Left Memphis at 7am. Boat traffic was slow today. I had no reason to stop, never really saw anything all day so I just kept putting in miles. When my phone said 85 miles, it was blazing hot with the sun beating off the water so I grabbed on extra hydration and kept pushing on with the goal of 100 river miles in a single day.
About 4pm I had a random boater pull up next to me for a quick chat. He was from New Orleans, had towed his boat up to the first lock and was boating down the river to explore. He was in a John boat with an aluminum canopy for shade, large spare gas tank and camping gear for his nights along the way. We had a quick chat and he headed out to explore down river in a much nicer fashion than myself lol.
As evening approached I could see the thunderstorms building but wanted to hit that century mark before finding my campsite for the evening. Once my phone said “100.1 miles” and I knocked that off the bucket list I quickly looked for a camp site for the evening. It was on the main shoreline which always has more bugs, but I found a raised area with 2 nicely placed trees for my hammock and a easy way to pull my boat out of the water. With the thunder booming, I quickly set up camp and hunkered down for the upcoming storm. I was way to excited about hitting the 100 mile day and wide awake for the inbound storm attempting to focus on anything but laying in my tent with 99% humidity & zero breeze until the storm actually hits.
The thunder and lightning was as powerful as I had ever seen. All directions flashing with a never ending thunder roll. Once the wind picked up, my tent became way more enjoyable and I started to enjoy the storm.
As I looked out my mosquito mesh, about 500 yards down river I noticed I blinking light. It was then I realized the traveler I met earlier in the day was anchored just offshore for the night.
We shot out a few text messages through the night about the storm intensity until 2:30am when I finally fell asleep.
Today was a good day! 
