ATCHISON ? An Illinois man is following his dream by following the Missouri River travels of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

“Sometimes I think I was born 200 years late,” said Lawrence Hazzard, of Collinsville, Ill.

Hazzard, 48, is chronicling his journey by canoe in a diary that he calls “Lewis and Clark and Larry.”

The riverside scenery undoubtedly differs from what Meriwether Lewis and William Clark beheld during the journey they began in 1804. There is less wildlife now, and the course of the river itself has changed.

And Hazzard has equipment from the new age of wireless communication: a global positioning system, a miniature television to check the news and weather, and a cell phone that sends pictures.

But the struggle to survive along the river is the same.

“I know how that river is — it’s dangerous,” Hazzard said. “You can’t paddle down the middle; you have to go along the sides because the current is so swift.”

Hazzard began his trip last year near St. Louis at the Lewis and Clark State Memorial Building, but was flooded out near Chesterfield and again near Hermann, Mo., where he abandoned the effort.

This year, he picked up the journey at Hermann on June 13, reaching Atchison 32 days later. He decided to camp on the banks of the Missouri River at Independence Park for a couple of days to wait out the heat.

Hazzard has a rare genetic condition that prevents him from sweating.

“The heat is really hard on me when I paddle eight or 12 hours a day,” he said.

Judging by his GPS, he travels 10 to 12 miles a day, but he probably paddles more than that because the river doesn’t flow in a straight line.

In the canoe, Hazzard sits in a saddle seat with his knees crouched forward to make the paddling easier. He wears a life jacket and carries an extra wooden paddle.

Other cargo includes a “dry bag” for his clothes so they won’t get wet, along with a tent, backpack and supplies. At night, he sleeps in his tent in parks or in woods along the river.

He said he was concerned about the West Nile virus but said that flies were more of a problem than mosquitoes.

“It’s too hot for them,” he said. “The snakes are all over the place, though.”