Mao was right. The most important step in any journey is the first. It was hard. Final choices to be made on clothing and equipment that I will have to nurse for the next three weeks. To schlep or to leave. Options foreclosed. How much can the bike take. I actually pulled out of the driveway half an hour after I had expected to -- and I didn't turn back as I remembered stuff. From now on its live with it and fake it. 

Cruising out of town against the traffic was fun -- moving fast while looking over at the stopped cars trying to go to work . Sorry guys. Breakfast at Bob Evans in Hagerstown.

All the motorcycles I passed were going into Washington, reminders that the Rolling Thunder parade was this weekend. I am discovering that there are other much honored American holidays in addition to Thanksgiving. Memorial Day is one of them. As I drove West I crossed cemetaries being prepared for visitation, with flowers and flags carefully planted. People I talked to spoke of parades and commemoration events. 

I was headed for Hillsdale MI, the new home of Doug and Susan French whom I came to know and love at Mount Olivet, and who used to live two blocks from our house. It is a 600 mi drive, a big first bite of the cross country journey. I needed to move fast. The plan was to use freeways much of the way, choosing the prettiest ones. Hence the drive along I 68 through the hills of western Maryland and West Virginia, and going North from Columbus OH along US 23. Short cuts on secondary roads between freeways freshened the senses, before diving back into the battle with the rigs.  

Doug and Susan were ready for me. Half an hour after my arrival, we were out on the lake (which borders on their back yard) to watch the sunset and the sandhill cranes over our dinner.