I like big boats and I cannot lie. You jetskiers can`t deny!

Sorry the title is Faith`s fault. You know how she is with her jokes.
Well we are just now passing Brent Kentucky. The home of the most
famous raft voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
That of Harlan and Anna Hubbard. Brent is still just as they described
it. No houses and rocky shoreline. We are so happy to be on this river
and see its history. Tonight we will be in Cincinnati.

Ripley OH

The nicest people I have ever met live in Ripley Ohio. We had such a
lovely stay at the Ripley Boat Club. It was our longest stay thus far
in the trip. Patty and Jack Pride took us in and made us feel right at
home. We also met our dear friends Miles and Holly who gave us the
cutest stray cat. Her name is (con) Tiki. I love her dearly. Pictues
to follow soon. The chickens are molting now because it is getting
cold. There are feathers everywhere and they seem so unhappy. Once we
left Ripley, which I personally would have been happy if that never
happened, we hit New Richmond for a bit and had a wonderful bite to
eat at Skippers River Cafe. We will either hit Cincinnati late tonight
or early tomorrow. Thanks to our wonderful friends in Ripley. We will
never forget you. Love. c

a glimpse

  Lovely calm after the storm.

My little babies. ^^

WV WARNING! eek.

I feel the hurricanes ablowin

back track! HOCKING PORT

The sun was starting to set. It would be dark soon. Still alone, I needed a nice place to put my house for the night.

Creeping along the shore, I yelled over the motor to the first person I saw.

"HEY! DO YOU KNOW A PLACE TO MOORE?"

Jim put his beer down and pointed right to his dock so there I went. The perfect place. Me and him had some beers and good conversation about the state of the world. We figured it all out.

(Thanks so much Jim for everything, really. It was wonderful to meet you.)

Colin had left a while back so having a good friend was one of the best things I could ask for.

Jim lent me all his tools, and Jodi gave me a gallon of paint.

Jodi and Seth live next door to Jim, and I had the greatest helper all weekend. Seth, 10 years old, became my first mate and good friend. We scrubbed the deck, chased after my hens, and fixed the roof. He worked so hard I should've payed him.

Jim took me over to the campground where I met the whole crew. Wendy becomes her songs as the campfire dances, and everyone trys to sing along challenged by fermented beverages. I felt so welcomed and appreciated.  Congrats on Ashly's first year of marriage! whahoo!

Colin came back to the raft. here we go on the river again. here we go. Turn the page.

-faith

Ripley OH

DNR and giant storm = no fun

So we left Huntington after the two storms we had in the morning and
early afternoon hoping that we could be lucky the rest of the day and
make some time. When we were only four miles away from the West
Virginia/Kentucky border, we were stopped by the WV DNR police boat.
Since we don`t have our boat registered, they hassled us a bit, but
were respectful. Since we were so close to leaving their jurisdiction,
they let us off with a warning. They said, "Well, you`ll be Kentucky`s
problem now." Haha! Well I think being pulled over was a sign of bad
things to come for this day. The policemen warned us of the trechery
ahead once we crossed over into Kentucky. They told us we would see
more barges than we had seen thus far. They were right. Fleeting
harbors on both sides of the river, oil, steel, and coal factories
lined both sides of the river! I told Faith that we must have missed
the sign that says, "Kentuckt does not welcome you!" As the sun
started to make it`s way down, we were looking for some place to sleep
(and be safe). We tried the Big Sandy River. Who names a river that
way that is caked with mud? It`s not a funny joke! With no luck there,
we heading back out into the barge ridden Ohio and as soon as we did a
huge storm rolled up. I was tilling the motor and I pulled the plastic
sheeting overtop of my body to stay dry. Faith was not so lucky. She
was attaching the running lights and keeping watch out front. The
wind, rain, and motor were loud enough that I couldn`t hear her
directions and I couldn`t see anything myself. Wow. We finally found a
spot in between two fleeting harbors, and we tied ropes to the shore
and anchored. Faith was dripping wet. The wake from all the barges
that passing us last night was brutal. Suffice to say I didn`t sleep a
wink. Today is calm and all is well now. We made it far away from the
barge traffic. We`re back out in the middle of nowhere. Just where we
should be. Love all yinz. c

Huntington

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, we were too busy making it 100
miles in five days! Thanks to Jim and Seth in Hockingport for helping
us with tools and renovations. We made it to Huntington WV on friday.
There we met some lovely people that my father knows from work. Then
as we were passing Huntington, we saw a river restaurant. All of the
people were staring at us and some of the employees were waving us in!
We had dinner on our new friend Terry that night. Thanks Terry. We
stayed there for the night and met so many wonderful people. Lambrose
and Anthony, thanks for the great time. You guys rock. On saturday we
found a small creek and a rope swing and had a nice camp out. We will
soon be underway again. Next stop Cincinnati!

