Progress report
October 6 to October 12
51 days...900 miles...1/2 million revolutions with 4 million paddle strokes for each of us
so far...We are about half way through the duration of the trip....
Monday, the warm climate is finally back, so Ted slept warmly, even needing to strip off some of
his gear. I had no luck trying to connect via long distance to the Internet this morning, so a growing stack of progress
reports remains to be transferred to the webpage. I also must have a lot of email to be answered. At 8:15 we launched
into calm warm weather with a 1/4 mile visibility through the fog. Soon the fog thickened, and we had to move close to
shore sacrificing some aid from the 1 mph current. At 9:30 the fog lifted, and a light 3 to 5 mph headwind constrained our
speed to 3.9 mph. With a reasonable effort we reached the Executive Inn Marina at Owensboro, Kentucky at 1:00. (18 Miles)
No one was at the docks. I left Ted with the boat and went to look for Arlene since she wasn't there to greet us. (We had
made pretty good time, so I could understand, since she had to move to a new motel today.) I (scraggly with grease covered
clothes in a life jacket) walked through the passages of the swanky Inn, past shops, conference rooms, and fancy restaurant
through the elegant lobby to the front entrance. There the doorman was graciously assisting Arlene with directions to the
docks. This place was really not our style so we grabbed the sandwiches Arlene brought us and set off for French Island
Marina 8 miles downstream.
We pedalled on, eating our sandwiches as the sun warmed us and then began to bake us. The
wind had stopped, and we began shedding clothes as we began to sweat. Our neopreme booties were really getting stinky, and
they were the first thing we shed. Our jackets and long underwear tops came off soon afterwards. We started drinking a lot
of water. It felt like summertime again. In a couple of hours we spotted Arlene waiting at a dock a little short of the
French Island Marina. She hadn't been able to find any marina personnel, and she waved us in to the best dock available
on the shore of a recreation area. There was no activity in the area, and it made no sense to go to the marina itself.
The boat was grounded next to the dock, so as we moored, we had no fear that a drop in water level would leave us hanging
from the non-floating dock. One large tree had fallen some time ago and had crushed the adjoining dock. We joked about the
remaining large trees, whose roots had been eroded, and hoped the wind would not blow hard tonight.
Near French Island Marina
Leaving French Island in the fog Tuesday morning
At 8:15 in shifting fog we launched and travelled down the narrow channel on the Indiana side
of French Island. Before we went 200 yards the fog secreted us in its cover, but we were off channel, so we had no fear of
tow boats crushing us. I optimistically planned on 25 miles to Evansville, Indiana even though we had the Newburgh lock to
contend with. With a radio call, 20 minutes before arrival, the gates were open as we pedalled in. The Newburgh lock
screached and howled its ghostly song of moaning mooring pins sliding down their channels. This and the last lock were the
only ones that have sung their greaseless song to Ted and me. We made excellent time through the lock, and with zero wind
we made our 25 miles to Evansville at 2:45.
There was Arlene standing on the extreme reaches of the Inland Marina docks waiting for us as
usual. Her demeanor was solemn as she presented us with the bad news. The axle on the trailer had broken 20 miles short of
reaching Evansville. Her angel, Dave, pulled over and helped her dismount the trailer, and get it off the narrow roadway.
He contacted his Uncle Joe who met me with his trailer later. Joe and I pulled up to our disabled trailer after dark and
winched it up onto his trailer. He hauled it to a friends house for an assessment, and I decided to have Joe take it to
Jonesway Trailers tomorrow. I was back at the motel with Arlene at 9:00 and worked on the Internet stuff. We were going
good, but it looked like we were going to lose some time.
