Men, women, and children –

The adventure has begun. Please fasten your seatbelts, and remember to keep all limbs and snacks inside the vehicle, for you may lose them if we reach unruly speeds.

The adventure began a week ago with a quick trip through Bloomington, Indiana, to visit the ever-hospitable Aaron Finley. After sharing music and enjoying buffalo burgers, I climbed in my car and prepared to drive westward to my next stop of Lawrence, Kansas. Plans changed within 5 minutes of my hitting the road, however, when I received a call from my traveling film-maker friend Bill whom I’d not seen since my semester in Scotland. I was crossing the Mississippi in my trek west, and Bill’s spending several months traveling the Mississippi with his friend Max (www.BigRiverShow.com), and Bill argued that it only made sense I change my trajectory to have “some beers on a boat,” particularly since we’d already just missed each other a number of times on our travels. I decided he had a point, and I said they could count me in.

So, 5 minutes into my first long day of driving, I changed my course. I headed to the northwest to join the guys in Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain and his legendary pal Huck Finn. I arrived in the late afternoon to meet Bill, Max, and their friend Tyler, who’d arrived from San Francisco just minutes earlier. I greeted they beautiful Evangeline, their old pontoon boat with the wooden shack they’d built on top, unloaded my stuff, and then went to grocery shop with the fellows. Naturally, grocery shopping turned into grocery+gasoline+firework shopping, and we stocked up on so many provisions and explosives that the army would have ducked away in shame.

We returned to the Evangeline, loaded ‘er up, and crossed the big, bad Missisippi to join some locals for a beach party on a sand bar between Missouri and Illinois. People relaxed on the sand bar with drinks, told stories, played games, jammed on the banjo and harmonica, and asked if I was one of the ones traveling on the “hippie boat.” After complimenting an older, sun-kissed woman on her bathing suit, I soon found myself with a new best friend. This friend of mine – Miss Jeannie Clayton – was giggly, generous, and very tipsy, and invited me to join her, her boyfriend Dan, and his nephew Luke on a sunset cruise of the river. Not one to decline such generosity, I hopped aboard and took a mind-blowing tour of the Mississippi at twilight. The sky burned deep orange as Jeannie and Dan related tales of times past, sharing their personal histories as well as the history of Hannibal. They took the time to share their experiences with flooding, and Jeannie related that she had several times lost everything to the great river upon which we traveled.

After returning to the Evangeline, I expressed my gratitude to Jeannie and Dan for sharing their time and stories with me, to which Dan responded (in a deep southern accent): “We’re all in this together, you know. No one’s gonna do it for us. Not our government… not no one. So we have to do this together.” Yeah. Together. What a great omen for my journeys to come.

Following the river cruise, I bathed and splashed about in the Mississippi as twilight faded into night, and the guys and I followed with a massive cookout. We then decided to cap off the evening with a firework war upon the deserted sandbar, illuminating the night sky with brilliant flashes of red, white, and blue (just in time for Bastille Day). I spent the remainder of the night in conversation under the stars, camping atop the roof of the Evangeline’s cabin. I awoke in the morning to the rocking of the boat, a gently colored sunrise, and the sound of trains a’ traveling. A breakfast feast and morning swim ensued, after which I sadly had to declare an end to my Mississippi adventures. Because I had an 8 hour car ride ahead of me, I figured that if I didn’t leave the boat then I’d never want to leave.

For more on Bill, Max, and the Evangeline, check the guys’ website (www.BigRiverShow.com) and the piece CNN did on them (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/07/07/ntm.huck.finn.proteges.cnn).

To map my progress, check here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=53.800651,-4.064941&spn=12.739664,28.78418&z=5.

And now I’m off to enjoy Telluride, Colorado. Rest assured, there are more adventures to come… including my travels through Kansas and Colorado, my dinner with the hosts of the Travel Channel’s “1,000 Places to See Before You Die,” and the job offer from the producer of the Amazing Race!

Just as the wind through valleys roams, I leave you.

Rachel