Every rider gets excited on the evening before a big trip. The lure of the road is so strong that sleep usually comes only with difficulty. A hundred things rush through the mind and every one of them keeps the sandman away from the door. I'm no different than anyone else, even though I've been fortunate enough to plan many exciting trips of one sort or another for the past 40 years. I'm shaking with anticipation and I doubt there will be much rest for me tonight.

As a teenager the sleepless nights heralded the departure for the Canadian wilderness and halcyon days paddling across cold, lonely, lakes in search of northern pike, walleye, and forgotten pioneer towns. Then came several years in the Coast Guard when the departures had a much a different flavor because the trips would be much longer in duration and the waters of the North Atlantic much deeper and colder. I was a '255 Sailor' then and the stormy seas, although exciting, seemed much less fun and far more exhausting than paddling a few miles up a placid river.

The years following my service were filled with possibly my greatest adventures and most stirring moments. I was flying myself all over the nation, learning to love the land from altitudes that sometimes made the passing landscape a surreal pastel of time and distance or the intense blur of low level, high speed, flight when a second of inattention could lead to unpleasant circumstances. If I had my choice I would still be sitting behind the control yoke, anticipating the next throttle adjustment and rudder input. But, as my late mother always told me, "Nobody ever said life was fair..." Those particular nights of tense anticipation will never come for me again.

Tomorrow at dawn, or as close as temperature and circumstance allows; my youngest son, Art, and I will throw our legs over the motors and head southbound through South Carolina and Georgia to Florida. The intermediate destinations are just a prelude, as is the turn around point at Key West. Because, essentially, this is almost a trip without end. If no major calamity arises I'll be out for much longer than any other single adventure I've ever experienced. Sure, I'll pop back to Gold Hill frequently - but the plan is to keep the flow up as much as possible. There's a reason for this. Very often our dreams are sidelined by life, or rather the unexpected nature of life. I've wanted to Ride Around America since the days of my first solo coast to coast flight. The last 15 months has reinforced two things for me; Mom was right - nobody said life was fair and it isn't; and if a man doesn't reach out and make every attempt to accomplish his dreams, however ambitious they may be, he will always feel cheated - even if he got every break possible.

Site maintenance now goes mobile as I compose updates and post them from WiFi hotspots around the nation. I expect some of the graphics will suffer as a result, but I'll make every effort possible to include lots of photographs. Be sure to check in with the Ride Around America site for itinerary and stories about our veterans.

Remember, "Ride today - Tommorow you may not be able!"

-LW