Aug 25
The Big River Summer
to summarize a summer…
I’ve had trouble paring a day into a paragraph. But here goes for the summer. We were warned that the river held some fierce threats to novice boaters. I suspect that a little planing can hold most of the danger at bay and by keeping a watchful eye, one can reduce the potential trouble further. What a watchful eye and planning misses, quick reflexes can help abate and hopefully what gets past all that is taken care of by a little luck.
In all that, I mean to say that we didn’t have nearly as much trouble as we could have. But it’s impossible to tell how close we came. Our anchor could have been holding on by a few pebbles and another ounce of pressure would have set us adrift. You will never know these things until you pull too hard. In a way that’s what bill and i were doing this summer. Pulling harder than we could have in our city apartments. Pulling harder than we could have by working all summer and going out on weekends. Pulling harder to see if we go adrift. It’s certainly no Everest; we’re not prepared for Everest. But we were ready for the Mississippi river. We were ready for the lessons held in that path to the Gulf. Bill and I have researched and we believe we are the first to video-blog the length of it. So as far as any adventurer ever gives back to a journey, we hope that our chronicle can be that gift.
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Nice.
You Rock.
I just want to say thanks to you guys. I have very much enjoyed your journey and will actually miss you now! Yours is a trip I have always wanted to do and hopefully still will someday. As I live in St. Louis I caught up with you when you got here but I went back and enjoyed all the previous blogs too. Thank you so much for allowing me to come along and congratulations on getting there! Now I don’t know what I’ll do every afternoon when works gets boring. Thanks again guys and best of luck with everything you ever do.
Robbie
Dag, yo. That was a perfect ending to a big-time adventure. I just got goosebumps, and I don’t think it was the cold Idaho rain.
Beautiful work, and thanks for sharing.
I just want to say thank you for sharing this incredible, fun journey. As I live in St. Louis, that is when I saw you guys on the news and started following you. I went back and caught up and then looked forward everyday to your updates. Some day I hope to make the same trip. I’m certainly going to miss you guys now. Best of luck with any and all of your future endeavors! Thanks again for all the fun!
Robbie
everybody loves a montage. quite well-done. it certainly ends with a bittersweet taste: it seems victorious and wrapped up, all while seeming nostalgic and desirous for more.
This beautiful recap filled my eyes with tears! Tears of joy that you made this trip and entertained me for 80 days! What will I do for amusement now? You will need to be thinking of your next adventure…..I can’t wait! Everything you do is done w/excellence!
Take care my friends, you both did an outstanding job of contributing equally in this venture. And once again, what is that banjo music in the last episode? I LOVE it and need to buy it! Love Aunt Cynthia
Nice job guys awsome trip , i am glad to have met you 2 meat heads . The realy cool thing is i think your heart is in the right place, you done good .have fun at the party and i hope to hear from you.
Congatulation. Great adventure. Great wrapup. Thanks for letting me come along.
Tobe
awesome video, dudes
Max, we have missed your absence deeply in the Bay Area, luckily the bigrivershow has been a Methadone like substitute to quell our yearnings. Having you back will force us back into a spiral of Max-addiction. Bill, the bigrivershow has been evidence of your awesomeness, look forward to meeting you.
I am so sad now! Excuse me while I cry for a minute. I can’t believe The Big River Show is over and I just want to thank you both again for doing this and sharing it.
You did good.
You guys did really good, I’m planning now. Any regrets about the Tenn-tom? (other than internet).
plus
I havent heard from the Big Getter in the past few days - hopefully they are fine….
Keep the adventures going Dude, lifes2short…
Tom
Dittos!!!
I liked the part where your friends came and shot off fireworks sideways in the trees!! My whole family came to the computer and watched and laughed..and the mud wrestling was very cool, and the part when you engineered the steering from above (when you were pretty wasted) and the part where Max was talking to the bakery lady, and then when the little girl was introducing you to all the cows by first names..I loved it when you hung with other river rats..downtown was interesting and the guy with the flooded fields….reality and unknown to us here in the big cities, thank you for your reporting in New Orleans, we would have never known about this Ward, and the wonderful man you met. Bill you are awesome with the video machine….Max you cracked me up so much!! I am still fighting with PayPal, so it may come later this month..MY FAVORITE PART…WAS ‘THE RULES’, and all these people you know and don’t know..writing in, and and and and…. showing me how the locks work….and and and …. take care…
Thanks for doing it for me.
On a personal note: Don’t even think of doing Everest. Like. Ever. You’re not the goon from Into the Wild. You don’t need to die for your adventure. And I know that wasn’t about Everest, but the point remains.
Here are some safer, but altogether classic alternatives: The Big Transcontinental Railroad Show, The Big Oregon Trail Show, The Big Lewis & Clark Expedition Show, The Big Ponce De Leon Show, or The Big El Dorado Show.
Congratulations guys. Quality vids. Quality writing. Quality through and through. While the effort may have worn on you, the stories were just as good at the end as they were at the beginning.
You guys cant stop now! We’ve got the Big River Show jones. I was serious about taking a tricked out golf cart to Alaska….wanna go?
Wow, I can’t believe you guys made it to New Orleans in 80 days. You really must have booked it after St. Louis. Thanks for showing our part of the country to the rest of it. I think (and hope) people on the coast now realize “People like that really DO exist.” I can’t wait to come out to San Francisco and see you two again. Bill, could you and your dad put me up? San Francisco is definitely my next travel destination. I’m unfortunately not moving to Boston as soon as I was planning. It’s kind of on hold indefinitely. You both have to e-mail me, keep me updated on how you’re doing. My address is shortsinger@swbell.net. Good luck on finding jobs!
P.S. I never did get an answer to my question about the hooch. Did you three end up finishing it that night???
Nice.
Awesome teamwork gentlemen! Thanks so much for taking us along!
Bill and Max -
Thanks for the fun! What am I gonna do to procrastinate my school work now???? Let us know if you are ever back in Minneapolis - you are welcome to our spare bedroom! After spending these past 80 days with you, I feel I have moved up from “uncle’s sister” to “aunt”!
Are you guys at Burning Man now??? Any blogs to view?
Diana
dianavd@comcast.net
Jesus, I hope you guys are already home or were on your way. And not a moment too soon, either.
Boys,
You really did a wonderful thing with this show. It was entertaining, enlightening, and frequently moving. Pulling that off puts you into a different class of film makers, I think, and it’s a good class to be in.
This was a really nice final video. Y’all did good, and I’m pretty damn proud of you both.
Much love,
Brent
P.S. I will shoot a roman candle at your face anytime, should you want to do a sequel.
What a great trip! Glad to hear you made it safe and sound. I think your next step should be adventurers for hire. Sort of like that show ‘Dirty Jobs’ but with more of a travel angle; I’d watch it. Call up the Discovery Channel and see what they think. You guys are charismatic and good-lookin’. At least enough to get on the DC.
Ох мы наржались на этом…
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