May 1st Journal Entry

Woke up to rain again. Hoping for sunshine, at least a bit, later. I have most everything packed up and ready to load when the last two boats are repaired and sealed.
Lorrie and Mikey are still asleep. They will get me to the river this afternoon, I hope. I have to walk uptown to pay the phone bill before I go. Big thunder!! I am going to put gasoline in the Jeep before they wake up. Back soon.
At 3PM I started loading the Jeep with my clothes, tools and bedding. Lorrie and Mikey have been out since noon. When all is packed aboard and the repaired hull and paddles tied on top , we set out for the river. We dropped the repaired hull closer to the now not so flooded river bank. Mikey and I had to carry the boat forty  feet to put it at the edge of the water. Mikey took on step too far, sank in the mud and almost lost his cross trainers. He leaned back over the boat to stop his sinking and gradually pulled his feet free. He walked back to solid ground by staying inside the canoe.
We then carried the next least damaged boat to the water. Tomorrow I will sit in the repaired boat and pull the leaky one behind me to Donnie Turner's "Blue Cat on the New" launch ramp. I will then bring both canoes ashore.
We tied the most damage boat on top of the Jeep and hauled it down to Mr Turner's camp ground. We unloaded everything else. I hugged Lorrie goodbye. (She hugged first) Made my day!
Put a camp together, and ate white corn from a can and oatmeal cooked in the empty can. I started working on the leaking boat seams. Donnie came by and unloaded a family who had been on the river today. I offered to help . but Donnie said it was his job.
I went back to sanding the sides of the split seams. Donnie came over still worried about my adventure. I told him that an inflatable raft was coming and he was pleased. He said my little canoes would not survive the ledge and falls beyond Radford. I am sure the inflatable will be here by then. Seems all the river folk are sure my makeshift trimaran will break apart on the the class 3 and 4 rapids there.
I know these can survive a 3, but never a 4. I wouldn't run a 4 in an open canoe anyway. I'll look at one of Donnie's oared float boats tomorrow. I may change my order with the raft supplier.
Meanwhile, I will patch up these hulls and move on to lake as soon as I can. The end of the day is near, night is falling, the breeze is gentle, puffy and intermitant. I'll stop writing and go over to the showerhouse to clean up.
Good night, Father.