The Mississippi River Project

2009-02-28T18:41:00.004-06:00

Months now have passed, a bit of perspective.
There were many things anticipated about this journey, what it would be about, what it would be for, what would be learned. Overwhelmingly these expectations proved to be inadequate, inappropriate and naive. Sure, we learned about water quality and river towns, sure we learned about wild edibles and what plants don't work well to weave with. Personally however, this trip was about time, about learning to notice nine months pass down almost to each minute, and learning about each other. It is an amazing thing that Hannah and Lindsey did this thing together, it is amazing the depth with which we learned and became comfortable with each other. Our reliance on each other was so thorough that there were no quarrels ended by going to one end and the other of our tiny home, the situation demanded resolve and calm at whatever cost. We know now how dependent we are on others though we tried our best to hold our own, how grateful one can be for those things offered without any prompt and how sometimes selflessly generous to allow others to give. And the river has shown us these things. These things about ourselves as much as about itself. This river while determining how and where and why Bernadette moved and stopped, gave us this great gift, freedom and exposure. These things we have won, this project of time, of nine months, of six hundred and fifty or so miles, of space, of patience and resilience, of beauty and awe, things we struggled to not take for granted exposed to those magical moments of vacation constantly but at the cost of aesceticism and instability.
Now, warm by a fire in a home i can decorate and work on, i value the prospect of building something permanent, working on the land and learning slowly what it has to offer.
So in response to repeated urging, this is my sign off, my declaration of victory. We did an amazing thing and I have changed forever because of it.

lindseyp.

and something else

2008-12-21T16:18:00.004-06:00

Regarding donations: We appreciate all the donations we have recieved. Since we have decided to stop here in St. Charles we are willing to give back any donations we've recieved, or we'll use it to rent a car to get back to the Quad Cities, and curb our overall losses.

We are now looking for a good home for our raft. It will be a platform with paddle wheels and hatches throughout. It can be hauled out if you have a trailer, or towed anywhere you'd like. Please, if anyone is interested in a mobile swimming dock, or pontoon-type boat, please email us and let us know.

We've started writing our end of the trip postcards, so if we've met you and you forgot to give us your address, you should send it on over and we'll send you one too.

Its unbelievable how amazing everyone has been, how positive and inspiring. We'll be thinking about it all for a long long time. Thank you.

2008-12-21T15:33:00.006-06:00

So we have started to take her apart. The owner of the harbor has offered us the showerhouse to sleep in, with a back room and heat. We've been staying warm in Bill's boat (where we've been tied up for the past month) and in Jamie and Dave's boat, when the campfires have not been warm enough to keep us through the nights. It's 13 degrees right now and the wind is gusting 15 to 20mph. But yesterday we successfully moved out of the harbor during the few hours it was warm enough to break up the ice. Only paddlewheels moving us again into the slough. But oh it's frozen in now. Tied up to the rocks but with little on it. We'll be taking the walls down tomorrow and hopefully relocating them to the farm to become an outdoor kitchen? oh boy.

It's been amazing here. People are so wonderful, it feels wrong to be leaving at all. But we'll have to come back to find a home for the platform and paddlewheels once the river is soft enough to move her again. Thankgoodness for that.

Conceding Defeat

2008-12-21T15:16:00.003-06:00

It has been weeks.

And although we excelled in the areas of solar panels, batteries, moral support, water containers, and stoves, the motor we needed came too late. Too late to spend unknown money for an unknown journey which the Coast Guard deemed crazy, impossible and forbidden.

That warning actaully just got us fired up more, they can't tell us its too cold to be on the river, they can't scare us. But after the harbor froze, and indecision continued on and on, the momentum surely abated.

Andrew and Patty came down to help finish the journey with us, and we moved up to the North Shore Oasis in St. Charles. Incredibly, amazingly, lovingly, supportive and hospitable. After a week we were three, not four, and though the campfires were warm and beautiful, and the karaoke and beer was flowing through us, the cold, the snow, the ice persisted.

We have conceded defeat.

The News from St. Louis

2008-11-18T14:51:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-18T14:43:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-06T12:40:00.004-06:00

Louisiana missourri
cairo illinois
louisiana louisiana
wyoming minnesota

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.

hannibal

2008-10-31T21:24:00.003-05:00

it feels comfy to be here.

and we play at tourist game.

at home and huck and tom and becky. and jim.

and it's halloween is why the circles and the green, heh.

and it's halloween and we gotta go flee this candy store, out to the extravaganza on the street. over and out.