Wednesday morning at 5:40 I awoke from a dream that I had to recall. It was the old west,
and I was in a bustling, saloon housed in a rough wooden building. A dead soldier's wallet was on the floor. I picked it up
and found a variety of notes within. I went to the bar and saw a lonely beer sitting on the bar. I took a drink. A large
fellow jumped out and asked what I was doing with his beer. I told him I would buy him another. I met Miss Kitty, from
Gunsmoke, at the bar, and she said a beer would be five dollars. I thought that was pretty steep, but I had no choice. I gave
her a ten dollar bill, I eventually found in the wallet, and she gave me too much change. Suddenly you could see a horde of
calvary soldiers riding in toward the saloon. I thought I was in for trouble, so I snuck out a rear door into deeper reaches
of the wooden building that housed the saloon. Through one decaying room to another, I opened doors looking for a hiding
place. I passed a 59 Chevy wagon half buried in the wooden floor and spotted a large shelf littered with clutter
in the rear of the room. I decided to hide there. Two desperate men were already hiding there with their six-guns drawn. I
pulled my six-gun and prepared to join them to fight it out with the approaching army from there.
I had seen this scenario too many times in my dreams, and I knew it was hopeless. I walked back
through the decaying rooms and out of the saloon into the street. There was no activity, and I continued peacefully down
the street. While walking, I opened the wallet and found that most of the notes that I had briefly viewed before, were
cartoon strips cut from the Sunday paper. I discarded those and stuffed the remaining bills in my shirt pocket. I passed
a few shops on the way out of town and eventually came onto a band of gypsies gathered around a semicircular buffet table.
They were friendly and concerned. (reminded me of all the good folks we had met on the river)
They took me in and offerred food. Eventually I was assigned to take a canoe trip down the canal with a small boy to procure
more supplies. Two women in another canoe followed us. The small canal soon shallowed and became a roadway. At that point
the women left us to go on our own. Within a few hundred yards the roadway again turned into a canal. The small boy jumped
into the water and seemed to be in distress. I pulled him from the water. A ten-foot diameter water tank appeared where the
water met the road. The boy jumped into a half foot hole in the side of the tank. As I wondered how he did that and how to
get him out, a demonic voice admonished fron the tank that I couldn't have him. That awoke me.
Wednesday morning we went to the Inland Marina, picked up Ted, and brought him back to the motel.
By 8:00 Arlene and I were at Joe's house ready to follow him to Jonesway Trailers. At Jonesway we unloaded the trailer and
arranged repairs. We had a day off from paddling, but we had a buffet lunch at Golden Corral and were rewarded with a great
newscast by Channel 14 (NBC) in Evansville on the six o'clock news. We also were interviewed by the Reagan, from the
Evansville Courier Newspaper.
Evansville, from Inland Marina
The six o'clock news report was very good, and Ted did an excellent interview. Our trailer
won't be ready till tomorrow. Our day off felt good even if it was for the trailer. Don't expect updates for several more
days since our next local internet access is in Paducah, KY.
Thursday we have changed our clocks to central time although clock time should mean nothing
since we are booked by the sun. We left a little late from Inland Marina in Evansville. Ron, the owner, was there to wish us
best wishes, and we appreciated the hospitality we had there. Winds were light, and we pedalled hour after hour hoping to
make as many miles as possible to reach Uniontown, KY in two days. We arrived at Henderson, KY at about 10:20 and were
interviewed by the local press an hour later. We ate the lunch Arlene brought us and continued on at 12:20. Diamond Island
was about 28 miles downstream form Evansville, and we hoped to make that, leaving 21 more miles to Uniontown for Friday's
schedule. As we approached the island, sprinkles of rain began to dot the water. We pushed on hoping to get as far as
possible before landing. The imminent storm forced us to land soon, and we hurriedly unloaded the boat and set up the tent
just as the rain began in earnest. We settled into the tent. Soon the lightning and thunder began, and the wind contorted
the sides of the tent. Within an hour the winds subsided, but the rain continued to fall for an hour lulling us to sleep.
By 11:00 all was quiet except for the coyotes cries resounding about the island.
Friday, the muggy morning dampened my energy, and I delayed getting out of the sack till 7:00.
