"Lonnie Bedwell: Paddling Beyond Blindness and Breaking Boundaries"

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When ordering, use the code RAP for a 10% discount. The company information will be listed in the podcast notes and featured on the podcast website, Facebook group page, and the podcast Instagram. Music. Welcome everyone in the United States, Canada, and around the world to another episode of It's a Wrap with Wrap, the podcast of overcomers and the podcast of interesting and informative guests sharing useful information to better our daily life and mental spirit.

I am your host, Ron Rappaport. I would like to take a moment to thank all of our great listeners, viewers on our YouTube channel, sponsors, and supporters for making this podcast such a success. The podcast is being heard on all major platforms, the podcast YouTube channel, It's a Wrap with Wrap, the podcast uncut, and the podcast website, it's a wrapwithwrap.com. My guest today is Lonnie Bedwell.

Lonnie is a blind, extreme adventure athlete and a National Geographic 2015 Adventure of the Year and author of 226, How I Became the First Blind Person to kayak the Grand Canyon, and he's also a motivational speaker. He is a testament to resilience, grit, and the pursuit of pushing boundaries. A former Navy petty officer, Lonnie's life changed in 1997 after a hunting accident instantly took his sight. Despite this, he raised three daughters, teaching them to hunt, fish, and incredibly to drive.

After his daughters graduated, he turned his attention to challenging himself and soon became one of the world's most recognized blind extreme sports athletes. When told he needed to master 1,000 kayak rolls to conquer the Grand Canyon, he rode his donated kayak 1,500 times in his farm pond. That determination laid the foundation for his historic journey that followed. Lonnie is now on a mission to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents.

Lonnie's mission is to inspire others to live boldly and embrace life with confidence. He is a passionate advocate for children and veterans with disabilities, demonstrating that blindness does not define him or limit his capacity to help others thrive. His inspiring story has led to appearances on the Today Show, Steve Harvey, and Breaking Bobby Bones, and he has been featured in the documentary films Feel a Vision, Dreamline Blind, Long River Home, as well as numerous publications.

Welcome Lonnie to the podcast. Thank you very much. Thank you. And first off, I want to thank you for your military service. We all appreciate what you have done for us. Thank you. That's been awesome. I want to start out with that right away. Let's get to know you. Can you tell us, our audience, about your childhood and family dynamics? I heard you were somewhat of a mischievous kid. I didn't know you called my mom and dad. Well, you know, we do our research around here, Lonnie. Yeah,

I might have been a little bit mischievous. for sure growing up. But I grew up in a little town of Pleasantville, Indiana. It's about six miles south of here and population about 75 now. When I was growing up, there was probably about 150 people. I started school in that little town. I think there was 11 people in my class before they shut it down, consolidated. And I went to school, graduated from a local school up here called Duggar and had a population of about 900 people.

I graduated with 34 in my class, I believe. And then I attended college for two years for electronics with robotics option before joining the military. Enlisted in the Navy, a nuclear-powered machinist mate, volunteered and was selected for submarine service.

We did nine years active and then rolled out three years in the army national door before i lost my eyesight yeah my my mom and dad are both kind of characters and i have one brother and and growing up and so yeah that's a little bit of the basics okay pretty much normal childhood yeah okay we uh got out and about all the time you know growing up in a little town like we did shoot at age 11 12 years old me and my brother just basically turned loose to go So rabbit hunting, fishing.

You know, frogging, whatever, you know, our whole lives and just running around with their buddies and just had fun. It was quite a different world. How far are you from Indianapolis? About 90 miles southwest of Indianapolis. Okay. 90 miles southwest. I'm pretty familiar with that state. I've driven through it a few times and got caught in a snowstorm a few times too. You can relate. All right. Yeah. Just pretty significant snowstorm. First one we've had this big in several years.

Well, being from the northern area up further north, I got up the next morning and expected the roads to be plowed. And when they weren't, they said, no, we don't have plows. But I was in southern Indiana, so maybe down there they don't. I don't know. Yeah, not so long.

Yeah, but anyway, so after high school, you joined the Navy, but you also faced some family issues such as divorce and raising two children. And tell us a little bit about that time. Well, that, you know... After I lost my eyesight, it is when I got divorced again. And, you know, when an accident happens to you, it happens to everybody. So there's so many dynamics going on there. But, yeah, I ended up with my three girls, raising those three girls.

