Tomorrow, Margo Pellegrino arrives in Washington, DC and concludes her 500 mile paddle in support of healthy oceans legislation.

Margo's Blog: July 15 

Today's paddle from Patricia and George's home on a little creek off of Potoma Creek to the Occoquan area was fueled on Patricia's wonderful home-made manicotti, a totally awesome salad, good wine, and a fabulous almond/apple tart made by George. Oh, and I can't forget the tasty healthy muffin and the "egg in bread" for breakfast.

Well, up until today's paddle I thought the Potomac was in better shape than the Chesapeake. Alas, another delusion ended. I've never seen so much floating algae in such a large body of water (not counting the stinky "red tide" stuff you can smell). The weeds are incredible, too. They get stuck on the rudder so badly that the only way to get them unstuck is to jump in and pull them off. And there was the brown scum and dead catfish floating about-extremely disgusting. There were also large, empty snail shells floating all over. It was a bit odd.

Arriving in the little harbor where I expected to find a marina, I found instead the beautiful home of Dave and Gina Moore. They had seen me paddle in and were curious about the boat. Now it's resting in their backyard where they are so kindly letting me store it. They don't even seem to mind that I'll be getting there very early in the morning to hit the water for an early start to battle weeds and tide on my last leg into DC. What great people!

Tonight I'm staying with my Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Ron. Aunt Carolyn and I just got back from a little swim in the pool. We'll be heading out to dinner shortly, then back home, and to bed. Tomorrow Aunt Carolyn will get up early and take me to the boat. Wow. This was one fast trip. Can't believe its nearly over, I feel like I'm just warming up!