A haunted confederate prison, a town swallowed by the Mississippi River and a couple with an urge to travel to the Gulf of Mexico, from their home in suburban Chicago... by canoe.

Float along as Dave Korta and Leah Bartholomay travel down three rivers, the Des Plaines, Illinois and Mississippi, connected by the stories of people places and things along the way.
In 1674, Pierre Marquette and Louis Joliet portaged their canoes along the banks of the Des Plaines River, guided by local Native Americans in search of a shorter route to the great Lakes from the Mississippi. This portage established what would later become the grand metropolis of Chicago and help build the Midwest to what it is today.

In 2009, Dave Korta and Leah Bartholomay, currently living in the village of Lyons (a western suburb of Chicago) and along the banks of the Des Plaines feed their wanderlust taking the reverse path of Marquette & Joliet. Dave and Leah will canoe south down the Des Plaines to the confluence of the Illinois River in turn following the Illinois to the Mississippi continuing to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way they will be lead by stories of everyday people, places and things that they encounter on this route.