Swapping Roles
by Denise Janus

Before I get started, I’d like to thank Deb Hedrick for making our stay possible at the beautiful Geneva Lodge!

We got up early to move camp to Jack’s Marina in Ashtabula and then put in our miles, but the weather is looking terrible.  It looks like showers and thunderstorms are likely. In addition the wind on the lake is 15 to 25 knots with anywhere from three- to five-foot waves. With this in mind, we’re going to take a rest day because these conditions are too tiring on the water. We can afford a few rest days because we have six days to get to Erie, Pennsylvania and it will only take four paddling days to do it. 

Health update – we’re all feeling great, minus the cottonwood floating around that makes a few of us stuffed-up!

In other news, I forgot to mention in earlier entries that I took over as team leader to relieve Mike. The journal entries might not be as long, since I’m a bit busier these days making sure I keep all my ducklings in line! Also, Laura has taken over water navigation duties to relieve Chris. Mike and Chris have done an awesome job to-date; making sure we kept on time and got to where we needed to be, especially in the transitional phase of taking this trip from paper to water May 14. No matter how much we tried to think of how this trip would go, until you live it there’s no way you could have know how our plans would carry out. We’ve learned quite alot in the process. 

I hate to leave you hanging, but I’ve got other duties to tend to. I’m gonna sign off for today and get back to you the next time I can find Internet access.