2008-10-31T20:12:00.004-05:00

This i must mention:

The beginning of the trip was quite stimulating, fresh and new, and every library we entered was a computer waiting for reflection, waiting for an account of our adventures for the previous 2 or 10 or 15 days. It felt easy to write, worth while.
Today, it is halloween, i have eaten candy all day, sitting in a candy shop even now (instead of trick or treating, and instead of a library internet connection) writing. But outside is a new friend talking with hannah as i had been talking with him (and so many people... see, so many people) for hours, about politics, religion, deeply entering all those facets taboo in most public settings, freely, openly, without any risk for our passing and temporary nature. Outside is a halloween party, full of music, and pet costumes, probably more candy, and all the people that we have been meeting this day and a half now spent in Hannibal.

I find it hard to keep track, hard to record, hard to care about spending time remembering the details, so millions of them, when they are ongoing and always.

I have a million thoughts, i have said them a million times over to a million people with whom i've been having the same conversations, differing because of these new viewpoints i encounter. But i find dispersing my thoughts this way to be overtaking the preserving of them for later contemplation.

Let it be known, i talk about the prophet john's revelations quite frequently, i talk about an inability to relate and ignorance of the expereince of those dislike oneself, i talk about the root feeling of traveling, the tapping of a deep essence of humanity while physically moving through space and relying on reaction and spontaneity to navigate the unknown.

I find it unfortuante that there is more writing than pictures or video here, i find it unfortuante that there is even precious little of that to share with you. But hey, maybe i'll write a book someday, and hopefully remember enough of it all to fill in the blanks.

here's some about quincy:

2008-10-31T19:21:00.007-05:00

which was an interesting place.

breezed in, truly, and it was cold and breeze should say gusted,

and ungreatly got stuck in the muck off the tip of an island maybe 200 feet from our supposed dock, and had to have the fire department get us freed, and the tv came down cos they heard that call, and so we were on tv getting stuck and unstuck. and we went to a bar until midnight, where we were transformed temporarily into two englishmen.

And then it froze. The first time, and we woke in the morning thinking, my, it must not have frozen, because we were so warm. So our plants inside, our morning bright, we awoke to a new day unknowing of what is in store.

and then we got stuck again when the water went down that night, so that the next day when it was time to leave after getting sweet deals on necessities at the marine store up the hill, we couldn't budge.

but probably it was all predestined, and turned in many wonderful ways.

with robert on his canoe catching up to us just in time to coordinate our saviour john's dredging and pulling operation. and twelve at least very nice gentlemen and even one little boy with red hair pushed meanwhile. it was pretty amazing and worked and took at least 3 hours to do.

at which point the sun was going down, and so we docked just 100 feet away at the boat club, and drank and ate for a second night until midnight. complete with the englishmen, who stayed their own selves.

We awoke, with more and more discussions, politics, reflections, observations about this part of the country, the sometimes narrowsighted priveledge of community and values of achievement and success.

We are not trying to prove anything. We are on this trip for ourselves, and sucking up as much as we can it seems to reflect back onto us in peculiar ways. As should be expected. An assumption about freeloading or an assumption about needing.

We have been thinking about hosting dinners with all the food we have accumulated. Happily now some of it donated to the Hannibal food shelf where we heard on the news the need is larger than past years.

I wonder what of this has to do with flooding, with being helped so recently, losing livelihood to natural disaster (though we've heard not to national financial crisis yet). Feeling obliged to give back though skeptical that we are deserving.

And then we floated on again, making time to the lock, though finding our canoist friend waiting there as well. We find the lock anxiously waiting our speedy entry once we have finished our bacon basil and tomato sandwitches, and with rather little interest in conversation. There is a tug waiting to lock up. We share some picture taking with Robert and then see him off down the river.

Maybe we've already mentioned: his blog, his satellite tracker, is linked in our link section.

Backtracking and updating

2008-10-27T18:10:00.005-05:00

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.

missouri

2008-10-25T13:02:00.004-05:00

perhaps we should have been taking more pictures since we made it to missouri.

but it's quite something since here we've been. maybe it's many things. people here are a change. there's a new accent, with words like "heem" and "warsh." and there's something about we're come from minnesota that's far more impressive from here on out.

and we're deep in floodland. where all the houses are on stilts and half of them are unoccupied since the waters rose this year again and again.

and the factories and barges are multiplying. ten in one day yesterday.

and we're in canton, and we've been to alexandria of purple cow and wild dogs, and we'll be in hannibal and louisiana and st. louis. in weeks. and that's crazy.

lock 19: big one

2008-10-25T12:25:00.009-05:00

we left our last town in iowa in the afternoon, to make it over to lock 19 in time for the meeting of when the winds die down and the sunlight still lasts a little while. we'd been hearing about this one from way back at lock 5a, this one's the biggest drop we'd see. scary scary. and horror stories got more horrible from burlington on. and it looked ominous enough, from miles away.

but when we got closer, the folks were nice and gentle to us. they even gave us a bag of apples from their tree, showed us how to tie up, and wished us all sorts of well.

and so we went:

fifteen or so minutes and then we were out. they said the water would be running seven miles an hour past the dam, but it was actually two. which is just fine, quite nice. and four more miles of iowa.

here's the truth of it.

