Day 53: Davenport

I was dropped off at my boat this morning by Andy and one of his sons. We unloaded the gear and began to load the boat. I said my see you laters to them as they had plans for the day. Both Andy and Liz have been important new friends as they have helped me out while my foot healed. Their acts of kindness and hospility will not be forgotten. I began the load in. I had a shower and clean clothes and was ready to go. My boat host came out to help me launch. He offered to help me if I needed it while I was in the area. I always say that there is a ton of nice and kind people in this world. He was just another example of that. 
  As I was getting ready to take off, my phone rang. He looked at me saying that he thought the ring tone sounded familiar. It is of the banjos from Deliverance. If I can’t have a sense of humor on the river trip, I got nothing. I answered it. It was a morning news director from NBC affiliate KWQC in Davenport. He was checking my timing as to when I would arrive in the city. They wanted to do a video interview with me about my adventure. I set it up and headed out. I had a nice tail wind and I was ready to move. I was simply happy to be alive and on this adventure. I clipped on down the river hitting LaClaire first. I looked at things from the rivers perspective today. I had seen it when my foot was healing from the land side. I passed the town and was heading toward Lock 14. They had an industrial side and a pleasure craft side. I went for the pleasure side. It just sounded better. I was half way down when the owners of the Rocky Mountain Replacement boat said hi to me. They were from Boulder but now live on the river. The boat was part of their trade off. They called ahead on the radio to see if the pleasure lock was open. I found out it is but only on weekends. I ended up turning around, heading upstream, and around the dike to the main lock. 
  After passing through, I hugged the Iowa shoreline waving hi to people by the water. I met these two lady runners that were out on the shoreline. I stopped to talk with them. Ann asked me to come closer because she wanted to give me some smoothed out beach glass. I accepted it and thanked them for their kind thoughts. I was about 8 miles out from Davenport when I decided to pull over to make lunch. I pulled into a water inlet and up to a dock that had 4 kayaks and a paddle board on it. I figured that would be a good place. I went to see if anyone was home to ask for permission, but no one was there. I sat up lunch and enjoyed the peacefulness of the water around me.
I made it into Davenport and was eyeing Lindsey Harbor Yacht Club as a port for the evening. I pulled in and Ryan met me on the dock. I asked if I could park my boat here for the evening. I let him know about my adventure and he was completely cool with that. I docked and headed up to the marina. A few minutes a new camera man from KWQC, a NBC affiliate,  came down to interview me. I had the opportunity to let others know what and why I was doing my adventure. It was my first time in format of a tv interview. It went smoothly. He let me know that it should be on the news later that evening at 6:00 or 10:00. I went back int to the marina and was talking with some bar patrons about my journey. They were all excited for the adventure I was on. While talking with then, Cyndee and Ericka  walked in. I photographed Cyndee when I was up in Prairie Du Chien, WI. They wanted to reconnect with me when I was in Davenport. We jumped in their car and went exploring. They took me around Davenport so I could see the city from land. We went to an overlook to see the bigger perspective of the city. I just sat up on a bench and smiled. I was happy to be alive and traveling. We swung by a burger joint to get a bite to eat. I have a fondness for good burgers in the Midwest. We had some fun conversations and enjoyed the scenery. We dropped Ericka off at her place and Cyndee took me back to her place. We stayed up having fun and debating conversations before calling it a night.
I felt really alive today. It was something in the air, but there was a recharge button that I must have hit. This adventure will be one to provide a lifetime of memories and I could not be happier.