HALFWAY

Ahoy, land lovers! A lot has happened since my last post. For one, we officially passed our halfway point for the entire trip on Thursday. It took us exactly 60 days. If the Mississippi lives up to its rumored current, we're hoping to do the second half in around 30 or 40 days.

Our halfway point was at mile 876.5, just before the town of Cave In Rock, Illinois. This town was named after, you guessed it, a cave in a rock. The cave can be seen from the river and has a history in the pirate game. Outlaws used to hide in the caves to rob unsuspecting travelers. We checked the cave out and it was bigger than we had expected; also pirate-less. The town itself has a population of 350, and everyone we met was extremely friendly. Being the halfway point, we treated our self to dinner, then a much needed breakfast the following morning. I say much needed because we endured a storm that night that we weren't quite ready for. I had my tent half set up when the brunt of the storm hit. It sent my tent cartwheeling across the camp, eventually wrapping around a tree. I eventually got it staked down but everything in the tent, including myself, got soaked. Storms like these can be exciting, for sure, but only when you're ready for them. Shawn's tent was already staked down but ended up getting pulled out, soaking all of his gear, as well.

We've been in the Shawnee National Forest for the last few days. Lots of wildlife through here. Our Bald Eagle count is now up to 25 for the trip, and I was finally able to get close enough to snap a picture of a buck on the bank. I also saw our first snake the other day. I believe it was a Corn Snake.

We saw the American Queen again today; this time on her way to New Madrid, Missouri. We saw her at port in Paducah, then again at the lock downstream. We had to do our first portage at the lock. Luckily, one of the crew members at the dam drove us around once we got our gear up the hill. The lock was built in 1929, which makes it extremely slow. Because of this, we ended up beating the American Queen around the dam, but she quickly caught up with us. We then watched her take off down river, folding stacks down to clear the bridges. She's rumored to be the largest of her kind ever built.

I guess we made the Erie Times newspaper this past Sunday. We had talked to a fella a couple weeks back about the story. It turned out to be a decent article, I suppose. I did, however, want to clarify that we do not get hotels or stay at campgrounds at night, As the article said. We've only gotten one hotel in Cincinnati, and hit two campgrounds in total. The other 61 nights have been spent on the banks of the river.

As I've mentioned in past posts the Ohio River has been a battle the whole way. This river is no longer appealing to the paddler; at least not in low waters. However, It is finally winding down and we are beginning to feel the pull of the Mississippi in the waters. We are a mere 40 miles, and one lock away from the Mighty Miss. In just a couple days we will be hitting her muddy waters. Once we do, we only have around 954 miles to go- all downhill.