I started my day a bit late today because I wanted a solid breakfast as I knew it was going to be a long day.
I looked around for a standard coffee shop breakfast but that wasn’t an option. The only thing open was Thyme & Spice which offered breakfast.
As I looked at the menu, I had 2 options.
- A breakfast bowl highlighting cauliflower
- A breakfast bowl featuring Brussel sprouts
I would rather boil my sock than eat Brussel sprouts so the cauliflower it is……. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!
Who knew, but the chief / owner makes a mean dish! Solid food!
Now back to grab my boat and hit the water. I left it at Jeff’s paint shop corp offices which opened at 8am.
2 ladies and a young guy work in the office and we struck up a conversation about motorcycle adventures, travel adventures and what it’s like to work for a great business owner.
One of the ladies… who may answer the phones (hint hint) was so funny. She looked me dead in the eyes and said “Your not gonna make it, I’m being honest” she was clearly sizing me up and had me thinking…. “She could be right, she might be the most honest person on the trip so far!” Her honesty made my day… I like her!
I’ll make sure I send her a note from the gulf, I’ll make it!
The winds kicked in right off the bat today making the first 30 miles a challenge. Head down, grind on, I just kept putting on miles. I paddled into the town of Fort Madison and realized that it’s been 1000 miles without stopping for a coffee. I was low on energy, cold from the wind and water all day and I got a recommendation to go to Swed & Co. coffee so I parked my boat, walked over the top of the train via the walking bridge, down the 8 blocks to the coffee shop. As I arrived a witnessed a guy with a leaf blower trying to get a bird nest off the fan on the side of the building. He wasn’t tall enough so I offered to hold the table so he could stand on that to get a little closer. Success! The bird nest blocking the exhaust fan was clear and the fan was working again. He happened to be the owner of the coffee shop and we had a great conversation about business!
He made a great cup of coffee for me, we grabbed a quick photo and back on the water I went to lock #19 which is 180’ long, 75’ wide and dropped me 27’ (that’s a lot of gallons) wrapping up 43 miles total for the day.
Not much for photos today, but good food made up for it! 
