Waltzing Matilda Back on the River; Nathan Meets “Nobody.”

December 18, 2009
“Rockin’ downstream” is how Nathan described today’s conditions, 40 miles north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the Waltzing Matilda. He’s running mostly by sail, having used the diesel engine perhaps five minutes to charge his batteries and to put more distance between himself and a barge train.
“Things are going quite well today,” he said, “They were yesterday, too.”
“It was tense the first few days on the Mississippi River,” according to Nathan. Now, the weather is beautiful, he’s flying a jib and a mainsail and high water conditions have lessened to the point of no trees or other debris in the river.
Yesterday there was intense barge traffic as the vessels are hurrying to deliver their loads so they can tie up for Christmas. Apparently he got in the same channel with a barge yesterday and made the barge operator nervous. “What are your intentions?” the barge radiod “I can’t stop this thing.”
While in Greenville, Mississippi, Nathan met Jerry Bell, an individual who lives on the river in a canoe and who was the feature of a documentary called “Nobody.” Jerry had been a tool and die machinist and a blacksmith who had been involved in building iron gates and fences (the same job Nathan had before he quit to go traveling). Nathan and Jerry hung out for awhile in Greenville, both waiting for the weather to improve. “We were both glad to have company,” Nathan said. Both were also anxious to trade books since they had each read the ones they had aboard. Jerry’s really roughing it, floating the Mississippi in just the canoe and sleeping in a tent. Aboard the Waltzing Matilda, Jerry exclaimed “Oh, wow! You got electricity! That’s awesome.”
In researching the documentary “Nobody,” I found that while living in Indiana, Jerry’s alcoholism got the best of him and one day after losing his family and his job, he got into the canoe he had won by collecting cigarette coupons and took off down the Mississinewa River. Then he sailed to the Wabash and eventually ended up on the Mississippi. Keeping his canoe afloat with duct tape patching, Jerry eventually ended up in Memphis where he met a couple of photojournalists who chronicled his story from 2001 to 2006 in “Nobody.” TV psychologist Dr. Phil got in the act by staging a televised reunion after 17 years between Jerry and his daughter, Kayla, embittered because Jerry apparently fled her life to avoid child support payments. Don’t know how the reunion came out, all I saw online was the promotional material. Dr. Phil’s people did fix Jerry’s teeth, however, to improve his appearance on television.