Day 46: Recovering and Exploring

Princeton, La Claire, Davenport, IOWA

I slept in again today. It was nice to be able to do that in a bed. Liz and the kids took off early this morning for an event and Andy was at work. He left me a truck to go drive around if needed. After cleaning my foot and wrapping it, I decided to go out and explore a bit. I drove down to La Claire. I didn’t realize I was passing it and ended up down near Davenport, IA. I turned around and headed back up. I stopped by The Isle casino that was on a riverboat. I dropped in to inquire about taking photographs on the boat when I came back through. I spoke to the casino host and will await his response when he gets back to me. I hope I have that opportunity as gambling on the river is definitely part of the river culture.
I made it back up to La Claire. I stopped by The Mississippi River Distilling Company. I captured a few images and then went out to capture some more. I walked (I use the word walked loosely. It was more of a heal walk/slide.) down to the Buffalo Bill Museum. I found out he was from La Claire. I checked out a few locations by the river before heading back up the the main street. I stopped in the Wide River Winery and managed to capture some fun marketing type of shots. From there I stopped by a few boutiques and then decided to head out. I had done enough exploring for this day.
I made it back to Andy and Liz’s place. I worked on my blog while I waited for Andy to get back home. He had to go to an appointment before we decided to head out to Go Fish. Go Fish is a local bar that is right on the river. Jon, from Lock and Dam #11, met Andy and I there. We had some food and drinks and chatted the night away. I found out some terminology for the river and the boat traffic. I also found out that a fully loaded, single barge can weigh up to 3,000,000 lbs. That means a boat pushing a full load of 15 barges (3 wide, 5 deep) is moving up to 45,000,000 lbs of cargo up or down the river!! That is some BIG business. I was a little taken back by that. I will stay clear of those as I run the rest of this river. The night crept up on us pretty quickly. We tabbed out and called it a night. It was god to get out with the both of them to enjoy a nice night out. Once back to Andy and Liz’s place, I crashed out. There were a lot of mini adventures throughout today. I was tired, happy, but tired.

In the course of this day, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I realized I have been fortunate to meet some amazing people last summer on my motorcycle adventures and this summer. I am grateful for all those that have impacted and touched my life. I can only hope that I am able to do the same.