And they were characters, but they were really truly the ones that were instrumental in getting my feet underneath me and on the ground. I tell a story that's in the book that you mentioned.

About my youngest daughter who was five years old at the time helping me mow around my little barn out here and you know i was sitting here struggling thinking how am i going to be daddy you know what do they think of me how am i going to do anything and that happened just a couple months after the loss of my eyesight never really put my feet on the ground so well all these adults were kind of saying no no no no no don't

we'll do it for you we'll do it for you and my daughters were saying go, go, go. And yeah, yeah, definitely. And I understand in the bio, you actually taught your daughters how to drive. Yeah. Yeah. How did you do that? I had an old Ford F-150 pickup truck, four-wheel drive, and just get in it and put it in a four-wheel low to begin with.

You know, there's a little, put it in four-wheel low and put one of them on my lap and I'd roll the window it down so i could hear the rev of the motor and how fast the weeds were going i'd shift the gear and and you know do the brake and the gas and kind of just listen how fast that's going and and let them steer and as they got older and they got better and could reach the brake and the clutch they they'd start shifting and doing everything and once they got good

enough we took off down the road you know it started like sitting this pasture behind my house here we just drive faster. So we got a, we got a bumper full of grass every, every whip stitch, but yeah, it worked. Well, you didn't take them out on interstate 65 or anything crazy like that. Nah. Now, May 4th, 1997 is a day you're probably never going to forget. Can you tell us what happened that day? I know you were with your friend, Tim.

Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, that little town I was raised in, we lived together our entire lives, within three miles of each other our entire lives. Graduated high school together. Just good friends the entire time. He went to the Navy as a corpsman attached to the Marine Recon Unit. And so we're both back home after being out off of active duty, living right here where I live right now. And I'm literally a mile behind my back We got up on a Sunday morning,

I was going to go turkey hunting. I had harvested my first turkey the day before. So I was just going out with him to call. Didn't even have a gun on me. And I don't know. I don't think either one of us really realized how it happened. You know, we were separated for me to call and was kind of supposed to work our way back together. So thick. I didn't even see him anymore than I think he saw me. I don't know. But I knew something was going to happen.

Because all of a sudden, I just felt this presence, literally this aura enveloped me. And everything went dead quiet. The leaves quit wrestling, the wind quit blowing, birds, I mean, complete silence. And I just started to crouch and reach up to cover my face when the shot went off. And I think I took a full shotgun blast to his face at about nine steps. And he was going to pick me up and try to carry me out of there because he was an emergency room nurse at the time, too.

And at the very beginning, I could still talk. And, you know, he told me, I asked him when he picked him up, I said, what are you doing? And then he said, I'll carry you out of here. I said, you can't. I said, you got to go. He said, well, I said, I can't. You'll be dead before I get back. I said, the only chance I have is for you to go. So then he took me, sat me down, leaned me against the tree, took his finger, cleared my hair away so I could take another breath and ran for help.

And I remember sitting there, you know, it got to the point that I was so weak, I lost so much blood, I was so weak that, you know, I had to lay down. I scooped a pillow of leaves to try to keep my head above my feet. And I couldn't clear my airway, so I was fortunate enough to be able to break a little piece off of a bush and just take and stick that down my throat to clear my airway. And then it got to the point where I was even more weak, I couldn't even do that.

Well, just so our audience knows that you were accidentally shot, it was a shotgun, wasn't it? Yeah, birdshot, yeah. Yeah. And, anyway, I was sitting there, you know, thankfully I was able to never pass out. Otherwise, you know, I don't know what would happen, but I was probably there 45 minutes by the time he ran out and called for help. The ambulances got there. I could hear him coming way off in the distance. And then I had to run in and, you know, they couldn't find me to begin with.

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The book is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle format. Details will be listed in the podcast notes. Just so thick and... And I finally kind of remember, I couldn't get up. I thought I was screaming, but one guy stopped right by me. And there was another one of my best friends growing up. The two of them were my two best friends. And he stopped right by me. And I was like, okay, finally, he just stood there for a minute. And then finally, I kind of went and yelled again, I thought.

But he told me later, it just sounded like a little whimpering puppy. And then realized that's because he thought I was already dead. Yeah. And once he figured out I was still alive, he yelled for other help. They put me in a stretcher, took me across these stripper hills to a boat, put me in a boat, took me across the lake to an ambulance. The ambulance took me to the local ball diamond.

