Overview

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In the summer of 2008 I will be taking a pontoon houseboat down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico. It will be my home and vessel as I descend the mighty Mississip. This will be a healthy and relaxing trip, an adventure worth experiencing, and a good-livin-hell-of-a-time. For six years this trip has been living as a fantastical goal within me. I know the beginning is around the bend, and that makes me smile like I just lost my training wheels.

The boat is not traditional in many ways except for that it floats. It is a unique HPB (human powered boat) that in basic appearance looks like a hybrid between a cataraft on steroids and a traditional houseboat. There are four different systems of propulsion that can be operated individually or in conjunction with one another. Its primary form of power comes from two pedal-driven-propeller stations located at the stern on both sides of the boat. They resemble recumbent bicycles with a propeller instead of wheels. In addition, there is a set of oars for rowing on the front deck. The boat also has, for those occasions when the current is strong, sweeps that can be operated from the top of the cabin. Sweeps are long oars that resemble gigantic hockey sticks. They protrude fore and aft of the boat and are used for steering and lateral movement but not necessarily to gain downstream momentum. Lastly there is an outboard motor that can be used in emergencies, for safety and to make up lost time.

The 3-foot diameter inflatable pontoons are 22 feet long and are attached to a frame constructed from 2” Aluminum pipe. The frame also doubles as the skeletal structure, which supports a hanging floor, two side decks, a front deck and a cabin. Plywood that is cut to the right dimensions and fastened to the aluminum pipe forms the floor and decks. As for the cabin, it is waterproof nylon, canvas and mesh all sewn together and fitted around the aluminum pipe. Inside the cabin there are four berths, a living area, a kitchen and storage. Oh yeah there is a bathroom too, outfitted with all the amenities a camping king would expect.

From June through August I’ll weave approximately 1800 miles through 10 states to the ever-nearing Gulf Coast. Geographically speaking the Mississippi River is separated into two sections, the upper and lower, with the dividing point lying at the confluence with the Ohio River. Both section are as unique as they are long and will offer a river front glimpse at Middle America. One major difference of the Upper Mississippi is that it is a series of pools created by channel dams, while the lower half is free flowing. Due to this, the average current will be much faster downstream of the Ohio River. Along the way I will ‘lock through’ 27 locks, visit the homes of Mark Twain and Elvis, dodge barge traffic, and do some fishing and sunbathing. I intend to explore as much as possible, learn what I can and enjoy life to brim.

If you’d like to come, believe me, I want you to. In fact, I want as much company as possible. The cabin will sleep four, so I hope to have three others with me at all times. The invitation is open to everyone and anyone, family, friends, friends of friends, and especially to characters I meet along the way. There is an itinerary in the blog archive that will help you choose when, where and for how long you would like to join the adventure. Don't worry; I expect the trip will take me 100 days, so you'll have all summer to fit in a Mississippi get-a-way.

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Shad Flies for a Quarter

I've heard of using snow plows to remove hail from streets. I've also seen dump trucks laying sand on top of snow to create traction for tires. I wouldn't have believed anyone who told me that Iowa has to employ both plows and sanders to help deal with the shad flies until last night. They hatched by the millions and clung to everything including me. A shad fly is a little bigger than a dragonfly. It's meal worm shaped body is doubled in length by two spindly tail hairs and it holds it's two front legs up like a praying mantis. They are clumsy fliers and crash-land with a thud onto anything and everything. They had completely blanketed the world by the time Captain Ike showed up on his steam-wheeler Pickett Hastings. I joined him and his crew for some pizza and river lore. Ike, Mike and Drewhad all had a full life on the river and spoke of places long gone as if it were yesterday. None of them were too bothered by the hundred of flies that were clinging to their faces, hands and backs. I pretended not to care either but secretly thought "this is freaking crazy, lets go inside." If we had not been wearing clothes no one would have taken noticed except for the fact that we were still outside. When I shifted my wait I crushed three generations worth of shad flies and with every step it sounded like we were walking on bubble wrap, pop, pop, kathrop. Mike and Ike argued over which town has the worst shad flies. Sabula in '63 or was it Dubuque in the summer before the great flood of 1993. I felt pretty sure that I was about to be carried of by the critters and couldn't imagine much worse. Speaking through a beard of shad flies Ike commended the creatures for their watery births and bragged on their cleanliness. "They don't have any germs and they taste pretty good too." He recalled one summer when his uncle employed him to eat the flies at a quarter a pop. "I ate more flies that summer" he said as if there were other summers when he hadn't eaten quite as many. It might have been one of those river whoppers but Ike claimed that it was that job that earned him the money to buy the Pickett Hastings.

My courtesy curtain for the bathroom

The pilot house is really white, that is just a layer of germ free shad flies

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I read that shad flys (aka mayflys) are the oldest insects on earth (300 million years). The female lays eggs in the water, which hatch and live underwater for about two years. They finally emerge in mass from the water simply to mate, and live only a day or two. One swarm rising up out of Lake Erie was reportedly so thick that it was picked up on doppler radar.

Pa

July 7, 2008 at 4:28 PM

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