August 13th. My new friend, the Old Man From the Tennessee just emailed me to ask for the finishing details. The finish was GREAT. We stopped at mile 131 for the year. We were scheduled to finish at mile 140 but were hoping for mile 130, so we are pleased. Afterwards we went upstream to the Mermaid Marina. There were many people waiting for us...it was exciting! Also, the Mermaid Marina was a fun place to hang-out. My crew and I will definitely have dinner there before the beginning of next year's swim. Unfortunately it is too far to go for a meal or they would see a lot more of me. Yes! I swam among hundreds of fish. Pam could not remember the type but was amazed at the hundreds of fish feeding as I swam through them. They respectfully moved aside, obviously knowing I was at the disadvantage. Pam video taped the incident, but I have yet to find the time to view it. A friend said she read the O.M.F.the T.'s letter and cried. She too could remember when.....Unfortunately I can only see the "old river" the way I imagine it in my mind. I wish my children and I could sit on the banks of the Tennessee River and watch as it flows clean and free. I wish they could see how far the eye can really see when the air is clean. I wish on a hot, thirsty summer's day my children could pick a piece of roadside grass and suck the sweetness out without fear of pesticide and herbicide poisoning. I wish my children could look up into the southern sky and be amazed by the billions and billions of bright stars. That is not to be and it makes me cry. Two years ago, I took my daughter Bree to the Grand Canyon. After the Grand Canyon, we drove out into the desert across miles and miles of Indian reservations. Then, at 2:00 in the morning, I woke her up. We got out of the Jeep and looked up. The stars were bigger and brighter than I remembered from my young days on the desert, and there were so many they almost touched. She immediately understood why our galaxy is named The Milky Way. We were both in awe and wanted to cry at the deeply spiritual experience. If it hadn't been so cold, we would still be there. My daughter enjoyed the Grand Canyon and thought it amazing. She wants to go back, but not to see the Grand Canyon. She wants to go back to see the stars! It is unfortunate that what we do to the environment and ourselves is such a slow process it is almost unnoticeable. And I wonder.. someday when my daughter has a child of her own, will she pass on the story of when her mother and her took a road trip out West? Will she share the laughter and frustrations? And when she tells her daughter about the stars, will her daughter ask, "Momma, what does a star look like?" And will Bree's eyes well up with tears as mine do now and will she wonder, "My God, what have we done?" What is lost is lost. Our lifestyles are such that we cannot undo a lot of what we have done. Nobody is willing to shut off their air conditioner, TV, or washer to enable the Tennessee to flow free. Nobody is going to give up their car and shut off their security lights to enable us to see the stars. It is now about sustainability, finding a balance between using the environment and using up the environment. It is about giving up and giving back enough so future generations can survive. It is about my grandchild being able to look up into the sky and wish upon the same star her great-grandmother did and fish from the same river as her great-grandfather. To give her less, is unthinkable. Thank you all for your support! Please, For God so loved the World...take care of it. God Bless, mimi