They put me in a helicopter. And the last thing I remember was they intubated me and that helicopter took off. And then I woke up to the hospital after surgery. So they probably took you to Indianapolis, I would assume.

To a traumatic. your manic hospital just just to let everybody know no animosity towards tim it was an accident and yeah you guys are still friends today right absolutely one of the greatest gifts i've ever given in my life was to never have the slightest bit of anger or bitterness toward him even though he wasn't himself and you know it's yeah you know he'll tell everybody that i helped him get through it, which, you know, and he says to this day, he says, it's a scar.

It's not an open wound to him anymore, but it's a scar. But as far as I'm concerned, I hope someday will come that that scar goes away because he's a good, good man who would never have done anything to hurt me. And it was just a sheer accident. Lonnie, was there a defining moment that led you to believe that you could pick the pieces up and continue to do the things on your own despite your disability?

Yeah, that day I was talking about what my daughter helped me more. All around that barn. It really was. I was literally laying on the couch that's in this room right here and just fighting back tears, thinking about those girls. And two months after the accident, I'd went from weighing 181 pounds to 129, drinking Inchure shakes like they were candy and had no mobility training at the time, but finally got enough strength to get up.

And I went to the closet right over there, took the handle out of the room and out the door I went. And that's, like I said, my daughter, I could go into the story if you want me to. It'll take about six, seven minutes for me to tell it. That's up to you. Well, I know. I know it's a story where I believe you went to cut the lawn, right?

Yeah, she helped me. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't get into my little barn because weed rubbed in my chest and she helped me get out there on the lawnmower and get me out there and mow around that barn. And that made me realize, okay. And she had an inspirational message she gave you. I am still daddy. Absolutely. You know, I knew right then and there that to my three girls, I was still daddy. I was still the man.

And I tell everybody, you know, they changed my vision more than the loss of my eyesight ever did. They allowed me to see light in the darkness. And they were the ones telling me, get up off your knees, daddy. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can. For people out there with a disability, do you have any advice for them on how to manage a marriage with a disability?

What kind of dynamic does that play into the marriage with that? Well, I don't know if I could have been a given device on it because, like I said, mine fell apart. But I think the aspect is what I said earlier is the fact that, you know, when something like that happens to you, it doesn't just happen to you. It happens to everybody. Right. And everybody needs support. Everybody needs help. You know, I wasn't smart enough to realize that at the time. You know, my girls were hurting.

Everybody was hurting. My mom and I, I mean, everyone around me was hurting it. Sure, sure. So I really think, you know, reach out to each other. Let everybody know really what's going on. Let everyone know some of those emotions. And I'm talking to the caregivers here more so than the people with a disability. And then once again, people with a disability realize, you know, yeah, you're the one in it. And yeah, you've got to overcome these things, but you're not the only one in it.

Try to give everyone a little bit of grace because they don't know sometimes i'm the first blind person that we'd ever met except for elderly elderly people you know and uh people don't know what they don't know and right don't feel weak to reach out don't feel like it makes you less of a person to reach out you know i i tell people in my personal opinion i call them all emotions There's three things, I think, that hold us all back, all of us, every person back more than any.

Foolish pride, fear, and pity. Foolish pride. There's nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, of some of the things you do. But pride becomes foolish when you cannot humble yourself to reach out for a hand up. Not a hand out, a hand up. Right. And, you know, there's nobody ever got to where they're at in this world without somebody helping them, teaching them, guiding them along. the way.

Nobody. You got that right. You got that right. You know, we, we have, we do a lot of podcasts with veterans and, and one big part of the problem is, you know, there's a very high suicide rate right now. I'm sure you're aware of it.

And part of the problem is a lot of these veterans are just too proud to ask for help or they, or they feel asking for help is a sign of weakness and, and they, and, you know, we have to change that perception for our veterans, being discharged because a lot of them are just, they come from military backgrounds, you know, and they've been told to suck it up, you know, and get up and keep moving. And, you know, sometimes you just can't do that. You need, you need help.

Yeah. You know, and like I said, kind of going on with what I was saying, that foolish pride to me leads to that fear, F-E-A-R, false evidence of reality. You know, people don't want to ask for that help because one, they're afraid they might get made fun of. They might, you know, think that people will think you're not the man you used to be. you might be weak, or you might think you're going to get hurt, which I've come to really find out. That's not the truth.

