River and Bayou

Awoke to a nice breeze from the south. Not strong enough to make paddling difficult, but hopefully pleasant enough to keep the THI on the cloudless river at bay for a few hours.

As is becoming habit, I woke before dawn. Made coffee by light of a full moon and enjoyed a few moments just relaxing and watching a large thirty barge/tow combination push by upstream as the sun came up. Back in my Navy shipboard watchstanding days, we used to call this time of the morning “pink time.” It was the best time of the morning at sea – the ship was still shaking off it’s night slumber and the day’s activity hadn’t yet begun.

So as the sun came up, so did the start of my day’s activity. I broke camp, loaded up the canoe, stepped off the muddy river bank and into the canoe’s cockpit, and continued my journey downstream.

Today’s destination was the marina in Memphis. Here I would secure the canoe and my gear for the night and head a mile down the road to a nice hotel in Harbortown on the city’s riverfront Mud Island. A shower, shave, cold Coke, and night of air conditioned comfort were within reach. All I had to do was paddle and drift just over twenty-one miles, avoid the increased barge traffic as I approached the city, cross under the Interstate 40 “M” bridge, make a left turn into the harbor and paddle up a half mile of slack water to the Mud Harbor Marina. Which I hoped was opened.

It wasn’t.

When I arrived at the Marina about 1 PM, I was exhausted and not feeling very well. I’ve been extra careful to stay hydrated while paddling on the river under the blazing sun, so don’t thing that was the problem. Rather, I think I was just low on salt – potassium and sodium. Either that, or bloated with water and so not eating enough food. Anyway, my energy tank was empty and I wasn’t about to leave the marina and paddle back onto the river to find a campsite for the night.

So I sat at a table under the marina’s shaded veranda and waited over an hour for someone to show up. No one did. Taking my chances, I tied the canoe up at an available slip, grabbed a clean set of clothes, my laptop, valuables, a small stuff sack containing my toiletries, and started walking the mile or so through Memphis’s nice Riverfront Park to the hotel. It was going to be a long walk with more than a few stops on a park’s bench in order to rest. Like I said, I didn’t have any energy left. But I had willpower. And enough humility to coax a short ride from a nice Italian couple visiting the Riverfront Museum in the Park. I didn’t catch their names, but they were the second pair of ‘trail angels’ I’ve met so far.

So now I sit at a desk in my hotel room catching up on my blog entries. Two iced-down cold Cokes and a huge turkey sandwich by my side. I’ll wake early tomorrow and take in the hotel’s complimentary breakfast before making the walk back to the marina. Re-energized and ready to paddle on.

There’s a 40% probability of thunderstorms tomorrow night. I hope they materialize. The temperatures only get down into the mid-70’s at night. Rain to cool things off a bit would be a blessing.