The Ouachita Float Trip

We did some. I wish I could say WE DID IT with authority, but since we bailed so soon, I can't. We put the Solar Troller in at Camden, and spent an idyllic week on our little houseboat floating down the Ouachita River with the kids. We had great weather for the first several days, during which we could make about 20 miles a day on quiet, clean, odor-free, solar energy. Then the clouds and eventually rain started moving in and we learned the 1st maxim of solar boating: It's great while the sun's out! And I'm not even mentioning the mosquitos.

This year, the year of the Ouachita Float Trip, is coming around the bend to the home stretch, and it's looking pretty bad for too many more miles in the Solar Troller. The panels and charger and batteries need to go back to their rightful home, Mr. Bob Nagy of greenpowervideos.com, and we need to park the boat and realize that the kids are in school now, and we can't just light out for months at a time without ruffling some feathers.

Looking back on what we've done so far (and I assure you we will do more, namely Arkadelphia to Camden, just don't tell the kids) I am glad we logged as much water time as we did. We have done over 60 miles in the canoe. We spent about two weeks on the Solar Troller, though one was endured on a flooding Lake Ouachita, and managed to go over 100 miles down the river, covering most of the river's length in Arkansas. That is certainly more of the river than I did last year, but realize we've still only covered about a third of the navigable length of this mighty stream.

In terms of what I learned from the experience, I would have to say that I had no idea about the true scope of the project I had outlined. I was used to traveling with the aid of a tank full of hydrocarbons, and its easy to go long distances very fast in all weathers using that method. But paddling a canoe or running a motor off of energy captured from the sun is a much slower way to go (honestly, the canoe was faster, certainly in the floods). If we truly had taken all of May as we originally planned, we could have done the whole river, but that plan was banking on luck we didn't get. When your travel plans are dependent upon the weather, I advise allowing for a little more time. Of course, if we had a bigger, beefier, more mosquito-proof boat it wouldn't have mattered as much, but this trip was about being in nature, not subduing it.

One of the best things that happened during the project was meeting and getting to work with Cheryl Slavant, the Ouachita Riverkeeper. Her motivation and single minded hard work towards achieving her goals of cleaning up the river have been an inspiration. She gets results the hard way: long range planning, short term goals, and work, work, work. She has pulled together a coalition of people who might not otherwise bump into each other, but share a dedication to preserving, protecting, and improving the health of the Ouachita River watershed, and are working on the problems from their respective areas of expertise. Working with her organization has been a pleasure and an education, and we will continue to help the Ouachita Riverkeeper  bring awareness of the great beauty and value of this natural resource to the people of Arkansas and Louisiana.

We have other tours we are dreaming up. We want to break down barriers for touring tuba-accordion duos across the globe. We want want everyone in America to know the ratios of resonance of a standing wave in a tube of a given length (OK maybe that's just me). I am still clinging to a couple more river trips, and we are going to put on a show for Low Key Arts, but its time to wake up and smell the music: the Ouachita Float Trip is (practically) over.

zac

I know everyone is dying to know what we've done for the past two weeks while Zephyr and Eureka were at my parent's house and at the NC coast with my sister and cousins. Was it dig out the well in the back yard so we can have free water for the garden only to get covered in anaerobic gunk? Was it go to the theme park without the kids so we can finally ride the rides they're too small for only to get whiplash on the bumper cars? Was it put the finishing touches on the chicken shack and pen in anticipation of some yummy autonomic protein synthesizers? Or was it wilt in the heat in the morning then head inside to soak up the AC during a lazy afternoon nap? Or maybe we just tried to send an honest accounting of our time, only to be flagged by Net-Nanny and told that we were violating community standards, causing us to resort to personal platitudes and rhetorical questions?

Well, enough of the insightful explanations. 

We will be in Eureka Springs this weekend for the Fat Tire Festival.  Friday night we play at Sparky's Roadhouse, and Saturday night we play the awards ceremony at the Pied Piper. If you love single track riding, and you are an avid consumer, come and check out this event!

Then we retrieve our children from their grandparents and we head straight to the nearest Wal-Mart.  We have a little system in our family. You can gauge how spoiled a child is by how many minutes it takes them to throw a tantrum in the toy aisle.  Your job as parent is to start the stopwatch and keep saying NO. Then you take the number of minutes to meltdown and multiply that by the number of tablespoons of sugar in a can of Coca-Cola, and that is how many days it will take before you have a normal interaction with your child again. Last year it took 14.28 days.

Then we will trot on back to Hot Springs, where, true to its name, it is HOT. This is the point in our lives where our kids head to school.  The rest of August will pretty much be taken up by sock darning and mending frocks. Then the kids will rocket off to school, and we will finally get something done. 