People, no, people want to help. People want to extend their help. And, you know, and if there are those few, very few, if there are those few that want to make fun, that's their issue, not yours. You know, the vast majority of people truly want to help and they want to help see you succeed.

And then that last thing, both that holy pride and fear leads into the worst one of all is pity i like to say p-i-t-y poor information to yourself you know i'm not a man because i'm blind i'm not a man because of this i'm not and it's so false i literally had the conversation with my dad here not too long ago who's 80 years old you know and he's like well you know i'm not the man i used to be and i said nope thankfully you're

not but you're a better man than or you're just as good a man as you always were. Sure. And you know what, Lonnie? It takes courage, more courage to get up and ask for help than it does just to be foolish about it and not ask for help. Yeah. Yeah.

A handout, not a handout. Exactly, exactly. A handout, not a handout. Now, tell us about the Veterans Administration and other organizations, you reached out to, I guess, after many years of doing a lot of this, a lot of tasks on your own. I mean, I understand you were doing roofing, you were doing construction. Tell us about those organizations that you reached out to. What did they do for you? Yeah, I didn't go to a blind rehab center, which was very fluke to me.

I didn't go to a blind rehab center until my youngest daughter graduated high school, 14 years after losing my son. Yeah. And once I got there, you know, I was like, okay, I need to learn how to be a little more independent because then now it's going to be completely on my own here at the house. And I was like, okay, I need to learn technology. I need to learn. Even though I was doing a lot of this stuff, I needed to learn more. Well, I go up there and I find out this phone that I'm using.

I get introduced to a lot of things. But then while I was up there, that's when I got introduced to adaptive sport. They knew that I had gotten into building these houses. That's something I didn't do before I lost my eyesight. I do anything from the ground up, framing, roofing, wiring, you name it. And I was using chainsaw. So they literally asked me, I said, you know.

We know blind people snow ski. We never did it here as a recreational outing up here at the Heinz Blind Rehab Center where you'd be our guinea pig. We need to find something for these younger veterans to do. And I said, twist my arm. So thankful that they asked me to do that because then it led to kayaking. It led to rock climbing. It led to mountain. And it opened up this life I would never have dreamed, I could have lived or be a part of it. And, and now, you know, just expand.

It's just amazing. And, you know, and then, then you got like the blind veterans association, you know, that I got introduced to after that, you know, they're through, I through them, you know, they, they're out here doing a lot of stuff to Congress and legislation, trying to, trying to find ways to help us, you know, with prosthetics. And for example, you know, the iPhone is a prosthetic for blind veterans. Yeah. So, you know, they'll, Through the VA, they'll purchase your iPhone for you.

And, you know, that's just huge, you know. And it's just, so there's so many organizations out there that this truly will.

Yeah, I said, you know, so, you know, you go like to the Blind Rehab Center, you know, you can go to the Blind Rehab Center and learn these manual skills, these living skills, mobility skills, technology. And it doesn't cost you a dime. Yeah. Why did it take you so long to find these organizations? Was it just you didn't know they existed? Well, in my case, there was a little bit of time there I didn't know that it existed.

And there are a lot of veterans out there that lose their eyesight later in life due to glaucoma, whatever eye disease. They don't know it exists. They don't have that option. But also in my case, I was too stubborn. I was raising my girls. I thought, I got to be here. These girls are raised to where if I truly would have went, taken six weeks out of my life back then, earlier, I could have been a whole lot more helpful to my daughters than what I even was.

I truly do. and it's hopefully there's people out there listening in this podcast who can take this you know this this advice from you and you know take that time and and go wherever they have to go in the va administration and. And this podcast is being brought to you in part by our podcast guest, author, speaker, and TV series creator, Paul Doughty.

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Information about the book will be listed in the podcast note to help. Now, for people with disabilities, what is your philosophy for family members or loved ones in regard to, quote, protecting them from getting hurt or keeping them confined inside walls? In I'm sure you experienced this where family members said, Lonnie, don't do that. You know, you could get hurt or you could fall down or whatever. What's your philosophy on that?