We packed our soggy gear and launched at 8:15. (central time) We put up the sail for the first time in three days, and
that was because it needed to be dried. The light breezes did not help or hinder us. We finished 21 miles and landed at
Uniontown, KY at 2:00 just as Arlene pulled up to the bay we had entered. We had to raise the rudders to enter its shallow
mouth. Several people who had seen us on TV came over to talk to us. Arlene told us that Jonesway had charged us $390 for
the new axle, wheels and tires, and lights for our little trailer. I guess that's the price you have to pay when you don't
have the time to look for a good deal. A used trailer would have been cheaper. We dried our gear while we ate the meal she
had brought us. She had a copy of the Henderson Gleaner newspaper, and the story on page one was excellent, except they
consistently used the word peddling instead of paddling. It sounded as if we were trying to sell our boat. Anyway, the
pictures and story were appreciated by us. That's what you get with a computer spell-checker. (I am not using one, as I am
sure you have noticed from my frequent misspelins.) Ted lost one of the lenses out of his glasses today, and Arlene gave
him his spare pair of glasses. Ted also wants to say, Hellow Gene, K.
Drying gear at Uniontown, KY
Saturday we arrived at the John T. Meyers dam in dense fog. We heard the lock master telling a
waiting tow that he couldn't even see him at the approach walls. We had to wait an hour for that tow to go down, and more
for the lock to refill. The Marine radio that John Paul Jones gave us finally showed its charge was getting low. After more
than two dozen locks and frequent conversations with tows, it was long overdue for a recharge. It's a great radio.
The fog had lifted by the time we exited the lock, and for the first time ever, the lockmaster
was in a hurry for us to leave and only opened one gate, and told us to leave our mooring and proceed to the gate before
it was even open. We shot through the gate and hugged the shoreline to avoid an upbound tow. We had an easy day with mild
winds and arrived at Shawnee Town at 1:00. As we approached the designated meeting place, a couple in a powerboat came to
greet us and say that Arlene was waiting on the opposite shore at the Blackburn public access site. We crossed the river
to find Arlene. She told us that the landing on the Illinois side was rocky. Goodbye Indiana. Hello Illinois. But we are
on the Kentucky side for tonight.
After we unloaded the boat and set up the tent, Arlene took Ted for shower, meal and church
while I worked on replacing the port paddlewheel and crankshaft. Chris had shipped a replacement hub, and I spent the
afternoon removing the steel crankshaft, its mounts and the redwood paddlewheel. The shore we were moored at was muddy,
and we would sink into it 6 inches when we were near the water. I had some extra time waiting for Arlene and Ted to return,
so I scraped some of the scum off the hulls.
Scum on the hulls before cleaning, KY
Blackburn landing across from Shawnee, IL
Sunday, at six am, The winds were strong, and as we left the motel Arlene said they were
headwinds. I wondered how she knew from there what the winds were like on the river. Then I realized, that of course, if we
had winds they must be headwinds. At the river Ted was rejoicing that the winds appeared to be favorable. According to the
wind measuring device that my son, Douglas, had given me, the winds were 8 mph gusting to 12 mph. They were coming from the
north, and our course was to be mainly south. We had barely paddled away from shore when Ted became anxious to raise
the sail. Soon the paddlewheels were spinning on their own, and since we now had the two aluminum systems on board we were
able to quickly remove the cranks and hubs from the frame and stow them onboard. Without their resistance we were able to
sail smoothly at 4 to 7 mph for twenty miles. Ted was in heaven piloting our ship down the river with the greatest of ease.
As we turned west three miles away from Cave in Rock, IL, we had to re-install the paddlewheels since the wind was shifting
and not always favorable. But, it was no strain, and we arrived at Cave in Rock at 1:00. Arlene was waiting with Subway
sandwiches. After eating we made adjustments to the new paddlewheel and took off for another 8 miles to Elizabeth Town, IL.
At 4:00 we arrived and had done 31 miles total. 1020 miles done so far. 57 days into the trip. E-town restaurant was next
to our dock, and by the end of the evening residents of this very small town had donated $71 to the ALS Association.
Elizabeth town, IL
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