The News from St. Louis

So we've been relaxing. After another six weeks on the water it feels nice to be walking around so much. And although we've been warned by many, the encouragement by others to try and go the rest of the way is winning out. It was a hard last week on the water, and we both thought we'd had it, our bodies broken from the cold and sleeping on the hard floor, Hannah having a cold, the wind being relentless. But after thinking over the advice we've gotten from tug boat drivers, ex coast guard officers and rafters, it seems terrible to give up here without even trying the lower river. It's been done before. We just need to be prepared. And here we are preparing.

We are rearranging the boat to accommodate two other crew members, having had some makes us value their presence and getting rid of junk we've stored up seems like a necessity anyway. We've already found more solar panels, and a promise of a little heater. We are looking into buying a bigger outboard, another anchor, and another battery.

We have also set up a paypal account to try and raise funds to get these additional items, and to pay for the gasoline that we will, it seems, be using much more of downriver. The current is faster, time to dodge traffic is less and the amount of traffic increased will surely require more dodging.

Oh and Hannah's mom and grandma came and checked the boat out. Mother approved. Wheee!

Pictures to Come

So after a week with our additional crew of Patrick from St. Louis, and Alex from Winona, we arrived in St. Charles county to the back of a kind boat for resting and regrouping.

The last few days aboard were hard, stuck a million times. Our battery had drained and we pull-started our little Pushcart Rally III (the outboard) every time... warming it up as we warmed ourselves for the day and then pulling with all our might as we may need it. Which was frequent. The winds were blowing sideways most days at 15 to 20 mph.

But adventure was had, we made fires and kept warm by them, went to sleep and woke up to a frosty deck (Patrick climbed down from the hammock bed he'd been sleeping in to piss in the night and almost slipped off the boat). We drank coffee and sang songs. Lost and found many pushing poles. We had thanksgiving 2 weeks early with a family who "loved novel things."

Here we traded turnips for the bounty of hot peppers we'd traded for picking up trash in a farmers field in Clarksville... more turnips than we could eat, and now waiting for what they could be traded for. Oh what a barter economy, how lovely to participate.

And arriving in St. Charles, landing really, as we are now on land, is quite nice. Calm. Cold yes but at least dry. And nobody has to get in the water any time soon.

Clarksville

Louisiana missourri
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louisiana missourri
soothsayers knowing our outdoor sleeping
knowing our vagabonding and walkey talkeying
odd putting

and a night under a bridge next to a motel and a railroad
horn sounding

and now clarksville, abandoned from the riverview
but gardening and cooking and glassblowing
and walking and meeting many talkers, informationers
learning

Alex from Winona is with us now, probably for a few towns next
till St. Louis probably.

And we have little if any cell phone service.
I bet we'll not be posting till we land in St. Charles for our stay in Saint Louis.
Wish us luck with the wind and cold, at our backs, our well covered backs.