Artists Turned Huck Finn, Part III
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Meredith Spencer, The Vicksburg Post
Four months since they shipped off from Kansas City on a raft made of recycled materials, a small band of local artists is back on the Mississippi River. A run-in with the Coast Guard beached the group’s travels for nearly seven weeks.
Jamie Burkart and Libby Hendon, both Kansas City natives and students at the University of California-Santa Cruz, embarked on a journey they titled “Release Yourself Onto the Water Until It Tastes of Salt” this past summer. The idea was to experience the mighty Missouri and Mississippi rivers by traveling from Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico. To that end, they spent weeks fashioning a raft made of recycled materials they found around the metro. On July 21, Burkart, Hendon and a handful of other California artists departed Kaw Point on their one-of-a-kind craft (read about the start of their adventures here).
They had their share of brushes with authorities, though. After traveling more than 1,000 miles, they were ordered off the river on September 15 by Coast Guard officials fearful for the craft’s river-worthiness (click here for the full account).
They became local celebrities in the small town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where feds halted their travels. According to a report from The Vicksburg Post, the group stayed with Andrew Ross, a young lumber inspector they met their first night in the city. Hendon and Laura Mattingly, a Santa Cruz resident and one of the rafting trio, reportedly worked as substitute teachers while the small crew made repairs to the raft in the parking lot of a local apartment complex. The group also garnered the assistance of a local lawyer Kelly Loyacono to help broker an agreement with the Coast Guard.
