The day has finally arrived. I have been losing sleep for nine months since I made the decision to paddle down the Missouri. Once I decided to take on this challenge, it was another month, or two or three, before I made the decision to start at the source. I knew I would regret not making the extra 298 miles if I started at Three Forks instead of Brower’s Spring.
after our ski into Brower’s Spring.
(Photo by Norm Miller)
The time is 3:23 AM. My alarm is set for 4:30 AM. I feel like I have an extra hour so I’m trying to get in one last “quick” blog post before we take off. Now, THAT’s a challenge!
The Columbia Daily Tribune, our local newspaper, is supposed to publish a story this morning. I just checked on it. Yep, it’s there. Here is the link for “PRIMED TO PADDLE: Kayaker ready to tackle river’s entire length.” I will post the story under my Media page once the article becomes NOT available online, unless you have a subscription.
Yesterday was a very busy day packing. I actually spent two days hard at it. Three and one half months requires thinking through all of your needs, and wants, then trying to downsize the load. I’m not very good at that. Thankfully, Haley arrived after lunch and really helped me accomplish this daunting task. She is very organized and more rational than me when it comes to, “Is it really a need, or merely a want.”
We took a moment to take a picture with our matching “Say YES More” T-shirts. ‘Say Yes More’ is Dave Cornthwaite’s campaign, of which I am an ambassador. The first medium T-shirt was itty-bitty, so I gave it to Haley and he sent me a larger one. Find out more about Dave’s exciting adventures on his Website.
Last night we enjoyed spending time with my niece, Rene Freels, and her husband, Kyle, and son, Sam. We enjoyed fabulous food (as usual) at El Maguey, not to mention their $1.25 margaritas. This is my favorite restaurant in town.
We then enjoyed going down to the river to meet a lot of my river friends who were enjoying a campfire, pot luck barbeque, and acoustic guitar music. We have access to a spot right next to Cooper’s Landing where we have get-togethers sometimes. We also stopped by Cooper’s and I was able to introduce them to many more wonderful people in our river community. We had a great evening. I was happy to introduce them to a little slice of my world. Unfortunately, no photos.
Once home again, I began to round up all of the little loose-end items such as dental floss, water bottles, hairbrush, shampoo and other things that I actually use until I leave. I started a batch of strawberry/banana fruit roll-ups in the dehydrator, too.
This morning I will do one last batch of laundry, gather all of my food and try to sort some of it out into portions. I need to make my custom trail mix as well. Then, once light starts dawning on this part of the earth, the kayaks will go on the car, and I’ll pack the car with all of my stuff. We just left everything on the porch since the weather is good and we have Minnie, our wonderful, and loud, watchdog. No one can approach the house without her approval.
The weather looks rough for the next few days in this area, and on our drive up north. It is my understanding that snow has been falling in Montana. I try not to let the weather reports get me emotionally stirred up. I am taking things one step at a time, and making decisions as opportunities present themselves. You might say I am “Going with the Flow.” Yes, I like the sound of that. Here is my awesome road crew, Haley, Jeannie Kuntz, and me.
My extra hour has turned into two after posting photos. Still, not bad. But, gotta go!
Cheers! See you on the water! Montana here we come! YeeHaw!
(One hour, 30-minute blog post! That is a new personal record. That is good, real good.) 🙂
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