Day 2 (9/14/20)

It’s raining Carp!

Start: 249.5

Stop: Mile 225

Day Total: 26

Trip Total: 50.5

Had a good nights rest, even though I was awake on and off. That’s the problem with going to to bed at 8:30 when it gets dark. My kayak loading today was not nearly as solid as it was yesterday. After all my hatches and deck and cockpit bags were full I ended up with a giant food bag in addition to my lunch bag that I had to wedge between my legs in the cockpit. Now I know what an F1 driver must feel like, in a space so small you are literally wearing the kayak. Once I was in it was fine, but getting in and out was a five to ten minute process.

Unlike the partly sunny wind at our backs weather we enjoyed on our first day, today was full sun, high of 80 and a 5-10 mph head wind. The head wind helped make the higher temps more comfortable but they also zeroed out any advantage we might have had from the current. Overall, it just felt a lot more like work today,

I had another run in with a “Flock” of Asian carp today, this time I was hit first in the elbow my a 5 pounder and I had a 3 pounder slam into my chest and bounce off, luckily into the water. I was on the phone with Christina when it happed so she got to share in the fun!

Around 20 miles in, we usually start to look 5 to 10 miles out, to see what kind of camping options there might be, We had a string of marina’s, 10 or more of them in that final stretch so we felt really good about having so many options. Turns out, the Army Corps’ idea of a marina and our idea are quite different! These were really nothing more than a private floating dock in front of a run down single wide trailer sitting on 20 foot pylons. 

Running on fumes, we finally found a real marina “The Yacht Club of St Louis”. Well, we are 50 river miles from St Louis so lower your expectations. The owner was super friendly and offered to have us camp on a grassy area that used to have a full bar and restaurant until the floods of 2019 wiped it all out. There is a new restaurant under construction on a newly elevated location.

We are set up under a large pavilion, with chairs and table for over 50 people. We took full advantage of all the space to dry and organize our gear. Jon cooks us a great dinner, paired with a room temp IPA, life is good.

I have a new segment for the Blog, which I’m calling “That’s code for”. Today’s code comes courtesy of Jon. This morning as we were breaking camp, I was telling him some long winded story. At one point he says, “I can’t wait to see how good your new stove is for making coffee”. What he really means is “Shut up and make me damn coffee!” See what I mean, code.

Today’s quote of the day come from me. “A ferry boat only goes across the river if someone wants to cross. It doesn’t do it for fun”.

Learnings 

Apparently in Missouri, if your boat sinks on the river you just let it rot. We he following photo was a scene I observed 7 or 8 times today.