Home

I fell asleep to the sound of sucker fish slapping their tails against
the hull of our boat. It`s good to be home. Love, Colin

Worst storms yet.

A gail blew up out of nowhere right out of Newport, ohio. The sun was setting and the sky got dark. Very Dark. I got nervous.

"Faith, I think we need to get off the water."

"Can we make it to that island?"

We couldn't. The wind picked up and were were full throttle and going backwards. There were some pilings up ahead so we aimed to beach ourselves. Thundering and lightning, I jumped into the water. Thinking "If the ohio river gets hit I'm dead".  I sank. There's the drop off. Colin was on the troller full power. Finding footing I walked the anchor deep into the weeds. It held and I jumped back to the boat, and put my rubber boots on. " I will not drown, or hit by lightning." 

There were two piles on my bed, dry and wet. Colin's swim shorts and my rain coat were the only things that  weren't SOAKED. How it goes. 

We continued at night. Our running lights went up and we approched the lock. Both Colin and I were shivering it was the cold after the storm. The calm was gone a while ago. I get the radio on and radio the locks, they're getting a chamber ready for us.

over the radio I hear " there is a poorly lit pleasure craft that is suppose to come through but I don't see them. We'll lock you through with them" 

"This is the Betty Walker, we're right at your door. I apologize about the lights we'll have to upgrade the second we get a chance." 

"Just wait for the flashing green light" 

It felt like an hour later when we entered the haunting chamber and roped a pin. Down the water and our little raft went. The lockmaster came over and asked us to be careful and mount our lights higher. There were two upbound tugs underway, so we stayed to the right desending bank of this dark river that took some kind of transformation in the faded sun. A world of lights and reflections guided us to a bank of a cooking cutter house development. We cooked a soup and passed out a little wet and cold.  

Newport, ohio

WE LOST A VORRASI!

He's off to the races back in the Burgh. Speeding down route seven, I know he missed the raft already. We ate some ice cream at the Jug, ice cream parlor. It was like we had seven heads. We sat on our pink and yellow, normal looking house boat, while a crowd of 20 ice cream lickers stared us down.

"Maybe we should gawk back and them and they'll stop" puzzles colin.

"give em some of their own medicine."

We bought ice cream and stared them all down, then vorrasi drove away.

Leo and Mary-Ellen from Marietta came by. everything on the raft was "wonderful and marvelous". Thanks for cheering us up! Mary held hotwings for the picture and promised to meet up with us in Marietta. Really wonderful folks.

-Faith

Sistersville!

Thanks Tim for taking us in!

We tried to leave New Martinsville floating, and after almost getting pulled into a creek we had to turn on the motor. We were making a speedy getaway at four mph full throttle, when Tim pulled us over in his pontoon boat and gave us a tow to his campground. With his long hair blowing in the wind we cruised to a small dock on the back channel of an island. Moonshine and jet skis, Vorrasi kept yelling at me to slow down. Cutting back in forth in the waves, I sped around as the sun slipped behind the ohio hills (larger than the West Virgina hills at this point). We were treasure hunters looking for arrow heads on the beach, but I just found skipping stones. Tim brought over some green tomatoes the next day along with burgers and a whole cook out. Great fun. Lots of laughs.

The dark side came out the next day, Tim's dock had WOLF SPIDERS. Hotwings chased one down across deck. It took five pecks and a scratch to kill the beast. eeek, bigger than my hand.

-faith

Can't Keep the Paparazzi Away

Colin & Faith were featured in this article in the Wetzel Chronical. Check it.

-Jenny

Rain!