I love to talk to caregivers because my philosophy is, if somebody was to take their child unjustly or something that that child had no control over, didn't do anything, and throw them in a jail cell, and get ready to slam and lock that door of that jail cell i always asked him i said wouldn't you do everything you could to prevent that from happening and the answer i always get is well yes i would so then my comment to them is okay why are you.

If your loved one has a chance to experience life, to live this life, no matter how scary it might be to you or how scary it might be to them at times or just whatever, why not leave that door open? I don't care who you are. Every single person, we don't know if we're going to see tomorrow. We walk out that door if we might get hurt.

You know like a blind person not walking out the door because they might get bit by a dog that might not even be there you can't live your life in fear you can't you have to just live your life and like i said if your loved one has a chance to live their life why not let them live their life and help them open that jail cell open that door keep that door open you know and see what you can experience with them. Now, Lonnie, you get introduced to the organization Team River Runner.

Tell us about them and how that led you to kayak the whitewater rapids on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. And for our audience, get this, Lonnie only had 14 days of whitewater training and he's the first person to kayak 226 miles over 16 days never done before and let me explain the rapids are from levels one to six with a terrain loaded with scorpions and red ants tell us about that, Well, I mean, I've done level three and four, but when I hear five and six,

that's when I say, I don't think so. Yeah. Well, let me step back a little bit too. The Grand Canyon has its own way of making levels on the rapids. It's the only place like that. So a level six on the Grand Canyon is really like about a level three. Oh, okay. You know, in the real world, if you will, or on other rivers. But there are some rivers. I think the Grand Canyon is about a three and a half, if you'd go somewhere else.

At least most of what my experience, it's just massive. It's just massive. And the massive or the size of them. Well, now you just gave me the inspiration to do this. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, it's crazy. You know, some people might say it's a little more than that, level four-ish. A couple of them on there that, you know, they might say it's a level four, maybe a little. But, yeah, that's about where it's at. And I would absolutely recommend the Grand Canyon.

To blind. As a matter of fact, I encouraged four others to join me on the last trip, blind veterans. But how it started was I was at the Disabled American Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass, Colorado in, I think it was 2011. Myself and another friend were walking around and we heard about this organization, Team River Runner, having kayaks in the swimming pool. So we just went to check it out.

And when we got there, they told us, said, if you guys can do, you know, one of these combat or Eskimo rolls, the first time you get in the pool, we'll give you a free t-shirt. So we got into kayaks and fried, dried, dried, and fried. And finally, we did. And both of us actually won a t-shirt. Well, that led me to being invited to what they call the out-of-sight clinic up in Montana on the Yellowstone River.

Okay. Second year of the program was there, and I was the second, I think, blind person to go up there and try this. And there might have been, I can't remember, there were some others with us on that trip. But I just kind of got into it. And so while we're sitting at the airport after that event, I was talking to the executive director, Joe Mornini. I was sitting there, and he said, Lonnie, he said, how do you like to be the

blind veteran to kayak the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon? And I thought, wow. What a vision. And in me, it instilled a dream. And so I just come home and I called a friend of mine who donated me, got the kayak that I brought here at the house and the paddle, the helmet, life jacket, spray skirt. And then Joe called me a few months after that and said, hey, Lonnie, we're going to do a kayaking trip this next summer.

Why don't you join us and ride through it in a raft just to kind of get a feel for it? I told him, I said, I don't want to do that, Joe. I said, I don't want to do it in a raft. That would scare the crap out of me. I want to do it in my own kayak. And that's when he laughed at me and said, you know, he said, you need to do at least a thousand of those roles and you need more experience. Like, as you said earlier, I dragged the kayak down to the pond and started

doing the rolls. I quit counting at 1,500. I have no idea how many I really did.

But then I went down to Charlotte, North Carolina, to the Whitewater Center down there with a friend to get some experience. And while I was there, I met a gentleman named Pablo McCambas, who was an Olympic Chilean paddler, who Joe Mornini just happened to teach how to kayak. Wow. And I said, he asked me what I was doing. And I said, I'm trying to get the experience so I can do the Grand Canyon. And he told me, he said, I think you can do most of it right now, just after watching you.

I said, you got to call Joe and tell him. So he called Joe. He told him. Joe convinced the board that he didn't let me have a shot. And as they say, the rest is history. Yeah. And from what I understand, people have tried this and some people didn't make it. Yeah.

