October 28th. Day 26th. Random bayou near New Roads to Baton Rouge, LO

We woke up to the fun splashing of river otters at play. We decided to sleep in because we now knew that we would make it to New Orleans on schedule and with time to spare, so why rush? Wade continued to sleep though and Jenny and I got the boat ready to take off and then Jenny drove.

The weather was a little chilly, by the end of two hours Jenny was cold and wanted a change. Since the wind is sheilded at certain areas by the trees as the river snakes its way south, it is quite common to go from choppy water that soaks you as you crest each wave to calm waters with nary a breeze and back again at every bend in the river. At least it wasn't raining. Wade took over and lasted a good four hours long while Jenny and I watched a movie entirely in French. Obviously, we are in dire need of some constructive entertainment . . .

I took over for the rest of the day and I would have to say that what stood out for me the most was the smell. In my opinion, I think it was switching between the smell of a sewer and sometimes it was the refreshing smell of saltwater. However, Wade described each and every smell on the river the same way - smelling like "burnt toast". Evidently burnt toast has various aromas. Halfway through my shift I came upon the capital city of Lousiana -Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge is at the head of the deep water channel that leads to the Gulf of Mexico. This stretch of the river is highly industrialized, with large chemical plants, grain elevators, and petroleum refineries (all of which smell disgusting). Baton Rouge is the nations seventh largest port, and the river between this point and the Gulf we were told is crowded with ocean going vessels and towboats on top of the barges. Our sources turned out true as we came upon our first ocean liner on our Mississippi journey. MUCH bigger than the barges that daunted us once upon a time.

The river certainly was crowded, though. We arrived near town a few hours before dark and the thought crossed our minds to camp before Baton Rouge so we wouldn't have to rush through the city, but the ever constant hope that we can find a dock in these big cities compelled us to attempt it. Alas, it was not to be - big cities dominate the river with their industry and there was not one dock to tie up to and every bit of the shore was parked with barges waiting to be moved. Wade called the city of commerce to see if they could lead us in the right direction and we were told of a dock through a lock that we could stay at.

We made it to the lock just as the sun was setting and a quick radio call told us that if we wanted to get through it there would be a three hour wait as two barges were in line ahead of us. As we were debating what to do and trying to stay out of 4 different barges's way, another barge called us on the radio and told us to get out of his road. Immediately, we moved on and our chances at stopping at Baton Rouge disappeared with us down the river.

We went another 20 mintues and by this time the sun was almost down. We DID NOT want another spotlight excursion in the dark. With all the barges surging around us and as the buoys are so much farther apart now it would have been extremely difficult. The GPS didn't have any signs of niches or streams that we could get off the river, so we hung close to the shore and thankfully got lucky. The flooding created little islands that were not normally present and we were able to tuck behind one of these with just enough light left to tie off to a tree and toss anchor for the night. We could see the city from a distance but couldn't get to it and had to settle for chicken and rice yet again.

Slightly disheartened that we were stuck on the boat yet again we watched a movie and went to sleep with hopes for a chance to stretch our legs on the morrow.