All of Richard's pictures are finally up on the photo gallery from his Etowah, Coosa, Alabama, Mobile, Tensaw Rivers trip.

Enjoy!
Desi...

You're invited to Richard's welcome home party. I've set up an Evite for this event and I tried to include most of Richard's friends, family and paddling buddies, but I may have missed a few.

If you did NOT receive an e-mail with the invitation, please accept my apologies. You may view the invitataio and RSVP to this event by visiting the following link:

View the Evite

Hope to see everyone on Saturday!...

While Richard spent Thursday night was spent in a comfortable, air conditioned and heated house and actually slept in a bed with a mattress, it was not his most comfortable night of the trip. He tossed and turned in bed all night long. I joked that maybe he should have set up a tent in the Bigler’s yard instead of sleeping in their guest room. Richard woke up for the day around 5:30 or 6:00 AM. He regretted leaving the river the previous day – he learned from his lesson and he says that he’ll never do...

Thursday morning, Richard woke up on the platform where he'd camped along the Bartram Canoe & Kayak trail near the Tensaw River. It was still hard for him to believe that this was one of his last day's paddling on this trip. Once again, he commented on what a magical star-filled the night before had been. The last time he'd looked at his clock the night before, the clock read 11:17 PM. He remembered looking at the stars from inside his tent and the next thing he knew, he was snoozing away.

He first wo...

Richard woke up early this morning at 3:35 AM, looked at the clock and immediately knew that he'd made a mistake when pulling into camp the night before. He forgot to break down his paddle and store it in the cockpit of his kayak – something he always makes sure to do in order to secure it from being separated from his kayak. In addition, he always secures his kayak by tying it up to a nearby tree or pulling up well inland before retiring to his tent. He got up from his tent and hurried to the dock to se...

There are new pictures in the photo gallery. I promise that we'll keep updating them in the next few days until we run out of pictures to post.

Richard should be home on Saturday, so we'll have plenty new ones to add after that.

Desi...

The rain continued through the night and finally stopped around 10:00 PM, but not for long. The rain continued off and on all night long. Richard woke up many times throughout the night. He would fall in and out of sleep. He woke up at 12:15 AM and ate some Fig Newtons and drank some Gatorade. He was just waiting for the sun to come up – he began to think that this was the longest day and night of his life. I think he was starting to get bored with staying in camp, trying to take shelter from the rain. Af...

On Monday morning, Richard woke up at 5:50 AM. The sun was up, but it was once again hiding behind the clouds. He fixed his usual cup of coffee and relaxed for a while. He looked at his map, but could not find Fort Mims. He sat there for a while before packing up and met two men heading out on the river to fish for mussels. Their names were Tommy Crum and Don Shackleford. They had a contraption that they would drag behind their boat that would trap the mussels and then the mussels would become trapped and ...

Saturday night was just “as warm as hell” (in Richard’s words) and the moon was full. The sky was clear and Richard enjoyed the stars that were out in the sky. For dinner, he ate Beanie Weenies, Cheez-It crackers and applesauce from an MRE. He sat out by the campfire for a long time last night thinking that this was his last Saturday night out on the river. He commented that “time is going so fast, I can’t even tell what it’s like anymore”. He admired the moon by commenting, “the moon was j...

After spending the coldest night yet on his trip camping on a sandbar along the riverbank, Richard woke up at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning. He built the fire back up to keep warm - it was still "damn cold" that morning. That morning, he found an unusual scenario on the river - it was hard for him to describe. There was the usual fog, but it was much taller - he couldn't even see the water. Richard estimates that the fog was 30-40 feet tall. He took some pictures as he watched the fog dissipate and ate a t...