma and get changed before Bill came to pick me up. Where I pulled off the water was at a wide set of wooden stairs that leads right to the waters edge. The spot is right in the heart of the French Quarter just across the street from the iconic St. Louis cathedral. Certainly a good place to make an entrance into New Orleans. When I arrived several people were hanging out on the steps enjoying the sunshine and view of the river. A few men (the unshaved sort that seem to have nothing but time to kill) were very curious about where I started and where I was going. When I told them I left Baton Rouge yesterday they were impressed. When they learned that I left St. Lewis a month ago they had to shake my hand. They ended up adding their signatures to the few blank spots left on the deck while I packed my gear into the duffel bags and waited for my ride. From today’s take out I could see one of the lift bridges over the Intracoastal waterway the entrance to which lies only one mile further downstream. That means that today was the last full day on the Mississippi river for this phase of the journey. It has been a fun run down from St. Louis and with all the bumps I hit along the way I’ve already had an adventure I will never forget. For as much as I’ve enjoyed the raw beauty and power of the river I am really looking forward to moving on into new waters. The river, especially in winter and at nearly flood levels is a demanding place to paddle. 16 Comments Day 36 01/10/2010
Daily stats Start: 8:00 AM- Baton Rouge boat ramp Finish: 5:00 PM - On the river Time: 9:00 Daily dist: 72 miles Total dist: xx miles Companions: None Weather: Sunny and cold with a slight NW tail wind Notes: First day back on the water after five day off. I came to a realization at about 10:00 last night that I wouldn’t be any more ready by the end of today than I was yesterday. So I made the decision to finally get back on the water this morning before I got any more used to sleeping in a bed. Michael was up by 6:30 AM to help be get the Ikkuma and my gear back to the river where he picked me up last Monday.  Michael at the boat ramp to see me off on a cold morning. I must admit that I had reservations when I set out from the boat landing this morning. For one, I feared that five days off would have put me out of the paddling groove I’d been in for so many weeks, but as soon as I climbed into my boat I felt right at home and was ready to go. Secondly, everything I had heard of the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans made it sound like a continuous loading zone for a one hundred mile long oil refinery. Yes, once you float under the bridge on the upper end of Baton Rouge the river takes on a much more industrial feel. At the same time you suddenly find yourself sharing the water not only with more intense barge traffic but giant ocean going ships as well. It’s one thing to hear about full size ships sailing 200 miles up the river, it’s a whole other thing to see them first hand from the water level. However, even with the intensity of boat traffic increasing the river today really didn’t seem that much different than what I’ve dealt with over the last 1000 miles. Water, barges, and bends in the river followed by more of the same.  Super tankers 170 miles up the Mississippi I had worried incessantly over the last five days about the availability of camp sites on this section of river. With the water up, and reports of so much industry, I feared that I’d end up sleeping on an undesirable mud bank next to a refinery dock. The truth is that there are almost as many camp spots over the last 70 miles as anywhere else on the river. Not all giant golden sand bars, but nice enough camp sites just the same. John Rusky from Quapaw Canoe Company (who knows more about paddling the river than anybody) had suggested a few camp spots which I highlighted on my maps. As I paddled today I looked for the spots he recommended and picked up on where in the river I could find more of the same. That technique led me here to what is probably one of the best spots I’ve had all the way down the river. A beautiful grassy point away from people with a great view of the river and out of the wind. As my last camp on the Mississippi river on this part of the trip I couldn’t have asked for anything more.  My last evening on the river  Last camp on the river I pushed hard for nine hours today in order to get within easy striking distance of New Orleans tomorrow. If all goes well I should be arriving in the French Quarter by the end of the day. I have a contact arranged to pick me up there and I’ll be staying with him tomorrow night. After a week in Baton Rouge I plan to keep my New Orleans stay very short and expect to be back on the water again Tuesday where I’ll paddle three more miles of the river before turning East into a lock that will put me into the Intracoastal waterway. Day 34 and 35 (Don't count the strokes) 01/09/2010
I know it’s time to get going when all I have to write about is writing. That’s pretty much all I did yesterday. I wanted to get an equipment list up on the web site so I spent the better part of the day working on that. I did get it roughed out pretty well, so if you are interested in what sort of gear I’ve brought along with me on this trip check it out by clicking here - EQUIPMENT LIST - In addition to working on the web site I spent a few hours organizing e-mails and contact information for folks along the Gulf Coast which was no small chore. I also worked on a video clip that will go in my slide show, you can check it out below. Toward the end of the day I did get a little cabin fever so I went for a walk over to Baton Rouge Blue Print to get a couple more maps and to thank George and Jamie for steering me toward a Pensacola fishing forum that put me in contact with a bunch of great people willing to make my journey a bit easier in the weeks to come. If I accepted every invite