July 30^th, 2009 - it is finished – it is done!  The end is bitter-sweet as we put the finishing capstone on our journey but also say goodbye to the hundreds of people across America who have supported and followed our journey since we left home on June 12^th.

But first, let’s talk about Hawaii.  When we landed on the big island of Hawaii yesterday we were working on less than 3 hours of sleep through our Anchorage to Seattle to Hawaii red eye flight.  After grabbing our rental car and finding our way to the Kona Seaside Hotel we finally crashed.  Taylor and I both hit the pillow at 1:30pm and didn’t wake up again for nearly 14 hours – the most sleep we’ve had in 50 days.  At 3:30am we were up and showering.  Our bodies were working off of west coast time so we felt good and anxious to get the day rolling.  I had spotted a Denny’s restaurant nearby that was open 24 hours so we thought we would have a big breakfast before we met Captain Jay Lighty of Mariah Sportfishing Charters at 5:30am.

Captain Jay was rigged up and ready to go by 5:45am and we were off on the Mariah and after the trophy of salt water fish – the Blue Marlin.  Before we even had all of the lines out we had our first hit.  The fish hit light, took some line out, and then off - our first miss.  An hour went by before we would have our biggest strike of the day.  The fish, probably 500 lbs or more created a crater the size of a Volkswagen when he hit one of the big top water squid lures being trolled closest to the boat.  It was a spectacular strike, but again no hook-up.  We would go on to have 6 misses in a row before we would finally have our first full-blown hook up with a blue marlin in the 6^th hour of our charter.  The fish hit one of the long lines and took off – drag screaming out line fast.  After scrambling around the deck to pull all of the lines in Taylor was finally able to don the fishing vest and jump in the fighting chair.  5 minutes of battle ensued - the fish took line out at will.  Then, with nearly 500 feet of line streamed off the marlin went for the surface.  It was a magnificent display of power as the fish exploded through the water. For nearly 10 seconds the fish danced across the ocean surface – an awesome sight.  Then the fish went deep again.  We would go on to fight the fish for several more minutes – then……nothing.  He was gone.  It was catch & release today – the release happened a little sooner than we would have liked.  To some this would be a disappointment.  For us, we will not steal defeat out of the jaws of victory – we had caught our marlin.

In the coming weeks we plan to put together some closing thoughts on our adventure, compile the “Best of 50-50” for people to see and read, and to thank the many people who helped make our adventure a reality.

Final fish count total:  Taylor (484 fish); Dad (472 fish) with a Grand Total of  956 fish through all 50 states.

For those of you who wish to live out your adventure please know that many people told us this could not be done and that so many things would go wrong.  Some things will go wrong but if you are committed and persevere great things can happen.  I leave you with the words that inspired us on this adventure and pray that you too will find and live out your grandest adventure one day.  “Deep in his heart, every man longs for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, a beauty to rescue.”  [John Eledredge – Wild at Heart]

God Speed my friends.

Jeff & Taylor Turner
Fish 50 Trophy Waters in 50 States in 50 Days
“Leave a Legacy”
July 30, 2009