Every year is a different experience.  Every year takes large amounts of planning, coordination, volunteers, & Re-planning!  This year was no exception & was special to me for many reasons!  Rivermiles collectively puts on a great river race acoss Missouri.  The commraderie & community that has formed is exceptional!!  Hope to be back!
di mchenry

A special thanks to Derek Fanguy for his support crew directions, without them, I would have been lost for sure.  I made every check point with no problems. This forum is so full of great advice for a newbie like me, I felt very well prepared, met some awesome people and had an amazing adventure, easy tho when you have a paddler that sang and had a smile on his face the whole time, Totally Nutts, Tom Morrow, even when he came into Kat Fish Katy's in the storm. And a shout out to the folks at Miami, what an amazing town how they pulled out the red, well more like beige carpet for us, best check point by far!!!
Amanda

Gus,

You were a rock star out there.  I don't know where you get all the energy.  You and Aaron Waller were Ironmen of checkpoints.  I kept seeing you guys all the way down the river.  Couldn't have done it without you.  All the racers and ground crew were very appreciative. 

Scott

At the back of the pack, where my sister and I (6995) were once again this year, everything was quiet.  Competitors were few and weary, and the checkpoints were a thin mixture of volunteers, ground crews, and concessionaires.  But the volunteers who remained were not just focused on moving the boat and logging us in and out, they were also sensitive to our personal wellbeing.  I thank them so much for their steady aid and their quiet respect.  The sparse ground crews became close and shared valuable information and supplies; we must thank our fellow ground crews for their mutual support.  As for the concessionaires who stayed open for so long despite so little profit at the tail end of the race, they fed us manna when we needed it most.  I’d like to give special thanks to our nephew, Joe, who made our race happen by being our always cheerful, always effective ground crew; to Bill Lanning, who believed in us from the start (and had himself quite a start when we suddenly reappeared on the radar screen); and to Scott, who was both the guardian angel and the mother hen of the back of the pack. 
Thank you all.
Lewis