2008-10-25T12:15:00.004-05:00

it's gotten chilly.
duck hunters wake us up in the morning.

barges pass, more barges pass.

it rains sometimes.

it gets dark early.

we got more memory for our camera.

we've been taking lots of pictures.

and i hope you can tell we're smiling good.

okay, that's that.

Here and

2008-10-15T15:48:00.004-05:00

now we are in Burlington, Iowa.
An odd sized town, full of many things, an australian coffee shop, many empty storefronts, a huge beautiful library, here, and we are dry and warm for the first time today.
The Iowa river came in and confirmed our suspicions of late that we are going
2 miles an hour.
amazing.
the town of keithsburg came and went
with its trains toppled from the flood
its watermarks at chest level
its old old buildings derelict and sighing
its populus, living their entire lives in this tiny river
view

and we spent the night tied up on a beach next to (as we will again tonght) our new friends

Doug and Laura from madison

floating now since Wabasha in a houseboat running solar power
floating a little past the current
a little past us in the current
but stopping just long enough for us to catch up
again and again

i think we're having
venison shitake stroganoff
with them tonight.
slumber party
and music.

We talk about the end of the world. about the economy crubling.
i wonder what signs will tip us off
(here on the river)
to it when it crashes.... maybe the barges will stop. maybe everyone will hide in their houses.

but the strings of cormarants flying north and then south
and the pelicans intermingling with them
the duck blinds fooling even us humans
the rain coming and the wind changing
the blankets increasing in number
the knitting increasing in haste

continuing on and steady.

breathtaking. color changing.
we're so lucky here.

AND WE'RE

2008-10-09T13:22:00.003-05:00

back,
and my my, sorry for the lacking of updates here.
the truth of it is that we were on that farm out in coal valley illinois. the whole time. finishing the summer there was beautiful.
and coming back to the river now is an altogether wonderful thing.
quite a different story now. lovely.
the river is everything we'd dreamt it these days, the calm and the slow we were hoping for all summer seems to have come out for fall.
we've hardly seen a person since we left davenport, and so here it is, us and the river. and it's still quite beautiful as much as everyone everywhere always has said it gets all ugly down here, certainly, past the quad cities. but my my, sure fine, and the pelicans are flying south with us.
we're also riding a new system, the bikes got traded out for some wonderfully slouching chairs with bikechains and pedals underneath, far more comfortable and better tensioning on the belt to boot, much obliged to ian.
i don't know quite what else to say, so perhaps i'll leave it all at this.
from muscatine iowa, over and out, hblp, c.bernadette able.

come!

2008-08-28T11:54:00.003-05:00

as we take residency at a farm, we'll one or the other or both be at the davenport freight house farmer's market every saturday for the next few weeks. mad farmer's gardens. we'd love to say hi... till then, much love. hb+lp.

the other crew change

2008-08-28T10:23:00.006-05:00

so the story goes:

hannah came back up to clinton from the farm peaceful, meet andrew and lindsey peaceful, and eventually andrew back down to the farm, and further eventually hannah and lindsey keep drifting down.

and there was something new about it.

something like about staying and slowgoing deep breaths even more, long pauses, enjoy it now while the enjoying is here, crabapples and pretty little musics, sunshine and breezes.

and since we seem to be addicted to a farm in coal valley and its inhabitants, we decided to break from our pauses and river and hitch down to davenport from camanche for the farmers market. that was pretty fun. it only took one ride and there we were, and then suddenly there was a plan of another crew change,
lindsey gets to go back to the farm and sleep a cold off in a bed and with blankets,

hannah gets the company of one ian (of yon farm), one buddy dog (of yon farm) and one becky (of moline and the soon to be launched and downstream partnering sugar shaker) to bring bernadette the rest of the way to her resting spot in the quad cities. oh man.

the new crew, tho these pictures get ahead of themselves really:

can't speak for lindsey's half except that she sure seems good rested and made a nice shirt,

but on the river there were wonders, adventure surprises.

from the start and we had a ride back up river to the camanche library dock on a 96 foot yacht dinner cruise boat named lady tampa bay (yet another way to see this river my my), complete with dinner, they parked next to bernie for the night and the yacht got more attention than we did, hah.

and then yes, ian and han off and down, breezing, going to meet becky in princeton. it was quite a lovely one, ian caught on quick. lovely but/and crash landed (one paddlewheel came off 300 yards away, one motor ran out of gas 100 feet away, we paddled one wheel and one oar into a public dock next to go fish, met by a dozen denizens, drinks and dinner on them, who). was crazy but the morning was better, becky came, we got on and out, ian and becky even fixed the paddlewheel right on, the mayor even came by 7 times with longsleeves and food for us.

