Dec. 30

After stopping to return the all-in-one machine for a complete one, getting the salt washed off the car, eating breakfast, and other delays we completed the drive to Charleston. We explored the city and crisscrossed the bridges looking down at the Intracoastal Waterway which was flat and quiet with hardly a boat making wakes.  Tomorrow we will be on the water again.

I contemplate my readiness. Less than three months ago I was in the hospital having an aneurysm in my brain clipped. My head feels fine and the surgeon told me I could do anything I feel like doing. He meant that literally, I am sure, and I am really sure I feel like rowing.

Three weeks ago I jammed my thumb skiing in a training class at Loon Mt. I was very much afraid that it might keep me from rowing but I don't believe it will. I don't really use my thumb.

Arthritis pain has been bothering my knee and joints in my hands and then there is the neckache, my overdeveloped belly, and all the other signs of aging.

These are reasons I am ready! These will go away when I have rowed a few hundred miles and I will have had a good time watching them go! Starting out tomorrow is the first step in a rehabilitation program.  I expect to feel the same way I did last year as the trip ends.  Each year I have wanted to just keep on rowing.