Another Johah 4:8 day

Once the sunsets and night arrives on the river the temperatures cool down considerably and the effort to propel the canoe is much more bearable. There is still a large group of canoes and kayaks in our general vicinity which makes night travel a little safer because help is nearby if the need arises. Of course my partner, Daniel, can’t stand to have another boat in front of him so we are continuously pursuing and passing the other boats even in the dark.

As I have said before, night or after dark is my favorite time to be on the river. The stars are brighter and the full moon puts out a lot of light which is then reflected off the water. As we watch the surface sometimes a whirlpool or other funny current slips up on us and will give a few seconds of excitement just to remind us that the river is in charge. Our canoe “My Dianna” is sleek and quick but to get that she gives up stability so the funny water always give us some excitement but Daniel and I have adapted to her pretty well and are never close to capsizing.

The 26 miles between Waverly and Miami go by pretty quick and we pull in at Miami where Wayne and Jesse are waiting for us and we decide to take an hour nap. With the hot dry summer there is no need for a tent so we just inflate our air mattress’ there in the parking lot with the plan to take an hour nap.
I asked Wayne and Jesse to make sure some car didn’t run over us. In my mind I thought we should have stayed on the water but once I laid down the fatigues of heat and effort of the day brought sleep swiftly. In what seemed like a few minutes someone was kicking my foot to wake me to get us back out on the river. With landing our canoe and moving it up out of the way of the boat ramp, then getting set up for a nap, the nap, then repacking and a bite to eat took us two hours.

Of course, it’s still dark when we set off down river for the 36 mile ride to Glasgow. An interesting but sad fact about Glasgow, Glasgow was the home of the oldest bank in Missouri and it failed this past year. The bank had been in business since 1852 and was still managed by descendants of some of the original founders.

Sunrise on this stretch of the river reveals more sandbars and wing dikes that I haven’t seen before. The sandbars are inviting and they would make a great place to get out and stretch your legs while looking for treasures if one was not racing against the clock. Sunrise also brings back the heat, without a cloud in the sky today promised to be just as hot as yesterday. Its going to be hot, not as hot as Jonah experienced but nevertheless hot:
"And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live." Jonah 4:8
Some of the paddlers had the same fainting problem Jonah did, not that they wished to die, but several did get overheated and some passed out. The heat had a high attrition rate on this years race.

As the Glasgow Bridge comes into view I’m reminded of the crash there last year when “Goldfish Goddess” got caught up in strainers near one of the bridge piers and was sucked out of her kayak by the current. She talked about doing underwater somersaults as the current pulled her downstream before she could get to the surface and yell for help.

Once again, Wayne and Jesse were there waiting on us to arrive. The Checkpoint here is at Stump Island Park which was an actual campsite of Lewis and Clark when they were going upstream in 1804. The Park is maintained by the city and it has showers and lots of room to set up tents.

We won’t need a tent this morning because we will be "proceeding on" as soon as we get some coffee and breakfast burritos from the ladies manning the refreshment stand. From Glasgow it is a long haul to the next checkpoint at Kat Fish Katy's but first we have to navigate the dreaded "Lisbon Bottoms" which is just a few miles below Glasgow.