Day 83 Mississippi River
After a peaceful night perched on a small sandy bluff overlooking the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers I rose early with plans of making Greenville, Mississippi, a 45 mile paddle, by night fall. At sunrise I poked my head out of the tent to find a wind out of the west and clear skies. Following a quick breakfast and pack up I was on the water at 8:15am, one of the best start times yet for this morning sloth.
Thinking I would have to contend with wind all day, I was pleasantly surprised to find it relatively calm on the big river. I pushed through for much of the day, not allowing myself the usual pauses in action to sponge out the boat, scratch an itch or fidget with my gear. I was on a mission towards Greenville.
In the afternoon I noticed thousands of Canadian geese flying overhead, shifting and forging various V formations, flock after flock.
Around 2pm I closed in on Greenville, happy with the time I had made. An hour or so later I reached Lake Ferguson, a back channel body of water that Greenville sits on. Looking at the map, I discovered that it would require quite the effort to reach town, paddling up stream 6 or 7 miles. I stopped at a park near the intersection of the main river and Lake Ferguson, pulled my boat up onto the bank and walked up hill. A white pickup truck with a park service decal rolled by and I flagged it down. The gentlemen inside rolled down the window.
"Is there any good way to access town in a canoe?"
"What you need?"
After explaining the situation the fellow offered to drive me into the dollar store to get a resupply. Awesome. While in the car, I remembered that someone had a similar issue to me regarding getting into Greenville and had posed the question on the Mississippi River Paddlers Facebook page. I checked out the comments and found a local named Park Neff had posted his phone number, offering to help out paddlers as they came through. Figuring I would give it a shot, I sent a text to Park, feeling out the situation. Right away my phone rang with a Mississippi area code. Park, on the other line, immediately offered to put me up for the night. Perfect.
After making the stop at Dollar General, Park met me back at my boat, picked me up and we worked our way back towards town. A Paddler himself, Park had completed the entire Mississippi in 60 some days a few years back. A Southern Preacher and now pastor at the local Methodist Church, he often took through paddlers in.
A stop for Mexican food was met with shared stories of Parks adventure down the Miss intermingled with my own. A gifted story teller, Park described situations on the river in detail and in an interesting fashion, learned, I'm sure, from preaching the Lords word.
After dinner we drove back to Parks home where he began his working life as a 9th generation Mississippi farmer (4th generation on the current land). He introduced me to his wife and gave me a small tour of place. Before walking out the door to the quaint guest house where I would be staying, I asked about the grand piano in the foyer.
"You know Archie Manning?"
It turns out, the old piano that sat with the inner workings exposed was once the Manning family piano. Archie grew up not far from Greenville, and when his sister took over their parents estate she auctioned off many of the furnishings, and Park, an Old Miss man, came away with the family piano.
Once set up in the guest house I kicked back, took a shower, watched a few snaps of Monday night football and made out a handful of postcards.
The plan is to be on the water early tomorrow morning. With Vicksburg 100 miles down river, the Mississippi Delta rolls on.