04-29-2015

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Another chilly awakening. I know the time will come when I would give anything for a little coolness….

Remember, when we had just arrived in Clinton Friday – John went to the restroom and returned with two Dairy Queen ice cream cones. Well, this morning he pulled another going to the restroom trick. I was in the middle of making breakfast when John said, “I’m so sorry, but I really have to use the restroom.” Making breakfast is my task, so it really wasn’t a big deal for him to go to the restroom.

Cheese Blitz casserole (John didn’t care for this dish at home but loved it this morning. I wonder if some of the meals we have loved may not be as good as we think when we aren’t so hungry.) was complete when John came up to the table (We had a table last night!) and laid down a bag with a square container in it and a cup. “Warm, homemade cinnamon rolls and coffee.” What a treat! The next time John says he has to go to the restroom, I may begin to salivate.

Soon after leaving Hutsonville, a turkey just missed us as it flew across the river. They are big birds! In addition to the turkey, we saw three eagles.

We’ve discussed what things we miss.
Convenience: full service bathroom
Comfort: sofa
Activity: going to church with our YSB girls

For supper we had unstuffed peppers and pineapple upside down cake. Again – delicious! (At least think so)

We are again without cellphone coverage, therefore, no Internet connection. We are camping in the middle of nowhere, so tonight we will read and perhaps play guitar (if we can stay awake) since there is no opportunity to find WiFi, give an interview, or have dinner with the mayor.

That’s all I have for today. Here’s Johnny..

So, she wants me to write; Well we spent the first few miles of today’s trip trying to identify “Trapper John’s” cabin. Apparently he’s a bit of a local celeb for his appearance on a Discovery Channel show called “River Men”. Maybe we too would be on TV if we had a necklace made from a dried raccoon penis ( you can’t make this stuff up). Well we didn’t see a cabin that fit the image we had so on down the river we went.

There appears to be less ducks, geese, and turtles than we had been encountering earlier. (Or is it just because we are usually farther from the river’s edge than we had been when it was smaller?)

One of the most interesting thing we saw today was a huge colony of mud, swallow nests and the hoard of swallows that occupied them. We were going under an old pivot style railroad bridge (interesting on its own) when we noticed the nests around all of the edges of the concrete pilings. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of nests. As we approached we were suddenly surrounded by all the beautiful dark blue iridescent swallows, as they darted overhead and around our boats. Pretty cool.

Well, after our planned 21 miles (yes, we’re usually pretty pooped) we began looking for a place to camp and the three required landing criteria…
An eddy; accessible bank; no immediate downstream hazards. Once safely ashore on the right bank (RBD = right bank descending), we determined that there was a good spot to pitch a tent just above the slope of the bank. We also had plenty of southwest sky to allow us to get a good charge from the solar panel, trees behind to block the winds, and a beachfront” view of the river. We even found a small clear stream full of minnows just down from camp, which was not on the charts. As an added bonus, the bank was covered in coyote tracks. Coyotes kinda’ freak LaNae out. Home for the night.

One of the questions a reporter had asked us in days past was “what is there about the river that others don’t’ know?” and we simply replied with the answer “more”. There is simply so much more going on at the water level than what is seen from a brief passing over a bridge. It seems we usually only notice a river when it encroaches into our world, such as during a flood. I would suggest, however, that everyone spend some time down on the river, even if only for a few miles. Then maybe you would notice the river and it’s peculiarities. Most who assume the river is simply a single current flowing between two banks would soon learn that aside from the main current (which is always changing and relocating) there are many other currents. Even in the middle of a 300 yd wide river there are numerous rogue currents, whirlpools, and the rare but always threatening hazard such as a submerged tree. Despite what we may think when we pass over, the river is never lazy and its world is never boring.