Time To Complete paddle

Once I tell people how long the river is,the next question is how long will it take. My reply is that the absolute maximum time I have in the USA is 90 days, being the time allowed under the visa. Having said that, I hope to keep to a time table of someone who paddled the river in 2001. He did it in 68 days,so, say 70 days. If you divide 70 into the length of the river,namely 3,500 kilometres this gives an average daily distance of 50 kilometres. Obviously, the daily distances will vary dramatically depending on the part of the river I am paddling. I think of the river as having 3 large sections. The first is loosely termed the wilderness and comprises approximately 750 kilometres to "civilisation" in Minneapolis. While there are some parts of this that will be slower going with several lakes and some obstructions to portage around, a lot of it is free flowing river with some current to assist., I would hope to approach the daily average during this section at least The next section is from Minneapolis to St Louis which has 29 locks and dams. It can take several hours waiting to be locked through, as while they will lock through a single kayaker, if there is any commercial traffic this gets priority. Consequently, the equivalent of up to 6 paddling days (assuming 12 hour paddling days) is effectively wasted and it might be difficult to reach the daily average over this section. Some of the locks may be able to be portaged around if there looks like being a delay.And, of course, where there are dams ,there are lakes. The invariable rule of kayaking that the wind is always in your face will no doubt apply to make the paddling even more harder going
 Although I am looking forward to the experience of being in a small boat in a vast steel chamber, it could get a little tiresome by lock 29.
The final section of the river is free flowing from St Louis to the sea. This is where I really hope to make up the daily distance. I should be really paddle fit by then,the days will be longer, and with a current of 3-4mph I hope to be able to do the odd 100k day
So,in summary,although I have been working on a 70 day timetable I really hope I can bring it down to 60 days. This will allow me plenty of time at the end to visit with my girls in Georgia and New York. Jane is hoping to come out to St Louis where I should be around July 4. It should be a good place for fireworks and there is a Ansheuer-Busch brewery in town that does tours for Matthew and me to enjoy. They have a famous team of Clydesdales that they use in their TV adverts that should interest grand daughter Lauren