Day 35

Day 35
The first order of business this morning was rearranging the canoe so I could haul off a rather large barrel. When I arrived at the sandbar the night before I noticed there was a 20 gallon metal barrel on the beach. On closer inspection I saw that it held a collection of glass bottles and  large shards of household glass. Having glass on the water, at the beach, sand bar or pool is always against  the rules, I have been carrying a piece of glass in my big toe for a week thanks to someone breaking that rule. After rearranging things I was able to load the barrel into the canoe to take it down river to a proper disposal site. The water was calm and I made good time making it to Lock and Dam 12 at Bellevue IA. I was able to lock though very quickly and pulled into the boat ramp just down stream. I unloaded the barrel, emptied, cleaned the boat and threw away a decent collection of other trash I had acquired. Sometime during all this I saw a father and son who are paddling the river come out the lock. I had been chatting with them on Facebook and shouted my best wishes to them as they paddled south. Next I put myself to work finding a BBQ restaurant with sweet tea I heard was in town. I found Flatted Fifth Blues and BBQ without trouble. Taking a seat at the bar I was given the Sunday brunch menu, I was surprised and skeptical to see a New Orleans brunch menu.  The bartender recommended their burnt ends over fries, decidedly not New Orleans but i hoped it was a good choice. I was not disappointed, next I ordered the crawfish beignets with remoulade. They turned out to be the best of both I have ever had, in Iowa of all places. After my tenth glass of sweet tea I left and headed back to the river. The heat of the day had started to pass and I paddled a steady pace till about 7 when I beached at a newly exposed sandbar. Before I could even unload my tent a gentleman called me over to his boat and declared he knew what I was doing and I gave me a fully loaded 3/4 pound burger. The burger was perfectly cooked and so large I wouldn't need to make anything else for dinner. After setting up camp the gentleman came back over and presented me with venison snack sticks, a box of trail bars and some advice on  this area of the river. I did some quick math and was pleased to discover that I have paddled over 800 miles so far. Add to that another great sunset on a sandbar and it makes today one of my better river days so far.