6 Weeks, 7 States, 25 Locks, 1200 Miles, Countless Memories

When you make a journey like this, there is really no adequate way to summarize other than to reflect on what streams into your conciousness.

There were familiar tasks and some sights, but mostly everything was brand new.  First, spending over 40 days with two strangers is neither easy or without stresses and compromises.  Yet, in retrospect, I think we all did an admirable job.  When you rarely get more than 10 feet away from those who have irritated you or pissed you off, you learn to suck it up, put things into perspective and shrug it off as you begin a new day.

I've been in every one of these states before, but never saw anything I saw on this trip.  It was examining the chunks of  IN, IL, MO, KY, TN, MS and AL with fresh eyes.

Bald Eagles, Blue Herons, Egrets, Buzzards, Vultures, White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans and countless other birds were part of daily life.  Seeing a deer drinking by the riverside, hearing coyotes howling in the wild in an anchorage and sharing the water with Asian Carp, Alligators and Water Moccasins were all taken in with a sense of both marvel and comfortable acceptance.

I was not in my world; I was living in another world that few ever see.  I went from the 577 (MSL) foot elevation of Lake Michigan to sea level ( 0 MSL)  by stepping through 25 locks.

Adding up all of the mileage segments comes to over 1200 statute miles and I marvelled at both the boring sameness and amazing diversity of what I saw as the riverbanks went by at 6-12 miles per hour.

I was dry, wet, hot, cold, basking in the sun and shivering in the fog.  I maneuvered this fine 38,000 pound craft into and out of anchorages and docks, around river debris and stood at the helm for countless hours and hundreds of miles hand steering and tweaking the autopilot wheel control.

I cooked, washed dishes and (yes dear) made my bed every morning!  Along with the view from the boat, I covered nearly every mile of the trip with the navigation program on my tablet and kept electronic track journals of nearly the whole trip.

I'm home with my memories but would do the same trip again in a heartbeat in my own boat.  And, I'd continue on the other 4,800 miles of "The Loop" looking forward to "Crossing My Wake" at the Muskegon Pier Head.

I'm grateful and feel very fortunate to have made a journey this unique.  There is no question that, while I'm delighted to be home again and easing into the routine of fall and winter, there is a new sense of adventure and longing that has been uncovered.