May 23, 2003 We haven’t visited with Meriwether for a couple of days. A few days ago, Lewis was in Wheeling. He met with Dr. William Patterson, the son of Dr. Robert Patterson – the man who taught Meriwether the medicine he would need for the journey. William Patterson wanted to go on the Expedition, and Lewis agreed that he could. However, on the morning the boat left, William was nowhere to be seen. He was an alcoholic, and missed the trip of a lifetime. Lewis’ next stop on the Ohio is Marietta – Ohio’s oldest (15 at the time Meriwether came through) city and a major shipping center. He has just completed a letter to Jefferson describing his troubles with a shallow Ohio River – he and his men had to dredge occasionally to get the keel boat through. He would not be having that problem this year – the Ohio is very full and flowing in all her glory. The bike performed beautifully today, and the Team is starting to get used to the mega-mileage. It was a fast-pace day with a lot of hard work. Our route for today was to move from Wheeling, WV to Marietta, OH via Highway 7. We departed just as we had arrived – we walked over two bridges. However, this time we walked over the Wheeling Suspension Bridge that was built in the late 1800”s. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the USA. After walking the bridges, we again accessed Highway 7 and were on our way. It took about 25 miles to eat up the Expressway section of this road to get back to a two-lane road with nice, wide shoulders. The traffic was fairly light, and the noise was dramatically reduced. This route kept us close to the Ohio River. In fact, a large portion of our time was spent right along side the river. As the river turned, we were greeted with spectacular views. Many of them were very large power plants, but a similar number where just beautiful views of this magnificent river winding its way south. In several places, the river is dotted with small islands, making the river look more like a lake than what it is. Barge traffic was interesting to watch. Most of it was coal for the power plants. It was pretty exciting seeing these small tugboats forcing a series of coal-laden barges upstream against a significant current. We are learning how to handle the local people when it comes to getting advice about routes to ride. In most cases, the locals seem to know what roads are best to avoid traffic and see a lot. What they don’t know much about is how far it is from one point to another. We asked three people how far it is from Marietta to Gallipolis, and got three different answers – none of them correct. The weather today threatened rain except in the morning. We didn’t get rained on, but it was close. In the morning, we had some nice sun, and enjoyed it in shorts and jerseys. Tomorrow may be another story! Ron