I was on the river by 6:10 this morning. This is a morning photo of the William Natcher Cable Stay Bridge which I post an evening photo of in yesterday's blog.
In order to save time, I passed up on visiting Rockport, Indiana. According to my guidebook, years of erosion from the river have exposed huge portions of limestone, upon which the town is built.
I pressed on to Owensboro, Kentucky, which is the state's third largest city. I noticed they had a cool looking riverfront, but everything was elevated. I went on downstream a little bit and decided to beach the kayak along the river. When I stepped into the river, I got stuck up to my knee. When I pushed doen with my other foot, it got stuck too. The problem wasn't so much having my foot so deep in the mud, but I couldn't loose my sandals. Getting unstuck and cleaning all the mud off me took about an hour.
I continued on past the main part of the city and came to their public boat ramp. They
have a floating dock,which was great, but they have a lot of barge and recreational boat traffic, so I pulled my kayak to this walkway and tied it to the top rail.
Since I was past downtown Owenboro, I just took this photo in the direction of the city.
At the park, they had one of the old lock buildings I referred to a couple of days ago. This one has been restored and is on the national register. There was a homeless guy sleeping under the stair steps. While in the park, I got rid of my bag of garbage, used the restroom, they saw a gas station about three blocks away. I went there and got my lunch, to eat while on the kayak.
On the way back from the gas station, this goy asked me if I was the one on the kayak. I found out his name is Joe Allen and he is a self described river rat. He lives on a nearby river and told me about the time he helped out a guy using a canoe for an extended trip like I'm on.
It is surprising how many dragon flys hitch a ride on this part of my kayak.
After traveling quite a while, I shored my kayak at French Island #1. I used my iPad to send a few messages, then heard a boat pull up real close on the other side of the island. I went over and met Dewayne and Susan. They are very nice folks and live not more than five miles away. Like some of the folks in my hometown, they like visiting Dale Hallow and just got bake from a short vacation there.
A swing, bench and rope swing someone put up at the island. I used the bench to rest up.
I sat out about a fifteen minute period of rain, right before continuing to Newburgh Lock and Dam. I got through here in record time. I used my air horn to send one lone and one short blast when I was about a half mile away. Just as I got to the lock, the door opened and the lock master said to go on in. I think I was in and out in about ten minutes.
Another restored lock house, this one at Newburgh, Indiana which my guidebook describes as an affluent suburb of Evansville.
This is my camp for tonight at river mile marker 787. At this part of the river, Kentucky is on both river banks. Today I covered 42 miles, which is pretty far for a kayak and second to the 47 miles I covered one day last year.
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