From the Captain's Journal:        

River Date 21-22 (27-28 July 2008)  

The Bear Naked and her crew left Cape Girardeau the very next day after
touring the beautiful down town. The night before we met a fella named
Charlie Willy and his wife Linda who told us that we should float down to
Commerce, MO and look for a grill tied to a tree and just up the hill from
there would be a house where a man named Dariel lived and that he would
take us on one heck of a fishing trip. So we did as he said and found the
tree. Dariel wasn't there but a couple of good old boys were there fishing
and of course they knew Dariel and even knew where he was. So we called
Charlie back and he came down to Commerce. Well naturally he knew the folks
that we had already met and where fishing and so he took us to find Dariel
at a back country bar called "The Boar's Nest". This bar was exactly like
the one in the Dukes of Hazzard only this was the real deal. It used to be
a hog shed that a farmer turned into a bar after the only other bar into
went out of business. The folks at the Boars Nest gave us a couple "Boars
Nest" Tee-shirts and then Charlie took us to his house where we met his
family and he gave us green tomatoes with instructions on how to fry them
and allowed us to shower at his house. He then drove us back to Dariel boat
ramp where the others had went and made us chicken and other good food. We
talked to Dariel and his wife way into the night. He was an old river rat
himself that gave us a real insight to as to what to expect down river. we
finally pushed of next morning and just as we were coming into Cairo, IL we
found another Huck Finn boat, the Evangeline. The only logical thing to do
was to shore up on a beach together for the night and swap stories and
feast. So Bill and Max, the crew of the Evangeline, lash up to our boat and
we ate an incredible meal. We talked to the late hours of the night and
soon both crews began to realize that all of our habits, from smoking a
pipe to swatting flies in the hot hours, were exactly the same. The two
vessels and crews where like a mirror image of one another. We enjoyed
sharing how each of us had dealt with the same problems along the way. The
next morning we ate breakfast and departed. The were headed up the Ohio and
we were continuing down the Mississippi River. It was nice to tour each
others boats and amazing that to realize that this river has a way of
shaping you into its own mold. All four of us realized we were a set a
river rats and that we were living life on the river in exactly the same
way.