332: boating for beginners

Yesterday: a boat ride on the Mississippi with my husband and three very dear friends, a cooler of drinks, and me, temporarily a designated boater, which was terrifying and wonderful. The wheel is nearly as stubborn as my husband, and that's saying quite a bit. We spotted a water snake, plenty of duck weed, marveled at the slope of bluffs and places that were once hay meadows and now Mississippi backwaters, swept under the wagon wheel bridge, saw Winona from the water, spotted ospreys and eagles and listened to the familiar call of seagulls. For a while, we simply floated, and I wedged myself into a recline in the front of the boat and wrote a draft of a poem and sketched out maybe one or two more, which is a good writing day for me, and becoming (thankfully) less rare as I discover new ways to be inspired. Oh, and I am grateful to Chad and Ryan, who rescued my Split Rock Arts cap, which flew away from me in a small moment of speedy boating. It now smells like the river, but that's OK; those things usually smell of our sweat and unwashed hair while camping anyway.