Find the beauty through adventure

Last week, I told you about my nephew’s hero’s journey, sailing down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers from Sioux City, Iowa to Mobile, Alabama by way of the Tenn-Tombigbee Waterway, then around Florida via the intercoastal waterway, all the way up to Maine, a journey of 4,000 miles!

Five weeks ago, I had a hero’s journey of my own.

I call it a hero’s journey because I am afraid to fly. Twice I have had panic attacks on planes, but with the help of anti-anxiety pills and new-found meditation techniques, thanks to Susanna Mantis of “Z’s: All Things Good,” (I love to “plug” local business!) I boarded my “steed,” a Boeing 750-something, to St. Louis to surprise Tug in the town of Kimmswick, Missouri.

Because my friends Kari Estes and Neil McDonald live in nearby Festus, a suburb of St. Louis, I was able to go, find Tug, and stay with them. Kari and Neil had known Tug was coming, and he had planned to stay a few days with them. He didn’t know I was coming. I planned my trip to fly into St. Louis the day he arrived in Kimmswick, about thirty miles south of the airport.

Jennifer Kelly pays a surprise visit to see her nephew “Tug” Buse, as he sets off for a 4,000 mile journey along the intercostal waterway around Florida and finishing in Maine. Kari said that Tug had called her cell phone, and that he was at Hoppie’s Marina, so with Neil on the cell phone giving us directions via Mapquest on his computer at home, we navigated our way through the dark Missouri night and found the marina and Tug. He had told Kari he was on a boat called “The Solstice.” Better call that a yacht!

Seeing Tug’s jaw drop when he saw me through the yacht’s glass door was one of those moments in my life that I will “lock” in my brain and never forget.

Getting to give my big, handsome nephew a hug after he had traveled alone for 800 miles in a 14-foot sailboat and after I had spent four hours in a “pressurized metal tube” going 500 miles an hour at 35,000 feet high, was wonderful.

We spent the next few days enjoying the company of Kari, Neil, and their son Connor, the Mississippi River, and some of the joys of being in the Midwest.

We dined twice at the famous Blue Owl Restaurant in Kimmswick, the home of the best bakery I have ever experienced, a place where Paula Deen occasionally cooks.

I rented a car, and we drove to Springfield, Illinois, home of the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library where Tug knew more than many of the docents! I stared at one of Honest Abe’s stovepipe hats, and enjoyed the high-tech experiences there, my favorite one being a fourminute film of the Civil War, with each second representing a week of the war, watching a map depicting the battles and a ticker tape counting the casualties — over 1.3 million by the end. We also went to Lincoln’s tomb and I felt humbled to be only ten feet from Abraham Lincoln’s body. We sat on “Adventure,” moored on the old Mississippi with Tug and friends, taking in Mark Twain’s river, and I remembered all the years I spent teaching “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and remembering his river descriptions.

I now understand better how Huck felt peace on the river.

We visited St. Genieveve, an absolutely beautiful, quaint French Colonial town for lunch where I had liver and onions for $5.95!

Tug, who has called me Buba or Bub ever since the age of two when I mimicked the “buh” sound back to him, said, “Bub, I don’t know when we’ve been able to spend three whole days together, and I said, “Tug, I haven’t gotten to spend three days with my own kids, let alone my nephew.”

We talked about his hopes, future and dreams.

One thing’s for sure; he wants to come back to the ocean, whether the Atlantic or Pacific. I’m lobbying for the Pacific!

Tug has created a work of art in his boat, not just in the building of it, but his honoring of its purpose, taking it out on waters to sail away and discover the people and places of our great land.

Like the heroes in Joseph Campbell’s journeys, he is encountering dangers, meeting new people, making friends and feeling lonely, but ultimately enlightening most of us who only dream about adventures.

Life goes on whether we ever realize our dreams, and those who do are fortunate because they’ve figured out how to accomplish them and then had the courage to live them.

Tug has endured Midwest thunder and rainstorms, a broken motor, blisters and calluses on his hands from rowing, isolation, loneliness, and sheer exhaustion, but he’s met wonderful people and seen amazing, beautiful sites, all recorded for the film he will be making.

I have eclectic musical tastes, and I like Bobby Darin, and I know what you’re thinking! What does THAT have to do with Tug’s journey? Well, Bobby sang a song with these lyrics:

The world is full of beautiful things

Butterfly wings, fairy tale kings

And each new day undoubtedly brings

Still more beautiful things

The world abounds with many delights

Magical sights, fanciful flights

And those who dream on beautiful nights

Dream of beautiful things

My nephew not only dreams of beautiful things, but he lives the days that bring them. What a wonderful, inspirational young man! I’m proud to be his aunt. Stay tuned for more adventures!