On the Sunday I found myself walking into the town of Dallas City with a population of 1000 people at around 5pm. I grabbed some food from the general store and headed toward the river to find a camping spot. Upon arriving I found a little riverside bar named "Ikes". I went inside and met the owner whos name was, you guessed it "Ike". He was agreat old fella who pointed me to the outside beer garden. Here there was a stage where local bands play in the summer. He told me to make myself at home on the stage, seeing the stage was undercover and around 4 by 4 meters it made for a perfect little spot for the night and with the added incentive of not having to set up my tent I went to bed a content man.
The next day I had the town of Nauvoo on my sights, a town famous for its Mormon population. I arrived here earlier than I had anticipated, so instead of finding a good camping spot around one of the local churches or local parks with some coverage, I opted to move on further south down the river, a decision, later on I would regret. I usually take a look at the forecast for the next few days before heading into wilder areas, but with a string of good days behind me, I had hoped the beautiful weather would follow me on.
Two or so hours from Nauvoo, and along some of the most beautiful strech of the walk so far, darkness started to arrive and I was forced to make camp on the edge of a small cliff above the river. All seemed fine at roughly 8pm with clear skies and a light breeze, so I happily curled up in my sleeping bag and off to sleep.
Bang, I was woken up by a crack of lightning and then a huge downpour of rain. If I had of checked out the forecast I would have seen a huge storm coming my way. When I say it rained, I mean it poured. With wind whipping against my tent, rain smashing down upon it and lighting and thunder flashing through the skies above me, there was not much sleep going on. It got a lot worse. Usually these things pass in a few hours, however this storm was going to hang around I was to find out. My tent though water proof, I do not know if it is the wear and tear of the trip, but I gotta tell you, it is not 100% water proof anymore. After a while of heavy rain, water started to drop down off the inside of the roof, and as time passed, more and more and more water started to come in. My cart was outside also with my clothes inside it under the tarp. I made the dash to the cart to grab my towell as it was getting messy inside the tent. I jumped back in the tent and started to mop up the tent as best as I could around my matress and bag to lessen the damage that was getting done. So this started at roughly 9:30pm and you would not beleive it, but the storm did not pass until 5:30am - yep 8 hours later. I did not get any sleep and spent the entire night trying to keep my gear from being saturated. When light finally arrived in the morning all my gear, both in the tent and under the tarp (the wind and rain had just been too heavy and the water had got into the cart also) was drenced. I had no choice but to pack up as best as I could and soldier on. Luckily I had put clothes for the following day in my backpack when the rain started, so I had moderately dry clothes to walk in, but with everything else wet top the core, and after 20kms of walking in the morning, I had to hitch a ride to the next big town to find a motel to sort out and dry all my equipment.
I tell ya, it was a tough night and morning, but now I am in my hotel, I have dried all my equip, have just had a good meal, showered and spoke with my Mum and Cami on the phone, and with that I am looking out the window now to see a fair amount of rain again, I am a happy and content man to be where I am now.
I can tell you I have checked the forecast for the next week and am happy to report no thunderstorms. I will make my way back up to where I was picked up today to continue on the trail of the trek. Now I am going to sleep to catch up on what I missed out on last night...
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