22MAY2012 @ Crystal City, MO - I felt like I did not sleep well, yet was up and on the river before sunrise.  The mist was thick and the silence striking and almost immediately I realized a barge was bearing down on me.  It was so close and high that the skipper could not see me.  Of course I (breath, breathy, breath) paddled clear but wow, what a wakeup!  In rather quick order two more barges came by and the skipper's high perch is all I could see of the 3rd one.  Obviously the mist is increasing as I was going ... and fortunately the barge traffic ended for a while.   Later, of course the mist was totally gone.
The  riverside here is very attractive with bluffs on the Missouri side for 30 miles.  It then gets flat on both sides until near Chester when the Illinois side shows some contours.  Just upstream from Chester is Fort Kaskaskia ... truly a beautiful setting to do military duty in the late 1700s.
Chester is the home of Popeye (the sailor man).  No, I do not know how that is, I know only THAT it is.  Chester also has the Diamond Tiara bridge, my name for the prettiest steel truss bridge that I have seen anywhere on the entire trip.  Chester is also the home of Carrie Myers, the managing editor of the local newspaper.  I was amazed at how fast and professional she is.  If she uses our interviwew, one would need  to type up www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com to view it.  Carrie gifted me with some chapstick and asked that I evaluate it.  It is COCONUT LIP BALM which comes from the "Wildflower and Thyme Company" of Taylor Mill, KY.  I love the stuff!  I had left my chapstick at Crystal City and arrived in Chester in need, having come 40 miles.  I got two tubes from a convenient store and it stung when I applied it; it also stung a bit over the next several days whenever I opted for that chapstick.  The coconut balm never stung and was never hard.  It is totally wonderful.  It should last the rest of the trip.  Mahalo, Carrie.        
I stopped while the sun was still up.  I set the tent on a sand bar on the Illinois side about three feet above the water level.  Continuing back from the river at this point are trees deep and thick. 
Today I paddled from river mile 149 to river mile 89, a distance of 60 miles.  Animals seen were a coyote as well as the normal great blue herons, bald eagles, ducks and geese.  I saw 5 bald eagles scatter from a riverbank as I approached.   Their wing action upon taking off like that is half lunging, half flying ... upon getting some air under them they get more graceful.