Day 4: A new cell phone, a Wendy’s burger and a shower!

After settling in at Heritage Park in Canton on Monday night, Richard made his way to Ingles (a grocery store) and spotted a Wendy’s across the street.

He walked over to the restaurant and found that the dining room was closed, but the drive thru was still open. He was determined to get a cheeseburger, so he went up to the drive through window and knocked on the glass. A woman came out and told him that he needed to be in a car in order to get food from the drive thru. After trying to be logical with the employee to explain that he didn’t have a car, but he wanted a hamburger, someone appeared at the other window. The man at the other window took his order and in the end Richard “devoured” a Wendy’s Single with cheese – he estimates that he ate the burger in about 6 bites. This was the first real meal that he’d had in 3 days on the river.  In the 3 days on the river, he estimates that he ate a few Tootsie Rolls, a ½ pound Hershey’s chocolate bar, 2 bags of peanuts and about 6 Fig Newtons. He only drank two 20 oz Gatorades and 1 bottle of water. I think we’d all agree that he was overdue for a “real meal” (if you consider a Wendy’s burger a “real meal”).

After eating his dinner, he walked back to Heritage Park and settled into his tent. Before settling in for the night, he had decided to find a Cingular Wireless store while he was in a populated area. His phone was becoming more and more difficult to use. Some of the keys were no longer functioning and he was hoping to purchase a new phone to replace his older one. After some time in the local store, he discovered that they did not have the phone he wanted in stock, so he had to call his sister to come and get him to bring him to another part of town to another store that carried the phone he needed. He had to make sure to buy a phone that used the same battery and charger that he currently had from his previous phone. Before his trip, he had purchase extra phone batteries to charge since charging the phone will be impossible unless he’s camping in an area with electricity. This is why it was so important that his new phone to work with the batteries he’d purchased before the trip.

He had also visited the YMCA in hopes of getting access to the facility to take a shower. The staff needed some form of ID to let him in, so he asked his sister to bring his Driver’s license when she came to meet him. At the end of the day, he had a new phone, he’d showered at the YMCA and the staff were gracious enough to charge his phone and camera battery for him as well. He left Canton early this afternoon after eating a good lunch and armed with fully charged batteries all around.

Because of his many errands in town, he did get a late start on the river. When I spoke to him around 5:00 PM, he had only paddled around 4 miles from his put in point at Heritage Park. He called once he settled into camp on Lake Allatoona and his total mileage for the day was around 13 miles. He began paddling a little after 1:30 PM and settled into camp just after 9:00 PM. When he arrived at camp, he decided to see how long it took him to set up camp. He was able to get his tent up and everything settled and jump into his sleeping bag in 25 minutes. We’ll see if he can get any quicker as his trip progresses. I’m sure after some practice, he can cut that time down by a few more minutes!

He did meet one gentleman along his paddle today. On his way out of Canton, he saw a man fishing from the bank. Richard approached him, introduced himself and asked if he could take a picture of the man fishing in the river. After speaking for a few minutes, he found out that the fisherman was a  local Canton attorney, Carlton Carter. Carlton and Richard continued talking and Carlton asked if he’d heard about the guy who paddled for 30 days last year. Richard replied “Yeah, didn’t he paddle the Yellow River from Gwinnett County all the way to Darien, GA?” Carlton replied that yes, they were talking about the same person. He’d recalled reading about his trip in the AJC last year. Richard said that he did know that guy and that Cartlon was talking to him. Over a year after his trip was completed, he is still surprised at how many people read about his journey in the AJC, remember reading about it and ask Richard about it when they meet him and learn about his long paddling journeys.

After arriving on Lake Allatoona, he was stunned to see that the water level was significantly lower than when we’d paddled the same route on Paddle Georgia only 3 months earlier. He estimates that the lake is only half as wide as it was then and in some spots, there is 60-70 feet of shoreline exposed that is normally covered with water. He settled in for the night near a campground on the lake. He described his campsite as 20 feet outside of the swimming beach bouys for the campground – the area that would normally be under water when the lake is at its normal water level. The distance between his site and the water line is another estimated 20 feet. This should give you an indication at how low the water level on the lake is at this point.

He plans to paddle across the lake to the dam tomorrow, portage around the dam (with the assistance of the Army Corps of Engineers) and then make his way down river to the Etowah Indian Mounds. He is still on track to reach Rome by Saturday morning at 11:00 AM. He told me that he’s finally starting to feel like his trip is well on its way. He compared it to the usual time it takes to “settle in” when you go on a vacation. It takes a few days to get into the groove before you feel like you’re on vacation. He now feels like his trip is finally beginning and his excitement continues to build.