Brett's Journey of Hope

Roanoke, VA

2009-08-11T18:53:00.000-07:00

After a great nights rest in Virginia Techs dorm Payne Hall, we were excited for the supposed downhill ride to Roanoke and our 4-star hotel that awaited us there.

Getting ready to ride at Tech

Paul a chapter brother who will be riding next summer

Leaving around the drill field

Today we had two crew ride alongs and for it being there first time on road bikes the did pretty well. We had a very leisurely morning not departing Blacksburg until after 11 AM and took our time on the very scenic ride, the first ride that I was familiar with.

Epic railroad photos of the pink elephant members, notice the sweet wristbands that we got. The pink elephant is the name of our van, we're pretty awesome haha!

Pink Elephant

Pink Elephant riding photo

We arrived in Roanoke to Hotel Roanoke around 2, it's a gorgeous hotel that is owned by Virginia Tech and were kind enough to host us for the night. Michelle also met me in Roanoke and took me out to lunch at Mill Mountain Coffee downtown before we headed to the friendship visit for the evening.

Michelle and I outside Hotel Roanoke

For the evening we went to Pump-it-up and worked with the down syndrome association who rented the venue for the event. Michelle had a great time and really worked well with all of the children. The evening was awesome and it was another great friendship visit on the Journey. Tomorrow is a day off thanks gooodness!

Pump-it-up!

BLACKSBURG, VA

2009-08-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

BLACKSBURG, man oh man did it feel good to be in a familiar place. Today was a homecoming for me and it was tough, exhausting, and it felt amazing!

We had been told that today could be the toughest day on bike and with over 100 miles to go and a really hard day yesterday I was a little apprehensive about how the day would go. I was excited to get the day on the road and with a wonderful cooked breakfast we were ready to tackle the difficult day that we had ahead. Fitting for the day our crew chief played "Enter Sandman" by Metallica as we prepared to hit the road. The topography for the day looked like a heartbeat, up and down all day with what appeared to be a lot of climbing hitting the high point at 16 miles into the ride.

My legs hurt, physically drained and as if there was nothing left in them; the worrying feeling that I had gone too hard the day before into Beckley was proving to be true. At mile 16 I was cooked and right as I pulled my paceline including the other two tech boys over the summit I felt as if I was going to have to rack into my home town and wouldn't be able to complete one of the most important days on the trip.

Today the teammate aspect of the trip really showed through as my teammates pulled me through 40 of the toughest miles of the trip. As we began to draw closer to Virginia and I began seeing roads I recognized and see mileages for towns I found my second wind and finally was ready to ride hard and fast to Blacksburg. The hills continued all day and we topped our total ascent in a day for the trip by over 1800 feet!

The roads today were awesome including huge descents and gorgeous winding roads under tree cover that formed a canopy shading us from the sun. Not only was the day 103 miles to begin with but the crew missing a turn and letting us go 3 miles before they recognized we were missing added 6 miles to our day and a trip back up a very steep hill after blowing past the Virginia state line sign on the way down we added another 2 miles making the day 111 miles.

We went back up a hill to take this photo

We were so excited as we rode into campus that we almost left the last two members of our paceline but waited to finish the day as a team the way we started.

Today was also special for me because my girlfriend Michelle drove to see us, it was the first familiar face I've seen all trip and really made my day. We showered quickly and headed to Steppin' Out, the downtown Blacksburg street fair that happens the first weekend of August every summer. The town mayor came and recognized us and declared today as Push America day in Blacksburg.

Our welcoming party at stepping out and some of my chapter brothers

We had dinner together and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying the festivities Blacksburg had to offer.

Beckley, WV

2009-08-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

The beginning of two torturous days over the Appalachian mountains today was a great day on the bike but I'm afraid I went to hard today and won't have enough left for Blacksburg. I rode in a paceline of three today which was tons of fun but also meant that we split the workload between three less people. My legs felt great today and the thought of being in Blacksburg in two days really had me fired up riding fast.

Today was full of rolling hills and several steep climbs. My pace line took the day fairly easy and since we avoided any major mechanical issues finished about 15 minutes in front of the next paceline giving us time to relax. We prepared for arrival at Mountain State University where they had prepared delicious fruit for us and we moved into the dorms for the evening.

