The day started out somewhat disappointing. We hit a lock at a bad time, a barge was coming through, and we either had to wait 2 hours or portage around it. We decided to portage as we didn't think we could waste two hours. Turns out the barge probably only took off about 15 minutes after we finished portaging. All that work for a mere 15 minutes was pretty frustrating, but oh well, it was over.
When we started the trip our friend Kyle Quillin told us to let his parents know when we were going to be in the La Crosse area. We played phone tag with them most of the day and were thinking about setting up camp on one of the many sandbars in the La Crosse area when Mike Quillin told us to stay with them. We got our boat to a marina, talked to the dock worker, got permission to keep our canoe there, and started unloading stuff. Barb, Kyle's mom, came and picked up our gear. We then went back to their house, showered and went out to eat. Mike met us there a bit later as he had been at auctions and checking on his grocery stores in Iowa.
After a great dinner we went back to their house and sat in the garage conversating and smoking a cigar. Poppa Q loves his cigars. He also gave us a beer called Burton Batch from Dogfish Head. It was an oak aged IPA. Needless to say, it was high alcohol content and amazingly good. Lastly, Mike gave us two cigars to go so that we could smoke them on a beautiful day or as victory cigars for finishing. Right now we are leaning towards saving them as victory cigars in New Orleans. Either way, Poppa Q will be receiving a great picture later on.
The Quillins were amazingly hospitable people. We gave them very short notice that we were coming through La Crosse and gave them multiple outs on housing us for the night, but they still put us up and took good care of us. For that, Momma and Poppa Q, we thank you greatly.
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