On Wednesday morning, July 24, four hundred and eleven boats departed Kansas City’s Kaw Point and headed down the Missouri River with the goal of reaching the Lewis & Clark Boathouse and Museum in St. Charles, Missouri.
The Missouri American Water MR 340 is 340 mile race and is hosted by Missouri River Relief. It is the world’s largest non-stop river race and had been on Lincoln's Rod Brethower’s bucket list for a long time. He only started talking about it with his son Kyle this past year.
The Brethower's did a lot of planning and preparing for the grueling race down river and were careful to not linger long at rest stops and kept the food and water supplies on board to a minimum. Rod’s wife, Dorcas served as the road crew as she tracked them across the state. When questioned if she, as a wife and a mother, was a little worried about their safety she replied, “Yes and no. It’s natural for the concern but they had done a lot of planning.”
She was waiting for them at St. Charles and reported Rod’s first words to her when they landed, was, “We did it!”
It had taken 55 hours and 21 minutes. The Brethower duo finished 13th in their division out of 77 and 61st overall.
Congratulations to Rod Brethower, and son, Kyle!
