28MAY2012 near Columbus, KY - So I awaken, unzip the tent, grab my shoes, step out and head for the log so as to affix my shoes to my feet and ... there is an 18" black snake.  At the coldest time of day snakes are out and about ... it is clearly too warm.  We Montanans would call this hot ... but I'm smart enough to know that it gets, and will get, hotter into July and August.  So for now this is called warm. 
Paddling on it's more of the same ... huge smoothe river, facebreeze/wind, trees on both banks, barges being bargy, magenta to fuschia to orange to yellow sun and several great blue herons.  Today I saw no ducks, something I thought impossible.  I did see several bald eagles.  Another thing seen was two separate places where normal folk were camped.  They were just camped on the river without being at a state park.  I stopped at the second one and got a cup of ice.  Later a fisherman gifted me a frozen bottle of water; that melted and was drunk very very soon ... maybe it is hot now.  Wind speed increased all day and by the time I was heading south toward the 1st Tennessee state line crossing into Tennessee was not easy.  This was 9 or ten miles of slow right bend made slower and longer by the wind.  At the end of this bend was 10-12 miles of north and west, wind aided into New Madrid. 
Today I saw several places with what can be called rapids.  They are not long roiuns like in Montana but are instead places where a serious surface disturbance extends from bank to bank and is not associated with any jetties or wing walls.  With the latter two one can paddle out into the river and go around them; these rapids can not be avoided.  While nothing of concern I paddle through on my knees.  It struck me that I have not seen a rapid in hundreds of miles and maybe ... maybe ... these are leftovers of the earthquakes that occur here.  Another noticeable sight today was the rirrapped banks.  This is the area where the 2011 fklood was allowed to go over the levees and flood vast areas.  That has now been "fixed" and long stretches of newly rirrapped banks attest to that. 
As I approached the boat ramp at New Madrid, large rain drops pop popped down all around and on me.  For 5 or 6 seconds it was so intense and loud that rain is all one could hear ... yet the entire rain lasted only 20seconds.  Had I any doubt about staying in a motel tonight that ended it.  I stored my canoe (in the deep mud - safest place I know) and struggled downtown to get a cold drink and figure things out.  Nobody at the cold drink place was interested in assisting me, so I wandered back toward the waterfront.  Somehow I bumped into Wayne Mims and he was happy to shuttle me to the Super 8 motel at Marston.  By 1900 I was showered and fed ... ahh, how wonderful to end these three hard days.
Today I paddled from river mile 931 to river mile 889, a distance of 42 river miles.  The distance to Helena, AR is 226 miles.