Yeah. That happens, I guess. Yeah. You know you said the red ants and and the uh scorpions yeah i got bit by some of them red ants man it hurt oh yeah i've been bitten by red ants i know exactly what you mean, when they bite you're you're you're getting out of there real fast yeah what was your family's feeling about you doing this and what reason did you give them for trying to do it like i said keep in mind, people who could see we're having problems doing this. Yeah.

My, uh, I know when, before I went, my, my family, they asked me, said, Lonnie said, of all the things you've done, you know, and why do you have to do this? Why? Yeah. You know, I told them, I, and I said, you know, I'm going to be guided by all these other disabled veterans, combat injured veterans. I said, they give me everything they had, not just our country, but they gave me everything they had, and they give me the right and the freedom to go try it.

So they give me their best. They deserve my best.

I said, every paddle stroke I make, no matter how far I make it through this, every paddle stroke I make is an effort to try to help pay them back just a little bit for what they sacrificed for me. Never can repay them for what they've done, but just a little bit to say thank you. And I'm sure they said, okay, go for it. Yeah. As a matter of fact, there was one of the rapids was going through Crystal. And once we ran through the rapid, we ran the rapid, we got to the bottom of it.

The lead guy at the time's name, Alex, Alex Nielsen, he came over to me and he said, Hey, he said, Oh, I'll let you know. Joe told me not to let you run this rapid. I said, under no circumstance am I to let you run this rapid. He said, even if you want to. I said, so why did you? He said, because we could. Right, right. And I'll forget, when we got to camp the very last night, that very last night on the river, you know, we had just four miles of calm water to paddle, to finish paddling.

But we got to the camp and, you know, they were all congratulating me. I said, you know, congratulations, you're the first to ever do this. I said, thank you. I said, it's cool to be able to say, yeah. But I said, you're wrong. I said, we were the first to ever do this. And it's absolutely meaningless and irrelevant. We can't find a way to pay it forward.

Brian Haidt is a modern-day Renaissance man, seamlessly integrating Eastern and Western philosophies to empower individuals to overcome mental barriers and achieve peak performance. He has diverse expertise as a Hollywood stuntman featured in television shows and films such as Superman, Haunted Mansion, The Iron Claw, Stranger Things, and The Cleaning Lady, to name just a few.

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And that's my passion. And I truly mean that.

And just to try to, like I said, keep that door on that jail cell open. Yeah. That was very humbling that you did that. You had a team of three people guiding you. Tell us about them and how they gave you the commands to stay safe. Yeah, yeah. There was really four that kind of, three main ones and one guy that was kind of helping out their safety boat around as well. But all four of them, you know, I think about, you know, just those guys, you know.

Alex, like I said, Alex Nielsen was also a Navy corpsman, attached to a unit and was in some incidents over there in the war. Actually, he lost a comrade of his on one of their missions who lived, who was originally from Brazil, Indiana, about 45 miles from here. Didn't know that until we got talking and had the pleasure of meeting that young man's family. And, uh, but he is now, you know, married and, uh, married to Joe's daughter, as a matter of fact.

And I actually had the honor and privilege of officiating their wedding. Oh, wow. And he's a doctor out in Portland or out in Oregon somewhere now. I said Portland, but he's a doctor out there in Oregon now. And then just, I say, you know, a couple of these guys are just, I described them all as kind of mild mannered badasses, you know? And then, then you had chip cell, you know, an army, army officer just, uh, you know, had a little bit of a traumatic brain injury and, and, and.

Just a dynamic paddler you know and just it's this laugh that you can just never get rid of and i think about how good he was at paddling and he saved me so many times you know and like i said he he'd take the lead on occasion and but then most time he's behind me and i'll never forget this one day why i didn't realize at the time why i couldn't stay up but when my thigh braces broke in that and i couldn't stay up i couldn't i had no balance i couldn't roll up i was

just like what's going on here well he just you know hand of god rescuing me rolled me out and just then but he was just he's you know all of them they got your six they've got your six and and he you know he lives out in out in idaho him and his wife and beautiful daughter live out there it just he just gives back to so many people gives back to himself and then you had mike bradley and mike plurin you know mike bradley and i gotta tell this a little bit of the story because they

were both in the in the van when they picked me up the airport and uh you know. Mike mike told me he said he's pretty mike and i said okay you know mike bradley did so i called the other one mike plurin he's a bigger guy i said oh so i'll just call you and that nickname stuff which stands ugly mike so i call him up today they're pretty mike and ugly and you know but But amazing, amazing, amazing, you know, both of them all combat injured and stuff and Bradley with, you know.

