So I kind of have a plan and could really use some direction.

[Campintoon]

Hello! I'm brand new to the forum so apologies if i'm putting this in the wrong spot. Please point me in the right direction if I am.

I'm 55 and getting prepared to run away from home. My 30+ year marriage collapsed, health is sketchy, and I've wasted way too much time on land lately.

An escape plan is percolating: I surrender. I'd like to take a pontoon boat and a tent and a bunch of gear and leave Minneapolis via the Mississippi and meander south. I'd camp in the tent on the pontoon or on land, whatever feels right at the time.

I love camping and I love the river. I've enjoyed both a lot over the years and combining them is a pretty tantalizing thought.

Freedom from this plodding, unsatisfying, crazy making life I live now sounds very appealing.

I know there will be many challenges but they will be mine, you know?

Any thoughts, tips, whatever, will be welcomed.

Peace and Good Health!

C.

[Chotu]

I think the advantage to this is you draw very little water and can fit in with other pontoon boats, as long as you don’t look like a shanty town.

You could go up the smallest of waterways.

Get jugs for extra fuel and drinking water. Rely on dried and canned foods. Use a camping stove.

Keep it simple and keep it set up so it’s all hidden from view when you’re actually traveling. Only set all the stuff up when you’re resting.

Get a good anchor for storms.

Porta potty.

Hopefully it has a way to keep the sun off you when you are underway?

Try to camp away from people where people can’t see you so you have a more enjoyable experience.

Sorry about your point in life. Divorce sucks. It’ll get better.

[Jim Cate]

Welcome aboard CF, Huckleberry! I reckon that your plan could work just fine if you are up to it. The big rivers are far from my experience, so all I can say is the worst likely outcome is that you won't like it as much as you think you will, and take a fiscal beating on the adventure. But adventure always has its price, and I suppose that you realize this and are willing to give it a go. Good onya, mate... enjoy the trip and beware of self styled Dauphins and Dukes.

Jim

[GILow]

I don’t know anything about the Mississippi (including how to spell it) but I did something similar on the Murray River in Australia when I was 21.

Changed my life. (For the better.)

Go for it, but as a recent divorcee, can I suggest that you don’t completely “let yourself go”. It’s one thing to step off the treadmill, but another to lose touch with reality.

Trips like these can be very good for the soul if they have a beginning and an end and are treated as an achievement in the journey. Don’t see it as running away from home, see it as reclaiming your soul, and recognise when you have reached that point of the journey so that you are prepared to move on.

[sailorboy1]

I think the need to "tent" is going to be the problem. But it sounds like lots of adventure as isn't a pontoon boat just a modern powered raft boat?

I see a book "The Modern Stories of Tom Sawyer"

I hope you have fun with however you go about doing it.

PS - I am sure it can be done just as posted. Pack your bug spray.

[Dogscout]

Go for it Huck.

[patclem]

There's an Albin 25 just north of Chattanooga on a trailer, inboard diesel, that would be AWESOME for this. And you can sleep on it. It was for sale for $12k (maybe she left you some), but could probably be had for less. I think it's on Facebook Marketplace. I tried to talk my new wife into buying it for toodling around until we get ready for a big boat, but she wants something bigger, like a Krogen Manatee to use as a lake house until we take off on the loop.
PS - hope things go well for you. I got divorced after 18 years. My wife now loves doing everything my ex would never do. She's open to all kinds of adventure and exploring.

[Sparx]

I have camped on a pontoon. It was great fun.

When you get to the Ohio River, turn upstream to Grand Isle Kentucky. Go through the lock into Kentucky Lake. Follow Lake Barkley and then follow the Ten Tom Waterway to the Gulf of Mexico.

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Pack your bug spray.

That was going to be my suggestion as well but SB1 beat me to it.

[Jaqun]

Be aware that there are large sections of the Mississippi that have no fuel or services. I suggest you look at captain Johns great loop website for specific distances and fuel requirements for the lower river. There are other route alternatives if it is an issue for you.

[Ken Z]

you havent left yet..... get the largest pontoon you can. Twins are helpful.

[Capt Jerry]

I have two pieces of advice:
1. You mentioned your "health is sketchy" Please don't put yourself in danger. If you take meds, make sure you bring enough with you and maybe a cooler (to store them in) because it gets hot down here.
2. Bring way more extra fuel in jerry cans than you think you need. If you stay on the Mississippi River, the fuel stops are as far as 400 miles apart.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Campintoon

Hello! I'm brand new to the forum so apologies if i'm putting this in the wrong spot. Please point me in the right direction if I am.

I'm 55 and getting prepared to run away from home. My 30+ year marriage collapsed, health is sketchy, and I've wasted way too much time on land lately.

An escape plan is percolating: I surrender. I'd like to take a pontoon boat and a tent and a bunch of gear and leave Minneapolis via the Mississippi and meander south. I'd camp in the tent on the pontoon or on land, whatever feels right at the time.

I love camping and I love the river. I've enjoyed both a lot over the years and combining them is a pretty tantalizing thought.

Freedom from this plodding, unsatisfying, crazy making life I live now sounds very appealing.

I know there will be many challenges but they will be mine, you know?

Any thoughts, tips, whatever, will be welcomed.

Peace and Good Health!

C.

I sounds as if you intend to go from fresh water to salt. Insure the pontoon boat has aluminum cross members not steel.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by Campintoon

Hello! I'm brand new to the forum so apologies if i'm putting this in the wrong spot. Please point me in the right direction if I am.

I'm 55 and getting prepared to run away from home. My 30+ year marriage collapsed, health is sketchy, and I've wasted way too much time on land lately.

An escape plan is percolating: I surrender. I'd like to take a pontoon boat and a tent and a bunch of gear and leave Minneapolis via the Mississippi and meander south. I'd camp in the tent on the pontoon or on land, whatever feels right at the time.

I love camping and I love the river. I've enjoyed both a lot over the years and combining them is a pretty tantalizing thought.

Freedom from this plodding, unsatisfying, crazy making life I live now sounds very appealing.

I know there will be many challenges but they will be mine, you know?

Any thoughts, tips, whatever, will be welcomed.

Peace and Good Health!

C.

No reason I can see that you couldn't do this. I'd get a pontoon boat with a top - at least for some solar (so you can keep the beer cold) and maybe a big cooler for purging the catfish - catfish tend to taste exactly like the water they came from (you don't want that) And a good skeeter net with a nice, fat air mattress and you'll be stylin'. Maybe a spare rudder just in case. Not sure about AIS for commercial traffic (it only works if everybody else has one and they turn them on).

[Stewie12]

Go for it - but remember not to close the door behind you as you may want to return.