All the Way to Mile Zero!

This is the end...this is the end...my only friends...the end...

On Saturday, August 18th at approximately 11am central time Jeff "The Platypus" Petrie and Edmund "The Electric Eel" Eilbacher reached mile zero of the Mississippi River!

From Vicksburg we headed down the river with our eyes set on Louisiana's capital city, Baton Rouge. The time spent between Vicksburg and Baton Rouge was pretty uneventful although high temperatures, humidity, and the increasing distances between sandbars to use as camping spots kept the days interesting.

We arrived in Baton Rouge on Thursday, August 9 about mid-day. After a little discussion we decided to park/lock the canoe to a railing on the levee just down river of the large red letters spelling out Baton Rouge to river goers. We kept our less valuable gear in our totes and hid them in a bush hoping the vagrants would not happen upon them. With our backpacks on and paddles in hand we headed into the city.


First stop, the library. With a little direction from some helpful strangers we made it there relatively quickly and started our search for places to stay. There were a few cheap hotels outside of the city but we learned from Vicksburg that the taxi fees add up and it is just as cheap to pay the inner city price.


So, we stayed at the Hilton right down-town. It turns out the management was so impressed by our trip that they reduced the room rate! If you are reading this, thank you Rebecca for helping us out with the room and getting us connected with Woody. We will definitely be in touch next time we come through Baton Rouge.


After a dip in the pool and a nap we headed out to see what the city had to offer for food and nightlife. It turns out there are not many places to eat in Baton Rouge after 2pm. Since there is so much activity in the city during the day most eateries are only open during the lunch hour. With very little knowledge of any open restaurants we had to settle for appetizers at the Roux House. We couldn't complain though as there was live music to entertain us.

We made friends with Julian, an employee of the Roux House that got done with work early for the night. She told us all the hot spots in town and what museums/historical spots to see during the day. We spent the rest of the night on 3rd street.


The next day the two of us split up and searched the city on our own. I took a walk along the river, saw the old state building and the new state building. Petrie ended up meeting back up with Julian and got the local tour of the city. Julian introduced Petrie to a few old high school friends who happened to be in town running the Art, Ready, Go Scavenger Hunt being put on by the LSU Museum of Art. They told Petrie we should attend, and later that night attend we did.

The scavenger hunt was a blast. They opened three of the city's museums after hours for this event: The LSU Museum of Art, the Louisiana Art & Science Museum, and the Louisiana State Museum. We were given a list of questions and the answers were hidden in each museum. We ended up getting back with our answers third however did not finish too well in points as we had a few questions wrong. They held the after-party at a place called Tsunami, a very hip sushi bar on top of the Museum of Art that has a patio overlooking Mississippi River.

Here we met Paige, Sarah, and Ashley the ladies who helped put the event together and who would later become our tour guide to all the charms Baton Rouge had to offer such as Louie's late night and Boutin's for a Cajun dinner and dancing. We had such a good time in Baton Rouge that we decided to stay another night and head out on Sunday instead of Saturday. It was a good thing we did because Sarah and Ashley got us in contact with the local news station, Channel 2, and they did a story about us. It aired that Sunday first as a short mention at 5pm and then as a full story at 10pm. We are working on getting the tape!

As we shoved off for New Orleans with the camera rolling we had no clue what was about to unfold in the days ahead. 230 miles was all that we had left of the trip and we expected it to take just under five days. However, the river had a different idea as to our arrival time at mile zero. We hadn't anticipated that the river would stop flowing altogether and that we would be back to making thirty mile days.

It ended up taking us four days to paddle the 130 mile to New Orleans due to the current slowing down considerably and a 20 m.p.h. headwind every day. The traffic on the river picked up considerably. Tankers were introduced to our environment. However their introduction was not a hostile one as despite their enormous size they put off a very small wake and they are easily spotted from far distances giving you time to maneuver out of their way. In some locations on the river there were tankers lined up for miles. It was an impressive sight with a grouping of 12 tankers anchored along the banks of the Mississippi. Barges also lined the banks with tows moving all over the river.

Industry was apparent as grain elevators and oil refinery's line the banks of this portion of the trip. As we passed one factory we noticed the water had gotten considerably warmer, in fact you could feel the heat radiating off the water. The water at the point must have been near 100 F. Whichever plant it was was getting rid of it's heat waste in the Mississippi.

