Day Seventeen (Karl)

Rest Day.

With regard to my writing style, I have been accused of being not normal.  I'll try normal.

There have been concerns with my Rock River canoe pace.  Karl sure is taking his darned sweet time.  Yet another rest day?  Is he aware that winter is, in fact, on the way?  Yes, I am aware, but let me explain/rationalize my previous pacing.  There was only one place I needed to be at by a certain date.  The place: Muscatine, Iowa.  The date: Friday, November 19.  Arriving early would not work.  Arriving late would not work.  I had no idea how long it was going to take to canoe from Beloit to Muscatine.  I examined my maps and came up with a rough estimate.  But I didn't know if weather (or anything else) was going to prevent progress.  So I took my rough estimate and added in a few extra days to be safe.  This led to the odd departure date of Thursday, November 4 and gave me 15 days to paddle approximately 190 miles.  Decent current, favorable winds, and above average temperatures helped put me well ahead of schedule.  Correction: very favorable winds.  On a day of almost straight west paddling the wind was out of the east.  Beloiters, how often can you remember east winds?  I love it when a plan comes together.

But the past schedule has now passed.  And now I really have no time constraints.  I could take 242 days to get to Keokuk, Iowa, but that's probably not going to happen.  I'm hoping for persistent progress.  As previously mentioned, I am aware that winter is on the way.

And on the subject of winter, there has been a consistent theme from the people I've met along the way:

Aren't you cold?

This question brings to mind thoughts of the Illinois Tollway and grocery store check out lines along with a small dose of math.  At Woodman's, there will be only one line that is the fastest.  If there are nine cashiers checking people out, the chances I'll pick the fastest line is 1 in 9.  So I shouldn't be too upset when the line I've entered turns out to not be the fastest.  Math.  But back to the cold, since I don't know how long this trip is going to take, I'll just say it'll be x days.  There is going to be (only) one day which I'll be able to say was the coldest.  Thus the chances of any given day being the coldest day is 1 in x.  Since x is already greater than 17, the chances of the current day being the coldest isn't all that great.  So if I find myself thinking, "Gosh, today sure is cold," that's going to make things even more mentally challenging when the coldest day actually occurs.  Instead my thought process has been working like this, "Today can't be cold because I know there's going to be another day that's going to be colder."

I will admit, however, if I've already experienced the coldest day, then I can answer the question, "No.  I'm not cold."

But I'm pretty sure (and you should be, too) that the coldest day of this trip hasn't happened yet.

[Thanks for reading along to my words.  We'll now return to the regularly scheduled Eaux.]