Q. Which direction are you swimming the river? Are you swimming upstream or down? A. I swim downstream. I am actually swimming the river backwards. I started at mile 652 and am going down to mile 0. Most days, it doesn't feel like it is downstream. Dams on a river significantly effect its current. That is why some people are adamently opposed to damming rivers. Without continuous current, marine and plant life are negatively effected. Q. Do you wear special clothing, take extra precautions? A. I do not wear special clothing unless I think the water is highly polluted. Then I wear a wetsuit to keep from obsorbing chemicals through the pores on my body. Q. Aren't you concerned about your own personal health? A. I am deeply concerned about my health. I am always thankful when I finish a swim without any severe gastrointestinal problems, but it is not really the short-term health problems I worry about. The reason chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides have so effectively infiltrated our culture is because the adverse effects of them are so slow developing that it is hard to pin point the exact cause. Q. Have you done anything like this before? A. I swam to Alcatraz and also to Russia in 1997 for peace and understanding between nations. Now I am compelled to swim the Tennessee to raise awareness of her blessings and her neglect. Q. What got you interested in swimming? A. When my children started swimmng, I decided I would swim with them. Once I got started, I just kept on. Jeez, did I look bad the first lap I swam. I was tired and out of breath before I was 1/2 way across the pool. Q. Did you do any special training or dieting for this? A. Special training is a must and so is a healthy diet. I need the training to condition my body for the heavy endurance demands of a distance swim, and I need the healthy diet to maintain a healthy immune systems capable of fighting off whatever unknown "stuff" I swim through. Q. Do you swim the river in cold weather too? A. I swim in ALL weather. I love to swim in cold water, but I cannot get the distance in without risking hypothermia...a drop in body temperature that can be deadly and actually killed the man training to swim to Russia. Q. Where are you originally from? A. I was born in Redlands, California and grew up in San Bernardino County, California. Q. Do you use fins or any kind of swimming gear? A. I do not use any gear but goggles, a swim cap, and a swim suit unless I am worried about significant pollution. Then I wear a wetsuit. I was tempted to use fins on my Russia swim. A Dr. that specialized in hypothermia said fins would work my leg muscles more causing them to generate more heat and keeping my body warmer, but I wanted to swim on my own. So, I did not use any special equipment for that swim either. Q. What is the weirdest thing you've seen in the water? A. The weirdest thing I ever saw was the ferlilizer tank floating down stream like it was suppose to be there. The strangest marine life was the walruses I shared the waters with on my Russian swim. The eskimoes saw a whale spout, but I did not...thank goodness! Q. Does anyone assist you? A. I have a support crew that keeps me fed and watered. They have a series of questions to ask each time I come to the boat for a feeding (I sometimes feel like a seal) to ensure my safety. Q. What has been your hardest day? A. I think my hardest day on the river was the first day of my third leg. I have had days where every stroke I took hurt tremendously, but the hardest thing to deal with is not physical pain, but mental frustrations. Prior to the beginning of my swim, there was a lot of media asking me if I thought my swim was making a difference. I could not give them a direct, absolute answer. I was asked that question over and over again. I started questioning whether I was making a difference. (I asked myself) Did the hours I spend training, talking, learning, and writing make a difference? Were the summer vacations my family forfeited because of the cost of the swim and the time involved in training worth it? Was the time away from my family a waste because ultimately the river would deteriorate past the point of no return? Did anyone really care? Were my talks to children making them think about their environment to the point they wanted to do something about it? Or was it just more lost time away from my family. If my swim changes peoples attitudes about how we are treating the river, then it has all been worth it and then some. But if nobody cares enough to actually do something about it, then I have wasted a lot of money and worst yet, I have lost a lot of precious time with my family. All these thoughts and more hung heavily on my mind eating away at my determination and morale. Eventually, I realized I had to trust my faith that my swim is making a difference. Then the idea of a web page came to me so I could keep in touch with fellow friends of the river. I did not know how to even begin to get a web page, but faith does great things...as you can see!