Winter on the Missisippi

Michael    camping, General Outdoor, Trips     journey down the missisipi, winter

This is another post from Guest Blogger Michael Barratt who is walking the length of Missisipi in aid of AHMSA -  helping educational projects in Columbia. Webtogs are proud to sponsor him.

December has brought me to the last month I can be in the USA. With the visa waiver I am only allowed to spend three months in the USA, so today I will be flying out of New Orleans (I have not finished the trek yet obviously, New Orleans was just the cheapest place to fly out of) back to Bogota, Colombia to spend Christmas with my fiance Camila and her family. This is going to be a very welcome break let me tell you. I will return to finish the remaining 500kms as soon as possible in 2012.

 It has been a good month that brought many more great memories, but also it brought me the cold weather and also a little snow. The cold weather started to get to my body a little, especially my achillies tendon. It got to a stage where in the mornings I could not even walk and I would have to hobble along for the first hour until it warmed up and stretched out a little. I was to find out I had developed tendonitus,so I had to shack up in a motel for a few days and live on Ibuprofen. It was amazing how quickly it healed after a few days like that, and it worked out great as the days I ended up in the motel, a huge storm hit with flood warnings in the area, so I was able to enjoy the view from my window from the warmth of my bed.

Finding my way eventually to Memphis it was nice to arrive there, marking off the three quarter marker of the trek. I was only able to get 50kms past Memphis when I had to start hitch hiking towards New Orleans to get my flight. I ran into an amazing bunch of people all hooked up with the Newspaper association in the states of Mississippi and Lousiana who were good enough to drive me all the way from Tunica (which is the town I got to before stopping) to New Orleans. With many stops along the way, doing interviews and meeting people connected to the media, I arrived in New Orleans 3 days after. Having met these great people along the route that I will be following on my return, I am really looking forward to the next stretch of the trek. The river itself is going to be a lot harder to follow as it is like a giant wiggly snake from Memphis on, compared to the nice, straight Mississippi river from the north. But I guess it will be a change of scenery which is always a good thing.

So as for now I am heading back to Colombia to spend the break at a little farm in the coffe region with my loved ones. My body is sore and I am really looking forward to being around family again.

I will be in touch January to let you all know the date of my return to the states. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a happy new year, I know I will be enjoying it….

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