Matt had tremendous struggles with the high winds yesterday. He fought 25mph winds with gusts up to 40mph. It was very tough. He would push forward, and by the time he repositioned his pole he was blown backwards.
But he gained much strength and encouragement from Alexa Boyette who met him at her dock. She talked with Matt about her son’s trek nearly forty years ago (see below.) Also, another lady stopped her yard work as Matt passed. She told him she liked and admired what he was doing.
With such encouragement we can accomplish many great things.
He stopped for radio and television interviews as requested.
The shore patrol told him he needed to turn on his lantern at night.
He continued poling until nearly 11pm and was still short of his goal.
But today he made up all of his time. Since the river wound around the wind helped as much as it hurt. So he exceeded his day’s goal and even made time to go to dinner with his wife Julie.
His friend from church, Brother Dutile passed away yesterday. Since Matt is bishop of his congregation, he arranged funeral details by cell phone on the river. He’ll attend the viewing on Wednesday night, and conduct the funeral Thursday morning. He has his priorities right. (This is his proud dad writing.)
Matt has found some varied reactions to his project, but they generally fall within one of these categories:
· Bewilderment that he would want to tackle such a project (usually from women);
· Remembrances of similar youthful adventures (usually men);
· Expressions of mild regret that the person had dreamed of some adventure but never completed;
· Amusement of Matt’s playfulness and daring.
The Wards
Matt and his dad visited the Ward family the night before Matt’s launch. They wanted to inform them that he might camp on the raft near their home on his first night out. Mrs. Ward answered the door, and in true southern gentleness, invited them into the living room. She called her husband from the back room, turned off the television set, and sat to hear all about the excursion.
Mr. Ward enjoyed hearing of the plans and reminisced about his own adventures. Decades ago he and his young friends made arrangements with a train engineer to occasionally stop and pick up the boys and transport them several miles to the river. There the boys would camp, fish, and hunt game—whether in season or not. After a week or so, the engineer would pick them up and carry them home. He loved telling his stories, sometimes waving his cane for effect.
Mrs. Ward, however, couldn’t understand the project. She summed up her feelings when she pointed to Matt’s dad and frankly said, “You raised a dumb boy.” In spite of her pointed comment, she obviously enjoyed the visit and the tales of adventure it elicited from her husband.
Michelle Smith
Matt’s friend Michelle and her deceased husband had dreamed of similar adventures. They never fulfilled that dream, so she found satisfaction in seeing Matt fulfill his.
Greg Dolan
As children we took a bricklayer’s mortorbox and used it as a coolie, there was about eight of us in it. And we started drifting down the river, playing around, jumping out and having dirt fights, and doing fun things that kids can do. And then we realized we were about ten miles down from where we needed to be and we needed to return the mortar box to the construction site by the next morning so the bricklayers could use it the next morning for their work. So that proved to be somewhat of a problem in getting it back. But as kid we went ahead and did it—and it was fun.
Alexa Boyette
Mrs. Boyette came to see Monday’s launch. She had never met Matt, and knew no one in attendance. Here is her story:
“I became very excited about this launch when I read about it in the paper because my son did this nearly forty years ago. And I really wanted to be here to see Matt launch. I’m so glad the weather has been nice (this was about ten minutes after the launch—the wind problems came a couple of hours later).
“I was excited about this because my son, Steve Osborn, did this nearly forty years ago. I’m not quite old enough to have a son that old.
“When he was graduating from high school, he built a barge, and he built his so that it would be large enough so he could have provisions on it that would last for several weeks because he launched from Shreveport and had planned to go down to the mouth of the Mississippi. He didn’t get that far because the friends he was with, I believe they had gotten off in Marksville, and one friend stepped into a bed of red ants and so he was allergic and he became very ill and so they had to return immediately home.
“They didn’t have a way to sell the barge, but they left the barge. It was quite a barge, built on oil drums, I believe, and with several sides that he had cabinets built because he had to take provisions. He did stop along the way, he knew people along the way so he couldn’t order pizza like Matt’s going to do, but he did stop with relatives here and there. And they would give them a hot meal. But they did have provisions enough to last four weeks, I believe. And they made it for three weeks. I was very glad to see him return home.