becky caught on fast too. and we made it to le claire that night, policemen happy to see us, residents and their gardens produce, pelo velo our personal sponsor giver of beer and coffee and the best tshirts yet, and the wind was blowing from the east perfectly on our only west stretch of the river. perfect lock and dam, perfect free ice cream from hampton's remember when, perfect landing on campbells island.

and just when we didn't think we necessarily had a place to live in the qc, a friendly boat told us we could have their slip at the island marina. well, becky left that night, and ian and i got to spend one last night on bernie for now, campstove and tent, view of alcoa factory, and buddy on bow. we met dave the marina owner funnily in the morning before the marina and then met him again inside the gates. seems we've got a worktrade for rent.

the qc papers already came, they were nice, and when we woke up this morning at our base here the mad farmer's gardens, the paper had bernie smiling on the very front page of the very paper. (and funny, mad farmer's garden on the cover of the radish, we're a bunch of celebrities here and laugh over breakfast). and that's that about that. lindsey and i are going to go finish moving off today, maybe do a little grinding on a boat, take final proper measurements and desires for the jet propulsion.

and now comes the chapter of that boatwork and this farmwork, it is good.

A Call for a Home in the Quad Cities

2008-08-21T13:19:00.003-05:00

So we're approaching the quad cities now, where the plan is to stay a few weeks, repair some damages to ol' Bernie, help out on the "brother farm", take a small break. Our leads as for a safe place to dock Bernadette have fallen through. So Please Get Back to US if anyone knows of a dock with an open slip where Bernadette could stay for 2 or three weeks, preferably somehwere that is at least somewhat restricted, or where there's a good bit of monitering, becasue we're not going to be living on board nor probably there every day, and preferably at little or no cost. Please. We're making all of our wishes on this one.

Pool 13

2008-08-21T13:15:00.003-05:00

Like a desert. I swear I saw heat waves coming off the water. And the expanse all around of no human activity. We ran out of water. Thankfully there was beer. We ran out of battery. Thankfully the pull start started. Because our legs were pretty tired. Heeding little advice given us, that pool is huge, that pool is crazy, make sure you're prepared. And Andrew has a fish bone stuck in his finger. We see bird shit island. We see the islands all around and the cormerants flocking up around, the cormerants, illinois cormerants no sign of them before Bellvue. Hours alone in the middle of the desert water lake.

Hannah comes back after a week

2008-08-21T12:53:00.005-05:00

A week now, a little more than a week, C. Bernadette had a crew change.

Andrewc for Hannahb and what revolutions. The discovery of single person steering, loving Bernadette gently, raft swain raf's'n, in the wind, turning and using the billowing cloth, the weathervain, design feature, to know. Using the pee-board for a kitchen sink, not only a toilet, sink, washbasin. Setting up the tent onboard.

These things driving her from Dubuque to Clinton and a million adventures. A wingdam, tailwinds and strong current, requiring (after watching Bernadette skid away from us along the submerged rock ridge behind her first, or second or third tow attempt) six people (or seven?) pushing her into position for her final successful tow back out into the chanel.

Staying the night nestled in some wingdams and visited by Corey, bringing gifts, bringing company while we cooked the experimental beans (someday we're going to release the C. Bernadette book of raft cooking).

A little check up from the DeWitt of US fish and wildlife, with no compassion, robot man, following orders in such a way to pad his ego, not letting him get us riled up, not knowing what to do with the 125$ ticket we ended up with, all of our things within some kind of reminder range. I dont want to get into it, angry thinking. But now up to code anyway.

And Sebula, the island city, small and hot. Heat coming out of the ground, heat taking us down and waiting in front of BombFire pizza for our energy to return us to the raft, whe Tom drives up and tells us he left us goodies at the boat. Tomfire from Bombfire and all the ingredients delicious for a lunch, bread, tomatoes, mozzerella cranberry chutney, oh my. And then as we leave paddling on toward the bridge stopped for a bit of catfish donation, good old boys, brief exchange.

And the fish, the river fish inside with batter and fried, with fish water all over the deck all over the boat, the fishy water in the river on the swimming skin on the bluegreen algae, on the spewm on the surface, in our planters on our feet, on the deck. Covered with these fish.

And now Lindsey has some kind of cold. Andrew is back on his farm. Hannah is back with Bernadette and waiting for the rain to let up, for our battery to make its way the many blocks back to the boat, to fill our tank up with some municipal water and get on our merry way.

