TheBanyanTree: Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee - Part V

[B Drummond]

After about 3 miles more of paddling, the sun doing its best to turn  
me into a raisin,  more shoals, albeit milder ones, and constant  
anticipation of seeing the bridge over the river at Franklin around  
every crook and bend in the river that I paddled up to and then  
around, I began to notice that that vigor was starting to fade.

Heat, sun exposure, a dream trampled under foot, and a gnawing sense  
that one may have been made a fool of can have odd effects on a man.

"Those must have been country miles," I found myself muttering as I  
paddled on in the heat.

I'd lost the desire to fish.   Gradually the edge, the thrill of  
seeing new vistas, new flora, and even the sight of deer caught  
unaware (because of the noise of some shoals)  and drinking from the  
river as I approached, paddling determinedly toward an goal that was  
supposed to be around the next bend, if  not that surely around the  
NEXT bend .  .  .  that raison d' etre was gone.

"That was a mean joke to play on a man," I muttered as I plunged the  
paddle deep in the brown waters and pulled hard.  "A mile or two, my  
foot!"

Maybe their momma's always told 'em don't never tell an alien the  
truth, I surmised.

But I paddled on, drank from the water jug regularly, and tried to  
stay upbeat --  but durn, I had to admit,  it was getting to be  
harder to attain than mastery over Chinese calculus.

What I had figured was already 3 miles of paddling with no Franklin  
bridge in sight turned into what had to be 5 miles or more of  
paddling down the river and the afternoon heat, fatigue,  
disappointment, and frustration was taking its toll.

By 4:00 p.m.  and more miles, I was an mere automaton with a paddle  
in my hand and steam in my innards.

No, Franklin was not a myth.

(raise the paddle, move it forward, dip, PULL!)

No, I had not  taken a wrong turn in the river.

(raise the paddle, move it forward, dip, PULL!)

No, I had not gone down the wrong side of an island and down a new  
river.

(raise the paddle, move it forward, dip, PULL!)

No, I would not spend another night on the river.

(raise the paddle, move it forward, dip, PULL!)

No, I can keep on paddling, its got to be around the next bend.






End of Part V


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