When we finally arrived in New Orleans we met up with Edmund's relative, Jeanne Woods. She bought us a great meal, put us up for the night, delivered an electric motor with two marine batteries and a solar panel which was donated by Tyler Leben (an old rugby buddy of Petrie's), and brought us back to the river the next day. We both lightened our loads considerably, leaving a lot of equipment behind so that we could get the motor and batteries on board without sinking the canoe.

That next day, Thursday the 16th, Petrie got to working on piecing together the trolling motor and modifying the canoe so that we knew it would work. You might be asking yourself why we would need a motor...the last town accessible by highway on the Mississippi is Venice, LA. Venice is located on mile 10 of the Mississippi, we did not think we would be able to fight the current for ten miles back up to Venice, that's where we would use the motor to power us back up the river. After all, we never said we were going to paddle back up the river!

After Petrie did his checks on the motor, all systems were go. We took the motor apart and placed it in the canoe with a "Do not open 'till mile zero" sign on it. Not really, but we both agreed not to use it until we hit mile zero. You get the point.

With only 98 more miles to go we were both pretty anxious to see the end. As we started to paddle off we realized we were making horrible time. It seemed that the river did not want us to finish as in some parts, when we took a break, the current was flowing back up river. We came to the conclusion that we were making between 1.5 - 3 miles per hour paddling our hardest. It was frustrating. Especially when the winds kicked in.

If we continued at this pace we would not have completed the trip until sometime in the middle of the next week. So we made a decision, we will arrive at mile zero on Saturday, August 18th, no matter how long we have to paddle. Even if it means paddling through the night.

Paddle through the night we did. I must admit, paddling at night is an experience! It is beautiful on the river under the stars and the moon. Everything in your view seems to pass by as if you were moving at light speed: the silhouettes of the trees lining the banks, the barges, and the tankers all whiz by at an incredible speed which is incredibly deceiving as time seems to stop. What seems like two hours of paddling turns out to have only been a half an hour.

We maneuvered all around barges hard at work into the night and tankers gliding across the river. We passed numerous, huge oil refineries that lit up the sky with a golden glow that you could see from miles away as we paddled into the night. Finally, at about 2am we had reached mile 58 and I, Edmund, could not keep my eyes open anymore. We ended up tying up to the mile 58 buoy platform and taking a four hour nap underneath the stars. Petrie slept in the canoe as Edmund climbed the platform and slept.

As the sun rose so did we. We had a quick breakfast and started into another long day of paddling. This portion of the trip was a lot less congested. We did not see any barges. The only traffic were the tankers heading for the Gulf of Mexico or up to New Orleans/Baton Rouge.

We paddled all day and again into the night, this time reaching Venice, LA (mile 10) at approximately 11 pm. All the while as we paddled we started to realize this would be our last full day on the river. Our dinner of ramen noodles and canned chicken would be our last for a while. We would be rejoining society within the next 24 hours and we would no longer be taking baths or washing our clothes in the river. Our openness towards belching and farting would probably no longer be accepted.

When we arrived in Venice, we looked for a place to sleep. We found an industrial harbor and ended up tying up underneath a wooden structure that looked like an abandoned part of a dock. Petrie fell asleep right away, but Edmund kept bumping his head on a beam of the dock. He decided he would get a better nights sleep on the grass so he climbed up the dock and swung onto a patch of grass where he laid his head down for the night.

I should have stayed in the boat! At approximately 4:30 am I woke up to an army of fire ants biting me all over my body. The next day I had about 30 welts on my back alone. My hands, feet, and buttocks were also covered in welts. One good thing came out of this event, as the ants acted as a natural alarm clock and got us up and moving before sunrise.

We had breakfast, dropped off any unnecessary equipment such as our tents and backpacks, loaded the canoe with the motor, batteries, solar panel, a little food, water, and some sunscreen and headed for mile zero.

It turns out that Venice is a very busy fishing village. As we headed out at about 6am a ton of private/commercial fishing boats were heading out to the their favorite fishing holes.

At around 11 am we arrived at mile zero! 89 Days from the start of the river in Lake Itasca, MN we had paddled 2,320 miles to mile zero! We climbed up onto the buoy platform, gave each other a hug, called our loved ones and let them know we had done it. We spent about an hour up on that buoy taking pictures and recalling all the events that had lead up to that one moment and just soaked it all in: two individuals, proud as we could be standing at the end of our accomplishment looking back up river.