2008-08-21T12:24:00.023-05:00

suddenly pictures:

so many adventures, sojourn with clara, she holds the camera, ha,

landing 615, little stop, girls gone wild:

and matt and matt who taught us how to use our radio:

and then waupeton and its kindly folk:

and their dogs who couldn't stay long:

and the tow from a kayaker:

the fog that almost ate us:

the paddlewheel that almost made it to the bottom of the river again:

the lock we eventually made it through:

and here's how we came into dubuque:

and the people were there, they were good:

and we parked by hawk's lillybelle:

and so it was and there we said goodbye to clara, tiny airport and hugs.

it was a beautiful thing to have her,

and lovely thanks for the photos, good eye:

Dubuque

2008-08-12T14:12:00.003-05:00

It seems, caffeiene and sugar
up and down, feeling amped, feeling like going
moving fast, quickly and miles
moving slowly but making miles
stopping and reading the light and the fog and
no longer the swarms of dragonflies but
patches of white
pelicans lined up off in the distance
they move quickly, paddling even
and their song
like a phone alarm

and the air in the buildings now so queer and noisy
and the air in a car now so fast and raucous

the speed the open all ever expanding
the slowness and stopping and watching and dancing

sleeping with my glasses on every night to see the stars

and we got to dubuque
and clara left us
but with some sort of renewed vigor and love for the all the things
remembering again after four five days how magical it is

everyday

and a woman took our pictures as we pulled up
here is how we look now
in dubuque
outside the amazing rivermuseum (which we have made ourselves part of while we're here)
http://www.rebeccacatephoto.com/-/rebeccacatephoto/gallery.asp?cat=94412&pID=1&row=15

lotos

2008-08-12T14:10:00.002-05:00

although really, these pictures do no justice.
(the lotus grow up sprung out of the water, unlike the lillies, stand up, perfect round, smell like i couldn't tell you, some kind of bygone dilation and fancy, and unworldly inside, belong here though i never imagined, with the other marshians, dreaminglike, could float amongst and between and to oblivion and do, sleep amongst them, waken smiling perfect soothed)

2008-08-12T14:02:00.002-05:00

Just after MacGregor, we anchor in the middle of a wide part, cook dinner and look at the moon.

And then after a night convinced there were muskrats burrowing through the pontoons again, and boldly rummaging through the trash can, we wake up in the morning to find our beet greens chewed off and a new friend on board. He only stayed for a little while. I guess they're pretty good swimmers.

oh we forgot to tell you about this guy:

2008-08-07T14:49:00.004-05:00

from way back in La. Crosse.
Helium balloons on a fishing line. ha.

Of Late.

2008-08-07T14:44:00.001-05:00

This is a post about team A. Ian and Lindsey.

This is IanThis is Lindsey
This is Team A.
A Stands for Awesome. because we're awesome.
Team A is going to take over the world. Even though Ian left us in MacGregor with a million things to think about. Making the bicycles efficient, making it to the Quad Cities, making it on and on and on.
Keeping it SLOW.
And MacGregor left us on our way to Guttenberg. Now here in Guttenberg, passing the beautiful calmness of the driftless. The unglaciated portion of the river we will be passing through till Savannah. We have the weekdays now, the mornings of sunlight and days of overcast, delight to calm the heat that inevitably will come at 12 or 2 or 4 in the sunburnt sunshine of my stomach and thighs. We have the river to ourselves when we aren't visited by our friends the birds, the hawk we call Jon and the yellow throated virios, the female eagles we keep seeing, maybe the same one. The evenings get busy, visitors, inquiring minds, but soon as we get Clara here tonight, we'll be a few days, hopefully the weekend, in relatively low traffic getting her to Dubuque. Hoping to retreat, maybe take some back channels, maybe some slow kayak rides into the backwaters. And we're on our way.

Some sights to see in Lansing. Iowa. It is Iowa

2008-08-07T14:18:00.001-05:00

and the river and just past brownsville

2008-08-07T14:10:00.002-05:00

these birds watching the river meandering around brownsville

bluegreen algae making aeneous patterns in the river, looking like quicksilver only green, our shadows moving with them.
I think this is a storm coming in. Who can really say. It's definately one of those beautiful pools before a lock and the red buoy keeping watch.

iowa

2008-08-04T18:52:00.004-05:00

one day a few days ago, we crossed the iowa border. we've been loving it here. first lansing, now mcgregor, now guttenburg. nice nice iowa nice. visitors asking good questions, and visitors teaching us good.

and things have been happening, like wolfspider hatchings and snakes amidst our ropes, like a future rafter swimming aboard, like heatstroke in august, like friends visiting, like the quad cities and st. louis and vicksburg asking when we'll be there, like finding out big river magazine has a link to us, like backwater cruises, like eating our first ripened beans, like drinking our first hooch, like learning well that sometimes you have to let the wind do what it will, like plans for better propulsion, like first drafts of manifestos, like meditation to rock quarries and barges, like melodica to rain percussion, like twilight in lillies and loti, like sleep just off the channel.
bernadette's doing fine*, we're doing fine**. we've got a steady current of 1.6 miles an hour usually. you should come and visit. and stay a while. we've decided three is a magic number when we go. you know? good. see you soon, much love.