to a warm bed or couch to sleep on I could almost leave my tent here. However, I do have to make miles so there will be a few invites I’ll have to graciously turn down in order to get further down the coast and finish this trip before the snow starts to fly next winter. After my visit with George I got a call from some friends of my parents Dale and Rosy. They were two hours north of Baton Rouge pulling their fifth wheel camper on their way south to escape the cold. They figured if they could find a campground in the area we could meet up for breakfast. They did find a spot just a few miles from town and one of the highlights of my day today was breakfast with Dale and Rosy. Michael invited them over to his place afterward and we visited a bit more discussing my trip and the status of my worried mother (Dale and Rosy were sent as spies to check up on me you know). Of course I didn’t miss the chance to have them sign the Ikkuma adding two more signatures to the hundreds that crowd the decks already.  Surprise visit from friends from Wisconsin Dale and Rosy Another highlight of the day was a care package that arrived in the mail from my cousin Jenny and her daughter Lydia. In it was a St. Christopher medallion (the patron saint of travelers) and a note that said “PUT IT ON RIGHT NOW!” I do have it on and between the note and medallion I feel better than ever.  A gift from home to keep me safe. I did have a bit of good logistical news today when I got permission via a phone call to camp behind a bar near a boat landing at the end of the first day east of New Orleans in the Intracoastal. If the spot I have tagged on my map doesn't pan out it is a relief to know that this backup spot a bit further on is there to use. Day 33 (pre-scouting road trip) 01/07/2010
Today was spent road tripping with my host Michael. He took the day off of work and volunteered the idea of driving down to New Orleans to scout out possible routes and camping locations that I might use to get to the Gulf of Mexico. He said he didn’t mind doing the drive as his favorite place to paddle (the Pearl river) is in the area, in addition he hadn’t seen much of the area since Hurricane Katrina so he was curious to see how it looks. I must say that Michael is another one of those amazing people without whom I’m not sure how this trip would have gone. He not only picked me up off the river on one of the coldest days yet. He’s given me a place to stay for a week and has kept me fed at the same time. As I write I’m looking at the Ikkuma which we’ve put up on chairs in his dining room so I can take care of some of the wear and tear that the last 1000 miles have put on it. Michael is an avid kayaker and an all round great guy, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to thank him enough for the help he’s given me.  Warming up the Ikkuma in Michael's dining room We did a big loop south out of Baton Rouge to the Bonnet Carre Spillway to scout a possible back route into Lake Pontchartrain along the back side of New Orleans and on into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The spillway is used to divert flood water from the Mississippi to the lake to ease the pressure on the levies further down stream. The structure leaks so there is always a trickle of water flowing from the river to the lake. It could work as an alternative route but right now would involve a bit of a portage and more than a bit of finding my way through a maze of dead end sloughs and channels.  Tree trunk in Lake Pontchartrain From the flood control structure we drove along the spillway to the lake just to take a look. Then it was back up to the highway and on to Bayou Sauvage to see if I could use it as a short cut to come out of the Intercoastal to find dry land along the lake to camp, however it didn’t look promising. From there we continued down Highway 90 and came to a town called Venetian Isles and the ruins of Fort Macomb which is some of the first high land along the intercoastal and uncomfortably close to the end of my range for one day of flat water paddling. We did find a couple less than ideal but promising spots to pitch a tent so it was a relief. From the Venetian Isles we drove further on finally through Michael’s reason for getting into kayaking, the Pearl River Basin, and into Mississippi to check out a piece of property a friend of his owns on a bleak hurricane ravaged manmade dry spot where I could pitch a tent if needed. On the way back home we passed back over the Pearl river and as I looked down from the highway above I could see why Michael likes it. Even on a dark rainy January day Pearl river is very beautiful with stands of cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss and an endless maze of river channels to explore by boat. I only wish the weather had been warmer because we might have paddled a section of the Pearl together while we were down there. Some other day for sure. - - - - -It’s a good thing I don’t make my living as a reporter. After reviewing my pictures from today I realized that I somehow managed to spend an entire day sight seeing through one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and I didn’t get one shot of anything resembling storm damage. It was there though, and I guess by now we’ve all seen those disturbing images of ghostly storm damaged buildings left abandoned and rotting, or rows and rows of completely empty lots where homes once stood. Michael, my host here in Baton Rouge, did point out something that you probably haven’t seen on the news which is almost more disturbing than the empty houses. It’s the new houses and how they’re being built (as if nothing ever happened) slab on grade right on the ground that during the floods was several feet under water. The lesson has not been learned. They’re just building the same way in the same place and praying they get (taxpayer subsidized) flood insurance to fix it all again the next time.
