Leanne Davis is another solo female kayaker who started just a day after Jake and Julie. The three of them paddled together for the first month of their journey before Leanne left the river for a wedding and Jake and Julie caught up to me. Leanne went to high school in the Quad Cities area, and hooked us up with her highschool buddy Jared Mullendore who has been one of our favorite river angels so far. His grandparents' old house is right on the river and is where he lives with A.J., another of Leanne's highschool buddies. Ever since we arrived, Jared has been chill, welcoming, fun, and bright. Rather than having to be a spectacle, it's been super comfortable here to just relax, gather our strength and reserves and rest up. Jake was feeling sick when we got here, and now I'm sick too (just a head cold). It's been amazing to have had a place to work on my blogs and rest. THANK YOU Jared!!!
We arrived on Friday, late afternoon. It had felt amazing to sleep in at Camp Hauberg. It was a chilly morning, and I got to enjoy a warm breakfast brought to us by the camp owner, and then snuggle back down into my sleeping bag. We paddled the 13 miles down stream to Bettendorf in a leisurely fashion, and when we arrived, we took showers, started some laundry, I settled in to do some work on my computer and Julie enjoyed watching TV. We had planned on going to the baseball game or to the music festival, but it was rainy and we felt like resting instead. We hung out with Jared when he returned from work, and it was really nice.
Saturday, we had a large breakfast. Leanne, who had been paddling like a mad woman for several weeks to try to catch back up to Jake and Julie, got a ride with Jeremy (yet another highschool) friend to come hang out with us for the day. After so long of messaging each other on Facebook and hearing stories about her, it was great to meet her! We all went for icecream to start the day off right. Then, at the festival, I brought my computer to work on my journal entries. A lot of the day, I sat at the back of the festival at the tent they had set up for young (middle and highschool) bands. I thought it was awesome they had that! There were blues, metal, reggae, jazz, and ska bands. Some were better than others, but it was rad to have youngsters playing (mostly very well!) for us! Jake has determined that the best thing to do in all situations is to tell our story. Because when people hear our story, they often want to help out in some way. At the festival, he went to buy dinner, and he told his story to the ladies there who insisted on loading him up with ribs, pork, and all sorts of comfort food. Enough for 4 people! Later in the evening, I wandered back to the main stage with J & J and we found Meredith (our river angel back in Dubuque!) with her mom and sister. We enjoyed listening to the darling Kacey Musgraves, and then stuck around for enough Yonder Mountain String Band to say we finally heard some bluegrass. The mandolin player was on fire, but we were pretty sleepy.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are a blur. I felt sick, and spent most of my time working on cleaning out the caches on my computer and updating my blogs. We had several good meals in there, and watched a bunch of television. In the meantime, Leanne had returned to her boat and caught up with us for real. So now our river family is four! The plan is to leave here (for real this time) at 4am and have a long paddle tomorrow. I still feel cruddy so we'll see. But I'm grateful to have had a place to chill while I felt sick.
We arrived on Friday, late afternoon. It had felt amazing to sleep in at Camp Hauberg. It was a chilly morning, and I got to enjoy a warm breakfast brought to us by the camp owner, and then snuggle back down into my sleeping bag. We paddled the 13 miles down stream to Bettendorf in a leisurely fashion, and when we arrived, we took showers, started some laundry, I settled in to do some work on my computer and Julie enjoyed watching TV. We had planned on going to the baseball game or to the music festival, but it was rainy and we felt like resting instead. We hung out with Jared when he returned from work, and it was really nice.
Saturday, we had a large breakfast. Leanne, who had been paddling like a mad woman for several weeks to try to catch back up to Jake and Julie, got a ride with Jeremy (yet another highschool) friend to come hang out with us for the day. After so long of messaging each other on Facebook and hearing stories about her, it was great to meet her! We all went for icecream to start the day off right. Then, at the festival, I brought my computer to work on my journal entries. A lot of the day, I sat at the back of the festival at the tent they had set up for young (middle and highschool) bands. I thought it was awesome they had that! There were blues, metal, reggae, jazz, and ska bands. Some were better than others, but it was rad to have youngsters playing (mostly very well!) for us! Jake has determined that the best thing to do in all situations is to tell our story. Because when people hear our story, they often want to help out in some way. At the festival, he went to buy dinner, and he told his story to the ladies there who insisted on loading him up with ribs, pork, and all sorts of comfort food. Enough for 4 people! Later in the evening, I wandered back to the main stage with J & J and we found Meredith (our river angel back in Dubuque!) with her mom and sister. We enjoyed listening to the darling Kacey Musgraves, and then stuck around for enough Yonder Mountain String Band to say we finally heard some bluegrass. The mandolin player was on fire, but we were pretty sleepy.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are a blur. I felt sick, and spent most of my time working on cleaning out the caches on my computer and updating my blogs. We had several good meals in there, and watched a bunch of television. In the meantime, Leanne had returned to her boat and caught up with us for real. So now our river family is four! The plan is to leave here (for real this time) at 4am and have a long paddle tomorrow. I still feel cruddy so we'll see. But I'm grateful to have had a place to chill while I felt sick.
Small comforts make a big difference. Camping, for instance, on flat grass instead of tilted sand is AWESOME.
Lazy morning
Gravel mine? Building site?
Le Claire IA from the river. Cute.
 Normal lunch fare: carrots and peanut butter. |  Normal lunch fare: "kayak caprese"--tomato and string cheese. |
2nd nitrates/nitrites measurement. Still low so far.
I sent off my 2nd box of microplastics water samples to ASC!
 Port Byron, Illinois |  A local Must-Do. We all ordered Mississippi Mud sundaes! |  Fair food |
 Squashed ladybug! This tattoo idea is one I've had since I was a kid, but this is the first time I've seen someone with it! |  Appropriate Mark Twain tattoo on Leanne |
Fish otolith that Julie found and gave to me for luck!
Leanne in front of the house she used to live in!
Julie and I are sporting the tops that Patty in Lansing IA gave us!
Listening to Kacey Musgraves with Jake, Meredith, and Julie
Kacey Musgraves
One of our many delicious meals at Jared's
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