The Severed Cortex

I came up with the idea to take my nephew floating and fishing about two months ago and my sister said the only time available was the 17th-19th of June. So I started looking for places to go. Several years ago I did the Current River by myself so I wanted to do something different. Plus, I wanted to catch fish, something I didn't do last time mainly because I tried to do 33 miles in about 48 hours and didn't give myself much time to fish.
I've floated just about every river in Southwestern Missouri so I do know a little about the subject. The Eleven Point is too far out of the way and totally not conducive to camping. Besides, trout streams require equipment that is just too expensive for spending on a kid in his early teens. So basically, the best bet for location and fishing was the Big Piney river. Until, of course we had all the rain this spring. The Big Piney is a little bit more susceptible to a rise in water than some of the other streams around the Missouri Ozarks and dealing with rising water with a novice and an old man way out of practice was not something I felt comfortable with. So when it came down to the final decision, I decided on the much safer Current River.

Dad brought Parker up to meet me at the Shoney's in Rolla at 9:00 and I told him to load up on food, or as I put it, it will be the last decent meal you'll get for a couple of days. He power carbed on pancakes. We headed for the bucolic burg of Eminence shortly before 10 and by 11:30 or so we were standing in the store at Two Rivers. An hour after that the canoe guy drove off and left us standing on the bank of the river at the Round Spring access, canoe packed to the hilt and visions of giant smallmouth bass on the ends of our lines.
This time we were only doing 18 miles back to Two Rivers so I figured there would be plenty of time for fishing. We paddled for less than an hour and picked out a spot that looked primed for fishing; shallow riffles, some deep current with rocks, and a deep pool on the tail end of the island. Unfortunately the best we could do was a couple of sunfish that Parker caught. After the better part of two hours, we decided to move on and look for a campsite. And for the next hour I wondered if we would find a decent one, but we made a right hand bend and saw a spot that looked like it had some potential. When we climbed the small slope to the flat portion of the bank, we found that someone had taken sand and packed it down over the rocks in a couple of areas. It was perfect for my 7x7 tent and his one man tent. Plus there was a fire ring and a little bit of firewood left behind from I'm sure a weekend camper. There wasn't enough to keep us in a campfire for most of the evening, but certainly enough for us to get one started with. We scouted the woods for more and found plenty. I chopped it up while Parker used his Boy Scout skills to set up the fire, preferring to use the build a square method as opposed to my preferred teepee method. It worked just as well and we had a good blaze going in no time. We fished a little while longer before rustling up some grub became a good idea. I bought a cheap sirloin cut, chopped it up into bite size pieces, and seasoned it with some adobo rub before hand. I grilled this on the Coleman propane stove with some peppers and onions and we wrapped them in tortilla shells, until the shells broke and we just ate them out of our mess kits.
After cleaning up the dishes, we sat around the campfire and talked about all kinds of stuff like movies and cartoons and all sorts of other things, but mainly movie lines like those who are tardy do not get fruit cup. And of course we both laughed a lot. By 11:00 the fire had died out and we decided to call it a day.