Related Resources • John's Website • Children's Wish Foundation

By DrRich

Dateline: October 27, 2003

Last week, a young man named John Napier climbed aboard a homemade shanty raft and shoved off into the mighty Mississippi, just north of St. Paul, MN, in order to float this strange craft all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.  The shanty raft is the third (and he hopes, the last) watercraft he has needed on this journey, which began in the far north of Minnesota at the headwaters of the Mississippi.  Said river, being all of 2 inches deep at its origin, required the use of a canoe for the 1st 100 miles of the trip. John graduated to an inflatable cataraft for the next 400 miles to St. Paul.  He is now floating and oaring downriver in the relative luxury of a 12' X 6' wooden raft.

Why is John doing this?  For three reasons: a) it is one of the adventures on his long list that he hasn't done yet; b) to raise money for one of his favorite charities, the Children's Wish Foundation; and c) to talk to America and to learn, in these perilous times, what the people have to say about where we're heading. 

John is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and former Air Force officer who, service to his country more-than-honorably completed, has spent the last 6 or 7 years working as a river guide on Grand Canyon whitewater trips, then spending the off-seasons in sundry other occupations (most of which involve sleeping outdoors and not having much access to electricity or plumbing,) competing in Iron Man competitions, bicycling across the US for charity, traveling the world and sampling non-Western cultures, and expanding his mind the old fashioned (i.e., non-chemical) way.  DrRich met him this summer during a whitewater trip down the Grand Canyon, where John proved to be a spectacular river guide (seeing to it that DrRich's family returned to civilization with next to no permanent damage,) while simultaneously impressing everyone with his knowledge, wit, athleticism, and (I mean this sincerely) his sincerity.

John will be posting entries to his website whenever he can (i.e., whenever he has access to electricity and the Internet,) and has already uploaded several commentaries on the first phase of his trip.  Check it out - and give some thought to contributing in John's name to the Children's Wish Foundation. 

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