Adventure of a Lifetime (at age 80)

November 6, 2015 10:02 AM

Attempting to be the oldest person to paddle the Mississippi River from source to sea (and in World Record time) Dale Sanders is not your average 80-year-old. Meet Dale Sanders. The intro to the story (in an audio nutshell). The 170 videos uploaded to his YouTube channel to document his trip (in oldest to newest order). He also did it to raise awareness for juvenile diabetes. His "Source to Sea" Facebook page and a link to his blog.
posted by spock (5 comments total)

What an awesome trip! I've wanted to do this since I was a little kid. I grew up near the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. In recent years I was able to kayak (much of) the length of Bayou Meto, which was my backyard stomping grounds for 24 years of my life but had never explored. It was a total trip, like seeing a familiar room through a mirror, or maybe finally getting to go into a room that had been locked for decades but only glimpsed through the keyhole.

Flipping through these I LOVE the views of the southern riverscapes. Urban development in the south is so sprawly and ugly that most people (myself included) can forget how gorgeous and subtropical the region is. It's so lush!
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Nixed the donation link; active fundraisers on the front page are a no-go.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:37 PM on November 6, 2015

Some of those videos are pretty lengthy though - it's going to be a slog just to get through the longer ones.
posted by sneebler at 5:13 PM on November 6, 2015

If it was sea to source I'd really be impressed.
posted by sanedragon at 7:53 PM on November 6, 2015

sneebler, I watched the weekly update videos instead and found them quite interesting and not too long. You can watch them here on Vimeo: Adventureitus Productions’s Videos, or use these individual links: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11. The video for the final week has not been uploaded yet, it seems.
posted by amf at 1:58 AM on November 7, 2015