Curtis Casto takes a glamping break on his Ohio River kayak trip for Paddle for Heroes

MARIETTA – Following in the footsteps of Marquis de Lafayette, Curtis Casto landed May 6, at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. Except the Lafayette Hotel wasn’t there when Lafayette landed.

Lafayette, whose mother called him Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, visited the city in May 1825. A Revolutionary War hero, he was on what amounted to a victory lap after the fact. Well after the fact.

For that gesture, the people of Marietta recognized Lafayette as Ohio’s first tourist.

Previous column: Curtis Casto’s entourage — human and divine — see him off on his Ohio River kayaking trip

Actually, there is a connection between Lafayette’s and Curtis’ visits: Honoring America’s military veterans. Curtis is kayaking 980 miles on the Ohio River to raise awareness and money for Paddle for Heroes.

The Mount Vernon-based organization promotes the healing powers of paddling for veterans and first responders.

Curtis Casto, a Paddle for Heroes success story

Curtis is a Paddle for Heroes success story. Once overweight and in poor health, the U.S. Army veteran turned to kayaking through the organization.

It basically saved his life. Now he’s a kayaking machine.

Not content to paddle his way back to good health, Curtis has taken on an Ohio River journey, which started May 1 in Pittsburgh.

Originally, he expected the trip to take 37 days. Mother Nature — and a bout of back pain — disabused him of that notion. He’s wisely chosen to allow for some downtime when necessary. So he decided to spend two nights at the Lafayette Hotel.

Here, mostly in his own words, are Curtis’ impressions of the journey so far — primarily culled from Facebook postings.

As reported in a previous column, the rain stopped long enough for his Pittsburgh launch. It returned with a vengeance during the first week of his trip with downpours and flooding.

May 1 — Had some very new experiences today. Did not know there were riffles on the Ohio River but I found one, actually two. Also the current when you come out of the locks can be treacherous, especially if the wind is blowing the right way … Had to repack the boat once already and bail it out. Besides that everything's handling okay.

Curtis stays in contact via social media with his support team — his friends, wife Marsha, dog Sailor (who hasn’t quite figured out where that familiar voice on the phone is coming from), and those along the river helping him with food, accommodations, and other needs. Among them is Scott Freese, part of the entourage who saw Curtis off in Pittsburgh.

May 3 — It's a good thing Scott Freese was watching the weather for me and got me to pull over. Waited out the storm under a shelter, which didn't do much good, but my host was the president of the fire department in Wellsburg, West Virginia. He was cooking steaks and kept on cooking them in the rain; he just put a pan over them. Had a good reception in Steubenville. There were sheriff boats and fire boats out in the water with their lights on. Thought they were giving me a big welcome to town. But it was not for me. They were searching for cars in the river and they had divers in the river so they wanted me to divert out into the middle. After that they chased me down and had me pull into the dock and fed me meatballs and pasta. I told them about my trip and handed out a few pamphlets.

Facebook saves kayaker's morale and maybe his life

In a subsequent text message, Curtis weighed in on the value of social media for logistics, safety, and more.

Facebook has saved my morale and probably my life several times. It has brought me in contact with people that I don't know and wouldn't have known had it not been for Facebook.

I have discovered that keeping your mood up with humor helps a lot with the boredom of 12 hours of paddling. Collecting that basketball and posting little movies of him is a welcome distraction. I hope everybody's enjoying them.

Taking breaks at the laundromat and the hotel also helped his morale, but Curtis’ heart is on the river. And with the people who have felt the wrath of Mother Nature far more than he has.

May 7 — Sitting here at the Lafayette Hotel. This is a beautiful place, too beautiful for me. I need to be sitting in [my tent or headed downriver.] But, after watching the news, I need to quit my whining and think about those people that have been affected by the flooding.

To be continued.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Veteran's 980-mile Ohio River kayaking journey chronicled on Facebook