One Woman's River

Pack your paints and your paddle; we're going on a 2,552-mile creative adventure from source to sea on the mighty Mississippi River in a 14-1/2 foot kayak named Inspiration... alone. In 2014 artist paddler and educator Ellen Kolbo McDonah left the security of her home and family to find creative power along the banks of the Mississippi River and during the spring flood celebrated her sixtieth birthday in the headwater marshes. Experience towering cityscapes, reflective Mississippi beaches, pristine wilderness and people met through Ellen's richly illustrated book with glossary, including 42 color paintings and 69 pen and ink/pencil drawings completed from and during her journey. From Lake Itasca, Minnesota, through the Gulf of Mexico, river friends were gifted with artwork created in return for kindness and assistance, but who was the true benefactor? Feel your pulse pound and your knees buckle as you race toward tows and barges in the river channel against the pull of current and dodge ocean-going vessels in the shipyard before New Orleans. Learn the rare story of determination and hope from the cockpit and perspective of a kayaking artist's 107-day passage that only the Mississippi River can teach, as what first began as a creative quest soon became the discovery of a lifetime.