People here are southern. Not only their dourness gives them away, but you can also here a tinge of southern drawl. Not quite a twang, but it's definitely there. Not a surprise. It borders Arkansas after all. Bill Clinton with his terrible twang hails from there.
I had it all perfectly planned out. I'd follow the National Scenic Riverway from Round Spring to Van Buren where visitor's center and Big Spring is located. Then I'd back out and go to St. Michaels Nursery, plug in the car and sleep for the night. Next day I'd be off to Ozarks AR via the scenic water falls drive. I even managed to book a kayaking trip down Current River with Carr's Canoe at Round Spring. They'd take us to Platiff Spring and unleash us to float down back to Round Spring.
And It's true, everybody has a plan till their kayak flip over. In one section of the river, two thirds for the width was a shallow. So I took the rapids to avoid getting grounded. I figured I could steer toward the center. But the water dropped quickly and swirled making it next to impossible to couldn't steer. It took me right into a tree stump and I got bounced out of the boat. Luckily things got caught in the eddy and I didn't lose anything other than 89 cents pair of sandals from Walmart, which were broken anyway. But the camera and the Tesla key fob got soaked and stopped working. That would've been the loss of $500 each for the total of $1000. Luckily the key fob is working again this morning. It must've dried up over night and that must've fixed the problem. If it didn't, I would've had to make a beeline to Tesla Service Center in Kansas City and get a new one.
Tesla has no mechanical key. The only backup is the cellphone and you are dead in the water if you don't have cell signal. And that is exactly what happened. I had to tow the car to where the cell service is available. I pressed SOV button on SPOT Satellite messenger and the tow truck showed up 4.5 hours later. It's in the middle of nowhere and apparently it wasn't easy to get towed around here. Danny, the tow truck driverk managed the car on the flat bed by spraying the grease on the tire -- the car was in park position with brake on -- and took us to Summersville where we got a bit of signal. It was pitch dark then and I slept in Summersville in my car.
This was the worst incident in the entire trip. Till now I managed to avoid problems -- all went according to plan, and when it didn't, I had a good backups. This one not only spoiled entire 2 day plan, it took a lot out of me. I'm now ditching the rest of the plan for the Midwest and will go straight to Antelope Canyon 1300 miles away.
As if that isn't enough, I'm now sick. I started to feel it in my nose when I checked in to Super 8 in Rolla. Then yesterday it got all stuffed up. Today the cold is slowly moving down to my throat. It'll probably make it down to my lung and I'll be coughing. It doesn't appear to be Covid though. I'm sneezing and sneezing is not supposed to be a part of Covid symptom.
I'll have to stay in motels for a few days in Oklahoma. Till I shake it off, there won't be any more hiking.
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