Day 32 (A meeting with a tow boat captain) 01/06/2010
Another day off the river today still putting things together for the next leg of the journey. The pieces are falling together nicely for the transition into the Gulf of Mexico. I learned that the lock just below downtown New Orleans that links the river to the Gulf Intracoastal waterway is operational. I had heard rumors that it was not which would have meant a difficult portage or a different route. I’m still not completely sure that is the route I’ll be taking but it is looking like the most likely spot right now. Tomorrow (Thursday) Michael volunteered to take me on a road trip to explore by truck a bit of the coast line I’ll be seeing in a few days when I enter the Gulf. I’m starting to feel like I’m cheating by pre-scouting but Michael really wants to go down and see it anyway (it’s near the Pearl River, one of his favorite areas to paddle) so he’s totally up for the drive. If we can locate one spot of high ground between the lock on the river and a town called Waveland on the coast I’ll have almost all the pieces put together and won’t have to wing it as I go. I’m probably making more of this section than I need to but this pre-planning can mean the difference between having fun and suffering through a night on a mud bank. I did take a break today to see a bit more of the town and visited the Baton Rouge art and science museum and planetarium. It was a nice museum and I saw an interesting video (projected in 360 degrees on the dome ceiling of the planetarium) about underwater dinosaurs. As big as those animals were it’s interesting to think that the biggest known animal the earth has ever seen is alive right now. The Blue Whale and it’s a mammal besides. After the museum I walked up the levy bank to the Ingram Barge Company docks to see if I could get a shot at the main goal of my day…A chance to meet a tow boat captain, and if I was lucky a tour on one of their boats. I had checked in the night before and the security guard said that the shift change was at 4:00 and that’d be my best chance. So at 4:00 I arrived and approached the first two guys I saw coming off the docks. One of them turned out to be partly in charge of that facility. Unfortunately, because of post 911 Homeland Security regulations, there is no way I could get on one of the boats. However Tommy Grantham turned out to be a super guy and was very willing to tolerate all my questions. I chatted with him for over an hour then he introduced me to the mysterious man in the black hat that even the security guard had told me to look for. The man they all call “Cowboy”.  Cowboy - almost needs no introduction About six foot three, with a full white beard, wearing black denim pants, and always the black cowboy hat, Bill Williams is a man not to be messed with. Cowboy got his start in the barge industry shortly after getting out of Vietnam in the late 60’s. He didn’t answer some mystical call to the river, he simply needed a job and his father knew they were hiring on the barges so he applied and got on as a deck hand. After two seasons of working on the deck he talked to the boss and said he wasn’t interested in working another season like that, he wanted to get up into the wheel house. The boss was apparently impressed with the young Cowboy because he got moved up and started the long process of becoming a tow boat captain. The rest is forty years of history operating barges from the gulf canals all the way up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Tommy said that Cowboy is a tough captain that demands that things are done…just so, on his tows. His experience has earned him the respect of his crews and he is a very good captain. When Tommy introduced me as a guy that’s kayaking down the river Cowboy instantly asked if I was the crazy guy that came through the other night. I replied cautiously “Yep, that’s me.” and Cowboy just shook his head. Tow operators pretty much all think that kayakers and canoeists are crazy. Like Cowboy said “Crazy, not stupid… there’s a difference.” After paddling for 1000 miles on the river and seeing hundreds of tows going up and down with me I just wanted to know what how tow operators would like us (in our tiny boats) to do to make their jobs easier when interacting with us. From talking to Cowboy what it pretty much boils down to is that for much of the time they can’t see us. We don’t show up on their radar and there is an enormous “blind spot” in front of a tow (several hundred feet long) where they can’t see what’s on the river in front of them. If you’re crossing in front of a tow, up to a quarter mile away, they may not be able to see you. All