You might be asking yourself, "What ever happened to the Float Tour?" What happened was this.  Rain, Rain, Heat, Heat. We hope to go in the fall, after we see how keen the administrators at the school are with kids missing two weeks of school. Heck!  What could possibly go wrong?!

Sincerely,
Zac & Cheryl
The Itinerant Locals
www.polkayoureyeout.com

Floatin’ along

Itinerant Locals begin tour down Ouachita River

BY LESLIE FISHER
The Sentinel-Record



    Zac Smith and Cheryl Roorda of the Itinerant Locals will take their unique brand of music on a month-long tour this May.
    But, rather than hitting the road, they will travel by boat down the Ouachita River, playing music and highlighting the work of Ouachita Riverkeeper Inc. along the way.
    “I think it’s great because they’re bringing attention to the river, both its beauty and its problems,” said Riverkeeper Cheryl Slavant of Monroe, La.
    A long-time environmental activist, Slavant founded the nonprofit organization with Michael Caire. “Anything that promotes the river and brings attention to it in a healthy way, we’re 100 percent for that,” she said.
    An affiliate of the international Waterkeeper Alliance, the Ouachita Riverkeeper’s purpose is to restore and monitor the Ouachita River watershed.
    “When you’re on Lake Ouachita and you look down and you can see the fish on the bottom or you’re up in the creeks and it’s just so clean and beautiful, you can’t imagine what it looks like in Monroe, La., but it’s a different river all together,” Smith said. “By the time it gets into Louisiana and by the time it empties into the Black and the Red River, it is nasty. Between Lake Ouachita and Monroe there is a lot of stuff getting in the water and the Ouachita Riverkeeper organization is going to start enforcing the existing law.”
    The organization has five trained patrol boats on the river, which look for point sources of pollution, review permits, take water samplings and report to various agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
    “The EPA writes the law but they don’t have the power to enforce it,” Smith said. “They don’t have people on the ground. The Game and Fish (Commission), they’ve got other stuff they’re doing. Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, their hands are full getting the really, really nasty stuff out of the environment, so this sort of citizen empowerment idea, I think, is super powerful because it makes all of us the front line against pollution.”
    Ouachita Riverkeeper, he added, is not trying to put people out of business. “They’re just out there to get people to clean up their operations.”
    As Smith and Roorda travel down the river, they will meet with the volunteer river monitors and provide information about the organization and the river to the people they meet along the way. They also be doing water quality tests and, of course, performing music – at campgrounds, street corners and music venues.
    They will play at Enoch’s Irish Pub & Cafe in Monroe on May 13 and at the Riverboat Festival in Columbia, La., on May 16.
    “We hope to still firm up some more gigs,” Roorda said. “If nothing else, we’re going to just get out on a street corner and play everywhere we go.”
    The couple has toured the U.S. by car and RV, but had long wanted to do a boat tour.
    “Since I’ve met Zac, he’s been trying to get us on the water,” Roorda said. “He’s been trying to get me off the road, out of cars for eight years now.”
    The Ouachita River, they decided, would be a good place to start.
    “This is a slow, flat river and though it’s commercial for a good part of its length – from Camden down – it’s commercial; it’s still restricted. It’s not as big a water as, say, the Mississippi or the Ohio or even the Arkansas,” Smith said. “So it’s a good way for us to get our feet wet, so to speak, and start out small and see if this idea can take off.”
    They found and purchased a 1978 Riviera Cruiser, in Clarksville. They have done some repair work on the boat, replacing some boards and putting in new carpet. They have also added solar panels, courtesy of Bob Nagy, a solar power consultant in Pearcy, which will power the trolling motor.
    “As we go down the river, we’re going to try and do it without burning fuel,” Smith said. “We’ve got a motor on there and can use it to be safe, but our intent is to use the solar power to get us down the river.”
    As they were researching the Ouachita River, Smith came across Slavant and her work with the Ouachita Riverkeeper Inc. They contacted her in February and have been working with her ever since.
    “It was really a great partnership,” Smith said.
    He and Roorda, along with their children, have already completed the first section of their journey. They spent five days in early April canoeing the upper Ouachita River from Pine Ridge to Lake Ouachita, camping along the way.
    The family of four will start the second leg on Saturday in a canoe from the base of Remmell Dam to Arkadelphia, where they will switch to the party barge. They will then travel the length of the Ouachita River, ending at the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana.
    Low Key Arts, 118 Arbor St., will host a May Day Launch Party for the Itinerant Locals from 5-9 p.m. Friday, with live music provided by the duo. Slavant will also be on hand with information about the Ouachita Riverkeeper organization, which will have their first launching of the official Ouachita River Patrol boat 11 a.m. Saturday at Sunnybrook Access at Entergy Park.

Here's the press release I'm gonna send out tomorrow. I'll sleep on it once, to make sure I get all the addresses correct:


Hot Springs, AR -- The Itinerant Locals embark upon a multimedia float tour down the Ouachita River during the month of May.

