Shantyboat - Harlan Hubbard

This classic book is one every river person should read. Harlan and his wife Anna take seven years aboard a shantyboat that they built themselves to go off the grid and explore the land and the waters of the Ohio and the Mississippi River. They are not in a hurry - every spring they pull in, plant a garden, settle into a new community of people, fish, pick berries and show us a wonderful life that is beautiful in both the scenery and the way of living.

He is an artist and both are musicians. They find pleasure in meeting people discovering new locations, gathering wild vegetables, eating from the land and the river they interact with drifters and fishermen as they go.

Moving with the current and no motor they are truly adrift and vulnerable to the whims of the great rivers.   This is after both the 1937 and 1927 floods and before the big box store invasion so the picture of the places is really valuable to our collective consciousness and image of the rivers. 

I just wish I could have met them and gone on board!