they know is that you’re out there somewhere and that they’re moving toward you fast. It makes them nervous, kind of like the mouse under the elephants foot scenario. In a perfect world for a tow operator, we wouldn’t be out there. Cowboy even said it though; “I know why you all’er doin’ it, for the adventure and everything. But you’re crazy. Crazy, not stupid….” On bends in the river, small boats are of exceptional concern for tow operators. They have two main techniques for making a bend in the river. Both require a lot of room to maneuver and can put either end of the tow very close to shore. I saw the tows take up a lot of the river but at flood stage like I’ve seen it there has always been room to spare. At lower water the ends of the tow and often the back of the tow boat can end up “up in the willas” along the bank. Of course depending on which technique the tow captain is using to make the turn will determine which bank he is closest to. If they know where you are they can adjust a bit to accommodate you if you can’t get out of the way. What it boils down to is communication. They would love to know where you are and just exactly what it is you’re planning to do, and to be able to tell you what they are going to do. It’s a whole lot easier for a paddler to hang out above a turn and let the tow clear out than it is for them to move for us. I carried a VHF all the way down the river with me and never found occasion to turn it on. Because the river was so wide I never felt threatened by the tows. I know now that I probably should have turned it for some of the tight turns just to let the tows know I was there and was staying out of their way. I’ll definitely be using the radio a lot over the next two days on the river where I’ll be seeing more traffic than I have on the entire river combined.  Cowboy with Tommy Grantham from the Ingram Barge Company Tommy is a manager of sorts in the engineering side of the operation which his brother bought a long time ago and the two of them grew from a one boat operation to a much larger three boat operation. Judging by the hellos from the crew coming and going and by what Cowboy said, Tommy and his brother are well liked by their crews. They were recently bought out by the Ingram Barge Company and are still adjusting to the way things are done in a big corporate business. What this facility does is essentially act like a sorting hub where they use somewhat smaller tow boats to build tows (rafts of barges) and pull barges off of tows coming up and down the river to get them to the specific locations where they need to go. I learned from Tommy that the smaller tow boats can have from 800 to 1000 horsepower engines driving the screws (props). The big tow boats pushing the big rafts of barges up and down the river can run up to three engines with a combined power of ten times the smaller boats…10,000 horsepower. It’s no wonder you can feel the vibrations of the motors through the water. I had heard stories about the crews being stuck on the boats for months. I learned that it’s not true, the crew schedules vary from company to company and route to route. But the long haulers can work anywhere from 12 to 28 days on the tow followed by a bunch of time off. The companies generally have a home “port” where the crews must report then are driven or flown to where the tow boat is waiting to do a crew change. The outgoing crew is then driven or flown back to the home port. A tow boat company is certainly not a small time thing. As I had guessed after detecting the smell of bacon and eggs coming from the kitchen of a passing tow boat (of course after I ate another bowl of oat meal) that the crews are very well fed. Tommy laughed and said that they’re actually trying to change the culture on the boats a bit. As you might expect meals are brought to the captain or pilot steering the tow so he can keep working. Of course he’s not exactly doing jumping jacks up in the wheel house so he pretty much stands around and eats all day. Consequently tow boat captains tend to carry a little more weight around the mid section than they probably should. Crew sizes vary but on a big tow you can expect to see a captain, pilot, engineer, a half dozen deck hands, and of course the cook. Sometimes a couple more deck hands are added to work fill in shifts when things get busy. They generally work six hour watches followed by six hours off. There isn’t much for the crew to do once the tows are assembled so much of their time is spent cleaning the boat. It shows too because almost every tow boat on the river is spotless, they are absolutely gleaming bright. I was amazed to hear exactly how the “switching” operation that this facility operates actually works. Depending on where the barges are that need to be shuffled out of the raft are located, very often the big tow never stops moving. They just slow down and the smaller tow boats pull what needs to be pulled (while moving) and the big tow continues on…. Time is money in the shipping industry I guess. Check out this link to the Ingram Barge Company web site it should go to a cargo comparison feature. It’s amazing just how much those barges can haul. http://www.ingrambarge.com/default.aspx?v=barge/about/industry Day 31 01/05/2010
