July 26: LaCrosse to Genoa, WI. 21 miles

This first day was the longest day of the trip. We were awakened at 5:00 with Huey and the News telling us "It's Hip to be Square".... I can live like this! We packed up, made a lunch and walked to breakfast. All restaurants are warned ahead of time when we are passing through, but I think maybe they don't really believe that over a hundred people will be looking for breakfast at the same time! There was one waitress and one cook where we went. I walked around and poured coffee for us all--the place was full of Rumblers and a few locals who surely were wondering what in the heck was going on!

It was a lovely morning and I took some photos while leaving LaCrosse. It's fun to see us all out on the river in the morning. We all enjoyed seeing people we knew from other Rumbles. This is only our second year, but there are many people who have done this trip every year since it started--that would be seventeen times I think.

We paddled through Hummingbird Slough today (rhymes with through). It's nice to get off the main river for a while--usually there is more to see in the sloughs, and we saw a bald eagle today. Too far away to photograph, but it was a sight to see, soaring high overhead against the blue sky. We saw some barges on the river, not really a lot of traffic though, which is nice when you're out in the big river in a little boat.

It was a lovely day--we had a mild tailwind which was especially helpful near the end of the day when we crossed the pool above the lock. Tomorrow we start the morning with our first lock of the trip. We saw hundreds of swallow nests under the bridge on our way into Genoa.

Dinner tonight was Genoa's famous fried catfish, not exactly our cup of tea! We walked to the only store in town and Bill got a turkey sub. I went back and ate the catfish... It was surprisingly good, served with baked beans, coleslaw and an ice cold beer! I met a man named Tom who was very interested in how we got so many boats through the locks--I invited him back to watch us in the morning but he said he had to work... I promised to post photos of the whole operation for him. No wireless service yet on this trip.