Day 53 Mississippi River

I woke up early to cloud covered skies and enough of a headache that I contemplated my decisions the night before. The forecast called for on and off rain throughout the morning, with it picking it in the late afternoon. 

I packed up the tent and made breakfast under the cover of an overhang that protected the deck of a beautiful log cabin home that Pam rents out on a nightly basis (the cabin was unoccupied.....I hope). 

I hit the water and began working my way South toward a rendezvous in Quincy, IL. An old college friend of my Moms (whom she hadn't seen in 25+ years!) had been following the journey and offered to put me up for the evening. 

A slow morning of paddling was punctuated sometime around noon, when I pulled over to a sandy shore, laid a hat over my eyes and took a short nap. 

Sometime around 1pm I called Jane to work out a plan for the evening. As it turned out, Jane and her husband Garry were near me at the moment, in Canton, IA. With that in mind I cruised for about another hour to Lock #20. As the gate on the south end opened I saw two heads poking above the viewing fence, with waving hands. As I got closer I understood that it was in fact, Jane and Garry. 
After exchanging introductions (in which I learned that my Mom was the maid of honor in Jane and Gary's wedding), we unloaded my gear, stuffed it into Garry's jeep and tossed the canoe on top. 

A short drive later we arrived at AAPL🍎Lake, a beautiful property that Gary had purchased a year ago as a hunting, fishing and general family retreat. Once there I got my first introduction to Missouri. One of the gentlemen helping Garry with some of the various projects around the Lake was the Mayor of the nearby small town (pop. 400), affectionately know as "the Mayor". He wore a cutoff tan t-shirt, shorts, leather work boots and a baseball cap tilted sideways, not out of an attempt to be stylish or cool, but just due to the fact that that's the way the hat sat on his head. 

The Mayor had a strong southern draw, and told a few funny stories of the surrounding community as he and Gary walked around the shed, discussing what projects needed to be done. 

Shortly thereafter Gary and I went on a cruise around the property in the Argo- an amphibious machine similar to a gator (I had only seen them advertised on hunting shows before. Man are they sweet). The highlight was driving from shore into the lake, then cruising across the lake as if in a boat, only to pop out back up onto land across the way. 

Following the grand tour we drove a half hour or so back to Gary and Jane's home in Quincy, IL. Laundry, a shower, grilled steak dinner and homemade cookies helped restore me to a new man. 

After dinner the three of us sat around the TV, shooting the breeze and watching game 1 of the Cubs vs. Dodgers NLCS series. Both Jane and Garry are diehard Cub fans in the heart of Cardinal country (bless their hearts), and with me bleeding Cubbie blue as well we enjoyed taking in the game. Enjoyed, that is, until the outcome dampened our spirits. 

Following the loss we called it a night. Jane and Garry graciously offered to put me up tomorrow night as well. My plan was to make a game time decision tomorrow morning on if I would stay another night or not, depending on the weather and how I was feeling. 

Great day, awesome afternoon at the Lake, baseball, steak, cookies and great company. What could be better?