For the last three months, Nikki Bettis of Virginia and seven of her 15 children have traveled the Mississippi River – by canoe.
The journey began in Minnesota and will end this week in the gulf after about 2,300 miles of paddling the river. For nearly 100 days, Bettis, a single mom, and her kids have slept in tents on sandbars and on the banks of the river. They have picked up litter left at boat ramps (their motto is to leave it better than they found it), explored cities along the river and learned about history, science, nature and adversity. They’ve seen alligators, met “river angels” who welcomed the family into their homes on the river, and traded stories around the campfire.
Bettis’ children range in age from 27 to 7 years old. The younger children, who are homeschooled, are 15 (twins), 13, 12, 10, 9 and 7. Bettis said she hopes the journey down the Mississippi River teaches them perseverance, fortitude, work ethic and diligence.
“I want them to live big lives,” she said. “And honestly, there is so much kindness and people that come out to love and support and want to see us succeed. And I think when that’s modeled to them, they will be more inclined to go back out and model that same love and kindness to other people.”
Bettis said the family has a lot of safety protocols in place and communicates via radio with tugs and barges to let them know of their presence. They’ve been in daily communication with the U.S. Coast Guard.
“This is not something we took lightly at all,” she said. “I advocate for people to go out and do big things, but I also think you need to put in your fair share of research and all of that.”
This is the second major journey for the family. In 2023, Bettis and 13 of her children hiked the Appalachian Trial.
At day 90 of their journey along the river, the family had to make a tough choice: follow the main channel – past Baton Rouge and New Orleans, sharing the river with large ships – or cut through the Atchafalaya River, with its alligators and swamps.
The family chose the Atchafalaya.
“The Cypress swamps of Louisiana are unlike anywhere else we’ve paddled,” Bettis shared on the family’s Facebook account that chronicles their adventure. “Quiet, sacred, mysterious…almost like a cathedral made of trees. The kind of place that humbles you without saying a word.”
The family has 34,000 followers on Facebook. Under the name “32 Feet Up,” Bettis documents the family’s travels on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, which helps fund their adventures. Followers can keep up with the family’s travels through nearly daily posts and vlogs.
In a recent post, Bettis said the kids found a glass bottle with a root growing straight through the top while canoeing the Atchafalaya. For Bettis, it felt like a reminder that everything finds a way to keep growing even through broken things.
Bettis began hiking with her kids in the hills of Virginia years ago. It was a way to escape and find peace during a traumatic time in their family life. Bettis said her ex-husband struggled with PTSD from his work as a firefighter paramedic and was often out of work, leaving the family with limited income and resources. The family struggled – no water, no power, no car.
Then, her ex-husband became abusive, Bettis said. After he was removed from the home, Bettis found herself on her own with 15 kids dependent on her. Bettis, who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home in Texas, was taught that birth control was a sin and didn’t graduate from high school. (She now has her GED).
“It felt very hopeless,” Bettis said. “But you can’t do anything but just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and keep going. After you cry a lot, then you just get up and make the best of it.”
There was power in numbers, she said. The kids and the energy they generate kept her going. When someone had a bad day, there were others there to pick them up and encourage them.
She started a business. Her oldest son did, too. But owning two small business was stressful and high stakes. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Amid the chaos and uncertainty, the family kept hiking. It brought healing. Bettis thought: What if we just went out to hike and didn’t have to come home?
The family decided to hike the Appalachian Trial, a journey of 2,200 miles from Maine to Georgia. (Two of Bettis’ adult children stayed home to take care of the dogs and work.)
“What we experienced there, it was such a bonding experience and just silencing society and the noise of the world,” Bettis said. “And it’s not that we were technology free so much as we balanced it, and it just silenced all the noise. And we’d sit around and have campfires rather than all going to our rooms at night. So, there’s a lot of healing that took place on that trail.”
After the trail, and a year at home, the family was ready for the next adventure. Bettis researched the Mississippi River and discovered a journey along its path was possible.
“It’s not the death sentence that the world will tell you it is,” she said.
The family travels the river with four canoes. A support vehicle driven by a family friend sometimes meets them at various boat ramps. The vehicle allows the family to take trips to major cities along the route (they have a stay in New Orleans planned) and for occasional stays in motels. But the family usually practices stealth camping – camping in an area that is not a dedicated campground – and the family has enough food, water and supplies for three days packed into the canoes.
The hardest part is missing the eight kids at home.
“We’re all very, very close and tight knit,” Bettis said. “And so, the seven youngest are constantly missing [the older kids] and wanting them. They all stay in touch almost constantly.”
Bettis said it took time to feel a connection to the river. But now as they reach the end of it, it’s bittersweet.
“I’ve realized that’s just the nature of doing any kind of long-distance trail, because the bonding you have with your kids and getting to tune in to your inner self, it just quiets everything,” Bettis said. “I cannot stress how much it balances life.”
Bettis said she wants other women to know it’s possible to get out of an abusive relationship.
“I think a lot of us don’t because of the fear involved, because it took me years to actually pursue a divorce,” she said. “But you absolutely can do it, whether you have one kid or whether you have 15. It’s possible.”
And for other families looking for adventure? Her advice is to get outside and do it.
“It’s okay to not have all the answers and just improvise, adapt and overcome,” she said.
“That is our motto. You get out there and you just figure it out. And if you make wise decisions while you’re out there, you’ll eventually end up where you want to go.”
