It was a 33 hour Greyhound ride (there is a photo of me at the first bus station in Fort Myers Fl at 3:45am) on 4 different buses to St. Louis. I had a duffle bag and a 50 gallon waterproof bag with my paddles duck taped to it. During a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, the girl who was sitting next to me complaining about her abusive relationship she was running from went to the bathroom and slit her ankles. Fortunately I had my first aid kit in my backpack so I gave her some Band-Aids.
Stayed two nights at my aunts where I met Tom Bailey my partner for this trip. Headed to his house in Minnesota for a couple of nights to dry pack our gear and double check everything. We leave Friday morning to Montana to stay with Norm Miller (A man who paddled up the Missouri River and knows the area well, he will paddle with us the first couple of days hopefully). So we should be on the river by Saturday and reach Great Falls within a week or so.
Here are some photos of our kayaks. Tom is paddling a Delta 16’ thermoplastic kayak (named Eliza), I have a 17’ plastic Tempest 170 by Wilderness Systems (named lil’ Sydney). The weather is suppose to be cold and rainy our first few days, of course, sigh.
I’ll hike into a library and send updates when I can.
Charles