Jim Gifford and Aubrey Black were sitting around a fire on a camping trip about two years ago when Gifford started talking about his dream: He wanted to take a jon boat from Chattanooga to Alabama's Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico.
It was by no means a new idea. Gifford had been tossing around the possibility for nearly 20 years - the duration of his friendship with Black.
Jon boats are relatively inexpensive flat-bottomed vessels with small motors, generally used for fishing.
"People told me I was ignorant," Gifford said Tuesday, recalling the responses the idea elicited over the years.
Jim Gifford, left, and Aubrey Black pose for a photo next to their jon boat in Demopolis, Ala., last week during their journey that they hope will land them in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Jim Gifford and Aubrey Black left their mark in this Grant, Ala. tree during their recent 727 miles jon boat journey. They named their boat "Chattabigbee."Black gave him a different response that night, though.
"When you do that," Black said to his friend. "I'll go with you."
Jim Gifford, left, and Aubrey Black depart from Chattanooga on Sept. 11. Their journey lasted more than a week and covered more than 700 miles.Two years later, after a 727-mile journey through Southern waterways that tested their perseverance and renewed their faith in humanity, they are applying to be Guinness World Record holders for longest trip in a jon boat.
On Sept. 11, the duo struck out from near the Chickamauga Dam. They launched in a 29-year-old jon boat with a 23-year-old motor - both items purchased on Craigslist. They reached Mobile Bay on Saturday with an empty fuel tank and an accomplished mission.
They returned to Chattanooga by land on Monday, pulling their boat behind them. They headed back to their jobs and lives with more than just a potential record and a great story to tell.
"The South is known as a very hospitable place, anyway," said Black, a construction engineer. "But when you deal with a lot of people every day, it's easy to get discouraged because, in business especially, people can be difficult. But our takeaway was there's still a lot more good people than bad."
When their boat, named "Chattabigbee" because of their days spent on the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, needed some maintenance near Smithville, Miss., a marine repair shop owner in nearby Amory, Miss., let Gifford and Black use his facility and tools to work on the boat.
"If it hadn't been for them working with us " Black said.
"We would have been done," Gifford said, finishing the sentence.
Farther downstream in Demopolis, Ala., another friendly stranger offered them an additional five-gallon fuel container to go with the four six-gallon containers they had. They filled up the extra container on their final fuel stop before reaching Mobile Bay - just in case.
As they reached the bay, their engine ran out of gas. With big ships moving busily around the little boat, they filled up the motor one last time with the container they had been given.
"If it hadn't been for that guy giving us this tank," Gifford said, "we would have been doomed."
Gifford and Black camped on the river banks each night and weathered storms and sun as they traveled more than a week downstream and through 17 dam locks. They spent between $7,000-$8,000 on the trip. Now they are preparing the necessary documentation for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records. The current jon boat trip record is 621 miles.
But more important to them seems to be the stories they have to tell about their experience, stories that circle back to one central theme.
"I thought a lot about people, and I thought about how little material stuff matters," Black said. "That's what we worry about every day, is doing our job and getting paid, and accumulating to reach that next level.
"But if we can treat people as well as we were treated on that trip, we'll be doing all right."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.