Jeff Wunrow: Day 11 (9/23/20)

If you stay in the Red, you may be a Meat Head

Start: River Mile 937

Finish: River Mile 912

Day Total: 25 Miles

Segment Total: 321 Miles

This morning we made good on our. Promise to a hot breakfast at Beard and Roses General Store. The store is approximately 1 mile from our campsite near the Ingram Marine Barge Tow maintenance and repair facility. Rob (Beard) and Rose greeted us as we arrived. We took full advantage of the electrical outlets to charge our devices as well as their guest Wi-Fi. Jon got some work done and I was able to get my blog post from last night posted.

We had a wonderful breakfast of 3 eggs over easy, hash browns, toast and thick cut bacon. We spend over an hour at our table, enjoying our meal and getting stuff done. We also picked up some additional sandwiches for lunch today and a few supplies we needed as well.

We also met the Mom of Jacob who gave Jon and ride back to come yesterday. Rob and Rose do a steady business at their store, which makes me feel good. It’s nice to see good caring people succeed in a tough economy. I hope they continue to be blessed, as they bless those around them. I know they took really good care of us.

As we were walking back to the boat landing and our fully packed up and loaded boats, a pickup truck pulled over and asked if we needed a ride back to the river, which we gladly accepted. A young man named Josh was on his way to work at Ingram Marine, so we were on this way.

We intentionally had a shorter paddled today, 25 files total. The weather was cool, in the 60’s and cloudy but with just a few brief periods of drizzle. For the first time in days, we did not have a head wind which makes the paddling sooo much nicer! As has been our strategy, we look for boat ramps wherever we can find them. The ramps make for typically cleaner landings and have a flat spot for camping at the top of the ramp.

As we landed there were a few older locals taking in the sights and have a few cold beers. They offered us one and we gladly accepted. More river magic.

As we were setting up camp at 4:00 pm discussed how even though it was early, we would have very little time before the it was dark and we would be crawling into bed. Once we have set camp, we cook and eat dinner. Whoever doesn’t cook collected wood for the fire and gets it started. Following that, Jon will journal and I will blog, which will usually include a wee bid of Bourbon. By then it will be pitch dark and we will be struggling to stay awake. Sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 we will be in our tents pretending to read while we fall asleep. It’s a busy day, and one that goes by so fast!

In case you are wondering about the title of todays blog, here is the story. We have learned that we need to stay close to the channel so we can get as much assist from the current as possible. We did learn that you can push this a bit too far as we did today. By staying too close to the red channel markers you can get a bit closer to an on coming barge that you intended. We were never in any danger, but it was another one of our daily learnings on navigating the ever changing face of this massive river.

Well, it’s now dark so I need to work on getting this post uploaded on the very weak but much appreciated mobile data connection. Good night all!