Finally on line

Monday, 11 April.
Well, who would have thought a blog site would be so tough! I am well on my way on the ride across the USA. Have put 1200 miles (2000 km) so far, over 7 states. It is really exciting in one way, and a bit "alone" in another. I have raised 3000 so far for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) which is part of the reason for this trip.

In the time since I starte this ride, one of the victims of a brain tumor that I met through the internet (Julia Kivlin) is gone. She was in her early teens and had survived a great deal of care, therapy, trauma and treatment...but still was lost. Her mom is going to let me share her battle at a special event in San Francisco. Really need to do this...personally because I can take the time now.

Spent two days on the road with my oldest and dearest friend...Murray. Known him 45 years. Road mountain bikes and motorcycles together as young men....went through bad times and good. Really good to be together. I was shaped by my relationship with him.

We visited the Huntsville, Alabama Space Center.(http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/) It was the first home of the space program for the US in the late 1940's. Werner Von Braun and his 500 colleagues that surrended to the Allies at the end of WWII were relocated in Huntsville. They worked first building the Jupiter rocket at the Redstone Missile Arsenal for the US Army, and then shifted over to the Marshall Space Flight Center to design and build the rockets that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon.

The center was fabulous. Had two Saturn V rockets with Apollo capsules. One was lying on its side inside a building and the other was fully assembled outside. They are amazing rockets, in size, complexity, payload...fantastic journey and exploration. It excited me to no end when I was a little boy...led me to major in aerospace engineering, join Air Force ROTC, and hope for a seat on a rocket...all dashed when the Air Force discovered I needed glasses. Then it was Industrial Engineering, and sex, drugs and rock and roll....and association management!

More later.