Word for today: TRIAL. I know, pretty simple word, but I felt today was full of tests. I guess it’s been this way all along, but today I really felt like the final examination started, to see if I can make it the rest of the way.

It all started in darkness and 46 degrees. The traffic on the water was already heavy; in fact my old friend the American Countess passed by again while I was packing up (still seemingly vacant). I shoved off at 6:15 and hugged the shoreline until sunrise brought visibility (mainly making me visible). I don’t like pushing the last light of the day, I guess mainly because it’s harder to find a good spot to stay; and if you don’t you have to keep going in the dark or settle on something like angry beaver camp. But, the darkness in the morning was invigorating. I knew light would be with me shortly, and I felt I’d already accomplished something just by getting going in the darkness.

As I rounded the first bend in the river, the sun was coming up over my right shoulder; I realized that I’m pedaling straight north. That shouldn’t be; it’s time for this river to take less crazy bends. At this point I also realized, I’ve been spelling pedal incorrectly this entire blog (peddle). And none of you called me out on it!?!? C’mon people. Or did you think I was selling something out here while I paddle?

Once daylight came, the scenery again looked much the same. Though yesterday I was passing some industrial facility every 7-10 miles, now it was every 3-5. There were a number of refineries, chemical plants and power plants , along with loading facilities for grains, coal, and petroleum products. Also today, all of these things seemed to get bigger. There were massive cranes, conveyors and pipelines loading or unloading equally massive ships. This was tedious with all of the industrial traffic, but at least some of it was more interesting.

I had been thinking earlier, I haven’t seen an alligator in 2days; not that I missed them, I just thought they’d be fairly regular after seeing one. Then just before 10am, I rounded a corner and saw a group of 3 gators in the water; like a little family. I thought it was kinda cute, but that biggest one concerned me; but my next paddle stroke scared them underwater. Then I saw more gators; some on the bank and some in the water, and they all seemed to be spooked when I got closer (I was never within 50’ of them). Then, the assumed patriarch of this gator gang stood at attention on the bank. He watched me for a while, then slowly slunk into the water; he didn’t scare easily like the others. So I hightailed it out of there and periodically looked over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t being pursued. 12 gators in total I counted in about a quarter mile stretch, then not another all day.

At 10:30 I took a break. Checking my progress: I had made 15 miles in a little over 4 hours; 3.5 mph. There was no wind, but equally zero current. I sat by a buoy for my 10 minute break and moved a few feet upstream while I snacked. So, 3.5 mph was going to be the new expectation from here out. Two days ago in Baton Rouge I said I had broken the back of it; this river has no back, just lots of ways to keep coming at you. I also noted as I sat by this buoy, I’ve noticed many buoys since I arrived in Louisiana have bullet wounds.

Just before lunch I saw two floating cranes loading what I thought was corn from barges onto an ocean going ship. On closer look it seemed like they were loading something much finer, almost like some kind of spice. I passed some other big ships in similar operations, including one called the Ning Tai Hai. Someone from this operation (maybe a crane operator? or the captain?) called out to me from a very loud speaker, but it was in some Asian language I couldn’t understand. Then he came back on and I think he said “wave your hands in the air like you don’t care!” I gave him a tip of my cap. He gave a little laugh and said something again in an Asian language. It was a strange but uplifting scene.

So I’ve had tests with wind, traffic, warmth and, I didn’t want to worry anyone earlier, water. I left Vicksburg with 7 gallons for 9 days; 80% of a gallon per day sounded like plenty. After those long warm days, I was down to 4 gallons for 6 days, then 3 for 5. I started eating my canned soups cold because I didn’t want to waste the water to heat them in. Today I was down to 1.5 gallons to get me to NOLA; I’m sure I can live on that, but it wouldn’t be great. Then, I saw a guy hitting golf balls off the back of a tugboat; he looked friendly enough. “How are they hitting today?” I asked. “Pretty good when I don’t hit the gunwales.” “Do you have any spare water?” “We don’t have any bottles, just a gallon jug.” He went in and came back to hand me a gallon of water. I now had water to spare and was ecstatic. I didn’t even get his name.

15 minutes later, as I’m still grinning about the water windfall… THWOMP! That’s the sound that the pedal makes when it smacks the boat after you break a chain. Yep, 2nd chain broken. Thankfully I was in front of a petroleum loading facility at what looked to be a shutdown refinery. I pulled to shore beneath the dock and pipe supports and went to work salvaging the remaining good chain from the other drive. The process took about 30 minutes, but those weren’t minutes I had to spare. When I got back underway, there was a slight “pop” and then one of the drive fins was hitting the bottom of the boat; it seems the chain slipped. This was inefficient, but I needed to get a few more miles and around the bend where I expected to find camping options; I could fix the drive once I reached a destination.

So I pedaled on another 5 miles and settled on a stop for the night where I could launch before the sun again. I had time enough for a chain repair and a half bath, then quickly set up the tent on top of a raised area about the boat. The final test today: mosquitoes are the worst I’ve seen this trip. I ended up dining inside the tent again, this time so I wouldn’t lose a pint of blood to mosquitoes.

37 miles today; I would’ve certainly hit 40 were it not for the mechanical failure late in the day. I’m looking to get to mile marker 118 or 115 tomorrow; that’s 38 or 41 miles. So a repeat of today should do it and leave me 20-23 miles on Thursday. That’s the plan.

There was not much space in my head today for anything but the thoughts of getting through the day. And it didn’t come easy. Like Ringo said, “You gotta pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues.” I don’t know if I want to sing the blues, but I do feel I’m paying my dues. For the playlist today: Ringo Starr It Don’t Come Easy