The sun is going down, glowing pink on the condos and office buildings near our hotel. I wish I was just a tourist here. I wish I was going to spend tomorrow taking pictures of monuments, going on tours, walking leisurely through Georgetown. But that’s not why I’m here this time. This time I’m here to work.

Day one preparing for this weekend’s conference is complete. Speeches written, calls made, agendas discussed and revised. Tomorrow is another day as we nail down more details.

As those of you on Facebook know, I fell while crossing the street on Sunday and scraped up my knee on one leg, twisted my ankle on the other. So I’m icing the ankle every night and hoping that by the time I need to walk to meetings on Capitol Hill I’ll be able to walk without a limp.

Such is the life of a middle-aged person not looking where she’s going. But I’ve got my eyes focused on truck safety issues as we work through this week. I look forward to the volunteers that will be arriving on Friday. I know we will be noticed. I hope our message is taken to heart by a few more politicians and that we can start to see movement toward safety in upcoming bills.

I hope you will send good thoughts our way as we begin again to climb the very big mountain in front of us.