I hate to say it, but we're almost done with the trip. I know I know that means you have one less distraction to help get you through your day, and for that I apologize. However, we’re sick of sweating our you know whats off in the canoe. So, now that we've gotten that out of the way here's your weekly rundown from 08/14-08/20.

Weekly Miles: 240
Total Miles: 1889
Remaining Miles: 325

Day 56- 10 Miles: Helena, Arkansas to right outside Friar’s Point. We took our sweet time getting in and out of Helena- West Helena. It's an old Civil War town, and if you do some walking you can check out Fort Curtis (or at least a replica of it). We found out the hard way no restaurants in this town are open on Mondays, (seriously, some ancient farm tradition or something) and ended up treating ourselves to gas station wings.
Day 57- 45 Miles: Friar’s Point to right around Snow Lake. I can confidently say this lake is severely misnamed as there wasn't a snow flake in sight! But, do you know what there were plenty of? Moths! I thought we had stumbled into one of Egypt’s great plagues with the amount of critters flying among us.
Day 58- 47 Miles: Snow Lake to Arkansas City (give or take). It may be called a city, but let me say we didn't see more than five houses from the river. Not much to report on yet another hot day, expect we spent a lot of time criss-crossing the river to avoid barge traffic.
Day 59- 33 Miles: Arkansas City to just beyond Route 28. Made a trip into Greenville, Mississippi with the goal of buying groceries. Unfortunately, the nearest supermarket (or in this case Walmart) was seven miles away! So instead we settled for the convenience store only four miles away (did I mention I’m not a big walker). Thankfully, we were able to hitchhike most of the way there and back. This included riding in the bed of a pickup going about 40; it was awesome.
Day 60- 55 Miles: Route 28 to Transylvania, Louisiana. First of all happy two month anniversary to us! Did you get us anything? Oh, I see. No no I'm used to the disappointment. We fought valiantly, and today crossed into Louisiana (for those counting it’s our final state). We camped on a sandbar outside the small town, and were treated to one heck of a lightning storm across the river.
Day 61- 30 Miles: Transylvania to just outside Vicksburg, Mississippi. Please understand that simply saying this day was hot would be the understatement of the year. This was one of those afternoons where even sitting in the shade left you in a full body sweat. I'm ready to blame Tom and Liz from New Hampshire here as my New England upbringing did not prepare me for this Mississippi heat.
Day 62- 20 Miles: Vicksburg to Palmyra Creek. It turns out our guardian angels aren't done looking out for us just yet. Heading into town we were picked by a very generous man named Randy, along with his trusty terrier companion. Not only did Randy show us the town, he first let us shower (we must have wreaked) before insisting we use his own car to run our errands. This included a trip to the Vicksburg National Park (the site of a famous Civil War battle). If you're in the area fork over the $15 because driving around the old battle field was an eye opening experience. Also, Randy, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your unselfishness.

A Look Ahead:  It’s crazy to say but we only have one full week left. If you missed our latest podcast (shame…big shame!) then you didn't hear we picked an end date. In order to let our folks see us stroll into New Orleans our last day on the river will be August 31st. Pretty crazy if you ask me.

(Paddle on Us! Paddle on.)