All of them with amazing stories. Yeah, they sound like just amazing, amazing people. Lonnie, what were your impressions of the Grand Canyon and the river? From your sense of smell, touch, and hearing, what was your impression of it? You know, it was just, when I first got on the water, it was like, holy crap, what did I just get myself into? Because it's far the biggest, pushiest water I'd ever been on, the volume, you know. But it's just a magical, magical, magical place.

And I hope they can never get permission to go in there and build casinos like they wanted to. And, and it's just, you know, just like you said, the smells, it's just, it's got its own smell and its own feel when you're in there, you know, you can get on the river and then you can go on some of these little side Canyon Heights. And it's just like no place I've ever been before. Just something about being there. It's just, it just puts you in this different

frame of mind and this sense of all, you know? Yeah. And, you know, and the way, you know, I had so many people just described to me the, the colors and stuff, you know, that's just, and then, you know, you can close it in and you can feel that you can just feel it close in these massive walls and then you can feel it open up. And yes, it's, it's, it's just something I would love. I wish everybody could experience.

Yeah. It sounds so exciting. Now, the journey was 226 miles and they were good and not so good days. So what was the happiest moment and what was the scariest moment?

The happiest moment was probably the last day once we died. Once we really, I mean, there's so many moments. I mean, I can think of going to the first big rapid, you know, and, you know, they said, okay, you're going to drop in. And I got swept to the side and sent through this hole and it kind of flipped in, churned a little bit and rolled up. And I lost my guides.

And then they're screaming, so I could hear them way off, and they just started paddling, paddling, and I got down to them, everyone was screaming, and it's like, okay, we really might do this.

It's called House Rock, and so it was like day one, day two, and we really realized that we could do this, and then some of the scariest moments was right, like I said, when I first got on the river, and I said, oh my gosh, and I can remember telling them, I said, I don't know if I can roll in this, and Pete Wynn was one of the guys on the trip. He said, man, you get in this first little rapid here. He said, intentionally flip upside down and see if you can do it.

I'm like, I'm going to get flipped enough. I don't need to do it on purpose. And he convinced me to do it. And I remember I said, okay, I want to get down the right spot. Chip, he yelled out. He said, I'm behind you, man. I got you. And he said, I said, okay, just yell out when you want me to flip. And he did. And I remember being scared to death. And I rolled over and was able to flip up.

And I was like, all right, you know, and, and then going into some of the bigger rapids, crystal hands, lava, you know, and I just hearing this massive, massive roar, you know, and I, I could, I always describe this like, okay, here comes the music, you know, here comes the music. And wasn't it, is it kind of like a rollercoaster ride there? And then some, in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Some of them are definitely. I know it can be scary. I mean, I was on Rapids up in Tennessee and our guy got thrown out and then it was like, uh-oh, what do we do now? Anyway, he finally got to us. What did that journey teach you about yourself and the people in your life? It taught me to swallow that full of pride more so.

It taught me what we are capable of it taught me the importance of relationships it taught me, you know like i said endurance you know not being involved but taught me taught me just yeah what like i said i think the most important thing is probably the meaning and the power of relationships and what can we not do if we simply unite the common goal and help each other and And. What was the other half of that question? What did it teach me about? No, you answered it.

What did it teach you about yourself and about the people in your life? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the people in my life, like I said, their value, our value, our value to each other. You know, we need each other. We all do. I don't care. There is not a human being walking on the face of this earth that if you took the word at its core could not be considered disabled.

Not able. there's not a human being in this world that is able to do everything we all have our limitations why we all need each other I don't care who you are now Lonnie, why did you write the book.

226, How I Became the First Blind Person to Kayak the Grand Canyon and what do you hope that the readers will take away from reading the book, well, I wrote it really because I was really kind of pressured into it to be quite honest with you met a gentleman that was you know helped me and then you know i dictated it put it to and a general other gentleman put it to print and i spent about nine months every minute and putting it back but you know it was

like they really convinced me that people needed to hear the story resilience and the story of like i said relationships and what, what, what we can do. And, and that's kind of why I wrote it and kind of why I hope people will read it is truly looking there and not only just my voice in the book, it's, I think what makes the book is the other people's voices, the stories that they tell within the book. Yeah. Yeah. I read the book. It's a great book. I recommend it to everybody.

