Two men paddle 3700 miles down Mississippi River

Charles Vaught and Tom Bailey arrived in Venice last week after a 147 day kayaking trip down the Mississippi River to mile marker 0.

Last week, two young men added their names to the list of adventurers who have kayaked down the Mississippi River.
Charles Vaught, 21, of Naples, Fl., and Tom Bailey, 22, of Belle Plaine, Mn. made the 3,700 mile, 147 day trek to raise awareness of the reality of human trafficking.

“We’ve been told we were the youngest people who’ve done this,” said Bailey.

The hardest parts of the journey were lakes, which seemed to last forever, the two men said.

But the best part was experiencing the hospitality of people along the river.

“We’d get picked up along the river,” recalled Bailey. “They’d let us shower up and get a meal.”

Vaught fondly remembered, “a lot of sun sets.”

“We need a lot more of this stuff than another video game,” said Wendell Vaught, Charles’ father who picked the boys up in Venice.

To learn more about human trafficking, and how you can help this cause, visit www.charitytravelers.com.