Wasson Adventure Blog (formerly Collins and Hall)

Fast forward two months, it's Fathers Day. Phil and I have come a long way since that first voyage up the Kaw. We've done two long training runs now. The first was from Kaw Pt to Missouri City. That was a little over 26 miles. We felt good about paddling that far, but walked away with more questions than answers. We realized there's more to navigating than pointing the bow downstream and paddling. The channel moves side to side and we weren't quite sure where to find it, or if we had found it but just couldn't tell. Jon (The Dude) picked us up at Mo City boat ramp and drove us back to civilization. What had taken us four hours to paddle took us 20 minutes to drive home. What a letdown! But the paddle was a success. We averaged 6 mph which was good enough to get us though the first day checkpoint ahead of them cutoff. Now we just had to prove to ourselves we could maintain a that same pace for 50 miles - twice what we had just done. But that challenge could be left for a different day. On this day, we would celebrate by eating at Gates in KCK. As it turns out, this is bu the first of many meals that the Dude will provide to Team Collins & Hall. More to follow -Sam