New Madrid

It has been an uneventful few days since launching from Cape Girardeau. I love uneventful! It got really cold, 25 degrees, a couple nights, but I think we're turning a corner getting into warmer weather.

As always, the wind is the deciding factor. Had a couple headwind days and a couple tailwind days.

Barge traffic has definitely picked up since the Ohio confluence which was huge.

The river is so low, the channel is pretty narrow in places even though this is bigger water than I've seen. The other day, a tug captain told me I'd better just stay where I was on shore when I was trying to launch...curious, I agreed. It wasn't long before the biggest barge so far came through a very tight section of the channel. I counted seven wide, and watched as the water displaced left my foot and the canoe on dry ground while he passed. Amazing!

Yesterday, it warmed up and was a day for flying spiders. I'm not prone to paranoia...I swear these things chased the canoe on the surface of the river. They were everywhere. We collected a fair amount from their 'balloning' silks, too. I only found 10 in the canoe so far.

Today, worst headwind in a while followed by a thunderstorm. Then, the sun came out😀