Backtracking and updating

Pictures to come.


We must mention Nauvoo.
(there is a child moaning as he wanders around the library here, tipping over the trashcan, running behind the reference desk)
But nauvoo, we learned about weaving, weaving on wagon wheels, in triangles, making bread in a fireplace, about Mormons, oh so much about mormons, or really i should call them the saints, as that is what they seem to call themselves.

And we felt the generosity of the river, people taking care of us, more food than we can eat and more smiles than we can remember.

The wind on our side. Blowing from the north. Blowing cold from the north.
La Grange held us for a day, enduring day one of the 45 mile an hour gusts, the Mark Twain casino with free hot chocolate and warmth. The Green Chapel Baptist church with many well wishes and chili and tacos.
And then. and then.

More wind. And we're here now in Quincy finally. Stopping unexpectedly to restock, get some new paddles and an anchor light. A windy life these days have been, but we have wool and eachother to keep warm at night. And at least it is at our backs.

The accents keep changing. The cross over from Iowa to Missourri was pretty impressive. The peculiar punctuations of heed (head) and deef (deaf), heem (him) added into an otherwise standard american english accent, became quite natural in Alexandria, and Canton and La Grange, being now surrounded in a slower, more southern, or redneck (as a man in Alexandria described himself) pronunciation.

It has sure changed a lot. We met a man today, working on the army corps dredge, confirmed he was from up north, but wisconsin, not minnesota as his accent (from across the water over the engines) implied to me.

It is getting cold.
My face is red and chapped. My fingers stay warm in the yarn i'm knitting into pants. Oh warm pants.