2/22/2009

It was a cold wintery, windy afternoon in Charlottesville. I headed out to the Rivanna Reservoir, a local body of water about 10 minutes from my house. This is the lake where the University of Virginia Crew team trains. It was windy and cold but I thought it would be a good excuse to stop studying for the USMLE Step 2 for a bit. The paddling was fun, and I spent about 1h15 min paddling around into the south fork of the Rivanna Reservoir. Eventually I started bottoming out, which is where the photos were taken. Overall a great little diversion from the med school studies.

Other exciting news! The first newspaper article about my upcoming trip ran in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. Here is the link to the article http://www.newsgazette.com/news/local/2009/02/21/kayaker_plans_trip_to_raise_money_for_parkinsons_researchChampaign-Urbana is where my grandfather's brother Harry Forrester, who died of complications due to Parkinson's, lived. His daughter, Rita Grider, has been extremely helpful in getting the message out about the trip. She has been tirelessly contacting news agencies up and down the river, as well as throughout the midwest. I am very thankful for all her hard work.

Make sure you check out my website http://www.paddlingforparkinsons.com/ for the most up to date information about my trip!