Paducah Surprise

The Company I work for, Q-Comm Corporation, has an office in Paducah, Kentucky. We have some very talented Associates that work out of this office. Q-Comm's entire Collection's Department that I visit monthly operates in this facility as well as folks from Sales, Provisioning, Billing, Account Management, MIS and other areas of the Company. As I arrived for my monthly visit with the Collection's team yesterday, I was greeted by the entire office singing their rendition of "Row, Row, Row your Kayak gently down the stream", holding packs of peanut butter crackers in their hands and giggling all the while. Some of these folks I have worked with over the last 13 years and all of them are great people. A little goofy at times but aren't we all!!! They presented me with a bicycle horn to scare away the Loch Ness monster during the race, a flood light for the boat, a head light for me and a substantial sponsorship for Nativity of Mary School! Thanks to Teresa Higdon, Jana White, Amanda Dassing, Devin Haneline, Betty Benton, Sharon Duncan, Kim Lagore, Becky Cope, Dwight Mills, Rachel Spann, Aeresa Ryan, Eric Overby, Tammy Hayes, Shelley Yates, Debbie Quinn, Karen Coleman and Dennis Tharp! You guys are the GREATEST!!!

Third Training Day on the Big MO July 2-3

This was the big training day. I put in at the race start at 5:30 pm Thursday with hopes of finishing 140 miles down the river at Glasgow, MO within 24 hours. It was going to be a full moon that night so I should be good with plenty of light for the trip. All went as planned until around 10:30 pm when the clouds rolled in and covered up most of the moon. I could still see most of the river with the exception of near the bank where the shadows from the trees made it impossible to see. I wasn't prepared for the moon to set around 1:30 am and no sun coming up to replace it. The river was completely black. I couldn't see a thing. I could barely make out the top of the tree line along the bank and used that to guide me as I stayed about 50 yards away from the bank which hopefully put me in the middle of the river away from rock piles, tree stumps, piles of logs and buoys that tend to gather at the edges of the river. I surprised the barge operator at 3:30 am as he was headed straight for me not expecting to see a solo kayaker out on the river. He passed on the right as I headed left toward the bank. The unknown was better than being dragged under a barge. The wakes the barge left in its trail were sizable and tossed my little kayak like a toothpick. The sunlight started to break through around 4:30ish and ushered in a sense of relief. Called Mom at 6:30 am to let her know that I was safe and that I was probably not her brightest child. Once the sun came up I saw that the food I had duct taped to the side of the boat had been dragging in the river water for quite some time. River soaked peanut butter crackers not very appetizing. I opted to go without. Around 10:30 am I came across a large rock in the river and like a slow moving car wreck was not able to get out of the way. The front end of the boat climbed up the rock and stopped. I thought now what? The current showed me the way as it pushed the back end of my boat down the river and promptly flipped me into the river. I now know that an Ipod can last 3 minutes and 20 seconds fully submerged in river water but unfortunately mine was under for much longer than that! I was able to swim the boat to the muddy bank and get back in the boat full of mud less one Ipod. Now food less and tuneless I still had 28 miles to go. A full on head wind picked up around noon which made for some tough paddling. Around 2:00 pm with the sun beating down hard now I started to see trees in strange shapes and what appeared to be zoo animals along the bank until I got closer and realized that I must be really exhausted. The lightning and rain rolled in around 3:00 pm. The good Lord was trying to see if he could finish me off before I made it to Glasgow. I finally pulled in around 3:30 pm (22 hours later) to Glasgow, MO. My family and friends were there to cheer me in and pull me out of the water. My Mom put down the Rosary to give me a hug! What a training run!!!

Second Training Day on the Big MO June 27th

Paddled from downtown Kansas City to Lexington Missouri approximately 51.5 miles. I averaged 7.5 mph and finished the first leg of the race in under 7 hours. The first cut off time is 9 hours so I should be in good shape for the race. Haven't figured out how to post pictures from my phone yet but I am sure my kids will teach me. Only one serpent encounter on this trip. For those of you keeping score it is Weber 3 Loch Ness 0.