It's just an awesome book. Thank you. What new challenges are you currently involved in? I know you're the kind of guy that just doesn't sit around on your Duff now that you did that.

Tell the audience what you're up to now. What I hope to do is complete what they call the Explorer's Grand Slam. And that is to climb the highest peak in all seven continents and then ski both the North and South Poles. And that portion has not been done by a blind person yet. You know, Eric Weinmayer has climbed the seven summits, but, you know, and I'm sure he'd be the first one to applaud to try to take it to another level. And that's to add on that ski to the North and South Poles as well.

Okay. So you would be the first. Yeah. That's another book. But I don't know, you know, so. Well, that sounds exciting. I know you said you just got back from being in the Antarctic. Antarctic. Yeah. Yeah. In the Antarctic. Yes. As far as I know, I think we were the first ones to, there's been a couple of blind people ski to the South Pole. There's been blind people climb that summit, but as far as they know, there's not been one that's done both of them.

And so we've kind of got that out of the way. So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully this April we'll go to the North Pole and then sometime throughout this year, we'll finish climbing the other two summits. Okay. Well, we'll have to have you back on the podcast when we'll talk about your mountain climbing. Yeah. How's that sound? That sounds awesome. Okay. Now, Lonnie, if people want to get a hold of you, how can they contact you? They can contact me through my website, lonniebedwell.com. Okay.

And it's through there. Quite honestly, I don't care. I'll give people out my email, lonnie.r.bedwell if they're wanting me for a speaking engagement it's at gmail if they're just wanting me for private other stuff it's at att.net so in both cases it's lonnie.r.bedwell and like I said for speaking at gmail and otherwise at att.net.

I'll give out my phone number as well I don't care it's 812-691- 0446 812-691- 0446 and follow along on the Facebook page as well okay and you speak all over the country I would imagine yeah. Yeah. I like presentations in Hong Kong. So international. Yeah. Well, this podcast goes all over the world. Australia, New Zealand, Europe. You know, we're everywhere. So. I'll travel everywhere. So there you go. Yeah. There you go.

Now, Lonnie, for those out there struggling with whatever adversities they may be encountering, what is your advice to get them to a better place? To break that adversity down first and foremost i love acronyms to break it down a-d-v-e-r-s-i-o-t-y the hardest part is always the a and the d acknowledging that it's different and difficult but it starts with that it's not comparing either i don't care you don't compare well they're worse to acknowledge it.

It's happening to you. It's real. No matter how big, how small, it starts with, okay, this is what's going on. And yeah, it stinks. I'm blind. It stinks. But once you get that to where you say, you can say, but then it gives you the power to do the V-E-R. Visualize every route that you can take. And then it gives you the S, what my daughter's told me, the strength to stand Stand up and to stamp to wear the ITY into your future, the life you can still live, the differences you can still make.

Start right there. Acknowledge it. Excellent advice, excellent advice, and everybody out there can take that one to the bank.

Lonnie, I want to thank you for being on the podcast and sharing your story with us and giving us all a lifting spirit just listening to you. Again, thank you for your service, your military service. It's been a pleasure and an honor to have you on the podcast. I look forward to having you come back and tell us about your adventures climbing because I want to hear about that. And, uh, once again, thank you and God bless you and, and please stay happy and healthy.

Yeah. And as you can tell he has. So, and thank you all. And thanks for this opportunity and thanks to the platform and to all the listeners out there. Yeah. Thank you. Well, you're more than welcome. Comments and suggestions for the podcast. You can email me at it's a wrap with wrap at gmail.com. Our Facebook group is it's a wrap with wrap.

A couple thousand people in there, so it's a private group. If you want to join and you're on Facebook, just go to It's a Rap with Rap or email me and I'll get you in. Instagram, It's a Rap with Rap podcast. X, we are on X. That's at at rapper, W-R-A-P-P-E-R-1-3-0. Our website is itsarapwithrap.com. And our YouTube channel, all the episodes are on YouTube, It's a wrap with Raptor Podcast Uncut. I want to thank everyone for listening or viewing.

I want everyone to please stay safe. And for now, it's a wrap.