{"id":6315,"date":"2017-07-19T01:56:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T01:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=6315"},"modified":"2024-03-04T03:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T03:10:52","slug":"canoeing-12-miles-off-the-coast-of-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=6315","title":{"rendered":"Canoeing 12 miles off the coast of Mississippi…"},"content":{"rendered":"

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

July 19, 2017 – In September I’m flying to Madrid<\/a>, Spain. \u00a0From there I’ll take the train to\u00a0Pamplona<\/a>, to meet up with my adventurous<\/em> brother, Tom. \u00a0From that point we’ll both be hiking the\u00a0Camino de Santiago<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0(At left.)<\/em>\u00a0 We plan to hike 450 miles in 30 days.<\/p>\n

Which brings up the\u00a08-day canoe trip\u00a0that we two took back in November 2014, \u201c12 miles offshore.\u201d \u00a0(I.e., 12 \u00a0miles off the coast of Mississippi.)<\/em> \u00a0We started out on\u00a0Lake Pontchartrain<\/a>, then paddled through the\u00a0Rigolets<\/a>, then out into the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

12 miles<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0out into the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

We paddled a whole lot during the day. \u00a0In one stretch we paddled 17 miles in 11 hours. \u00a0Then at night we \u201cprimitive camped.” \u00a0We\u00a0primitive camped<\/a>\u00a0on places like Half Moon Island<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0East Ship Island<\/a>.\u00a0 (And from time to time we camped on an occasional salt marsh<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Which naturally brings up the question,\u00a0Why?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 Why would two old geezers \u2013 63 and 69, respectively and at the time \u2013 paddle so far out into the realm of sharks and drowning?<\/p>\n

\"http:\/\/walkinginfrance.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Travels1.jpg\"I still don’t know the full answer, except to say that such\u00a0adventures<\/a>\u00a0are a whole<\/em> <\/strong>lot of fun once they’re over. \u00a0But part of the appeal got spelled out by both\u00a0John Steinbeck<\/a>\u00a0– in Travels with Charley<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>– and Robert Louis Stevenson<\/a>. \u00a0(His<\/em>\u00a0Travels with a Donkey in the C\u00e9vennes<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0at right.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

The\u00a0sum and substance<\/a>\u00a0of it is that there’s something rewarding to doing the unexpected. \u00a0There’s something rewarding in paddling\u00a012 miles offshore, at the mercy of the elements, with day\u2019s end promising “naught<\/a>\u00a0but a lukewarm meal on a soggy beach,” or a more soggy salt marsh:<\/p>\n

But as it turns out, that\u2019s the nature of\u00a0pilgrimages<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 They give us a break from \u201creal life,\u201d from the\u00a0rat race<\/a>\u00a0that consumes so many lives today… \u00a0[T]hrough the raw experience of hunger, cold and lack of sleep, \u201cwe can quite often find a sense of our fragility as mere human beings, especially when compared with \u2018the majesty and permanence of God.\u2019\u201d \u00a0 In short, such a\u00a0pilgrimage<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0can be \u201c\u2018one of the most chastening, but also one of the most liberating\u2019 of personal experiences<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>\u00a0noted, such journeys – pilgrimages – can be to a “shrine<\/a>\u00a0or other location of importance to a person’s\u00a0beliefs<\/a>,” or some other search “of\u00a0moral<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0spiritual<\/a>\u00a0significance.” \u00a0(Wikipedia also noted that one “popular pilgrimage journey is along the\u00a0Way of St. James<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Santiago de Compostela Cathedral<\/a>, in\u00a0Galicia<\/a>, Spain,” but that’s a subject for future posts.) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But perhaps the best answer – at least for\u00a0people of a certain age<\/a>\u00a0– is simply to show that we can still do it. \u00a0Or as John Steinbeck said in\u00a0Travels with Charley<\/a>, <\/em>too many men – as they get older – “hood their passions, and gradually retire from their manhood.\u201d \u00a0But that wasn\u2019t his way:<\/p>\n

I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage\u2026\u00a0 If this projected journey should prove too much then it was time to go anyway.\u00a0 I see too many men delay their exits with a sickly, slow reluctance to leave the stage.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s bad theater as well as bad living<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or to put it simply: \u00a0I want to have these adventures before I get too<\/em> <\/strong>old and\u00a0decrepity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

And incidentally, the photo below is another one I took near dawn on November 10, 2014. (That\u2019s the day we did 17 miles in 11 hours, which amounted to some six hours of actual canoeing.)\u00a0<\/em> Also, given the\u00a0age<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0of the \u201cintrepid canoeists\u201d it behooved us to learn \u2013 through \u201cOJT<\/a>\u201c\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the technique of \u201csiesta at sea.\u201d\u00a0 Note the calm water that is a necessity for such a\u00a0siesta<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0when you\u2019re 10 or 12 miles out in the Gulf. \u00a0In other words, it pays to\u00a0pace yourself<\/a>…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In further words, we’ll likely be taking plenty of\u00a0siestas<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0Camino de Santiago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

For a longer version of this tale, see\u00a0On canoeing 12 miles offshore<\/a>, from May 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

The “pilgrim” image – to the left of the first paragraph in the main text – is courtesy of the Wikipedia article on the\u00a0Camino de Santiago<\/a>. \u00a0The caption: \u00a0“Way of St. James pilgrims (1568).”<\/em><\/p>\n

Re: \u00a0“Calm water.” \u00a0The Gulf waters were so calm because<\/strong> we got up and broke camp at 3:00 in the morning. \u00a0Later on in the day – owing to increased wind and the heat of the sun – the waters in the Gulf of Mexico get way more\u00a0roiled<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re: \u00a0Siestas<\/a>. \u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>\u00a0noted that such short naps include the “traditional daytime sleep of\u00a0Spain<\/a>,” while in America and other non-Mediterranean cultures the habit has caught on while being referred to as a “power nap<\/a>.” \u00a0The article included the image at left, with the caption: \u00a0“A painting of a young woman taking a siesta,” or The hammock<\/strong>,\u00a0Gustave Courbet<\/a>\u00a0(1844).<\/em><\/p>\n

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* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * July 19, 2017 – In September I’m flying to Madrid, Spain. \u00a0From there I’ll take the train to\u00a0Pamplona, to meet up with my adventurous brother, Tom. \u00a0From that point we’ll both be hiking the\u00a0Camino de Santiago.\u00a0\u00a0(At left.)\u00a0 We plan to hike 450 miles in 30 days. Which brings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6315"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17676,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions\/17676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}