Day 3, Saturday

Day 3, Friday
391.8 miles

The weather is beautiful today and I was pretty tired all day so made a lot of stops.  I wasn't able to find a camp ground for quite a while but did eventually find something.  The place I stopped had a bunch of tent sites, problem was, they were all flooded out.  I was able to get a spot but had to kick the geese and their parade of baby out and then clean the mine field of goose poo.  I didn't have time to stop at a store so it was beef jerky and trail mix and water for dinner.

After I had set up and got settled in, a guy came strolling over.  The place is a mix of what Doug called hard shells (campers), tents (I think I was the only one) and a mobile home park.  Doug owned a place there and was one of the full time residences.  We chatted about my bike and my trip, and then he said he had a bike - how about a come over for a beer and see it.

Doug

Tucked away in his garage, he had a sweet purple and black, fully dressed, 1996? Harley Electra Glide. Awesome.  And that beer was probably the best I've had in quite a while.  I asked what was up with all the water flooding the place and Doug said it was from the Mississippi river.  Huh?  He said, yeah, it's right over there behind those bushes, and pointed about 150' down at the end of the road.
We went over to check it out and I took a couple pictures, but they don't begin to show awesome the river is. It doesn't flow fast - about 6 miles an hour, but it is a massive amount of water and flows with a lot of authority.  I knew that if I dove out into it, I would not be back on shore again for a least a mile, if in fact I could get back.  All I could think about when I saw it was Tom, Jim and Huck, building and sailing their raft down the river. Doug said that he once took a 6 hour canoe trip down the river - I am definitely down for that some day, but I'm thinking a log raft instead.

Mississippi River

Full moon over the Mississippi

Early the next morning, Doug came over to wish me luck and gave me a few round, hard plastic wall patches for the kick stand on my bike. I was parked in the grass and was using a split piece of firewood to keep it from sinking in!

Doug, hope to see you here when you get that computer figured out!