Then we realized we could be celebrating in New Orleans and it was time to get back to Venice to meet the individuals that would be purchasing our canoe and giving us a lift back up to New Orleans. We put the motor back together, wired up a battery and opened it to full throttle. No more paddling! We sat there as content as could be. Again, sharing stories and memories of the best and the worst moments of our trip.

When one battery ran out we replaced it with the other. However, right around mile 7, with 3 more miles to go, the second battery started running out of juice and we might have had to resort to paddling once again. Luckily, a boat of fishermen came up alongside of us and offered us a lift into Venice. We took the lift! Thank you Jerry, Sammy, and Tommy for your help and the meal! We really appreciated it. We will definitely take you up on your offer of fishing for Reds the next time we are in the area.

From Venice we were given a ride back up to New Orleans and dropped off at Edmund's relatives house: The Wood's residence with Jeanne, Dave, Chris and Will. We were treated to an amazing meal at K-Paul's in the French Quarter. Edmund tried the Cajun Martini which is topped with a jalapeno instead of olives. Ashley and Sarah from Baton Rouge came down to celebrate and Will stayed up to show us the hot-spots of the French Quarter.

On Sunday, we split our separate ways to experience the city. We are still very good friends even despite being so close to each other for such a long period of time. In fact, our friendship has definitely grown.

Thank you all for your support. We look forward to passing the money we have raised off to UNICEF in the very near future. It meant a lot to us to see friends, family, and even strangers rally together for such a good cause and to help us achieve our goal of making it down the river.

Please visit the site in the near future for an after-thought from both of us. Also, we will be putting up the rest of the pictures in the upcoming week to give everyone the complete picture of our accomplishment.

Onto the next big challenge,

Edmund "The Electric Eel" Eilbacher & Jeff "The Platypus" Petrie

August 3, Vicksburg, MS

It's been a while since we reported in, but you will probably find this update is worth the wait:

We find ourselves in Vicksburg, Mississippi which is a very historic landmark for both the Civil War and the Coca-Cola Industry. First, let us tell you how we got here.

The last update we posted was from Cape Girardeau, MO. Thank you Jeff and Polly Graves for setting us up with such fun hosts that showed us a great time in town! Mark, Tracey, Smiles and the kids we had a blast and hope our river stories weren't too boring.

From Cape Girardeau we headed south for six days enduring 100 % humidity and temperatures over 100 F until we reached Memphis, TN on July 25. We ended up finding a hostel in the city and reserved a couple beds for two nights. That night we went to Beale St. to check out the blues halls and nightlife. In between our venue hopping we met Jamie and Kim, two ladies on a road trip from Minneapolis, MN to Phoenix, AZ. They ended up being our tourist counterparts as the next day we met up with them and headed to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, and toured the National Civil Rights Museum, the location at which Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Memphis is a very interesting city with a lot of entertainment and history. We were almost going to stay another day or so to soak in a little more of the city but in an effort to get back before school starts we had to press on. Let it be noted we are definitely going back to Memphis!

From Memphis we got back in our aquatic mobile home and spent another six days on the river enduring the same 100% humidity and high heats all the way to Vicksburg, MS. We toured the Vicksburg Battlefield which was a very important moment in the history of the Civil War and toured the original Coca-Cola bottling factory.

Thunderstorms are a daily occurrence and sometimes nightly. Sometimes we get off the river, other times we paddle right through the lightning and rain. A couple nights ago one storm produced 30-40 m.p.h. winds that ended up uprooting Ed's tent stakes. The only thing keeping it anchored was his body.

Friends, we are coming to the end of our trip. We have approximately 440 miles of river left to paddle. This should take us 8 days to complete. Add 2 days for some time in Baton Rouge and we should be finished by August 15.

We have posted a few new pictures, take a peak.

To all of you that have donated, thank you! The donation meter currently stands at $3,050 which is an awesome number and we are very proud of this accomplishment; however, we would still like to shoot for the $5,000 goal.

If you know of anyone that is thinking about donating and just keeps putting it off, let them know we will stop accepting donations on August 22 and we could definitely use their help!

