No days to go! I'm here!

I've finally arrived after a year of organising and faffing around.

I've just spent the night at an airport hotel near Washington DC Dulles Airport after and 8-hour flight and a hire car nightmare in the UK.

The last couple of days before departure I was blessed with a million good wishes from family and friends (including an underground trip at Cornwall's old Cligga tin mine and a night-time near-death experience clambering up and down the cliffs to get there!). The ladies with whom I work in the mining and environment team at Wardell Armstrong International produced a lovely cake showing my Chasing the Sun route (pictured) and yet more cake at the Eden Project later in the day.

Had a hectic but very touching last Saturday with my girls. Sunday morning, dropped Katie off for her surfing competition (she came third). And then off I went. It's hard to believe that my Churchill Trust trip has finally come around.

On arriving at Washington Dulles Airport, the normal drudgery of camping out for hours to pass through US immigration was lightened somewhat. The smart official called me to his desk, routinely checked my passport and asked where I was going in America. I explained that I was going to be visiting coal mine restoration in the Appalachian coal-fields, his stern face flickered with a smile: "You know, if you hear banjos in those woods, you just run!"

Well, that's where I'm heading today!