Day 41

Day 41
I woke up early to the sound of thunder in the distance so went back to sleep. I finally got up around 8 and packed up with the sound of thunder still rumbling in the west. I paddled for about an hour before the first rainstorm of the day caught me, it was short and thankfully not much wind. After several hours a barge started to close up with me from behind. I paddled over out of the channel so he could pass me. As he was passing me I noticed white smoke coming from the rear of the tow boat, the smoke started to turn gray and then black. The deck hands were grabbing fire hoses and spraying into the back of the barge as he drifted slowly out of the channel. I paddled past him and put to shore to watch the show. Several small tow boats were racing in his direction to try and help him but before they could get there the front barges crashed into the bank pushing over several huge cotton woods. With the fire seeming to be out the deck hands went to the front of the barges to help the small tugs. After they got the barge out of the woods and back into the channel the fire restarted. As the barge drifted towards the sandbar I paddled on my way. A few miles later I spotted a large eagles nest and it appeared it was made up almost entirely of trash, poly tow boat ropes and black plastic being the main building materials. I paddled on toward Burlington IA were I stopped to fill my water container before pushing on. Just south of town a large thunderstorm started to roll over the river, with the wind blowing very hard I paddled onto a sandbar and set up my tent. I thought it would be a quick storm but it rained for several hours so I took a bath and cleaned out the canoe. After the rained stopped a beautiful rainbow appeared while i made dinner. Another good day on the river.