Where does the water from this creek go?

At my previous house there was a creek across the street. About 10 years ago a thought crossed my mind "I wonder where that water goes, and if I was to pour a glass of water into the creek, how long would it take a couple of those water molecules to reach the ocean." I knew that our creek most likely ended up in the Gulf of Mexico, but I wasn't really sure where. I thought our creek ended up flowing into the Chattahoochee River but at the time I didn't know it ended up in Apalachacola, Florida.

A dream was born. I wanted to walk across the street with a kayak, and flow with the water all of the way to the Gulf of Mexico. How long would that take? What would a trip like that be like? How difficult would that be? Has anyone ever done this before?

Could I walk across the street, get in the water and end up (sometime) in the Gulf of Mexico?

I never did it. I never walked across the street and floated down the miles of rivers and woke up in the Gulf of Mexico. Fast forward many years, and we moved about 10 miles west of our previous house. We now live on a farm we call "Redbud" ... and it so happens to have a creek that flows at the back of our property. My dream has never died. Where does this creek flow to? I also know that this water flows into the Gulf of Mexico but it is across an eastern mini divide. We flow into (eventually) the Etowah River. As it turns out, this flows into several different rivers on its way to Mobile Bay, Alabama after an 800 mile journey.

I'm going to do it. The journey will take me about 42 days. The creeks and rivers are: Mill Creek to Little River to Lake Allatoona to the Etowah River to the Coosa River to the Alabama River to the Mobile River to the end point of Mobile Bay.

Test kayaking in the Wilderness Systems Sealution on the Etowah RiverHow am I going to do it? I obviously don't have that much vacation time. I'm going to have to do this like I'm day-hiking the Appalachian Trail. I'll have to do this over weekends. I've been dreaming of this for years, and I've been earnestly planning this for over a year now. I've got a kayak. Actually I own two kayaks now. I've been gathering camping gear and practicing.

Originally I was going to do this solo. However, I have a friend that is crazy enough that he wants to do the trip with me. His name is Todd and I've known him for years. The good news is that he is much, much more experienced than I am in primitive camping. He's going to be a great asset to have on the trip and the trip will be much more fun to have him along.

"But Kevin, aren't you 'sun sensitive'?" Yes, sad but true. As you can see from the above picture, I'll be covered up head to toe more than Caliban from the movie "Logan". It's just the burden I've got to bear to make my crazy dreams come true.

We start in September of 2018. We'll be making one trip on one weekend per month, but only 6 months out of the year. Summers will be too hot, and Winter will be too cold. We'll be traveling September, October, and November, then March, April and May. It will take us about 5 years to complete the trip. I'm very excited. Logistics are a nightmare, but life is for the living. See you in the Gulf of Mexico in 5 years time!