Tired of an unfulfilling life in Kansas City, Patrick Dobson left his job and set off on foot across the Great Plains. He arrived over two months later in Helena, Montana, then set a canoe on the Missouri River and asked the waters to carry him back home.

Dobson, who teaches American history and literature at Johnson County Community College, discusses his new book Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer and a journey undertaken nearly 20 years ago that proved to be transformative. Dobson learned to trust himself to the flows of the river and its stark, serenely beautiful countryside – and to a cast of characters he met along the way. They assisted the novice canoeist with portaging around dams and reservoirs, finding campsites, and other travel tasks, and they fueled his personal renewal.