Day 78: R 11/29- Nuclear Camping

  We were in good spirits for this stretch of days.  We were making good time and the weather was holding since the thunderstorms earlier in the week.  We made finished the day at 26 miles and camped on the LA side, which meant we had camped in every state along the river.  We were almost directly across from a nuclear power station, which made us nervous about sprouting extra limbs and/or getting in trouble for trespassing, but neither ended up being a problem.  It was a pleasant spot with plenty of room for Lilly to play.

Day 77: W 11/28- NPR & Vicksburg

  This time we were ready to go.  A day of relaxation in the tent had generated more trash and mesh than we had realized and breaking camp was a chore.  We also had to collect the chairs and our rain gear, which we had stashed under the rain fly, from along the windswept beach.  The weather was chilly and breezy, but a far cry better than the day before.

  We made up for our lazy day by making 35 on Wednesday and camping at mile 433 just south of Vicksburg, MS.  We listened to NPR all afternoon, which was a nice treat.  Reception is rather spotty on the river and usually we’re stuck with static.  There were several casinos in Vicksburg that we joked about stopping at, but once again paddled passed for a night of rice and pasta.  The sandbar we stopped on was very shallow and we were lucky the water didn’t rise at all during the night.

Day 76: T 11/27- Zero Mile Day

  At this point in the trip we thought we were beyond the possibility of zero-mile days.  Even in the nasty weather of the north, we had always managed to break camp and at least push the canoe out, even if it was only for a mile or two.  This morning, however, the wind was still blowing hard and we were exhausted.  At first we decided to wait it out, try and sleep and take off around noon.  We snacked in the tent, dozed and by noon had no more ambition to move that we had at dawn.  We finally resigned ourselves to a day off and spent the afternoon reading and cuddling with the dog.

   We did manage to eventually leave the tent to make dinner and call home, but it was chilly enough that we retreated to the tent pretty quick after dinner.  The thunderstorms they had called for had pretty much blown themselves out the night before, but the wind and cold alone was unpleasant.  With nothing to do and no flashlights, we were asleep early after a much needed day off.

Day 75: M 11/26- Stormy Night

  We hadn’t heard any rain during the night, so of course it started sprinkling as we woke up.  It was off and on and we managed to break camp and made food during the dry spells.  During the day the rain continued off and on, but we were well bundled up and the weather stayed pretty warm.  The weather called for thunderstorms and high winds on Monday night, so we tried to look for a sheltered camp.  

  Unfortunately, our timing was off and we had to go around one last bend to find a suitable camp.  By the time we were able to pull off, it was getting dark and we had to take what we could get.  That left us an open sandbar next to a lagoon with a huge dead fish.  We made camp and food with no trouble, but woke up around 10 when the side of the tent tried to attack Aaron.  We spent the next hour or so splayed out holding down the tent with our hands and feet.  We were able to batten down the corners with water bottles and eventually the wind died enough for us to sleep.

  And then it changed directions and it was my turn to get tent suffocated.  This time it didn’t die down and the entire night was a lesson in tent staking.  Aaron eventually made a dash through the rain to the canoe and brought all the paddles we had.  He put the handles through the tent loops and dug the blades in as far as the would go.  This kept the tent on the ground, for the most part, but the wind still wouldn’t let us have a good night sleep.  By morning we were more tired than when we had gone to bed, but at least the tent was still a tent and we were still dry.

Day 74: Sn 11/25- Louisiana!

  After the short day and our Greenville stop, we wanted to make good miles on Sunday.  We ended up going 31 miles, which seemed to fly by.  Paddling for hours on end can become very tedious, so a day like that was a nice relief.  We camped on the MS bank, along an abandoned field that was becoming overgrown.  The weather showed impending rain, but the evening stayed dry.  The day was mostly uneventful, but we did finally make it to the last state of the trip, Louisiana!!

Day 73: S 11/24- Southern Hospitality

     We were just a few miles from Greenville, MS that morning and we decided to stop to resupply while we could.  We stopped at Warfield Park, a large camping and picnic area with water and a charge.  Google said the closest place to shop was a few miles away at a Kroger, so Aaron took off walking while I stayed with the dog to charge the phones, blog and refill water.  After what seemed like ages, Aaron came riding along in the back of a pickup with two nice ladies, Martha and Judy. 

Apparently the Kroger was a Google maps myth and he had ended up walking about five miles to find a grocery.  On the way back, heavily laden with bags, these two ladies had seen him and offered a ride back to Warfield.  They had been picking up pecans in their front yard and sent us along with a bag of those as well.  They were incredibly sweet and we won’t forget their help!  We exchanged contact information and promised to get in touch when we made it down to NOLA.  They also gave us a pack of cola and even some cash so we could get ourselves a real dinner at some point.  After chatting a while and hugging farewell, which is a miracle in itself considering how good we smelled, we packed up the canoe in high spirits.  Those pecans were our favorite snack for the next couple of weeks and we were sad to see the bottom of the bag.

The trip into town had taken so long that we didn’t get going until late in the afternoon.  We stopped at 532 after only going 11 ½ miles, but meeting Martha and Judy, getting water and power and fresh supplies made it a very nice day.

Day 72: F 11/23- Tricky Camping

  We left from 572 ½ the next day.  It was still pretty warm, but the wind had steadily picked up over the previous couple of days so paddling was a bit harder.  We were padding more houses on the MS side, but AR still seemed pretty bare.  Finding camp that night was a little tricky; first we tried a sandbar on the AR side which turned out to be mostly gravel and too shallow to beach safely.  We could see a nice looking sandbar on the other bank, but the river is too wide to see detail across the water.

  When we got over there, they first spot was too steep to make camp and the next one had a deer blind with hunters in it.  We went a few hundred yards down and pulled up onto a steep sand bank broken by deep ravines from rain runoff.  That night we heard then saw a pickup drive by on a two track very close to our camp.  We figured they were the hunters leaving, but were not sure if they had seen us.  No one bothered us, but we had a bit of a restless night.