Baton Rouge is a great town. My host, Michael, keeps telling me that it isn’t all like the part I’m seeing. That it does sprawl out into typical American suburbia, that isn’t all that much different than many other places. However, Michael’s home is located in an old section of town called “Spanishtown.” The neighborhood’s history dates all the way back to the days of the Louisiana Purchase. Somehow through luck, a long history of ups and downs, and now a very close knit community of concerned citizens, this neighborhood has remained intact. Spiritually it has remained in tact as a real community of neighbors that know and care about each other. Structurally It has remained intact (via constant fighting with developers) as it was when it was built into its “modern” state in the early 1900’s. The beautiful Craftsman style bungalows and large trees that line the streets give the neighborhood so much more soul and character than so many of the new sprawling subdivisions. It is true, “They don’t build em’ like they used to.”  A tree lined boulevard in Michael's neighborhood Located just five blocks off the water, what’s also great about this part of town is that it’s located within a stone’s throw of the sparkling downtown “business” district and everything you need (and some things you don’t need) is within easy walking distance. Today I was able to get breakfast and free wifi internet access at the “Main Street Market”, then check out some of the town’s beautiful architecture, stop in on the local printer to ask about charts and maps for the Gulf, and walk down to the waterfront to see what is happening down there. A visitor could spend weeks here and not get bored and never need a car.  State Capitol building just blocks away  A view from teh Baton Rouge waterfront My visit at the printer was actually a highlight. Michael recommended “Baton Rouge Blueprint” as an excellent source of any charts or maps I might need of the next leg of this journey. I’m not sure he knew how knowledgeable and helpful the owners are. What I expected to be a quick stop in to see what they had ended up being an hours long visit where I was served up a mother load of local knowledge regarding the entire Gulf coast from Texas to the Florida border along with many antic dotes about local slang and food. It turns out that the owners, George Simon Sr. (pronounced See-moan) George, Jr., and his soon to be wife Jamie are very active sport fishermen who have fished and boated along the coast all the way back into the 40’s. Jamie added more to the knowledge base by having also grown up on the coast in the Mississippi/Alabama region. They are super people and a reminder of how valuable real shops run by real people are over the sterile corporate box stores that are becoming the norm now days. Mom and pop shops like this may cost a few cents more, but man it’s worth it. I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten much out of the pierced nose college kids at Kinkos in the way of local coastal knowledge or even where to find a good lunch. “Uh…Mc Donalds is down the street.”  George, George, and Jamie at Baton Rouge Blueprint  207 St. Ferdinand St. Baton Rouge, LA The way it’s looking now (assuming the temperatures ever get back up to normal) as soon as I get myself out to the open coast along the Gulf things are going to get very fun. The problem remains on just how to get there… That’s tomorrow’s project. Day 30 (95 miles to Baton Rouge) 01/05/2010
