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.