Last night, I was rowing again by the light of the moon (a picture that I couldn't get to work on the phone). When I got tired around midnight, I started to look for a place to sleep. When looking for a space to sleep, there are usually one of three choices: going ashore, anchoring in a chute or anchoring in a stream. All of these choices have their time and place. I like to be on shore if there is a storm. Otherwise, I like to stay in the boat because of the easy breakdown of the gear in the morning. Well last night was clear and cool, so I decided to stay in a stream as there was no islands near by. When camping in a stream, there always seems to be some sort of wild life encounter. Last night, it was fish. There where five huge fish swimming around my boat. They must have been two feet each. If I was like some fishermen I know, I would have reached down and grabbed them all while saying "man alive" but I am not, so I went to bed. A couple of days before that there was a whole flock of geese. The day before that there was a bull frog. One day there was even a beaver that was very mad at me for making camp in his stream. He kept pounding the water beside my boat trying to get me to leave. Needless to say, he lost. By far the most scary wild animal I have had to deal with though has been the hillbilly. One day I woke up to screaming. Stuck there in the cocoon that is my boat, I could not see what was going on. When I finally did, I had a front stage pass to a Jerry Springer Show, in real life. I always thought the TV show live would be sweet, to be there in Chicago, but real life is so much better than TV. There are things missing from the TV show that are part of the hillbilly's native environment. These pieces and props are essential for the full understanding of the story. For instance, the trailer and the garbage in the yard, even the collection of brown stained mattresses that just haven't been burnt yet, all play a part. These are all important details when painting the portrait of the man in the middle of the argument. He was in his late forties, long beard, missing teeth, and a mullet. To pull this look off he was wearing a ten year old AC/DC shirt with cut off sleeves. The conversation had many parts and even an intermission when the neighbor came by on his lawnmower to calm down the situation. The main arguing point was "Amy had been two time'in him for too long and he ain't takin' it no more." I never got a clear view of Amy but from what I gather, she was a peach. The only thing I noticed of her was the bowing of her car frame as she drove away. The thing I guess you can take out of this post is that when setting up camp in a stream, at night: you never know who your neighbors will be.
