THURS NOV 10 DAY 80 ON THE WATER – After getting stocked up good with Hunt helping me we are on our way to Baton Rouge 200 miles, 6 days no way to change that.
In spite of not having the camp set up except for the tent I slept fairly good. Because of the time of year there is a tremendous amount of dew. I mean it is like it has rained inside and outside the tent, so you have to pack everything up in the morning wet and damp. Which means you must stop early enough at the end of the day to get things dried out. Imperative that you do. But it gets dark so early that means you should stop around 3 to ensure enough sun and breeze to get things dried out. Sun goes down real quick. Consequently that also limits the miles per day paddled.
FRI NOV 11 DAY 81 ON THE WATER – The days are kind of dragging on. I am beginning to think Baton Rouge might be where this journeys ends.
SAT/SUN NOV12/13 DAY 82/83 ON THE WATER – Nothing much different on these days. The river traffic is picking up as we get closer and closer to Baton Rouge. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, unseasonably warm but it is the lack of the wind blowing upriver this close to the gulf that is making this easy, in spite of the amount of paddling.
MON NOV 14 DAY 84 ON THE WATER – Once again I am thinking Baton Rouge rather than New Orleans. There are several reasons. My right eye is bothering me. Clouding over and spots moving around and flashes on the right hand side. Obviously somewhat worried about it. The noise of the river traffic I have had enough of. The barges and tugs don’t bother me, I have figured out how to avoid them the safest way I can. It is the sound from the diesels as I have mentioned previously. Plus I am a week off my schedule, which if I do go down to New Orleans messes up my plans for the next couple of months. We shall see.
TUES NOV 15 DAY 85 ON THE WATER – Another absolutely beautiful morning. Just picture perfect. Hardly even a breeze and very balmy. We could reach Baton Rouge today. That is probably optimistic. I took some short cuts for the 1st time. 3 to be exact. I have been reluctant to do so, sticking with the river channel markers. The water has been dropping every day and the last thing I need is to take a short cut and hit a dead end, get hung up on a sand bar and have to paddle back up river. But all 3 of these short cut channels turned out well.
Old tree/hunting stand.
This old boy is from Haines, AK and is a river guide. Been all over. There was a total of 5 boats, 2 of the rafts had 6HP motors. Not easy to raft on the Mississippi.
WENDS NOV 16 DAY 86 ON THE WATER – We didn’t make it yesterday. We got within about 6/8 miles and came around the 2nd to the last corner and the river was full of barges and tugs. It was the area where they stage the barges putting them together. I knew the right thing to do was spend the night right there, it was a perfect spot. So I stopped, got camp set up and made some decisions. I knew there was a boat ramp at the I -10 bridge. That is where I decided to end the trip. Another 100 miles wasn’t going to make any difference. I figured we would get there by 11. We got there at 10:45.
I got the kayak unloaded, pulled it up out of the river, tied Stormy to the boat and walked up to the closest casino.
Here is what I did:
Had something to eat.
Charged the phone.
Called and got a ticket on the Greyhound bus to New Orleans at 5:15AM.
Called and made a reservation at a Motel 6 about 10 miles away because they are dog friendly.
Went back and started to break the gear and kayak down. Low and behold the Google guy shows up that I had met in St. Louis at Big Muddy Mike’s and again at the Memphis Yacht Club. His boat is about an hour away. He tells me he will give me a ride when I am ready to the motel. What a blessing and great deal.
At the motel by 4. Walked down to a mall and bought a clean shirt and shorts. Took a taxi to Pet Smart and bought Stormy a break down dog pen and a bed. The motel wouldn’t let me leave her in the room without her being in a pen. She loved both her bed and the pen. Took a shower for the 1st time in 6 weeks. Slept terrible.Taxi picked me up at 4:15.
Left Baton Rouge at 5:15.
In New Orleans at 6:45.
At my van at 7:10 had taxi take me.
Back at the motel at 8:50.
Unbelievable.
Left Baton Rouge Thurs at about noon for the 1700 mile drive to Havasu Landing.
Arrived back at the lake on Sun 4:00 with absolutely no issues on the drive back.
