A great day with good folk. Rest and a jacuzzi.

The day began with a hot cup of coffee, oatmeal and buttered toast courtesy of Dan and Deb, my new friends from Aiktin, MN. The plan for the day consisted of checking in with my classrooms, making a run into town with Dan and trying to get on the water by early afternoon.

At 9:15 I had my first video chat with a room full of South Dakota 4th graders. I gave them a quick recap of how the trip has progressed, told them a few stories including the swimming bear, and took questions. It's exciting for me to see the intrigue and enthusiasm the kids have.

After wrapping up the first call, I made two more. A second call to South Dakota and one to Northern Illinois. Both went great and followed a similar format. The one key I tried to leave with each class was the importance of kindness. I've found both on the river and in life, that when you're kind to someone, they are generally kind back. Seems to me to be an easier way to get through life. As the old saying goes - it's easier to catch a bee with honey than it is with vinegar. Definitely oversimplified, but still generally true I think.

After the calls I gave Don a hand moving his new industrial size (cookie dough) mixer to a different spot. Turns out, Don and Deb run Aunt Edmoe's, a cookie dough joint at fairs and gatherings around the country. Their next big show was the Houston Rodeo. Obviously hurricane season loomed large on their minds. They also planned to leave the next day for Savanna, Georiga to see Debs son get married. Hoping that all goes well for them and everyone else affected by the storm and coming storms.

Don took me into Aiktin, MN around noon. I picked up some food supply's, a few snacks and after making a few additional stops for Don made it back to the river. After struggling back and forth with myself over whether or not I should get a few miles under my belt I decided to call it a day and take my first "0" day of the trip ("Zero day" for 0 miles). It didn't make sense to pass up good people, warm food and a jacuzzi. Yes, a jacuzzi.

Lori had set me up. And I mean set me up. In addition to letting me stay at her place, she left a cooler filled with the best buttered banana bread I've ever had, jalapeño cheddar summer sausage with crackers, hard boiled eggs, 6 beers, ramen noodles and a bowl of instant Mac and cheese. Plus...she let me use her jacuzzi. I never imaged a jacuzzi would be part of this adventure, but after 269.1 miles of arm propelled travel it felt great.

I moseyed back over to Don and Debs, where pizza was on the menu. A bonfire, a few cocktails and good company made for a great night. We traded stories back and forth. Lots of funny ones seemed to center around some of the questionable employees the two have hired over the years. Stories, talk of the river and life in general carried us past midnight.

I headed back to the tent full of food (including an unhealthy amount of Aunt Edmoes famous cookie dough) old memories brought to the forefront in the form of story, and a pair of folks now friends.

Good people and good times on the Mighty Miss.