The Big River Show

How about that motor, huh? We’ve calculated the finances: If we sell the motor for what we’re asking, we will spend less this summer than we would have at home on rent alone. Granted the accommodations are not as luxurious as our rooms would have been, but you all know the old maxim: Location, Location, Ever-Changing-Location.

Thank you Big River Show executive producers. I think we’ve met about half of you through this project and about half of you are our friends and family. We had considered doing some sort of advertising but, to be frank, it would have been annoying to you and it would have eaten up the rest of our free time trying to stay on top of the logistics of it all.

Can you imagine us floating through the locks with a blue-tooth headset, trying to broker deals with Verizon and some outboard motor company out of Japan saying things like: “I understand your position, sir. I just hope we can work together in the future- after you grow a sense of humor!” We’re off in the next couple of days to try our luck with the Inter Coastal Water Way.

And tropical storm Fay.

Really? The Gulf?

This is not over. We still need to make it to New Orleans. We are on
day number… 75? It looks like we’re going to make it in 80 days
thanks to all the… and despite all the… During this past week
I’ve been emotionally up and down trying to figure out what the next
step is and what the completion of this project means.

We’ve been told by many people we have met, that this is a “once in a
life time experience.” What does that mean? I think they’re just
trying to help us stay in the moment and not take our experience for
granted. But there is another less defined side of this comment; that
after this experience there will be no more like it. And to be clear,
I’m not wanting to extend this adventure, like across the gulf! To
Cuba! Nothing like that. But I’m wrestling with how many adventures a
lifetime can hold, and what “once” really means.

“once in a lifetime adventure”

One interpretation of that statement is: Of all the adventures out
there, within your lifetime, you only get one.

Another way to see that same phrase is: For each lifetime, each
“adventure” can be endeavored once.

The way I choose to take it: In line with the Buddhist philosophy; you
can never step into the same river twice, let alone spend 3 months on
it. Every adventure is once in a lifetime. Even if I rafted down the
Mississippi river again next summer, it would not be the same. It
would be a different river and I would be a different me.
There… now i feel better.

The New Downtown 5 haikus

Let’s have some coffee.
We’ll meet at the corner shop-
seven miles out of town.

Convenience, it seems,
is not reachable by foot.
You must own a car.

Antique stores lead to
Second hand stores which lead to
Pawn shops on main street.

I miss the small shops.
I miss the conversations.
Death of the downtown.

Just think of the ease,
with all stores under one roof,
just two states away.

There seems to be a percentage- a kind of invisible marker- along the scope of a project that, once crossed, deflates for me the value of completing the thing. There are some people who will not rest until there task is done. They are the types who will finish a book despite having despised it from the first chapter. And there are others who are afraid of getting started on a project at all.

I have neither of these afflictions. Mine is the “4/5ths-is-fine” variety. Around the same time I can visualize the final result I become disinterested in it. While the end is still a mystery, my mind works on the solution to getting there. With each step closer to finishing, I gain new insights about the project. The moment the completed project sits before my minds eye, all I want is to begin working on something new. Novelty. I guess I have high needs for Novelty. It’s easy for me to see why, but it is not so simple to change. This trip has been a great help because- even if i wanted to quit now… where could I go?