Yesterday it rained so much but it stopped for most of the afternoon,
so we motored on to try to make up for lost time. We made it 20 miles!
Our longest day yet and we didn`t move at all in the morning. We made
it to the long and narrow back channel of Middle Island, just before
St. Mary`s WV.
At the opening there were lots of docks and camps, but then we hit the
shallow part that no other boat dared enter. Passing through for us
was even a bit difficult.Once we were halfway through the narrow
channel, coming up on Middle Island Creek, it started pouring again!
We ducked into the creek and under a bridge, where we spent the night.
It`s pretty uninhabited back here. Only the sounds from cars on the
highway bridge above us. I like it back here.

New Martinsville

New Martinsville was a blast. Dom and Jackie of Scream N Dogs are the
best. Go there and eat a West Virginia Hot Dog. Seriously. They let us
hang around and gave us food because we must have looked hungry. Dom
took us out in his beautiful stern wheeler. He even pulled us out of
the mud when we got beached. The people of New Martinsville were so
kind to us. It was weird staying in one place for three days though,
since we usually move on so fast.
We got to see Faith`s family though, which was great. The only thing
that went wrong in New Martinsville was a run in with a silly city cop
that was trying to police the waterways. Apparently, cops are aloud to
make up laws whenever they want. He was initially called because of a
complaint from Dom and Jackie`s neighbor, we think. Evidently, we
still live in a culture where people can`t just talk to people to work
out their differences. They have to call the cops. We forget things
like that when on the river because they don`t exist there. We made it
out of that town and met a guy named Tim on the river. He was going
our way and towed us to his camp. Cool guy. We are close to
Sistersville, WV and enjoying a slow morning, eating stew that Faith`s
grandmother brought for us. More updates soon friends. Thanks for
viewing.

Close call, story of the Tug.

Story of the Tug.

Like every other day, we were cruising down the river at the crushing speed of 2mph. The sun was shining. There was a ferocious headwind, as usual. We could've cut loose and gone to the Atlantic quicker. I swore if we put up the sail we'd end up in New Jersey in 10 days.

I was on watch on the wheely chair, chicken on my shoulder, Colin at the till, when Colin try's yelling over  the motor:

"Faith, askldjlkjkj"

 "WHAT?"

"Faith akldjoijd TUG!"

"WHAT?"

I look over and see a tug full speed at our raft. "Colin, PORT, PORT!" We centimeter to the port. I'm thinking about the canoe, chickens, and the sunken Duck boat on the Delaware.

From the bow I'm yelling " DO YOU NEED TO GET TO THIS SHORE"

They yell back and hit the breaks; "WE JUST WANTED TO CHECK YINZ OUT!"

thanks guys, take a good look.

 "WHERE YINZ GOIN?

"WE'RE RAFTING TO CUBA"

She cleans up great!

(The chickens are under the table) teak oil works wonders on plywood

true professionals.

Professional business cards, first take. Fresh off the styrofoam press. We had to get the truth out. 

Thanks Barker for bringing back to Buena Vista Coffee shop. Miss Yinz in da burgh! 

-f

We got a Vorrasi back!

Me and little hotwings; she's off for a hop on the shore.

Too tall for  this bridge, no sunfish creek for us, but somehow Vorrasi, Barker, and Ed maneged to find us. Vorrasi just couldn't stay away from the raft. We knew it. Of course the moment he came back we got a head wind. Its all his fault. 

 

Ed and Colin swimming in the channel. Man shower.

Thanks for the pictures Barker and for coming to see us!

New Martinsville at last!!!

 HUGE WAKE AND HEAD WIND, and we're still smiling!

Hotwings and Leslie found some crikets. The cutest little river fowl you'll ever see. eggs for breakfast.

They went for a long hop this morning on the shore, scaring away all the cats and digging a hole .Hotwings is the cuddle chicken and leslie is a squaker. The noisest little bird at six in the morning. Keeps us moving! bok bok bakaaah

-faith

PS: thanks for the pictures Amy and the Wetzel Chronicle!

New Martinsville is pretty cool so far. We found some lovely people with a hot dog stand. We like hanging out there. Someone came by and interviewed us from the newspaper. By the way, here is a link to the Wheeling article is you haven't seen that yet: http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/557512/Voyagers-Travel-Ohio-River-Aboard-Cobbled-Together-Boat.html. Last night we had a lot of fun at the Spieler's Club in Proctor, WV. We love those people and will never forget them. Thanks for the drinks friends.

-colin

PS: oh and thanks to the New Martinsville Public Library. We love your computers and your air conditioning :)