I thought last night was going to be interesting......and it was. As I said yesterday, I spent three hours looking for a place to camp as I traveled down the river. This morning I took a photo before leaving the site. The space I had to sleep was right above the log that's parallel to the kayak. I tried sleeping by sitting up in my camp chair. After about an hour, I realized that wasn't going to work. So, I pushed back the chair and laid down on my tarp in the little space available. The log kept me from rolling into the river, but every time a barge went by, the kayak bounced against the log. Then the other problem was that the temperature dropped into the 40s. If that wasn't enough, the wind blew all night. Not just a breeze, but a pretty strong wind. It was so cold, I stayed in my sleeping bag until the sun was up and the fog on the river lifted.
I started on the river at 8:15, just above Warsau,Kentucky.
In yesterday's blog I made a mistake in identifying the casino in Rising Sun as Belterra. I should have written Rising Star Casino. Today I passed Belterra, which is located in Switzerland County, Indiana. That's the casino on the right and the hotel on the left.
I went through my first lock on this leg of my trip. It took about a half hour and the Lock Master was pretty interested in my kayak.
I was in the recreational lock, which is about the length of a football field. Right on the other side of the lock building is the commercial lock with a towboat and barges in it. That side is about three football fields in length.
The locks are so big, the workers use scooters and bicycles to get around. Right in the middle of this photo is the Lock Master on a bike, going back to the valve room after he talked with me.
This are the concrete piers marking the location of Vevay, Indiana.
Vevay has this great little park right along the river. Today was the last day of school for their elementary kids, so they were running around all over the place. I took this photo later, after the kids left.
I walked into town to mail a letter and get something to eat. As I passed a place called The Wine Cellar, I took a photo of their outdoor seating. Some of the chairs are made of bricks and concrete, while another chair and the table are welded up out of heavy steel. I guess they don't need to worry about them getting stolen......I couldn't budge them.
I saw several metal sculptures around town. The top one is of a majorett and a little baseball player. The bottom one is of a paper boy.
The river mile markers are on signs like this. As you go down river, green signs are on the right and red signs on the left. Buoys marking the shipping channel in the river used the same color code.
I usually use a single umbrella mounted on a modified microphone boom stand to keep the sun off of me. Today I tried adding another umbrella as I was headed into the late day sun. Every once in a while I had to move the red one over so I could see where I'm going, but it wasn't a safety issue since progress is pretty slow in a kayak.
I intended to travel until about 8:00 pm, but at 7:00 I saw a spot I just couldn't pass up. It had gravel along the edge of the river and sand on a level area above. It was large and remote, so it was perfect for me!
This is my set-up with my camp chair in the foreground, campfire to the right, tent on the left and clothesline in the background.
I was able to pull the kayak pretty far out of the water. The barges and towboats do quite a job splashing waves of water up on the kayak during the night.
Supper for tonight is ramen noodles with a pouch of chickbreast.
This is my set up for blogging. I have an Apple keyboard which my iPad plugs into, turning the whole thing into a little computer.
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