June 2, 2006 - Washington D.C.

This voyage has begun! It is getting late so this first entry will be very short. I will just give a quick synopsis of what has happened so far.

First I need to thank the following: Elizabeth Harr-Bricksin (Heather Willcoxon's cousin) for receiving my gear here in the Washington D.C. area: Jeff Foster trucking for shipping my gear(Thanks Jon Foster); and Balance Bar for the grant to make this all possible. I especially want to thank Jennifer Moore of Balance Bar for coordinating everything for me. Finally, thanks to my wife, LuAnn for supporting me once again. Hello to my children Dean, Eric, and Heidi; and to the grandkids, too: Devin, Drake, Liv, Rory, Lily Ryan, and Ryah Marie.

I finally was able to start at around 4:00 P.M. today with the help of Jeff Thompson who has been so kind to shuttle me around. I started just west of Washington D.C. at Swains Lock. Today was spent portaging along the river for two reasons. First, I wanted to test my bike and trailer system. Second, after reading a sign that said, "57 people have died in this area in last 10 years", even I had enough sense to go around the rapids rather than paddle through them. All in all the day went well and Jeff Thompson met me 17 miles up the river where I made camp and the two of us went to dinner in Leesburg. Leesburg is also a town that I biked through when I made my perimeter ride of the USA in 2004.

All in all it was a good day. Looking forward to tomorrow, which will start with at least the first half of the day paddling and most likely end with more portaging around rapids in the afternoon.