July 13, 2013

our final training run for 2013. kaw point to waverly, 74 miles. the story of this trip was the amount of activity on the river and the epic, ceaseless, demoralizing headwind. right out of the gate we had headwind, not a good sign, the wind was coming out of the east/southeast and since we were heading in an easterly direction that meant a long day lay ahead. oh well, good training right? under the broadway bridge we spotted a beaver crossing right in front of us, so sam raises his paddle and gives the water a good whack while yelling "beeeaverrrr" and he may have startled the couple on the jogging path. such is life.
  we also saw 2 bald eagles, 12+ basketballs, 2 river camps, 2 dozen or more fishing vessels, 1 gar, 1 dredge , 1 moving sand barge, and 1 kayaker going upstream.
  my food supply was a little light this trip, i really needed 1 more savory item and i would have been fine but as such the last few hours or so were spent thinking about this big ol burger i was going to have once we got to waverly. i kept talking about it to sam, and as we rounded the 2nd to last bend coming into waverly (still 4 miles out) i could almost smell the burgers, then i could almost taste the burgers. i am telling all this to sam and we are laughing and carrying on but then he smells it too! just then we realize there is a cabin on the north side of the river with a grill going the deck cooking burgers. we did not ask for one but they were very nice and remarked about us having a good ol time out on the river.

 even though there was a miserable headwind we managed to keep a pace that was the same or even slightly better than last year. all hope is not lost but our dreams of a 65 hour finish may be in jeopardy. as i write this 2 days later i'm a tad sore but am ready to get back on the water. for whatever reason time on the water went by pretty quick last weekend, maybe there was less to worry about? the moon? who knows, regardless a week from tomorrow we are going to give it a whirl.

  our lovely spouses have agreed to ground crew for us this year, i want to thank them publicly in advance. i hope they know what they've gotten themselves into.

taking a break in the headwind, sam trying to demonstrate how windy is was...

river doods at waverly.

bitchin sunset at waverly.