Carrying the Load

Today is final prep and check-in for the Texas Water Safari...it's finally here! This is the first time the World's Toughest Canoe Race has been postponed twice, but the Memorial Day rains left little choice.
The water levels are closer to normal finally but the CFMs are still cranking, so Adam and Philip should make excellent time. The overall goal is to finish, significant in and of itself, but I'm fairly convinced they'll also easily smash my 1994 time of 81:06. Who wants to paddle that long when you can finish early and make the awards ceremony in Seadrift...
Kudos to the guys for sticking with it despite the delays. There's a lot of mental prep for such an undertaking so when you're primed and then put off there can be significant let-down, but Ironman and Hulk have stuck with the program and that alone gets them much closer to the finish line.
That and the over $6600 in pledges to the Carry the Load foundation they adopted as motivation. Back in the day I carried pledges for the American Cancer Society and after dumping at 0200 on Tuesday might have considered quitting if not for those pledges.
Adam and Philip will be carrying a lot more than a canoe and gear this weekend but in the end those pledges will ultimately lighten their load.
If you want to contribute, go to http://carrytheload.org/ and look for PAAK Em Up.
Meanwhile, I'll try to post from the river as the team progresses. I'll have plenty of time between check points but internet is uncertain.

Philip (l) and Adam giving the boat a wash. Be a long time before any of them are this clean again.

If only Philip could use those little booster rockets... He's in the stern because he had a better chance of maintaining mental control of the vessel, an important consideration about the time they paddle into Hallucination Alley.

And our goal is to prevent Adam from going into Hulk smash, detrimental to progress on the river and hard on the clothing.

So I guess that makes me Cap'n America.
Onward...