Day 94 on the Mississippi river

Day 94

September 8, 2022

Thursday

LRM 645

1650 miles completed

I paddled 27 miles today.

Today’s blog is about Joseph Soloman.

Last night I got up in the middle of the night, after midnight, to go pee. When I went back to bed I checked my phone and saw an old message from Joseph Soloman. I responded to his message and was surprised to find that he was still up. He answered back immediately. We began making plans to meet at Island number 62 on Friday. Joseph works as a guide on the river. He is taking a group of eight people on a weekend canoe/camping trip and they are staying on island number 62.

Also, Joseph offered to help me get re-supplied. After a little fine-tuning of the plan, we finally met up at Delta Landing boat ramp at 1:30 pm, where Joseph brought me water, food, and some cheap sunglasses. He got everything on my list.

We stood at the boat ramp and talked for about an hour and a half. Joe is very interesting. He paddled the Mississippi River last year. I remember reading about him breaking a tooth and having to go off the river to get it fixed. He broke his tooth eating trail mix. He’s also kayaked the Ohio river.

Joseph taught me how to use my radio. He told me about the app “FindShip”, which  gives the names of the Tug boats. The captains are more likely to answer a call if you call them by the ship’s name. Joe told me I should be using channel 13. I was still using 14, which is what I used up north. No wonder I wasn’t talking to anybody.

I’m going to camp Friday night on island 62. I’ll get to see Joe again. Maybe I will provide  local color and interest for Joe’s clients: “Old man paddling the river by himself.“

From the Delta Landing boat ramp to islands 62 is about 11 miles so I don’t have to go very far tomorrow. So I just paddled a short distance and found a nice sandbar on which to camp. Tomorrow I will have to go about five more miles to get to Island Number 62. I will make that my rest day. I will have my goal of approximately 100 miles every four days.

After Joe feeds his clients dinner there may be some leftovers.

PS: I just read about the shootings in Memphis that happened the day after I left.