Day 5 Blog post: Dan Modahl

This morning we all woke up to a beautiful sunny day, and Marcus screaming "Real talk: there's a 10 foot black widow on my shirt!!!" After we all settled down, we had great breakfast of granola and fresh fruit, that gave us enough energy to deal with the insane put-in.  We had to carry things one by one down the steep embankment to the floating boats. Needless to say, it took a while... but we did better time-wise than we expected... wich seems like it is starting to be a reaccuring theme.  Today we had only 12 miles to paddle, and the sun was finally shining, so we had a great time.  Paddling could not be more fun than than in was today... we even had our own jukebox (Tucker) it definitely keeps morale up...  for some reason every paddle stroke seems easier when you are singing along.  At then end of the 12 miles there was another crazy take-out... there was a low head dam that we have to portage around and the take out is only 20 yards in front of it... so to avoid any injuries we had to one by one come up to some hidden stairs and carry the boats up.  Where were staying is right at the top of those stairs on a beautiful plot of farmland overlooking corn fields and farmhouses. Before we started preparing dinner, we were met by some crazy drunk kids who were convinced they could jump off the dam... thankfully Marcus and Austin talked them out of that death jump and they stumbled on their merry way.  While preparing dinner we realised we needed oil, so we spent 30 minutes looking for it... only to find out that we really needed fuel. :) Anyways we had a delicious dinnerof gado gado nevertheless.  After dinner, we needed to go find water... so Tucker, Austin, Marcus, Theresa, Chelsea and I went to go knock on doors... so we walked down the  gravel road.  Walking past numerous no trespassing signs and with the sound of a barking dogs and a chainsaw ringing in our ears we knocked on the door of a little white farmhouse and received permission to use their well water... we filled up and left as quickly as possible.  After cutting off the circulation to our hands carrying 70 liters of water... we got back to a nice treat. Montie had brought a watermelon and cantelope! He had also brought Bill Brewer, the superintendent of all water treatment to Winston-Salem. He talked a little about the dam, how it was built, what it does, and what kind of fish you can catch.  All in all it was a pretty eventful day... but no more so than any other day.  We are a very run-loving group... not a minute goes by without laughter.  It seems like all we do is have fun, and i am loving it... I look forward to every remaining minute (including the classwork).