I forgot to mention the biggest mistake I had made on the trip: I had forgotten the maps. We literally had no idea where we were or how fast we were going. I had only been on this stretch of the river once before, and that was 3 years ago. Still, how bad could it be? It wasn't like we could take a side road or anything. At about 6:30 we stopped at San Salvador Park outside of St. Paul where we met with the reporter from the Statesman Journal. Dan De Carbonel wrote a heck of an article, which I have reproduced (without permission) here.

Still, it was getting dark, and we had yet to find our overnight spot at Yamhill Landing. Cody asked why it was called Yamhill and rather than say the name was from the county it was in - Yamhill county - I told him that every year we held a Yam Festival where everyone would toss sweet potatoes into a pile and then let it rot for the rest of the year. He bought it for a minute or so.