Day 3 on the river

I have to make this quick as my battery life is dwindling on this iPad and I want to have some life left in it for tomorrow.

I got another late start due to dealing with a poor cell tower signal and trying to send emails. I did put in about 36 miles today which was good. It was a very fast day and I saw lots of pretty country. Two bald eagles with one holding a fish in its talons. Pretty sweet.

The Missouri is one big tree lined ditch. I never realized how altered this river was until I floated down it. I did pull off and walk up to one of the dikes to look around. It ran both directions as far as the eye can see. It got me thinking about what hope do we have when we treat a mighty river as an enemy that has to be subdued? I understand the whole flood control and commerce argument for having tamed the river but, wow, it's totally controlled for the 563 miles I'll travel it and it's that way all the way to Montana. That's a lot of effort on our part.

I'm getting into the paddling grove and my body feels pretty good. I'm realizing that this stretch down to Kansas City is basically my shakedown trip. I got the canoe so late that I had no time to test what works and doesn't in regards to packing, etc. I'll be stopping in Kansas City for a day at Becky's brother's place and I'll go through my stuff and toss what I don't need.

I was really in a depressed mood Sunday and yesterday. I knew a long trip would be tough psychologically but I thought that would happen weeks into the trip. It was tough leaving Becky and the boys and I'm having real questions about whether I can paddle upstream on the Mississippi from St. Louis. That kinda made the blues as I've been thinking 563 miles is failure. Today I paddled my ass off and just enjoyed each mile, something I had been forgetting to do.

From what I can gather it looks like I'll have to stop in St. Louis. If that's the case then I'll just enjoy the little time on the water I've had.

One last item. I didn't realize the railroad always runs along the river. The trains pass every 30 minutes or so. Not good for a tired body wanting to sleep!

JB

Sent from Jerry Bricker's iPad. Oooooh!