Plan B: The Wabash

Part 3 (wherein I finish this story)

When we put in at Tecumseh, a fisherman warned us of tough currents on the west side of the railroad bridge. Take the long way around, he said. I call the railroad bridge Allison-Rudell because over the years the name of the railroad corporations that use it change from time to time but the two men who were killed in separate accidents on it are still dead and should be remembered. For a moment in 1959, I thought I was going to perish on or under this bridge and I think of this when I pass under it for the first time in almost 50 years. I found a sandy beach and backed the kayak in and dared to use the camera to record this mid-day view of the storied bridge showing the old parts and the older parts. I locked the camera in the clear plastic dry box and started through the series of bridges. The bridge by ICON, the former Pillsbury packaging plant, and the Indian Burial ground there at the end of Locust Street. (correction: it was the old Burying Ground, where Revolutionary War Veterans are buried, that we passed.)The stone and concrete river walls there seem extensive when viewed from water level.

Storm sewers appear at the river end of every major street and a signpost says that sewage is mixed in here when there is too much rain in Terre Haute. There is a plan to fix that and the recent 107 percent raise in sewage bills probably won't cover the bill.

We pass under the Dresser and Dreiser Bridges and find, between them, the remnants of the old Wabash Avenue Bridge. These bridges (and the US 63 bridge which I forgot to mention upstream from Fort Harrison) are notable for their plainness. They will win no architectural awards but they are functional bridges. No pictures are necessary or wanted.

There's a floating boat dock at Fairbanks Park. I have never seen a boat tied up there but it would work ok. My Pontiac waits in the parking lot above it. A few yards downstream is the launch ramp where we end our day on the water.

I was able to convince Dean that two people can carry two kayaks up the ramp more easily than 1 person can carry 1. My kayak weighs 7 or 8 pounds more than his so I got him on that one. I'll add a picture of both kayaks stacked atop my car a little later.

So that's the way it was on July 9. A day on the water is a good day... even if it is water you wouldn't want to touch. Our original plan was the Eel River but days without wind on the Wabash are very rare and gave me a chance to "get over" my desire to see what it would be like.

When I was a kid and sat on the bank with my good buddy, Dickie Leonard, and watched the water flow unceasingly southward, we talked about building a raft and floating to New Orleans. We were always working out some kind of a scam or prank that put us in danger of being caught or needing to flee to avoid capture. At age 11, most of these schemes were not carried out but the flight plan, we called it Plan B, always involved floating down the Wabash.

Who could have figured it would take more than 50 years for me to realize, if only in part, Plan B.