As I sit in the warmth of my house on a early evening in January, the smokiness of a new batch of beef jerky fills the house while the temperature outside may have hit freezing today.  It’s been a while since I’ve updated paddlestlouis.com so I figured I’d share a bit of what’s going on and what’s on tap for 2020.

First, the jerky! The jerky I prepared for my 2019 trip down the Missouri River turned out to be pretty darn good. It was delicious, convenient and packed a bunch of protein that was so important on long days of paddling. The recipe I chose to use required ground beef – pretty different from what you’d find on your average grocery store shelf. Ground beef, once seasoned and dehydrated, is a nice tender and salty snack. You aren’t in danger of breaking a tooth as you chew it and your jaw muscles aren’t fatigued after a handful. In December, I made a big batch and decided to individually package it to give as Christmas gifts to friends and family. Here’s the label I stuck on the packages:

It’s a cool little hobby, and I might try to continue small-scale production of the jerky and see where it goes. At a minimum, I talked to my friends Shane and Stacy who run Paddle Stop New Haven and they are open to selling it in their shop.

This past weekend, Sara and I were invited to Boonville, MO where Missouri River Relief was holding their annual pot-luck awards ceremony. As you may remember, MRR was the main beneficiary of my fundraising leading up to and during my MO River trip. Sara and I ended up raising around $5000. I was surprised and honored to get an invite and was under no expectations I’d be receiving any award. I was just happy to go hang out with friends and meet more river people. As the awards were being given, Steve Schnarr, Executive Director of MRR started reading this:

Dude #2, Shane Camden, was seated right next to me. We both went up to receive our lovely awards and I gave a short thank you speech. I was quite surprised and humbled to be recognized. A lot of the others who won awards that night did wonderfully amazing things and did a lot of hard work. All I had to do was take a little paddle trip down the river. (The photos used in our awards were actually ones I took during my trip, and which Sara deviously downloaded from my computer when I wasn’t paying attention…)

Speaking of a little paddle trip down the river: From mid-May to just before I returned to work in late September, I grew out the longest beard I’d ever had. It was big and bushy and picked up all manners of sweat, dirt, grime, food, beer, sediment and countless other mystery substances over the course of my trip. I thought it would be such a waste to simply shave it and watch it swirl down the drain. In years’ past, I’d grown out mustaches for the last few months of the year, which I then carefully waxed, cut off, and mounted artistically. Each mustache was given out at various white-elephant gift exchanges. Each time, the lucky recipient was grateful and has prominently displayed my beautiful coifiture in their homes or offices. So I decided to do something special with my Missouri River beard:

Those are my friends Gordon and Shirley. They were so happy to unwrap my gift, they hid it under their chair for the rest of the gift exchange to ensure no one else stole it from them. What you are looking at is one half of my beard, glued to hand-cut and stained cedar, engraved with the number of miles I traveled on the Madison, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Shirley asked that I autograph this one, before she mounted it in a frame to minimize future beard loss. I created a second installation with the other half of my beard, which is currently hung with care in the house of some of my wife’s close friends. Homegrown gifts are the best, am I right?

My mother-in-law graciously gave me a fantastic book for Christmas, which I just finished absorbing. (I would say reading, but there is so much more to visually consume and really enjoy!)

The author is one of the primary historians at the nearby Missouri History Museum and was heavily involved in creating an exhibition that accompanies this book. I’ve yet to get to the exhibition, but it is here until April 2021 so there is plenty of time. I encourage everyone to check it out, it’s free by the way. Anyway, the book is an incredible collection of stories, pictures, artwork, maps and other aritifacts from St. Louis’ rich history. I learned so much about our city’s history which I didn’t know, including one of the young engineers to initially channel and tame the Mississippi at St. Louis was none other than Robert E. Lee. Studying maps from the late 1800s, I also saw the plots of land named for their owners occupying the neighborhoods I grew up in in north St. Louis County. Those names became the main streets we used to bike down as children – Jennings and McLaran.

So what’s on tap for 2020, Mr. Missouri Man? Nothing quite as crazy as 2019, but there are a few adventures planned. In March, I was asked to travel to Brisbane, Australia for our company’s annual Asia-Pacific conference. Sara is travelling along with me and we plan to take around 10 days of vacation around the conference. The Great Barrier Reef has been on my bucket list since I first heard of it so we hope to get there to see it.

I’ve also been helping to resurrect an event that’s been dormant since the early 80s. In the late 70s and early 80s, local rock radio station KSHE-95 put on an annual beer/float/rock extravaganza called the Meramec River Raft Float. Young party rockers would build all kinds of imaginative, human-powered crafts that may or may not have floated them down the short route on the Meramec, guzzling beers and rocking out the whole way. Needless to say, when the main organizer asked me and some friends to jump in to help resurrect this event, we were in! The event takes place June 20th and starts in Greentree Park in Kirkwood. For more info, check out the event. All proceeds go to the important work of Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper.

Pending the potential flooding this summer (and us river people are once again crossing our fingers for a manageable year), the MR340 will take place on August 4th thru 7th. I’ve signed up and this will be my first time paddling in the solo division. Each of the four other times I’ve done the race, it was with a partner in a tandem boat. I plan to race the MoStar across the state of Missouri, retracing the route of the final week or so of my 2019 trip, hopefully moving a little bit faster.

One last plug! On Thursday, February 6th at 6:30pm, at the Edwardsville Public Library in Edwardsville, IL, I’ll be presenting a short presentation about my 2019 Missouri River trip. I’ll show a bunch of pictures, tell some fun stories, answer some questions and share my experiences on the river. All are welcome!

Hope everyone’s winter is going well! The days will soon get shorter and we’ll be out on the water or enjoying the great outdoors once again!

mf