#1680 The Continuing River Adventures of Nat and Mikey

Listening to America

History, Politics, Unitedstates, Society & Culture, American

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The two intrepid British adventurers, Natalia and Mikey, who came to America to float the entire Missouri and Mississippi River corridor in a canoe, have checked in from St. Louis, where they arrived on the 108th day of their incredible journey. They are pleased to have floated 2,341 miles from Three Forks, Montana, to the mouth of the Missouri at St. Louis. The main takeaway so far, except for the fantastic adventure they have undertaken together, is the hospitality and generosity of the people of the American heartland. They call them River Angels, who provide portaging of the canoe, food, meals in actual restaurants, shelter, and anything else Nat and Mikey need. They might have packed it in at St. Louis, but like Lewis and Clark, they show undaunted courage and are determined to float all the way to New Orleans — and beyond, all the way to the Gulf. It's a sweet and informative mid-journey report from just under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. This episode was recorded on November 24, 2025.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome to my introduction to this week's podcast, the continuing saga of
0:05.6	Nat and Mikey, my new British friends who took on the wild adventure of floating from
0:11.8	three forks to St. Louis, and now from St. Louis to the mouth of the Mississippi River below
0:18.7	New Orleans.
0:20.1	They're schoolteachers, in early midlife,
0:24.4	they came sort of naively, but with great sense of spirit to the United States. They flew to Denver,
0:31.4	hitchhiked from Denver to Bozeman, bought a canoe, got on the river at Three Forks,
0:39.5	overturned it the next day for the first and only time, and have since floated 2,400 miles essentially from Three Forks to St. Charles
0:49.6	and beyond. What an amazing achievement. And when they started, I met them by accident up at the
0:57.0	confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone at Fort Union. And at the time they knew nothing
1:03.0	about Lewis and Clark, which frankly continues, but that's all right. They don't seem to think
1:10.6	that Lewis and Clark are that important.
1:13.7	But at any rate, that's neither here nor there.
1:16.6	And so I said, well, when you get to a convenient place where you're, you know,
1:20.5	in a hotel and a resort, and wherever you wind up where you have Internet and a shower,
1:25.6	let's talk.
1:26.2	So we did a little while ago, a few weeks
1:28.9	ago, when they were at nearly at Pier, South Dakota. And they were in great spirits and told
1:35.8	lively tales and were so pleased by the generosity of strangers who they call River Angels
1:43.0	who come in to help them in all sorts of ways.
1:45.8	It's kind of amazing.
1:47.6	And now I said check in after the first hard freeze, which they did by text.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Listening to America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Listening to America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.