Some thoughts on our crew – Melanie Cheney
River Mile 380, above Parkville, MO.
July 26, 2006

Dave and Fran Stous have been a wonderful addition to the crew, patiently trailing along with us and hanging out. The original plan was for their houseboat to be the mothership, but plans quickly change on the river, and we had everything covered. So they were wanting to do something more for us, although contented just to be on the river and going along for the ride.

We gave them the important task of sending out messages in a bottle, which is a great job, and Fran began to write our daily messages along with the information we had already printed out about the megascout.

They are such a wonderful and cute couple. Did I mention that they are wonderful? Fran is a psychiatric nurse (that makes 2 with Nancy!) and is really nice and down to earth. Although they are both really quiet, and like to go off to fish and eat by themselves, they are also really inquisitive and knowledgeable. Dave is a water quality engineer and geologist. He answers many of our questions and tells us about the water treatment & power plant outflows. Too cool. He's also a great captain & navigator, as well as on the board of River Relief. Incredible people.

Then there is Dan, our GIS intern, world traveler, dynamite guy, smart, funny, and totally fits in with the crew and can do anything. Aside from that, he primarily keeps track of the data, photos, & megascout database with maps & all on his laptop Betty. This week, he got a phone call on a sandbar near Atchison from a private intelligence collection agency looking for an interview with him. Out of this world! This guy is definitely going places (but I think we are going to try and keep him).