It's Over!

Here are pictures of our last day and our final landing!

Just a taste of the ships that were on the river with us...scary!

Downtown New Orleans, we're so close!

Ethan's rudder, held together with sticks, fishing line, and duct tape

No cigar, no beer, sweedish fish are my victory indulgence

We're done!
IJM Shirts

Jumping pictures are my favorite, you never know what you're going to get!

We're in New Orleans, and we're having a great time. We all sold our kayaks already, and we don't know when we'll go kayaking again (hopefully not anytime soon). Justin flies back to Sacramento Saturday night. Ethan and I will be here until Monday. Ethan will take the train to Texas to visit family and then fly home after than. I will be flying home to San Francisco. We have had a wonderful trip and have truly been blessed by the people we met, IJM, and everyone back home. We have loved being here, but we're so excited to go home!

With much Gratitude and Love,

Tim

New Orleans, Here We Come!

Sitting 37 river miles from New Orleans, it is almost surreal to us that we are that close. The trip has gone by so quickly in some ways, but I also almost couldn't imagine paddling another day after tomorrow. We are spending the night in Reserve, LA at First Baptist Church Reserve. We'll set our kayaks in early tomorrow morning, and hopefully be in New Orleans at Audubon Park around 2pm. Some friends (or soon to be friends) are picking us up tomorrow and we'll be well taken care of in New Orleans.
Thank you all so much for the ways in which you have blessed us with your prayers, comments, and all the other things that you have done. It has been so encouraging having that support along the river, and we cannot tell you enough how much we appreciate it. As we complete the trip, please do not let this be the end of praying for the fight against Human Trafficking and for IJM, but please continue to pray for justice to be seen in the lives of the oppressed.
Tim

River Wisdom

The other day a reporter asked us, "What have you learned from this trip?" I don't remember what we answered, but the question sure set me to thinking. After much contemplation I produced the following list of...

Things I Have Learned On The Mississippi River.

1. Just because a sandbar is there at night doesn't necessarily mean it will be there in the morning.
2. Deer are very strong swimmers.
3. The song "You Are My Sunshine" was written about a man's horse (we saw the horse's grave in St. Joe's, LA.)
4. Berries float and honeydue sinks.
5. Bald Eagles aren't really endangered...they are all just in Iowa.
6. Don't bother trying to catch up to Justin until he is ready to be caught up to.
7. Don't bother estimating mileage because Tim's guess will be more accurate anyway.
8. Churches in the South are suprised to learn that there are Christians in California (bonus lesson: Dr. Mooney is right about everything).
9. Catfish can grow to be as large as a VW bug (...or so they say).
10. Just because a city is named after a state doesn't mean it is a large city (Arkansas City, pop. 400).
11. $20 tents don't keep out rain.
12. Bug spray doesn't work on gnats.
13. If you can get used to it, holding a few ounces of water in your mouth will cool down your whole body.
14. Vicksburg, MS did not celebrate the 4th of July for 100 years because it was on the 4th that the city fell to U.S. Grant and the North.
15. Apparently, you aren't supposed to hide under a bridge during a tornado.
16. Kayaking the Mississippi River is hard.

Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana

Its been a long week. We have safely arrived in Vicksburg Mississippi, and we are staying at the First Presbyterian Church. We've been moving really quick. We successfully outran a thunder storm that followed us for nearly the whole day today. It was angry, but the storm was no match for our quick paddling. We had a few consecutive 50 mile days this week. We camped out a few times and we enjoyed some great stays with families in Helena-West Helena (yep,thats its official name), Arkansas City (the names a bit deceiving...it has only 500 people), and Lake Providence Louisiana.

In Lake Providence we stayed in a mansion-cabin-camp right on the river. Tommy Scrogins fed us delicious steaks, and then a huge breakfast to get us going in the morning. We are really roughing it out here on the Mississippi. We walked in a small coffee shop called Jehova Java in Lake Providence. We weren't sure what we were getting into, but we met about a dozen southern ladies who were supporting their friend who was having a book signing. these ladies were a lot of fun, and they taught us all about what southern mama's tell there daughters.

Blake from Helena-West Helena

Campsite on an island outside of Crumrod

The gravel road to Arkansas City

Campsite at Greenville MississippiThe interior of the mansion-cabin (the last person to stay in this place was Brett Favre...not kidding)

Upstream Video

Here are three glimpses of life on the river for the USB team in recent weeks:

(Note: These are large files in Windows Media format)

6/25 Voice Update

6/25 Update from Arkansas City, Arkansas:

Thanks to KLOVE and Air1 for telling the Upstream Battle story on air nationwide today!

Picture Post

We are in Memphis TN!! Here are a few highlights from the trip so far. We have so many pictures, but we can only put up a few. We haven't had to camp since ST. Louis, so we want to thank the generosity of all the families that have opened their homes to us. We are very grateful.