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Dear Mom and Dad, 

Great on the Father's Day card...we are a good team in the card department, me thinks. 

For the moment, I have a down-the-river focus.  I got up at 4:30 AM this morning, and was on the road by 5:30, to Ft. Dodge.  I left the tow car at a boat ramp just above the hydro dam. 

I got various waypoints marked at bridges above the city, and found the confluence of the East and West Forks of the Des Moines River by 8:30.  As I was getting ready to put in, a good soul came down to the water and warned me that a large dam was just down stream.  It's part of an abandoned power plant, and I knew it was close by because of the description in the Iowa Fishing Atlas.   I asked if it was possible to portage, and he said it was, but that it would be better to go around to the other side and put in below the dam.  (he also said several people had died trying to go OVER the dam, which I do not do EVER. 

It was a pretty long trip to the other side, through Humboldt and then about 4 miles back south.  The old power plant was eerie, being well-maintained but utterly abandoned.  There was a chain link fence around the plant and no trespassing signs everywhere, so I couldn't even get a look at the shore by the dam.  After about an hour of getting nowhere I gave up and headed back to Ft. Dodge. 

But, along one of the roads I had scouted previously, I found a little access ramp only a mile or so below the dam, and that's where I put in.  I had a great row (12 miles or so) complete with rapids, herons, and friendly folks who chatted from their decks by the shore all along the river.  Margaret's aunt and uncle had wanted a look at the kayak, and they met me around 2:15, so I had a great chat and showed them all the amenities of the cat-n-the-hat kayak, including the amazing GPS.  I recovered the tow car and the van, and pulled into Des Moines before 6 PM. 

So a good day it was, on a day when MJS was at work.  I'm now at 180 of the 400 miles in my trip from Minnesota to the Mississippi. 

It's off to DC, and I'll contact you from there.  Have a good week, and say a little prayer that the flood waters stay far away from us. 

Love, 

Gigs and Megs