Daily stats Start: 6:00 AM- On the river mile marker 324 Finish:5:15 PM - Baton Rouge Time: 11:15 Daily dist: 95 miles Total dist: ? miles Companions: None Weather: Mostly cloudy with strong cold north wind - one of the coldest days so far Notes: Rather than taking time and energy to set up and tear down camp one more night I opted to push through and get to Baton Rogue in one long day. I've been wanting to see how far the wind and curent could take me anyway.  This bridge was at mile 90 (hour 10:30) only five miles to the take out downtown With all my complaining of all the bad people of the world I had lost sight of the many people that have gone out of their way to help me out with this trip. Even after all the sponsor support, donated money, free meals, hot showers, places to stay, rides for new gear, and logistical support, I already have a growing list of people who have stood at a boat landing in nasty foul weather waiting for me to arrive so they could take me home and warm me up. First it was my parents shin deep in show in Boscabel Wisconsin, then it was Elmore Holmes on Christmas Eve in the driving rain in Memphis, and today it was Michael Beck in the bitter cold wind at sunset at a boat ramp in Baton Rogue. Thank you everyone for all your help, I couldn’t do it without you. To top things off Michael didn’t even know I was going to arrive until about 3:00 PM this afternoon. I’ve been out of cell and internet contact for the last three days so I had no way of telling him when I was due to arrive until I finally got a signal this afternoon. We had been corresponding off and on for a few months but all he knew was that I was due sometime this week. Michael was one of the first people to respond to my initial announcement of this trip and shameless request for places to stay along the way. With his spare bedroom and location just six blocks from the river, Michael has made a hobby of taking in wayward river paddlers giving them a chance to dust themselves off before they push on to the end of the river just a few days away. After such a long day on the water I was grateful to have a place to stay tonight. Ironically here in Louisiana (with the wind chill) we are experiencing the coldest temperatures I’ve seen since we high tailed it out of Wisconsin after the big winter storm caught us last month. The weather is supposed to remain bad (with rain added to the mix) for the next several days so I’m glad to have a place to stay off the river. The plan right now is to plan. With the transition into the Gulf of Mexico only two or three days down stream I need to get the details of the next phase of this trip sorted out. I’ll be sorting through my kit, repairing a few things and purging out a few that I haven’t used in the last thousand miles. In addition I need to round up charts and info for the route from here to the Florida Everglades and gear up (or down) for somewhat warmer weather. I figure I’ll be taking advantage of Michael’s hospitality for at least a few days then moving on by next weekend. Along with preparing the next leg of the trip I’ll be updating a few things on my website and exploring Baton Rogue itself. Michael already walked me around his (very safe) neighborhood and showed me some of the many things there are to see within walking distance. There certainly is a lot to explore in this town. He said I could stay as long as I like but if I’m still here in February he’d start charging me rent. Daily stats Start: 6:30 AM- 30 miles above Natchez MS Finish: 2:30 PM - On the river Time: 8:00 Daily dist: 65 miles Total dist: ? miles Companions: None Weather: Clear with brisk north wind - chilly when I slow down but warm when I match speed with the wind. Notes: Very nice day on the water.  Ice on my boat for the first time since Cairo. I thought Louisiana was supposed to be warm! Today was delightfully routine…just me and the river… a bend up ahead to navigate all else moving into the past. I was up at 4:30 AM ate breakfast, broke camp, and was on the water by 6:30. Try as I might I still haven’t improved on my morning routine time. It simply takes two hours to take care of everything I need to do in the morning.
Once on the water I maneuvered into the main flow of the river and began my system of running down the river. Daily stats Start: 6:30 AM- On the river Finish: 12:30 PM - Vicksburg MS Time: 6:00 Daily dist: 45 miles Total dist: miles Companions: None Weather: Partly cloudy and chilly nice NE tail wind. Ever since it happened last night I’ve been wondering how exactly to go about telling my mom without worrying her to death. Lord only knows she’s been through enough with all the misadventures I’ve been through up to this point. I figured I’d wait till morning when I was safe and warm with a full belly. That’s where I am right now, in a river boat casino restaurant with the crumbs of a cheese burger on the plate in front of me. I’m taking advantage to a wall outlet to top off my batteries one last time before I push off to the embracing safety of the winter-cold Mississippi river with all it’s whirlpools, wing dams, barge traffic, and wind blown waves….all things that I know and am ready to deal with. My problem seems to be with towns and the people therein. | Best of the Blog
|
RSS Feed