Published January 09, 2010, 12:00 AM

Mississippi dreaming: Hoffman shares quest of paddling from Itasca to New Orleans

MINNETONKA — Gary Hoffman remembers clearly the first time he voiced aloud his desire to canoe the length of the Mississippi River. “When I was a little boy and had gone up to Itasca, that’s probably when my dreaming began, but I began to vocalize it in the early ’70s,” he reflected. “I can remember sitting at Monticello on the river bank with my wife and two young kids, and we saw a couple of guys paddling by. I asked them where they were headed, and they said New Orleans. I turned to (wife) Jacqui and said, ‘Someday I’m going to do that.’”

By: Beth Rickers, Worthington Daily Globe