Day 30 - 2013

I woke up at 5:30 and was on the river by 7:00. There was some rain during the night, but nothing too great.







My first contact of the day were hundreds of mayflies covering my tent. Most of them flew away as I opened the tent, but a few held on for a photo op. As I was packing up, quite a few bass boats went by for what I'm assuming was a fishing tournament. A couple guys stop right along the island I was on. I waved and they waved back.




I stopped briefly at Bay City, which isn't a city, but a general store, some lodging and a couple of houses on a curve in the road. The store wasn't open, so I continued on.




I was moving pretty good. I took a picture of this buoy to show the strength of the current and how muddy the river is today.




A group of ducks lined up on a floating log.




The word for today is rain. This was the first of seven times I stopped for rain. Each time it cleared up like the rain was over, but then it would start again. I tried the double umbrella method of staying dry, then switched to three umbrellas.





Another rain.




Rain again. This time I used the tarp over two umbrellas method. It was a good thing because this time the rain was very heavy and lasted about an hour. I just stayed in my little shelter with the radio playing and stayed pretty dry.







These folks were camped with the Ohio River in front of them, then literally on the other side of the trees is the Tennessee River. The people must have been gone or in their tent, but their dog was there (not in the photo). What I thought was neat, was the tent dog house they had set up.




This is right where the Tennessee flows into the Ohio. Evidence that both rivers are up are these trees in a couple feet of water.




The fishing tournament was based at Paducah. There were a bunch of bass boats on their riverfront. This photo is one side of their flood wall.







Like several other river towns, they have a series of William Dafford murals painted on the inside of their flood wall.




I walked into town to see if I could find a place to eat and sit out the rain that was coming.


Just as the rain arrived, I found Doe's Eat Place.




I ordered up their catfish sandwich with fries. It was great!




When finished eating, the weather looked great.....the sun was shining and people were walking around the riverfront park. I started up in the kayak and by the time I got to the other end of the park, it was pouring down rain big time.




It stopped raining and I got back underway. I could see up ahead that more rain was coming and I saw lighting several times. I saw what looked like a barge terminal with boarded up windows, so I headed under the structure.




With the rain pouring down again, I was staying dry and I didn't have to beach my kayak. This rain was the heaviest yet. While waiting I saw a guy looking down at me. I asked him if I was OK to be there and he said "you're fine". Later I beached the kayak and went up to talk with him. He is a retired Social Studies teacher and was walking his dog under the cover of the structure. I learned from him that the structure is part of the new Paducah Convention Center.




This is a photo I later took of the convention center. Actually it's a very large center and looks much better than indicated in this photo.




The rain continued to stop and start and with more thunder. I continued to stay under the structure. This is a photo of one place the water is pouring through a section of the structure.




The rain finally stopped and the sun came out briefly, but I decided to just stay here for the night. No one is around and there is a gas station only two blocks away where I got something to eat and drink. The kayak is under cover and I'm staying close to the top. I'm not even setting up the tent. This thing is huge......about the size of a school and it's all up on these towers.

Day 29 - 2013

This blog entry is being submitted one day late due to a poor data connection. So this entry is actually for June 29th.


I survived last night in the Cairo Days Inn. I walked in the restroom and there was a toad hopping around. The light fixture over the sink was a desk lamp hanging upside down on the florescent fixture.



I woke up and had the complimentary breakfast, then Henry (the desk clerk) got off at 7:00 when he drove me to Cave in Rock. I stopped there with my kayak yesterday and left it on the Kentucky side. No one lives nearby on that side and a free ferry runs pretty regularly.



Henry dropped me off and I had a little while to wait for the ferry. A guy stopped with a bicycle which he was obviously using to travel.



His name is Mark. He is a Construction Technology teacher from Georgia. He began his trip in Oregon and is headed back to his home in Georgia. We took picture of each other while on the ferry.




Nobody bothered my kayak overnight. This is what it looked like covered over with wood and plants. Do you see a kayak?




I was on my way at about 11:00. I saw lots of houses built on rocky cliffs and some really nice ones like this.




As I approached Elizabethtown, Illinois I was looking for this gazebo. It's a landmark boaters look for along the river. It's part of a bed & breakfast in E-town......one of two.




I stopped and ate at the E-town River Restaurant. I sat on the top deck where I could watch my kayak. The river is so much higher now, my kayak was actually sitting in water on grass that had been mowed not too long ago.










The restaurant's speciality is catfish. While waiting for my food, this boat pulled up and unloaded about 200 catfish they caught overnight. You can't get catfish much fresher than that!




Next stop was Rosiclare, Illinois. At first I thought this would be as close as I could get to the town.




As it turns out, they had a nice park along their flood wall. There was a floating dock to tie up to and a cut in the flood wall to go into town.




Downtown Rosiclare. I really didn't need anything yet, but I went ahead visited their local grocery store.




Back on the river, I took this photo showing the debris and muddy water. Since the break in my trip from two weeks ago, it has rained all but one day. The current is fast and the river is about a foot higher.




If I were going to do one thing different on this trip, it would to get an optical zoom lens for my camera. There are lots of wildlife photos I could take, but by the time I get close enough, the animals are spoked. On the left side is a floating log with 8 turtles sunning themselves. But they take off when I get close.




These cattle where in the river, but stampeded when they saw me.




This guy didn't seem too concerned with me.




Toward the end of the day, I was still going into,the sun. But I turned around a saw dark storm clouds approaching




I got my tent set-up and went back to the kayak. When I turned around, the tent was blown on it's side and headed toward the river. Fortunately I had enough stuff in it to hold it in place. O turned on the radio and they said to expect rain, damaging hail and 60 MPH wind gusts.




This is my tent sent up on an island, about 30 feet above the river It rained the rest of the evening and into,the night. There was virtually no data signal here, but I could make a short call to let my kids know I was alright.