Brownsville, MN

2008-08-04T17:42:00.004-05:00

So. Sorry, and sorry for the delays. The libraries and the photos have been acting up. We've a lot to update you.
Two weeks ago. Hannah had a birthday:

And remarked that "the most beautiful places, i think, are along side railroad tracks."

so often overlooked, passed by in car or on foot carelessly. We can't help but notice the runs that accompany us on both sides constantly, bringing the hulking bodies clanging and thrusting through night and day passing between the land on either side full of wild things, grashoppers and flowers.

2008-07-24T14:09:00.003-05:00

We awoke in a thickness. Fog all around and the sand island we barely made it to the night before only visible. As it cleared slightly we set off, meandering through the mist, glad the barges still used the lights the used all night to see through it all. We came along an army corps of engineers survey boat, sounding the channel and took advice to make way for the tug coming behind us. Another lock, more eventful than usual, having a little trouble waiting for the gates to open we resorted finally to motoring a big circle and then through. Hannah feeling a little weary, in time for Lindsey's poison ivy to be just clearing up (but boy calomine lotion really does some damage). And we floated, calmly on through to the east channel, over a wing dam, jostling Bernadette's bottom, so thankful to have decided finally on using 2x6 as the underside of the pontoons. And then we floated, at half speed, weaving baskets, napping, watching the fish jumping and eating a little bit, too hot for too much. We arrived in la crosse in record time, 30 miles in 3 days, and here we are for a minute.
Miss Julia Belle Swain coming out of the lock just before us.

it seems that la crosse is a explsoion of postings

2008-07-24T14:03:00.003-05:00

some thoughts, some images of Winona.

house boat hobos the band. we aspiring to such heights. (we do have a washboard)

some views of and around where we stayed. so beautiful. these people have really made some incredible things, "recycled" "unique" quite a few of the adjectivew we recieve, given only too easily to these calmly living homes.

From Winona to La Crosse

2008-07-24T13:48:00.004-05:00

We got to Winona and so luckily landed at the most beautiful boathouse in the world.

We met new friends, and met up with old friends. Oh Winona. Oh.

And we even did our first ferrying.

2008-07-24T13:46:00.001-05:00

i swear i'm not going to the bathroom

2008-07-24T13:35:00.002-05:00

And some thoughts from a few days past: Joe and Jim of The great Alma Fish Float

This place is magical, luckily for us the day was too hot and we were the only visitors, sitting for the first time in a long time on a squishy seat and eating for the first time in a long time food we thought worth while to pay for, but even so more than we could have asked for. A sleeping bag to replace what blew away in the tornado of Deer Island lake pepin and delicious smoked fish and advice about so much fishing and boating.

The fish jump to clear their gills. Its like an eh hem. And then they splash back into the muck of the river.

The backwater just past lock 5 does not actually go through to the main channel, found unfornately after sticking on some shallow sand and cutting a foot open on some zebra mussles... that's the last time i'll jump in with no shoes on. And we got a tow out so thankfully.

And then we got found by some jet skiiers. Oh those jet skiiers, whose invitation back to the houseboat and some kind of crazy time was enticing until their 250 horsepowers got achey at going so slow to tow us reasonably and the prospect of arriving by ourselves at 2am or so was completely inconcieveable. We should have known, jet skiiers are too used to speed to be able to contend with the patience of C Bernadette Able. And that night we discovered the torture of heat and mosqitoes.

passing through the lovely fountain city

2008-07-24T13:32:00.004-05:00

yeah, we too are getting sick of pictures of us. and although the 10 dollar digital camera from teh dollar store turned out to be only a beeping machine, we now have a real camera! and will have photos from our perspective too. oh yeah. These photos thanks to John Sagan in fountain city.

making record time

2008-07-24T13:32:00.001-05:00

This slowness thing is quite educational. Moving at a speed few know
how to cope with. We scarcely know how to adjust to the speed of the
known world, not even the power boats and jet skis, or cars
trafficking around town lights, signs... our motor now even seems like
speeding. We know the, the, rhythm of .03 miles an hour, we can
distinguish the subtleties of moving or not moving. And the speed of
the river, the river moving on ever on though sometimes seemingly
backward. And meeting a person or being in a place is the only
stress, time rolling on past us quickly, us rolling little, stuck as
it goes. This is the biggest reflection to have at this point, and
the most important, to stay steadfastly combatant to the pressure of
the speeding world on us to move, to remember the length of an hour,
or a day, or a week. Now knowing the length of our boat, of one buoy
to another, of one lock chamber. It is almost as if we are entering
another plane of existence, approaching that space between still and
motion, who knows what opens there, what lies there. We will be in La
Crosse next. Someday. Well, before tuesday, probably the quickest
travel yet, as we have a passenger now, still living in the world of
schedules, and therefore an extra engine.