“So this is very exciting, and I do hope to see Matt later in the day when he stops at Front Street.”
But he gained much strength and encouragement from Alexa Boyette who met him at her dock. She talked with Matt about her son’s trek nearly forty years ago (see below.) Also, another lady stopped her yard work as Matt passed. She told him she liked and admired what he was doing.
With such encouragement we can accomplish many great things.
He stopped for radio and television interviews as requested.
The shore patrol told him he needed to turn on his lantern at night.
He continued poling until nearly 11pm and was still short of his goal.
But today he made up all of his time. Since the river wound around the wind helped as much as it hurt. So he exceeded his day’s goal and even made time to go to dinner with his wife Julie.
His friend from church, Brother Dutile passed away yesterday. Since Matt is bishop of his congregation, he arranged funeral details by cell phone on the river. He’ll attend the viewing on Wednesday night, and conduct the funeral Thursday morning. He has his priorities right. (This is his proud dad writing.)
Matt has found some varied reactions to his project, but they generally fall within one of these categories:
· Bewilderment that he would want to tackle such a project (usually from women);
· Remembrances of similar youthful adventures (usually men);
· Expressions of mild regret that the person had dreamed of some adventure but never completed;
· Amusement of Matt’s playfulness and daring.
The Wards
Matt and his dad visited the Ward family the night before Matt’s launch. They wanted to inform them that he might camp on the raft near their home on his first night out. Mrs. Ward answered the door, and in true southern gentleness, invited them into the living room. She called her husband from the back room, turned off the television set, and sat to hear all about the excursion.
Mr. Ward enjoyed hearing of the plans and reminisced about his own adventures. Decades ago he and his young friends made arrangements with a train engineer to occasionally stop and pick up the boys and transport them several miles to the river. There the boys would camp, fish, and hunt game—whether in season or not. After a week or so, the engineer would pick them up and carry them home. He loved telling his stories, sometimes waving his cane for effect.
Mrs. Ward, however, couldn’t understand the project. She summed up her feelings when she pointed to Matt’s dad and frankly said, “You raised a dumb boy.” In spite of her pointed comment, she obviously enjoyed the visit and the tales of adventure it elicited from her husband.
Michelle Smith
Matt’s friend Michelle and her deceased husband had dreamed of similar adventures. They never fulfilled that dream, so she found satisfaction in seeing Matt fulfill his.
Greg Dolan
As children we took a bricklayer’s mortorbox and used it as a coolie, there was about eight of us in it. And we started drifting down the river, playing around, jumping out and having dirt fights, and doing fun things that kids can do. And then we realized we were about ten miles down from where we needed to be and we needed to return the mortar box to the construction site by the next morning so the bricklayers could use it the next morning for their work. So that proved to be somewhat of a problem in getting it back. But as kid we went ahead and did it—and it was fun.
Alexa Boyette
Mrs. Boyette came to see Monday’s launch. She had never met Matt, and knew no one in attendance. Here is her story:
“I became very excited about this launch when I read about it in the paper because my son did this nearly forty years ago. And I really wanted to be here to see Matt launch. I’m so glad the weather has been nice (this was about ten minutes after the launch—the wind problems came a couple of hours later).
“I was excited about this because my son, Steve Osborn, did this nearly forty years ago. I’m not quite old enough to have a son that old.
“When he was graduating from high school, he built a barge, and he built his so that it would be large enough so he could have provisions on it that would last for several weeks because he launched from Shreveport and had planned to go down to the mouth of the Mississippi. He didn’t get that far because the friends he was with, I believe they had gotten off in Marksville, and one friend stepped into a bed of red ants and so he was allergic and he became very ill and so they had to return immediately home.
“They didn’t have a way to sell the barge, but they left the barge. It was quite a barge, built on oil drums, I believe, and with several sides that he had cabinets built because he had to take provisions. He did stop along the way, he knew people along the way so he couldn’t order pizza like Matt’s going to do, but he did stop with relatives here and there. And they would give them a hot meal. But they did have provisions enough to last four weeks, I believe. And they made it for three weeks. I was very glad to see him return home.
“So this is very exciting, and I do hope to see Matt later in the day when he stops at Front Street.”
I have posted a couple of short videos on YouTube.
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