Dear Reader,
Last night we had Zero internet at our camp in the ditch. Then this morning at 5:00 am we had three bars! How odd! How does that even happen?
But we were happy and since the temperature was a cold 46 degree we made it a two-cup of coffee morning in bed while we surfed the net.
We got on the water at 10 am by which time it had warmed to a cool 67.
And tonight we are still in the Ditch.
We paddled 12.5 nm, from descriptively-accurate Spoil Bank 1 to Spoil Bank 2, entirely in the ditch.
A ditch is a ditch is a ditch.
The sky was blue. The wind was light and mostly at our back. The water was calm. And yet it was a grind. A long, monotonous grind, paddling against the current for 8.5 of those 12.5 nautical miles, past pine tree after pine tree.
Without a change of scenery it’s hard to gauge your progress. And when pulling against the current for three and a half hours straight it’s hard not to hurt.
There were few beaches to pull up on and the shade left us shivering. But if we stopped paddling long enough to drink water we’d find ourselves going backwards, losing all our hard-earned work.
My chant for painful, monotonous paddling is “Row Row Row Your Boat” but today instead of “gently down the stream” it was “painfully up” the stream.
Today, for the first time, I actually pulled over to take ibuprofen. John and I each took two, and then got right back out there paddling. And you know what? No sooner did the ibuprofen kick in than the current changed direction and we were smiling. How sweet it is to go with the flow instead of against it!
And the scenery started to change. There were some strange trees. A few boats.
Another bridge of course and a Park with a gazillion trucks parked with boat trailers. Two Bass fishing tournaments were about to end, we were warned by some fishermen.
And sure enough, here came all the boats from the direction we were headed. We skedaddled.
Passed up an abandoned house, the only house we saw all day. And settled on a camp on a bank near the trail’s waypoint. Dinner tonight? A super simple Mac n Cheese with Vienna Sausages and an apple.
We are alive.
We are healthy.
We are adventurers.
Goodnight!
Cheers, Susana