Day 3/4/5
Had a beautiful nights rest
And woke up to a beautiful paddle
Nice long 18 mile day
Explored a haunted abandoned house and probably got asbestos poisoning and seriously say that would be the least concern haha
That same field had 200+acres of soy beans
We sat and had lunch amidst a beautiful view over the river and reeds
Everything is so peaceful
So many turtles sadly no snappers yet
Passed our first person finally but they were going up River and into a house from a pontoon boat
No other kayakers yet or canoers
It was really crappy Traci lost her iPod which was a birthday gift to her and we are all disabled veterans and though nobody says it I know we are all similarly strapped for extra cash
I think I am still numb... This trip is amazing but I'm not feeling much... I thought more would kick in but we have many months to go until we are done... Not everyone will understand being emotionally numb and that's fine
Then a super short day of 4 miles for a long day in town of bemidji where the local vfw put us up at the Hampton inn they shared food and stories of fishing and local town celebrities as "grumpy old men" was filmed here
Got some tips on fishing I hope to apply tomorrow
Finally finished my book
"Life on the Mississippi" by mark twain
Next reading
"the theory of everything" by Stephen hawking
And also a great first read before making this kind of trip would be "the first 100 days"
I think somehow I am still just putting off reading my textbook for school to get a pre start but mainly because I don't think I could do that and paddle
We were supposed to leave the next mornin. However high winds in the 30s put us off the water as swells of up to 3 ft were expected
And this isn't even the biggest lake! Winnebegoshish is coming up and has had 7ft swells from the wind but a really cool one we should hit tomorrow after makin up some miles is one of two in the WORLD where it's "a lake, on an island, on a lake, on the river" which is pretty crazy and I can't wait.
We were very fortunate that thy gave us a night out of our pockets at 90$ so we pooled money together and shared a suite
Lots of pizza and bonding over tv series naked and afraid xl premier
We outfitted the boats a little better for the pups so now they have an optional shade that is a cooling mat we can pull back, they'll be happy
We also glued our trinkets to the boat
My good luck Buddha from Iraq
A paul Bunyan statue for Nate
Traci found this solar powered hula girl
And we will have to find a Michigan something for Dan
We went to the local art fair to look around and even though I was only looking for elephant ears I managed enjoy seeing what hey had to offer and get a few ideas for some wood projects in the future
We also visited the interactive Paul Bunyan and Babe museum but I will have to obtain hat photo later
Early morning tomorrow we have to make up 20+miles across to large lakes and into a few river streams But we will be fine. Got a couple great silhouettes of us paddling hopefully better ones later
We saw sand cranes and lots of them what cool birds, a few Eagles, a few Hawks, oh yeah and I've been picking off ticks and bloodsuckers everyday and I seriously never remember leeches and bloodsuckers being this big as a kid!?!
We had to portage the boats over lots of downed trees
The people everywhere are so nice here and supportive of us
And then we hit the most northern point of the Mississippi River making it all finally south bound (aorta) from here, if you missed it earlier we had to paddle north for a long ways before actually heading south you might have to zoom in on the photo to read the sign on the door
My wife's belly "popped" today and I know her and bough she's been expecting this to happen I know she's a little self conscious about those things so I hope she knows how beautiful she is. Just as the day I met her
I hope the new stretchy clothes fit and as always wish you were here baby I love you
Portaging around one of many dams on the river
We get to lake Bimidji and are spoiled
First off we must say this is where we said goodbye to our initial guides and help who were there to make sure we weren't to crazy and didn't get exceptionally lost
So goodbye for now
Mark, Dennis, and Shaun
We were hosted by the local vfw chapter at the Hampton inn at lake Bimidji
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