Known for their colorful musical shows, the Itinerant Locals, comprised of Zachary Smith on tuba and Cheryl Roorda on accordion, are usually seen Saturday nights at the Hot Springs Brauhaus with their kids Zephyr and Eureka, but during the month of May, the family is taking their light-hearted show on the river.

Starting in April, The Itinerant Locals and Kids will be canoe camping the Upper Ouachita River from Pine Ridge to Lake Ouachita with their friends Bob and Karen. On Good Friday they are throwing a party for the Dragover Queen Flotilla, where a bunch of friends come out for a picnic and "Go 'Round the Bend" of the Dragover float camp (an almost three mile float down the river ends up a couple hundred yards from where it starts) in whatever strange contrivance they can dream up (kiddie pool, beanbag chair, inflatable guest bed). Food and tunes will rule the evening as they celebrate the spring on the banks of the Ouachita. Come out with anything that floats and join the excitement to see who will be crowned the Dragover Queen and reign triumphant for the year.

On Friday, April 17th, Zac and Cheryl and Kids will be going around Lake Balboa in an electric boat, playing music and telling people about the tour. Sponsored by Jerry Dawson of The Electric Boat Company, they will spend the evening playing music on scenic Lake Balboa in Hot Springs Village, taking a tour around the lake in a silent electric boat, and stopping by dockside, visiting with folks and telling more about the Ouachita Float Tour. Bring a chair down to your dock or shore to enjoy the music, and wave 'em over to say Hey!

On May Day, Zac and Cheryl will throw a party to launch their tour of the Lower Ouachita. The May 1st Friday Gallery Walk will find the Itinerant Locals with their boat from 5-9 at Low Key Arts, 118 Arbor street in Hot Springs. Better known as the producer of the Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival, Low Key Arts is the fiscal sponsor of the Ouachita Float Tour. There will be video and pics from the Upper Ouachita trip, as well as music by Man Against Fire, food and libations, and Zephyr and Eureka hitting you up for some money to cover touring costs. Cheryl Slavant, the Ouachita River Keeper from Monroe Louisiana will let people know about the conservation efforts of the volunteer river monitors. Zac and Cheryl will be selling art and music, and thanking their sponsors.

The next day they start their float from the base of Remmel Dam down to Old River Control on the Mississippi river. Dropping their canoe in the water at Jones Mill, they will clear the Rockport rapids with the dam letting out. Then they move the show into an old party barge that they're modifying with solar panels and trolling motors for the rest of the 433 mile journey through Malvern, Arkadelphia, Camden, Monroe and some of the region's premier sport fishing water. Zac and Cheryl and the Smalls will be camping their way down the Ouachita River for the rest of the month, stopping along the way for various gigs in cafes, B&Bs, dockside, even the Riverboat Festival in Columbia, LA.

The Itinerant Locals are working closely with the Ouachita River Keeper, and will be meeting and talking to the volunteer river monitors along the way.  They will be performing water tests to demonstrate how the water quality changes as the river flows, and visiting some of the polluters. They will be learning how the people and industries of the watershed are changing the river, and what needs to be improved. They will be meeting with conservationists, engineers, sportsmen, farmers, and other river users and talking to each about how the Ouachita River affects their lives, as well as the effect people are having on the river. They will be mapping the whole thing on the internet, shooting video to post online, and taking lots of pictures of the kids, cause thats really what people like to see.

This is a large project for the Itinerant Locals.  Zac and Cheryl have spent the last seven years together traveling across America playing music. In their excursions through the lower 48, they have travelled in trains, planes, and automobiles, but never by boat. Zac and Cheryl look forward to bringing their brand of music down the shores of the Ouachita River, and swapping stories of the river and people with the folks who live there. You can follow their progress at:  polkayoureyeout.com.  

For more information please contact The Itinerant Locals:

Zachary Smith or Cheryl Roorda

polkayou@polkayoureyeout.com
polkayoureyeout.com

501-609-0114

Hello folks!!

This is a reminder to remind you to set your clocks forward this coming Sunday. I'm setting mine forward to the edge of the nightstand. Zac says its about 13 centimeters.

For all you baby lovers out there, Cheryl put up a new webpage chock full of family pictures.  You can link directly at:

http://polkayoureyeout.com/late2008/

All you baby haters can link directly to HECK!

This coming Friday (which is Gallery Walk here in Hot Springs, Arkansas) we will be playing at Dryden Pottery.  They have never before opened their arty doors for this event before, so we decided to show our support by bringing the instruments and two small children to break pottery for them.  That is community.  Right there.  Dryden Pottery is located in Whittington Canyon.  5-9.  We'll see you there.

