Last morning on The River

This is the best image I could capture of a Bald Eagle....they are magnificent birds, and we saw 26 in the past four days. The defining image of my trip on the MS River will be of the two adults and one juvenile who sat in the trees across the river and hunted all afternoon on our second day out.
 

In the night, our last night on the river, two separate 15-barge tows came downriver, and one went up, passing us almost silently. I woke to a low rumbling noise, and when I looked out, I could see the floodlight scanning the shores of the rivers. It was a little eerie, all that big light, and almost no noise. And, no wake. There is much commercial traffic on the river, and it was exciting to see it. In the late 1800's, there was commercial traffic on the river, but it was dangerous and the channel was no always passable. Low water and rapids shortened the life of a paddlewheel steamboat to five years. When the Corps of Engerineers began building dams and locks in the 1930's, the river and it's countryside was changed forever. We learned much about the consequences of that work at the National River Museum in Dubuque, and I'm so glad I saw it all for myself!

We have a quiet little Honda generator on the back of the boat, to keep the fridge cold. A steel hulled boat wouldn't allow for a gas fridge. No way to vent it (you know I asked!). We've run the generator twice a day, for about an hour each time. This is our last morning, so we ran the generator long enough to make coffee, and turned it off. The sound, quiet as it is, will always remind me a post-hurricane days.
 

The rain began as we break camp Friday morning. By now, we're pretty comfortable with the process of bringing in the three anchors in the sand. Even the wing dams (we call them jetties on the coast of NC) on both sides of our beach don't worry me, now that I'm more comfortable handling the boat. I am not ready to go back to the marina, so we motor down river a little further, just to see what's around the next bend. The scene changes with every mile. It's hard to imagine the old river captains running this river from memory. The sky was dark, then light, then gray, and the rain tappered off. There is more to this little storm, we discover later in the day, but for now, we're glad the rain has stopped. We see more Eagles, and pretty views of the mountains through the mist. By the time we head back upriver to the Fun 'N Sun Marina, the sun is bright. I've wanted for years to make this trip, and it was better than anything I'd imagined!