Down River

"I wonder if anyone has ever canoed the entire Mississippi River?", I thought to myself as I crossed the the first bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Minnesota just below the headwaters in Lake Itasca. After sixteen months of research, team building, writing and submitting sponsorship proposals with the help of teammates that are in the background but key players, gathering of gear and the logistics of the whole trip, today we piled into our van and headed northeast from Knoxville headed to Minnesota where we will be canoeing the 2,340 miles of the Mississippi River. After a short stop in Ohio, we picked up our fifth and final member and drove until time for dinner. We were just outside of Chicago so Chicago style pizza only seemed right. That was a real treat! Each piece felt like it weighed a pound a piece and was ridiculously good. Six grown men left stuffed on 2 twelve inch pies and even had almost a half of s pizza left! With about nine hours separating us from our put in point, we're eager to get this adventure started but sleep has to come at some point. It's 10:15 p.m. and the uneventful dark fields of wisconsin await us and the book on CD rambles on as sleep draws ever closer.
21 May 2012