Waves

Got about an hour into rowing today and then the wind started.  I know it is always a good idea to stop and see what is on land when white capped waves are coming at you as far as the eye can see; so that's what I did.  Also, I want to take this random blog post to thank all of you that send me emails and post comments.  I know I don't always respond by I do enjoy getting them, THANK YOU.

Pit stop

I stopped to get out of a storm that came on suddenly and turned out that I stopped at a winery.  Lucky me!  The day before that I stopped to get out of a thunderstorm and ended up with a home cooked meal.  Thanks Janice.  Yesterday was a different story though.  Got stuck in a rainstorm and had two miles to go before I hit the marina that I was planning on stopping at.  I was soaked and the boat had six inches of water in it by the time I got there.  Then when I finally arrived it was closed.  Well, I guess my luck was bound to run out sometime.

So I decided to try and find a store.  Turns out, I had ended up in this shady small town with nothing but motels.  Watched a women walking down the street with no shoes on.  Walking through the puddles of mud without a care in the world or a tooth in her mouth.  I preceded back to my boat and didn't venture out anymore.   I decided it would be better to stop in the next town. 

Holiday Point Marina

What to say? Yet again, I have run into some very nice people.  The last couple of days have been great.  I stopped at Holiday Point Marina the other day to pick up my mail and still haven't left.  I had arranged to ship packages of food to different locations on the Ohio river.  The package had not arrived at the marina by the time I arrived. So I hung out with the owner, Phil.  Phil has to be one of the most interesting characters that I have met on my trip to date.  His stories are plentiful and his bullshit is good.  That is something that I have learned is common among river folk (I am still trying to perfect my bullshit).   "By and by" he would say as we talked about the history of the river and steam boats.  He had never worked on them himself but was a collector of other peoples river experiences.  Not to say that he had no river stories of his own but his life had led him away from the river.  Only later on in life did he realize the joy and balance that the river brought.  Before becoming a marina owner, he had many jobs.   He was a disk jockey, newspaper man, soldier, GM rep, and finally for the last ten years has been a marina owner and operator.  

I learned many interesting facts about the river and river travel that I never knew.   Until the nineties, there was still steam boats running up and down the river.  Great wooden ships that still took passengers on long voyages.  From what I remember of the conversation, they were bought and then sold by the Coca-Cola Corporation.  Some to never again see the water.  Now, there is only a few left and none that make overnight trips.  I was sad to hear that this way of life, steam boatin', was dead.  Though steamboatin' maybe dead, everywhere I look I can still find the remnants of this bygone era.  In the stories of the river people I meet, I get a little window into the past.    I am beginning to understand what it use to be like living on the river.  I am planning to visit one of the last steam boats, the belle of Louisville over the Forth of July.  Hopefully getting a glimpse of the way people use too travel and have a chance to meet a real river boat captain.

Small streams

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.

Athens boat club

So I stopped the other day for water at a boat club.  Long story short, I met a lot of wonderful people. They gave me shelter during a storm.  Let me use their golf carts to get supplies.  One person, Kathy, even washed all my dirty clothes and made me Reese peanut butter cup cookies.  It was a great stop.  Thank you Athens boat club. 

Nap time

Two days ago, it was like 90 plus degrees in the middle of the day.  I had to take a little afternoon break.  Found a wonderful place with a little waterfall.

Wonderful stretch of river

All along the river there have been flowers in bloom.  This stretch of river for five miles before and after Ravenswood, WV was so fragrant and peaceful.  It smelled like you just walked in to a flower store.