Day 11 - Keepin' it Real. Keepin' it Natural.

Remember how we said the beginning of the river was so small that it seemed like the Mississippi Creek? Well, this part of the river is so big that it’s more like the Mississippi Ocean!

Dam!

In our canoes, we can travel at about 6mph. At that speed we can cover thirty miles in a matter of a few hours. We never imagined it would be this fast. However, the locks and dams slow us down considerably. We’ve gone through four locks so far, and one we were stuck in for nearly two hours!

Five Star Hotel? More Like THOUSAND Star Hotel!

On Thursday we landed on an island to make camp. It was hot and we needed a place to swim—a place where the water wasn’t moving so swiftly. After a little exploration, we found a rope swing someone had made. It hung over a spot along the shore where the water was still, like a little swimming hole. We must have played in it for hours. Before we knew it, the sun was going down and the air, after days of being hot, was finally beginning to get colder. It was almost like our whole world had gone for a dip to cool off.

 Our comfy island accommodations did not stay comfy for long. Friday turned cold and wet, but we paddled through La Crosse so quickly that we got to spend most of the day off of the water and writing music. One song we made was about a hummingbird (because we were feeling particularly small on the big river) and another one was about staying in a thousand-star hotel with king-size river beds and gold leaf pillows. Ahhh...

We've met a lot of cool people so far on our trip. In fact, there is a man from Scotland at our camp right now. He's canoeing down the entire Mississippi! We gotta go talk to him. We're going to find out how much he loves adventure...and Braveheart. See ya 'round the bend!