vidalia — Clifton Ganus Jr. grew up on the Mississippi River.

The New Orleans native spent his boyhood near the river and even spent time climbing over the girders that would soon become the Huey P. Long Bridge while on camping trips with the Boy Scouts.

Life led Ganus to Searcy, Ark., where he is currently the chancellor of Harding University. But, he still feels drawn to the river, he said.

Ganus has the Mississippi River in his blood, and his love for the river drove him to make his fourth trip spanning hundreds of miles from central Arkansas to New Orleans last week. The most recent trip came 40 years after the soon-to-be 90-year-old Ganus made his first boating trip down the river.

“There’s just something about the water,” Ganus said. “You don’t think about anything else. You are always thinking about what you’re seeing and what you’re doing and any danger that may be there.”

Ganus said he made the first trip down the river with his son, Clifton Ganus III, along with his brother and nephew 40 years ago.

“He just called me and we thought it might be fun to do it,” Ganus said. “We enjoyed it very much, and I just did it again for the fourth time.”

Ganus took his son along this time and also travelled with his friend Lathan Garnett and his son Phillip.

“I wanted to go when I was 90,” Ganus said.

Ganus turns 90 on April 7 but had to go last week during Harding’s spring break.

The travelers were forced to make several stops along the way to fill up their gas cans and get supplies, including one stop on the Vidalia Riverfront at approximately 9:30 a.m. March 7.

“We stayed in Vidalia until about noon,” Ganus said. “We enjoyed it so much. That (Convention) Center I had never seen before. I took a shower, shaved and cleaned up for the first time on the trip.”

Ganus said the group also visited with the Convention Center staff and had coffee.

Ganus said these sporadic pit stops were some of the highlights of the trip.

“There’s no place on the river to buy gas,” Ganus said. “Everywhere people are so friendly and helpful.”

Ganus said at one stop in Greenville they were approximately 35 feet below a wharf where they were supposed to meet a friend to get supplies.

“They have a crane and the let down a big bird cage, and our people got in it with our cans to fill up,” Ganus said. “They pulled us up by crane and us by truck to fill up and comeback and get let down by the crane.”

In Vicksburg, a couple greeted the group and brought them food.

“A lady and her husband came out and this was the second time they (greeted us),” But they brought out barbeque, slaw, rolls and stuff like that.”

In addition to making the trip 40 years ago, Ganus has also come down the Mississippi to New Orleans 10 years ago and two years ago, he said.

Ganus said the group stayed so long in Natchez that they were late to get out of Baton Rouge later that evening and were forced to stow away for the night.

“You shouldn’t be on the river at dark,” he said.

Ganus said they found a place with shallow water just outside of Baton Rouge, waded onto the bank, tied the boat down and Ganus and his son slept on the boat while Garnett and his son slept in a tent. This is how they spent each night of the trip.

Ganus said the river itself has not changed much in 40 years.

“The river is the river,” he said. “The sandbars may be in a little different place, but we always seem to find them.”

Each time Ganus has travelled down the river he has gotten stuck on a sandbar at least twice, he said.

“Natchez and Vidalia was the biggest change to me,” he said. “That whole west bank changed tremendously in the last few years.”

One sight that Ganus will remember is the largest pod of barges he has ever seen.

“The biggest I had ever seen was 42 — six wide and seven long,” he said. “This time I saw one pod that was 63 barges just down south from Natchez being pulled by one big tug boat. That’s amazing when you stop and think of the weight of that. It was over 1,000 feet long.”

Once the travellers made it to New Orleans, a friend from Harding who was there to drive them back home greeted them.

They ate dinner at Deanie’s near the lakefront and then began their drive back home to Searcy.

Ganus said the trip is not all that difficult for him, but the group does run into some issues.

On this trip Ganus fell trying to get on the boat. He stepped on the seat and it collapsed causing him to twist his knee. The group had a faulty battery on the White River before it meets with the Mississippi. They also hit a submerged log and got the boat’s propeller stuck.

But overall the trip went well for Ganus and his fellow travellers, and he said he hopes to have the opportunity to make it again.