yes, WE MADE IT

2008-07-18T15:43:00.004-05:00

oh my my. we're in winona.

meaning, we've come 100 miles so far, slowly going and well.

it's been quite a thing so far, this thing.

met with infamy tv stardom, met with the same three questions, met with new friends, met with saviors, met with pleasure boats, and jetskiiers, and fishermen, and lockmasters, met with all the flora and all the fauna, met with the weather.

there are probably too many stories to convey here now, but a brief synopsis of life on the river would be: wild current river floating and bathing and foraging and technical difficulties, easy as pie lock and dam, then red wing where we were quite the attraction, where we were looked at by many and befriended by a select few wonderful wonders really swung it in motion, thank you, fourth of july and millions of wakes too big and to the head of lake peppin and little fireworks, and then lake peppin. everyone before that place was pretty sure we'd never make it down. lake peppin lake peppin. and everyone since we made it through, even a little, thinks it will be no problem, of course, the delta, of course. it's pretty amazing. we weathered five storms, one tornado, and a fallen off paddlewheel there. some of the most beautiful skies and some of the most hospitable people, thank you. wabasha finally and we fixed up the paddlewheel situation and life's been good since then, cooking and eating and floating and figuring it out more and more, it's been a lock a day for the past few days, #5 had a great fish float deliciousness at its banks and #5a let us up into their bat cave during a horrid thunderstorm, which was amazing, and we took a long backwater way to latsch island.

we just ate hotdogs and drank some cola. we got a solar powerer for our battery. lindsey's horrible terrible poison ivy is maybe going to be under control soon.

we're currently staying with the posterchildren of winona's houseboat community: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WinonaMNboathouses2006-05-09.JPG (just picture all the trees green and a lovely blue sky and our boat tied out front of the house with a chimney), who are kind and fantastic, and we're about to have our first longerterm guest, a bike buddy we'd met in redwing is gunna be our paddle buddy until la crosse, yeehaw.

at the rate we go we'll have more things to smile about and more things learned than we'll know what to do with, more people to thank heartfeltedly, oh my, and we might be in st. louis by sometime in 2009. ha, oh but it's good.

in other news, although we got a digital camera at the dollar store to replace the one that broke, it's apparently unfriendly with library computers. so there's sadly not too much to show you other than that wiki page and this picture of us, sunburned and determined, north of alma:

if anyone has photos then and can email us, please do: mississippiriverproject@gmail.com. and i know a lady in red wing took a million photos that are on photobucket or flickr or shutterfly, if you find them, please email as well.

okay, over and out, and much love, these ones of c.bernadette able.

Press. oh the press.

2008-07-02T13:52:00.001-05:00

Click here to see us on the news.

They tracked us down by night, and ran us down the next morning.
Yes. Lindsey's glasses are broken.

The LA River Yellowcats Come for a visit

2008-07-02T13:29:00.002-05:00

Camping in the state park, in the sunset, in the calm of the St. Croix finally. And such thanks for sharing meals and friends and music. Our first visitors. success. and what joy. thanks eleanor, julia, nicky (whose name i've never spelled before) and james.

we're in an egg

2008-06-17T18:13:00.002-05:00

well, we've found ourselves just outside hudson and finishing our paddlewheel propelling system. been there a few days, will be there a day or so more. it's good, the people right there are right nice, the gooses squack with the eagles, and we're three newspaper stories, as it seems.
hoping to be by the mississippi by the end of the weekend, we hear there's a fort on an island right there. sorry for the lack of pictures, but next time, next time, and know there's sunny skies. much love, hmrc.

day 2

2008-06-09T13:17:00.002-05:00

Out ward, but the sky still ominous.
Ominously watching us and holding it in
until those last moments, held too tightly leaked a bit
and then waited until we were snug and sound in our bushes.
It opened up to give our plants a bit of the right thing
and today all opened with sunshine and breeze.
We made a debut yesterday.
And with bare muscles moved 1.5 tons about three miles.
Ready to get the other systems running and working.
Still close enough to see the smokestack,
but far enough away to feel free and forward. and on. and on.

we went across the river... a sort of way it will be

2008-06-06T10:29:00.003-05:00

waiting.

