If you’ve been following my last few posts you know Ive been doing more camping than kayaking the past few days. Well, while I was holed up there in the tent I came down with a case of PADDLE FEVER!

I awoke at 530 as usual and all I could think about was getting my feet wet, getting my hands wet, telling the river I was gonna break its face.

Well, all in good time son. First I had chores to attend to in town. My necessities were water, shelter, food, power. Owensboro was laid out nicely that I didnt have to do any more than 6-7 miles of walking–but 8 got it all done, except for the shelter bc I received the wrong pole (my mistake, seriously – we shall try again for the correct one in Paducah.

But all in all it was about the best in-town day I could have asked for because everything was near eachother. My power pack charged for 5 hours and is still only 2/3 out of 4 bars full – terribly inefficient. So I may start treating myself to a hotel every couple weeks so I can charge it overnight and not waste a day in town (yea, THATS why I’m staying a night inside).

But, chores taken care of I load everything up and look at my watch and its exactly 530 pm. 12 hours in town and 0 miles to my name. Looks to be another short day…unless you have the fever.

In O’boro I only intended to push it until I got tired. Two days of rest though created a restless Zach and I find myself outside the Newburgh lock at 3 am. I truly love locking – its as close to an “open sesame” slash massive wall/door opening for you experience you can have. You feel like youre entering king tuts tomb. Well last night this tomb smelled like DEATH. There was a line of barges to get through and I wasnt going to wait so cut everyone looking to portage (carry my stuff around the dam). Sharp rocks around discouraged this idea, so I gave the lock a call expecting to anchor to the dock and wait in line for 3 hours. Nope, I got a special invite to the front to go into the little lock, for little boats-still literally 10x my height, I counted. But as the doors were opening I got the idea that theyd been closed a while. Within 10 feet of eachother floating on the water was a dead opossum, rat, and catfish–O H I O. I’m guessing the little boat lock hadnt been used since the 4th of July when everyone was on the river or prob the 6th more likely, a sunday. But it was nasty.

Anyway, the fever got me through 32 miles of crisp, flat river top with minimal effort. I now sit in Evansville, IN–after a good nap and a big breakfast, still plagued with this terrible fever. 🙂

Me to the Kroger clerk, “I’m going to need all of your eggs, all of them”.