Page 64 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

For me this early in the season, the tall stalks were brown, dead and the stuff you picture Duck Hunters hiding
in wearing camouflage, an orange knit cap, and a retriever dog. I almost expected going up around the bend to
find hunters…..

Of course, the
course of the
creek being such
as it was before
rainy season
started, I had to
get out of the
boat 50 yards
into my revelry
and drag, drag,
drag……….I
can’t say it
enough times but
when you were

expecting a
mighty Mississippi River ……...this was a real drag.

River gravel made it easy to drag and using my hiking poles made short work of any stability issues. But I
could feel my “mudders” “Rubbers” knee high water proof boots, not the best fit and started thinking blisters
till the water got about 5 inches deep and I was determined to “get in the boats” and paddle. I still was trying to
get Lori pictures before I made it around the bend and out of sight.
Finally the bend was in
sight. I was floating, sort of,
and the turn would head me
north with the sun still an-

gled behind me. Big puffy
white clouds beckoned, I
stood up tall in the kayak
and waved my paddle a last
good by to my wife for the
next 120 days or more. I
could just see over the
stands of dead brown forests
of dry bamboo like growth
and seeing Lori one last time
but a tear in my eye.

(Ok, maybe not, but it sounded good for the book)