2008-06-06T07:57:00.003-05:00

There's 25 mileperhour winds predicted until tomorrow morning. We leave as soon as the weather breaks. Oh, that wind. That darn wind and storm and thunder....

t minus

2008-05-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

pictures first and poem second, blogger so decreed. sorry for the delayed updates, we've been going at superzoom speed with no time to spare. but here:

the reason that god made a window (so beautiful so beautifuuul)

the nets on which we'll sleep

little plantlings, our ballasts, and junior pushcart rally II sitting pretty on the stern

the welded but paddleless paddlewheels to be

there's chas's boat on the left, and our vessel on the right. the tandem of the testdrive.

miracle plant.

beautiful babies

the official and freshly painted identification signs

and the charts from srs. james k. harris and gerald f. burstein

it's all going up with all the festoons, and even our motor junior pushcart rally II is happy. he vroomed away last night, took us on our maiden voyage, and lindsey's leg is still numb from the vibrations. now it's just a matter of counting down until monday. with a whole lot of love, c. bernadette able

rainbow country

2008-05-17T23:28:00.000-05:00

we were blessed today, and most days lately. amen.

A launch toast from chas and wendy

2008-05-15T22:50:00.001-05:00

upon waking up and looking outside, Hannah's initial reaction to our newly erected house structure was "swing set?"

backup

2008-05-13T09:42:00.001-05:00

Rubber shocks just like ours. If nothing else, this impressed the importance of lightness and agility in the water. We did some redeisigning after visiting this man.

if all else fails. we might borrow this waterbike. it's pretty lightweight and sleek, and it's last trip made it from Minneapolis to St. Louis in 3 weeks! amazing.

we lost our canoe

2008-05-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

if anyone has seen a light blue canoe floating down the st croix or mississippi rivers it is ours and it blew away. please mail it back to us. thankyou.

2008-05-13T09:31:00.000-05:00

We launched. with the help of Nelson the truck, some pulleys and Rebecca. It's sitting really high, perfectly so in fact, a little down in the front but that's to balance all the extra weight we[re going to have in back.

2008-05-09T08:30:00.001-05:00

And finally the pontoons were done. Stuffed with enough foam, about 4/5 full and set up with their barrel skin. Strong on the bottom for rocks and damage and tight on the top for the foam to stay in.

And then, after a million brilliant maneuvers with pulleys and trees, flipped the deck onto the pontoons. Success thanks greatly to Rebecca Pskowski.

work party work

2008-04-28T19:27:00.000-05:00

and on. we got the foam. but it's only about 50%

2008-04-28T19:25:00.000-05:00

beginning

2008-04-28T19:22:00.000-05:00

2008-03-26T17:48:00.001-05:00

Diagram of the pontoon structure. The cross pieces (the odd shape cut out of plywood) will actually be 4 feet apart. The raked up front angle is not figured out exactly yet.

this is the end view of the raft. The dimensions are a little bit wrong in this picture, the A frames are attached at approximately 10 inches in from the edges of the pontoons. The pontoons are the larger of the two drawn, at 4 feet wide instead of 3 feet wide. The pontoon drawn here is a preliminary sketch of the finalized shape shown below.

This is the top view of the deck framing, probably made with 2x6" beams, and finishing only just outside the outer more "joist" of the pontoon at about 10" in from the edge. The deck will extend out to the edge of the pontoons if not a little farther as a sort of bumper.
The joint between the pontoons, the deck and the A frame. The pontoons will be solid independent structures from the deck/building (which will be built as one cohesive unit). The pontoon and deck units will be attached at two points along the width of each pontoon and at 5 places along the length of the raft. They are through bolted with a large rubber shock (made from traffic cones or tire pieces) between them.

This is the shape of the pontoon, made of about 5 of these shapes cut out of plywood and attached with a skeleton set into the shapes themselves. There will be through holes in these pieces to allow free flow of water in and out of all parts of the pontoon.
The top view of the raft. This diagram only shows 3 a frames but we will probably use 4 at 4 feet apart each. The "roof" will be a rope net suspended between the a frames which will provide storage access to the waterproof roof covering the a frames and a sort of sun deck.

Raft Walls.

2008-03-17T13:46:00.002-05:00

From top to bottom: Fwd wall, Aft Wall, Port Wall Starboard Wall.
made from Sunbrella fabric scraps and vinyl window scraps. Fwd and aft walls have zip open ventilation window backed with insect proof screen. Aft wall has a zip open door. Port wall has zip open ventilation window. Starboard wall has a zip open window and grommets for plumbing, this will theoretically be the kitchen, a cistern hanging above the window will provide water in via a hose through the grommet and drainage out will leave via a hose through the bottom grommet.

(note. all windows in these photographs are backed for transportation protection with either clear plastic or white or brown paper)

photos taken by Katherine Copenhaver