John Guider

A professional photographer, adventurer, boater and author, I've traveled 5,500 miles of America's waterways, including the entire Mississippi, in small motorless boats.

I've changed physically and mentally. My asthma is in remission, and my arthritis and chronic bronchitis have gone away. The best of my art is still ahead.

I built a boat and have been traveling a route known as the Great Loop, a course down the Mississippi, around the Gulf and East Coasts, into the Hudson, the Great Lakes and back to the Mississippi. I go out two months every year and row upwards of 12 hours a day in all types of weather. The experience has been so amazing, my photos only tell a portion of the story. So I’ve continued on as a writer as well.

Now, at 62, I have everything to look forward to.

Fun fact: John's efforts to achieve better brain health can serve as inspiration to others in his home state of Tennessee, which ranks No. 45 on America's Brain Health Index.