This year, after the First Ever Fifth Annual Shortest St. Patrick's Day parade, (if you want to participate, bring a bike) we will be opening for Grammy Award Winning BRAVE COMBO at Maxine's, as part of the VOV. We'll be bring Justin "Time", the fabulous drummer you've come to know and love from the other superb time we played with his great self, plus all the beatific work he does with all the other exceptional bands he rocks with, unless you heard him that one time, and yes, maybe it wasn't his finest hour, but really its not fair to judge him by that until you know the whole story cause he had just worked a full shift at the Brauhaus which made him late, showing up right as the other band was packing up, plus he was a little drunk and getting over a cold. But he's over all that now. The good news just keeps rolling in!!!

Zac has had too much coffee this year, and has drummed up a plan to take the whole lot of us all the way down the Ouachita River, from stem to stern.

The week before Easter we will be doing the upper Ouachita from Pine Ridge to Lake Ouachita in the canoe, that's April 6th-12th. On the 10th of April, that is April 10th, we will be hosting the first Dragover Queen Flotilla Party.  This is where you and your loved ones get a chance to do a very odd stretch of the Ouachita River.  At Dragover Float Camp (about 15 miles out of Mt. Ida, where there is no beer) there is a kink in the river, and that is where Dragover Queens are made.  There is an unusual stretch of about three miiles where the river loops up and back around, so you can do it essentially from one spot.  The Dragover Queen award will be given to the most creative floater.  I might suggest planning on NOT swimming it, as it may be cold, but I would suggest bringing a float craft of some sort, something to throw on the grill, your favorite beverage, and your best outfit to join us for an all day BBQ and floating experience.   

Then on MAY DAY! May 1st, we will be hosting Gallery Walk at Low Key Arts, 118 Arbor St. in Hot Springs with a party and kick-off for the Lower Ouachita Float Trip.  The trip will launch the following morning from Jones Mill and will end in Old River Control in Louisiana.  It will take us the month of May to get down there, stopping in Malvern, Arkadelphia, Camden, El Dorado, Monroe, Columbia and numerous points in between.  If you are someone from this region, and would like us to drop in on you, or someone you know, please tell us.  We are scouring the areas for opportunities to talk to locals about their stretch of the river, and are keen to play!  

You will notice the website is undergoing major changes to accommodate all these wacky plans.  Zac even put up a blog to talk about his progress on the planning end of the float trip (click on "River Trip").  We are hoping this is the beginning of a whole new way of travel for the Itinerant Locals.  

If you are in Hot Springs, you can always catch us down at the Brau Haus.  We are there every Saturday from 7-9.  

Thanks again for inviting us to your grandfather's Yom Kippur party.  That was so fun!

The Itinerant Locals
Zac & Cheryl
www.polkayoureyeout.com

Well, I never did blog before on myspace, but why not start today?  They say if I don't like it, I can erase it, and I think of all the invaluable advice I've gotten from other people's blogs.  The emoticons, the fonts, the things backspaced that I'll never get to read.  Imagine all the spelling errors.  I had a spelling error just while I wrote spelling errror!!!  Wow!!  What are the chances of all that.

It is February in Hot Springs, and people are freaks. Some people around here continue to get weirder, and others just teeter on the fence of the insane.  I think we are holding steady here, which brings me to my Blog Point.

In May, we are planning to load the kids and the instruments up in some sort of water craft, and float down the entire Ouachita River.  So that starts way over near Mena, and ends at Old River Control which is the intersection including the Mississippi River.  The plan goes like this.

The Upper Ouachita looks like about a 5 day adventure.  We will complete that in April sometime, and then on May 1st which is a Friday, which is an artwalk, we will throw a great big fundraiser party at the Low Key Arts building.  At that time we will have fun, drink beer, and brag about our bright adventurous future.  Then come May 2nd, we'll be taking off downstream towards the bright lights of Malvern.  Or Jones Mill.  Or maybe just the bright lights of the police vehicle pulling us over to give us a DUI because we are still drunk from the MayDay! party.  Who knows!!!  Every day is a winding road!!

And slowly, we meander through the month of May. Swatting mosquitos, batting snakes, and trying to teach the kids to poop over the side of the boat.  It is gonna be great!!

So what do we need?  How can you help?  Well, uh, do you, or anyone you know, or anyone you have ever talked to or gone to high school with, do you or them know anyone who lives near or on any portion of the Ouachita River?  Do they need a band?  (more specifically a tuba/accordion duet)  Do they like sleepovers?  Were they looking for someone to come over for dinner and eat their food and use their internet connection and sleep in the master bedroom? Do they make decent gin and tonics?
Do you have a boat?  In Camden?  Can we borrow it (for a tax write off)? 
We promise we'll take good care of it.  This is gonna be like Survivor without the tight T-shirts.  I cannot wait.
Any ideas are welcome.  This is the birth of a new tomorrow.