A guy in Nebraska recently celebrated his 60th birthday in style by breaking a Guinness World Record by travelling 38 miles down the Missouri River in a carved, 846-pound pumpkin named “Berta” that he had grown for 10 years.
Six years after Rick Swenson broke his own record by paddling a pumpkin boat 25.5 miles down the Red River from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Breckenridge, Minnesota in 2016, Duane Hansen, aged 60, set out to paddle the Missouri River from Bellevue to Nebraska City.
Hansen, a Nebraska native from Syracuse, travelled the eastern border of the midwestern state with Iowa in around six hours. Throughout the whole of his expedition, he sat upright and paddled on a cooler that he had put inside the pumpkin.
According to City of Bellevue Community Relations Coordinator Phil Davidson’s Facebook post, Mr. Hansen has lived in Nebraska for a long time and likes growing enormous pumpkins, gourds, and other veggies as a pastime.
When he was in Ohio, he saw someone else try to break the record, which is presently about 30 miles, and that’s when he had the idea. His 60th birthday was [Friday], and it seems like a special, if not little odd, way to mark that milestone.
He had his wife, relatives, and friends there to support and record the endeavour. A handful of them were pursuing him on a boat in case anything went wrong,’ he said.
At 2.52 pm, Hansen broke the 25.5-mile Guinness World Record and continued rowing for another 12 miles, according to the Facebook post. Hansen finished his intrastate adventure, according to a last report at 9 p.m., seven hours after being formally hailed as the new world record holder.
The Hansen family just reported that Duane Hansen arrived in Nebraska City just after 6:30 p.m. in this thread! Thank you for breaking the record, Duane,” Davidson wrote.
“It’s been wonderful following along, and we are glad that you began your record-breaking 38-mile (61-kilometer) trek in Bellevue.”
Hansen travelled for around 11 hours to get to his destination, according to Davidson’s response to a remark posted on the City of Bellevue’s Facebook page that the 60-year-old was “physically fatigued” from the trip but emphasised that he “was delighted he made it.”
Hansen continued, saying that the waves created by passing boats and cruise ships sometimes made it harder for him to navigate his pumpkin through harsh seas.
He told News Channel Nebraska, “You’ve got to stop everything and just hang on and ride with those waves.” “That was awful.”
Hansen’s search, however, has not yet received recognition from Guinness World Records, since there have been no updates posted on the organization’s website.
The organisation needs many pieces of proof, such as photos, videos, and witness accounts, in order for a record to be broken.
The City of Bellevue, together with Hansen’s family and friends, made sure the 60-year-efforts old’s wouldn’t go in vain by documenting his journey.
Many people online and across the world expressed their support for Hansen, with one admirer sending him off with a “gourdspeed” message and another writing on Facebook: Duane, congratulations! I’m rooting for you from the U.K.
This is both humorous and motivational. I really hope this is being recorded! This is amazing! a different person revealed.
“Congratulations, Duane, on turning 60! Your journey was taken in style. I really hope your legs can support you once again! You finished the job! Another author wrote.
“From Vancouver, Canada, cheering Duane on! YAY, YAY!!! Go, pumpkin, go!” yelled a supporter from British Columbia.
Hansen, who has a passion for producing huge food, including his now famous pumpkin, had to carve Berta to have a diameter of roughly 146 inches in order for him to fit inside of it and for Berta to float on the Missouri River.
In order to get the bulky fruit to the river where Lewis and Clarke’s 1904 journey had its beginning, he had also slung it over a mattress and used his pickup truck.
The Missouri River is the Mississippi River’s longest tributary in both North America and the United States. Its 2,341-mile length is created by the meeting of three distinct streams: the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers.
When asked where he got the idea for the project, Hansen cited a three-day class on cultivating enormous pumpkins in Portland, Oregon, where he “meeting this woman who held the record.”
It was around 25 miles away at the time. And after asking her a lot of questions, I realised I wanted to do this,’ he said.
When questioned about what lies ahead for her and her new world record-holding husband, Allyson Hansen responded to News Channel Nebraska by saying, “I never know what’s going to be next.”
“I ain’t going to do this again,” Hansen said. I’ve had enough of this.