*We will not accept any donations after August 22*

Down the home stretch,

Eel & Platypus

July 18th, Cape Girardeau, MO

Three more days on the river puts us in the river town of Cape Girardeau, MO where we were looking forward to meeting Jeff & Polly Graves ( a couple of UND alumni). Due to an unfortunate family circumstance they had to leave town. Through conversation, we have come to learn that they put us up for the night in a hotel and left us in the good care of Tracey and Mark who will later this evening show us around town. Thank you Jeff & Polly we are sorry we missed you and hope all went well up North.

We do not have much to report as we have just arrived and have not scouted out the town yet. We'll have to give you a report of the town in the future.

What we can report is the river current has definitely picked up. We hit our first 51 mile day on Monday and yesterday we hit 48 miles, just shy of 100 miles in two days.

We got stuck in a sever thunderstorm yesterday which had 30-40 m.p.h. winds, large rain, and a lot of thunder/lightning. We saw it developing behind us and thought we were in for an afternoon rain storm. However, once we realized that the wind that had been blowing in our face had stopped (the calm before the storm) and the thunder started rumbling we knew we should get off the river. We pulled off onto a sand-bar and seconds after we got off the river the storm started with the high winds. We waited the storm out, being pelted with rain. At the end both of us were soaked,which actually felt pretty good as the temperatures before the storm were around 100 F, and the canoe had about 5 inches of water in it.

Take a look at the pictures as we have posted the latest bunch.

Life's the experience, try something new,

Eel & Platypus

July 14, St. Louis, MO

We are currently in the great city of St. Louis, MO. We arrived on Thursday with plans of staying two nights but the owners of the Huck Finn Hostel in Soulard, we are staying at, gave us an extra night free; so, we took it as a sign and opted to spread our stay one day longer.

Before I get on the subject of St. Louis let's talk about Alexandria, MO. Earlier in the month we met up with a gentlemen by the name of Scot Hall while getting supplies in Lansing, IA and exchanged contact info. He was travelling the river by motorboat and told us that as we get further South to stop in Alexandria, MO at a place called the Purple Cow. Well, that's exactly what we did. As we pulled into dock @ the Purple Cow we were welcomed by the owners Boon & Denise as well as Scot and his nephews. Scot treated us to dinner at the Cow and gave us a driving tour of Keokuk, IA including the Mormon city of Nauvoo, IL. After the tour we went back to the Cow and shared some river stories with the locals Charlie & Duck and listened to some river advice from Carver who had taken the trip by motor boat twice.

Scot, if you're reading this, seriously thanks for all your generosity and setting us up with all the right people. You made our stay in Alexandria very memorable.

After Alexandria we got back on the river and paddled to St. Louis. We are completely done with the Lock & Dams! The river once again has a strong current. We completed our first 4o mile day and have officially hit the half-way mark as just prior to arriving at St. Louis we hit the 1,160 mile marker. All exciting stuff.

St. Louis is an entertaining city. There is almost too much to do. Thursday night we went to a comedy club and saw a show. Friday we hit the zoo (free & rated top 5 in the country), Petrie hit the History Museum and a Napoleon exhibit. Saturday we went up in the Arch and saw a documentary on how it was made as well as visited the City Museum which is a mind-blowing/entertaining experience which I could have spent days exploring. At the City Museum there was a yo-yo competition going on, a huge cave to explore that lead you to a steel jungle gym, slides leading you to all different levels, an indoor skate park, fish tanks all over and an assortment of other random exhibits that all seemed to fit.

On a night out on the town we met up with two individuals that had the power to get us on top of the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis. Their names will remain anonymous for the time being, but thank you for the view!

This update would not be complete without a mention of an amazing family consisting of DeeDee, Joette, Carly, Gretchen, Allan, Kathy, and Rose who literally picked us off the streets and showed us a great time in the city. Happy Birthday Carly! To the rest of the family, thank you for the good time and sorry we missed out on the crepes. We will keep in touch. DeeDee, if you need a helicopter pilot for your wedding I would probably be able to arrange it.

Time's up, time to move South,

Check back soon as we will be able to post some more pictures in the very near future.

-Eel & Platypus

July 5th, Fort Madison, IA

We are currently in Fort Madison, IA where we spent the 4th of July watching an amazing fireworks display. In approximately two days we will be out of Iowa and into Missouri. We are not sure we want to leave as the hospitality in Iowa has been amazing.

