Huck Finn wannabes on the Arkansas River

Three modern day Huck Finns from Kansas dreamed of a raft trip down the Arkansas River and on to New Orleans, but their raft trip dream ran aground just southeast of Muskogee. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter

Thursday, April 14th 2005, 11:32 am

By: News On 6

Three modern day Huck Finns from Kansas dreamed of a raft trip down the Arkansas River and on to New Orleans, but their raft trip dream ran aground just southeast of Muskogee.

News on 6 reporter Rick Wells has their story of frustration and determination. Brady Smith sings what he describes as the theme song for this little rafting adventure. Abhya Nath, Joshua Pierce and Brady Smith three guys from Manhattan, Kansas had a dream of building a raft Huck Finn style and heading down the river.

Joshua: "We were going all the way to Louisiana and to the ocean if we could make it." But they didn't, on April Fools day, the raft started to sink and stranded them about five miles from the start, out in the middle of nowhere. After a couple of days of being stuck Josh hiked up a nearby hill and found Dr Stuart Woods. He's a college professor and accustomed to big dreams.

Stuart Woods: "I see student dreams every day they're not as adventurous as this one." And he's helping. He's found them some temporary work. William and Judy Staton whom they met early on have taken them in, given 'em a place to sleep, until they get their dream back on track. â€œWe have our whole lives for this."

They plan to work the Renaissance Faire in Muskogee and find some other odd jobs and save enough to re-float that dream. This time they want to build the raft on a stripped down pontoon boat. Brady: "We tried the make shift thing and look where it got us." Abhya: "Not because we stopped or decided to stop, we got trapped." But they're building a pretty good support network, Doc Woods and the Statons.

They're disappointed but not discouraged. This is all just a wonderful adventure. Brady: "All you can do is try to survive life." Survive life and these few setbacks, next stop New Orleans.