A young Minnesota couple sailing their vessel the “Velvet Glove Cast in Iron” disembarked on a Huck-Fin style Mississippi trip only to be foiled by engine troubles and Johnny Law about 10 miles downstream. Veruschka and Zelda Xox (made-up names, but then again, what names aren’t made up?) built a barge on their friend’s property in rural Minnesota, loaded it with 20 pounds of potatoes and some live chickens before setting off from North Minneapolis. Immediate and catastrophic engine trouble stopped their boat shortly offshore, and they pulled into a city park to fix the boat before continuing, or more specifically, starting. Local police gave them a week to fix the boat even though the city park where they’d landed forbid overnight camping. After a week they shoved off with a dead engine, and floated downstream, narrowly missing a dam, before tying up on another island. Police impounded the Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and sent their chickens to live on a farm upstate later that day.

Say what you want about the ineptitude and idealism of these 21 and 23 year olds, but I find their romantic and misguided downriver trip a bit exciting. We know they would have had a better chance making it to New Orleans in a couple kayaks or a canoe, but they wanted to take their boat so they could live in it when they arrived in The South.