2013

Last year, the kayak traveled 5,000 miles upside-down without touching water (other than rainwater). It was a disappointing and sad journey. The river bags were packed, the kayak rode comfortably atop my daughter’s CR-V, and we were in Iowa, three days and one state away from the headwaters, participating in RAGBRAI (Or eating pie... Or both...) when we got news that my dad had suffered a serious heart attack. I left for the hospital in Montana, where he’d been fishing, and he passed away July 28 with his family around him.

B1-66er, my daughter, her car and the boat made a U-turn at the Mississippi River (Literally. In Fort Madison, IA), and finished their all-too dry path through Wyoming to Montana, and then south again to Las Vegas. It’s hard to balance the sadness of a parent’s death with the disappointment of a lifetime goal postponed. Happily, the trip was postponed only one year, and once again, the river bags are packed and the kayak is traveling to Minnesota, this time on a tiny red trailer behind B1’s PT Cruiser. Looking forward to a watery trip in 2014.

Leaving LV via I-15, Virgin Canyon, AZ

In Ledges State Park, near Boone, IA

View of 2013 RAGBRAI, Des Moines, IA

Deal Christensen, Jr. (Obituary Photo)