I got up early, drove to Walmart, and bought a new pair of river shoes.  After paying all of twelve dollars for my new sandals, I paused in the entryway to shed my pink, gray-duct-taped flip-flop and don my new shoes.  It felt wonderful to be walking on a pair of shoes that were of [...]

We got up early and ate some peanuts and cheese.  Then we started packing up camp.  The tent was wet, along with most of the rest of our gear; but we needed to get downriver.  We hadn’t made many miles in our two very short days of paddling on the Illinois.  So today had to [...]

We awoke to a heavy fog and decided to sleep in a bit.  When we finally crawled out of our tent, everything was soaked.  I started a campfire with a bit of difficulty, and made a pot of coffee.  Then we drank coffee and ate peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast while the fog slowly thinned [...]

For our fourth annual river trip, my good friend Jerry Craven and I decided to venture across the Red River into the state of Oklahoma.  I lived in Oklahoma for two years back in the 1990s when I served as an English Instructor at Murray State College in Tishomingo (my first full-time job at a [...]