Day 28: Gerty the Birdy

We woke up at 7:30, sleeping in as far as river time goes.  We're still not fully acclimated back to the river routine obviously.  Today was much like yesterday, beautiful, until about 4:00 when the wind picked up a bit.   I went swimming in the river for only the second time today but it felt great.  It was mid 80's and with the lack of wind felt even warmer.
About midway through the day we saw something struggling to stay above the water.  It was very small and I first thought it was a mouse or some other rodent.  As we got closer though it was clearly a bird.  We couldn't tell if had a broken wing or if it was just extremely tired and/or in shock.  We paddled up to it and Anders picked it up on his paddle.  The bird seemed very grateful as it just sat on the edge of the paddle and didn't seem the least bit scared to be so close to humans.  Anders named it Gerty.  I gave him the naming rights as the past six things I have named (fish for the wedding) all lived very short lives.  We paddled Gerty over to shore.  He sat there very calmly for the most part, only jumping/falling back in the water when gusts of wind came twice.  Once when he fell in it seemed like he was swimming towards us to get back on the paddle.  We eventually got him to shore and sat him on a log to dry off.  I then gave him some crumbs from a peanut butter cracker and Anders found him a bug to eat.  I do not believe he ate either gift.  He did, however, look very curiously at us.  As he started to dry off and come out of shock he seemed very aware that we had helped him.  If this world were anything like the one in Disney's Malificent, I think we would have a little bird servant for the rest of the trip.  Yes, I saw Malificent over the break.  Yes, it was awesome.  Yes, I wish we had a bird servant.  He could fly ahead and scout camping sites for us.  Since everything is currently under water, that would be extremely helpful.

One thing I forgot about the break, and don't feel very good about.  The locks (Upper and Lower St. Anthony and Lock #11) were still closed due to high water.  There are still seven miles of water we have yet to paddle.  It's very hard to accept, but at least I know I will eventually paddle that section.  Even if it takes awhile.