Day 39

Day 39
I was up and on the water early again this morning, I had a town stop to make and packages that I hoped were waiting on me at the post office. With the help of a decent current and nearly no wind I covered the 20 plus miles to lock 17 by just after noon. As I was approaching I saw a very large barge waiting to pass through. I knew these large barges would take at least an hour and a half to clear the lock so I asked the Lock Master if I could paddle through one of the open gates on the dam. I knew several paddlers in front of me had to been permitted to do this at this same dam so I was surprised when he said no. He told me to give him a minute and he would see what he could do. Soon enough a Toyota pickup and two dam employees pulled up and announced they were going to help me load my things and canoe into the truck and drive me around the dam. I thanked them about a thousand times as we unloaded on the far side of the lock. It was a short paddle of one mile into the town of Muscatine IA were I was supposed to have several packages waiting. I made my way over to Boonies Grill and ordered a quick bite to eat before calling a cab to take me to the post office several miles away. At the post office they had two of my three packages waiting and I was soon headed back towards the river to figure out my next move. I was looking pretty rough at this point since i had split the crouch on my pants when I slipped and fell in the mud reloading my canoe at the dam. I decided I would try stay in town for the night if I could find a cheap room because I wanted to get the other package from Wolf River Conservancy. A quick google search showed the cheap motels were 5 miles and a $20 cab ride away. There was one very nice hotel on the water but I knew from past experience that looking and smelling homeless does not tend to help when trying to negotiate a cheaper room rate. I called my sister Dana and asked her if she would call the hotel and try and talk them into a cheaper rate for me. She texted back shortly and said she got a cheaper rate and paid for my room.  Of course I was very thankful for her for doing this for me as it was not expected. After refilling my water container and throwing away a large collection of cans and other garbage from the river I checked into the hotel. The room was super nice and the shower was absolutely amazing. Next I called Cobra to talk to someone about my radio not working, the man told me to remove the battery pack and smack it against something hard before reinstalling it. I did as he said and the radio started to charge up. I opened the boxes from my Mom and sister and was happy to find replacement pants and other goodies. I grabbed a quick pizza from a local place and ate it before falling asleep thinking about all the nice people who had helped make my day so good.