OCR Text |
Show RIVER to be fun. Such a notion had never really crossed my mind. I'd expected it to be hard and it had never really occurred to me that it might be fun. The journey was much more than just a pleasure cruise to me. It was my quest, my Odyssey-and New Orleans was the goal. To stop short would leave me an unfinished man. I wasn't against having fun, so long as we had fun all the way to New Orleans. As we approached the Ohio River, I began to suspect that Rick, Vince, and Diane weren't going to make it all the way, so I pressed on south hoping to get in as many miles as possible before they jumped ship. The tension brought me closer to Rosie, who shared my determination. Her touch and smile brought me great relief and I trusted her more than I trusted myself. I knew that if I had to go the last miles into New Orleans in a rubber dingy, Rosie would be there. On the afternoon after we left St. Louis, Rick called up to me while I was steering. "Hey," he said. "Lef s pull over and tie up." "Tie up?" I said. The weather was clear and the afternoon was young. "Why the hell should we tie up?" "Hey," he said. "Whaf s the purpose of this trip, anyway?" I wasn't ready for a philosophical discussion, so I said, "Later." After we'd tied up for the night, we gathered on the foredeck and had a long talk by the light of a kerosene lantern. "It's pretty damn clear to me what we're doing," I said. "We're going to New Orleans." "You're serious, huh?" said Vince. "You bet. New Orleans or bust. I mean it." "Well whaf s the rush? You're ruining the trip for the rest of us," said Rick. "What?" I said. -82- |