Taking what the river gives us
Start: River Mile 526
Finish: River Mile 516
Day Total: 11 miles
Segment Total: 726
We knew today was gonna be a windy day, so I did my best to be in the boat on the water at 8:00 am. From the first paddle stroke it was a struggle. The first hour we made 3 miles in the first hour. After that, we worked our butts off to make 2 mph. After 4.5 hours of misery, we pulled into a cove that was sheltered from the wind.
Our goal was to spend an hour or so, have some lunch and see what the weather was going to do. The longer we waited, the stringing the wind blew, topping out at 20 mph. After 2 hours of waiting, we decided to call it a day and set up camp.
We had some time in the afternoon, so we went for a walk to check out the area. We ended up on a high Levee overlooking farm land. Just as we were about to turn around and head back to camp, a huge tractor came rumbling along the Levee. He say us and stoped to check us out. His name was Todd, and he was the owner of the Levee and surrounding farm land. After we explained what we were doing he asked if we needed anything, to which we gave our standard reply, cold beer! Todd said he would come back with his 4x4 and give us a ride to the store that was 3 miles away.
Back at camp, a we heard a 4 wheel Polaris came rumbling up, with Todd and his wife Paula. We jumped into the open air 4 wheeler and off we went. First, Todd dropped off Paula at his house. Pulling up he noticed that his 8 little piglets had figured out how to get through the electric fence. There were the cutest little things running around the farm!
On the way to the store Todd drove us by his herd of cattle. He is supper proud of them and knows most of the 200 head by name. My favorites were Lu 532 and a Brama bull named “Bucket Head!”
After the tour, we were back at Todd and Paulas for dinner. We started off of deep fried Jalapeños, fried corn nuggets and fried Mac and Cheese. That was followed by home made cornbread. On the smoker were chicken thighs and fresh pork sausage. Round that out with Red Beans and Rice that Paula had been slow cooking all day and home made brownies for desert. We ate, and ate and ATE!
Todd and Paula have a million stories of there life in the Mississippi delta. All of the true, and most of them hilarious. We ended up staying up way past our bed time, not getting back to camp until 9:00pm.
So, what started off as bust of a paddling day, ended with the best home cooked meal we’ve had in a long time.
Todd and his favorite cow Lu 532
The pasture land is bordered by the river Levee
This round barn was used for storing Cotton waited for processing in the 1800’s
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