Sep 8 - Chasing Brits

Full day of paddling. No town stops. We paddled through the Quad cities this morning, and past Muscatine this afternoon, but nothing looked like an enticing stopping point. We paddled by quite a few impressive industrial works - not sure what the are.

We'll need to stop tomorrow to restock our larder.

It's flat here. Really flat. A thin ribbon of river flood-plane forest inside the levee walls, but if you venture past them it's all corn.

Moderate head and crosswinds, but not so strong as to kick up chop. Right now though, snug in our tent, it's blowing like crazy. Should be solid rain tonight, hopefully an interlude tomorrow, and then a real storm tomorrow night. At least that's what a nice lady passing through the campground where we are staying reported, and she described herself as a weather addict and "trained spotter".

Ever since we started this trip we've been hearing reports of a pair of Brits just a day or two ahead. The reports are often a bit unclear, but today we got a good description from the army corp staffer at the last lock. They locked through on Saturday morning (compared to our Monday afternoon). Two single kayaks. Man roughly 60, woman in her 20's. It's likely we'll never see them, as even if we did catch up it's a big river with multiple channels and different choices for town stops. Sure wish we could talk to them to learn about their trip. The Brits are the only paddlers that we have heard are nearby.

Camped at a deserted Army Corps of Engineers campground (Blanchard Island Recreation Area) under the cottonwoods.

River mile 450. Elevation 535.
Two locks today: we portaged the first to get by a big tow and the second was a super fast drive thru (the gates were open and the light was green as we paddled up, and they started closing the gates behind us even before we grabbed the hand line). 19 locks done 11 to go.

We are healthy!!

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