Our new friends in Burlington, IA: Larry, Lou, Chrissie, Johnny and the rest of the gang, thank you for showing us such a good time. (Apologies for mis-spelt names)

We took today off in an effort to relax, refuel, and re-stock on the essentials. The weather is getting hotter, and the humidity is rising as well. The good news is the current is supposed to pick up South of St. Louis which may just give us the 50 mile days we have been looking for.

Pass it on,

-The Eel & The Platypus

***New photos are up, take a look, let us know what you think!

Half-way Through Iowa

Today is June 29th and we find ourselves halfway through Iowa. Actually, we're writing from a library in Fulton, Illinois on the East banks of the Mississippi River. Yes, we are still having fun.

We have completed 826 miles to date which means we have completed over 1/3 of the river. Yes, it has taken much longer than what we had originally planned for but we are still as passionate about completing the trip as ever.

The river has opened up greatly since its beginnings in Itasca. In many places it is miles wide. In fact, we have stopped calling it the Mississippi River and have renamed it the Mississippi Lake. The locks & dams that the Army Corp of Engineers put in place in the 1930s, to make transportation easier, have reduced the current to almost nothing which means we have to put more effort into paddling to achieve our new goal of 33 1/3 miles per day.

Recently, a typical day sounds like this:

Wake up between 6:00 - 7:00 am
Break down camp
On the river between 8:30 - 9:00 am
Paddle until 2:00 pm
Take an hour for lunch
Back on the river between 3:00 - 4:00 pm
Paddle till 9:00 pm (sunset)
Set Up Camp
Eat Dinner
Take a swim in the river
Pass out between 10:00 - 11:00 pm

We keep our days interesting singing songs, telling jokes, and annoying each other throwing Ed-Nemesis around. Ed-Nemesis are a bug that only live for 24 hours and have, as of this week, made their appearance by the millions along the banks of the river. They wait for a passing boat or in our case a canoe and they jump out of the trees hoping to land on the vessel and hitch-hike. Their real name is the Fish Fly but they annoy Edmund, so we call them the Ed-Nemesis.

We have beefed up, pardon the pun, our diets as all last week we realized we were not eating enough food for the amount of work we are doing.

Tune in next time....

We will not be able to post any new pictures until we get to a faster internet connection which may take a couple weeks, apologies.

-The Crew

Almost Out of Minnesota

Today is June 19, 2007 and we find ourselves in Hastings, MN at the home of Josh Walker (Mouse) and family. They have offered us a bed and a home-cooked meal which we have more than willing accepted. Historic Hastings as it is known is approximately 30 miles South of the Twin Cities, as the fish swims.

The last time we wrote we were about a week and a half away from Minneapolis. On June 9th we stopped in St. Cloud, MN for a visit with Kurt Wensmann (PT) and family. The Eel milked his first cow, and the whole crew had a great night out in St. Cloud when they met up with Jason Malmanger (Pile) and painted the town red.

Last Wednesday, June 13, we arrived in Minneapolis and shared a lot of good conversation with some familiar faces over our four day stay in the cities.

We had a few host familys during our short stay in the cities.

Megan and Doug Braun put us up for a few nights and filled our stomaches with a steak send-off meal. Megan also helped us re-stock on Aloe Up products which have been extremely helpful on our trip.

Petrie's Unlce Doug and his wife Peggy also hosted us for a couple nights. They were more than accomodating with excellent meals and a couple relaxing boat rides around the lake in their back yard. Here we were also visited by Petrie's Father, Ron during our stay.

Some would say the real reason we picked this weekend to show up in Minneapolis was to partake in Adam Bader's bachelor party. I would agree. On Saturday, we had a night out on the town in honor of our friend's commitment. The events of this evening we cannot disclose, really, we signed a piece of paper. hahahaha, However I can say we had a very good time in the company of old friends such as Adam Bader, D.U.G, Squirrel, Cowboy, Rufio Danger, and Sunshine.

After all the fun we said farewell and jumped back on the river yesterday. We paddled through the cities in a thunderstorm and experienced our first three locks. No more portaging from here to the Gulf!

New Pictures will be up soon!

Keep checking back...

Staying clear of the barges,

Edmund "The Electric Eel" Eilbacher & Jeff "The Platypus" Petrie