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 [...]

Last evening, Jerry and I had found an excellent campsite just in the nick of time.  But we’d had no time to enjoy it.  So we’ll pick things up with the two very refreshed travelers awakening to the sounds of birdsong and the whisper of the river just as the light was getting strong enough [...]

Yesterday on the Wateree ended with Jerry feeling much better, which was an incredible relief.  When you’re in the middle of nowhere, an illness or injury that might not be serious back in the comforts of civilization can be life-threatening.  We’ll start our third day on the river a little before daybreak, at our lovely [...]

We left Jerry and myself sleeping fitfully under the I-20 Bridge over the Wateree, hoping that the river didn’t wake us unexpectedly in the night. When we awoke, just before dawn, the tent was still mercifully free of riverwater. But it sounded as though every semi east of the Mississippi was crossing the bridge above [...]

For our third annual river trip, my good  friend Jerry Craven and I decided to expand our horizons beyond the borders of the Lone Star State. I lived in South Carolina back in the 1990s when I was getting my MFA, and I canoed many of the Palmetto State’s rivers then.  One that I missed [...]

We left Jerry and myself sitting beside a bonfire and sipping cool intoxicants beneath a carpet of bright stars.  Jerry might even have been telling a fish story or two.  We’ll pick up just after sunrise, with Jerry back on the riverbank starting our last day on the river by trying to catch the biggest [...]

We left our intrepid, but exhausted, travelers sleeping like dead men on a high sandbank overlooking the Brazos River.  We find them again just after dawn, taking in a sunrise made particularly lovely by the Gulf clouds carried up by the south wind that blew all night.