Arrival at Mountain State University

Danny and I headed a few blocks over to the closest bike shop, we managed to find several huge hills between the dorm and the bike shop that we were less than enthused to ride after 70 miles of riding. After the bike shop the three tech boys decided to clean our whips for our homecoming tomorrow. I only cleaned about half of my bike when the crew chief came and found me to go scout the first few miles of tomorrows ride. We were pushing our time limit before we left hoping that we'd have time to scout and make it back to shower before heading out for our evening friendship visit when Murphy's Law held true and we got caught in traffic due to an accident. 2 hours after our departure and a few back country detour roads we made it back to shower and head to the friendship visit with Mountain State Center of Independent Living (the same organization that we worked with in Huntington) for which we were unfortunately very late for.

Jeremy present a grant check

The team enjoyed lasagna and salad and I had the privilege of speaking with one the founders of the organization who informed me about some of the projects they were working on. After dinner the team returned to lodging for about an hour before departing for evening entertainment provided by a connect at MSCIL.

Upon arriving at the "evening entertainment" we instantly knew we were in for a good time as we heard loud engines and fans cheering, we were at a dirt racing track in West Virginia; perfect!
We received pit passes which was really cool since most of the guys had never been around a race track, let alone had an opportunity to walk in the pits and see the cars up and close.

A night at the races!

Blacksburg tomorrow and a very tough ride from what I hear, I can't wait!

Charlestown, WV

2009-08-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

An abrupt awakening this morning at 5:11 AM by my roommate and team crew chief letting us know that we had overslept by 11 minutes and we needed to hustle to get out of the hotel room put the day into gear, until I let him know that wake up wans’t until 6 AM and that he was not my favorite person in the world right then. After our second wake up we enjoyed two breakfasts this morning both the hotels snacks that were set out as well as the crew chief breakfast who I still hadn’t forgiven at that point in the day.

The ride out of Huntington was hairy and mostly city riding for the first 15 miles until we hit the familiar West Virginia back country road full of dogs, loud trucks, and gorgeous scenery that seemed an eternity away just a few months ago.

A tricky section of road around mile 35 required the pacelines to stack up and double paceline over a bridge about 5 miles from our arrival and friendship visit.

Today was a truly amazing friendship visit with Children's Therapy Clinic of W. VA. The clinic provides speech , occupational, and physical therapies to individual free of charge. They share a facility with the American Red Cross and run solely from private donations. We had a friendship visit with about a dozen of the children who utilize this amazing clinic and couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear as these children are so fun and positive it makes you overwhelmed with joy. I had lunch with Emma (6) who’s sister Elizabeth (8) was in a wheel chair and had been attending the clinic for several years going from depending on the wheel chair to walking with crutches. The facilities for the occupational therapy were very cool including a ball pit and swing for client sensory feel development. After eating entirely too much pizza at lunch the team reluctantly got back on the bikes and completed the remaining 12 miles of the ride including a very large, very steep hill that we climbed for the second time and arrived at the MLK community center in downtown Charleston around 1:30.

Children's Therapy Clinic

Elizabeth and the guys

Once showered we made the usual errands and many members of the team chose to clean our bike after punishment they had received in the rain the past few days. The team headed towards downtown for dinner at the Appalachian Power minor league baseball field. We enjoyed all you eat burgers, hot dogs, and BBQ chicken that we as usual ate too much of.

Huntington, W. VA

2009-08-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain, rain that’s what it did all day today and we enjoyed every minute of it. Today began a lot like yesterday with %90 chance of rain for the early half of the day and it managed to stop just as we arrived in Huntington. I was soaked for the better half of the day with my fingers pruned and wrinkled for the rest of.

The rain really made the miles fly by and before we knew it our paceline had put 42 miles behind us and were asking for lunch to be at lodging where it would be dry. The rest of the ride went by in a blur of water in my face from the man’s tire in front of me. I didn’t have to drink much today as most of my water intake came from the road and as one of the guys on the team put it “the road tastes pretty good today, I’m actually not even that hungry for lunch since I’ve been eating road debris all morning."

Only one more state line to cross!
PHOTOS TO COME SOON

We arrived in Huntington around 1:30 and were happy to hear that we were staying the Holiday Inn tonight and would have warm showers and beds after a day of being soaked. My first action of business before evening showering and getting out of my soaking wet clothes was to head to the Verizon store right next to hotel to pick up a new phone since the trip consumed another one of my personal items, this time it being a broken screen on the phone. After squaring away my means of contact to the outside world and making my daily errands finding a Starbucks and bike shop I warmed up and enjoyed the amenities of a nice hotel.

The team spent the evening at Mountain State center for Independent living which assists individual with disabilities in many ways including job partnering programs, city accessibility issues, and obviously assisted living funding. We enjoyed a wonderful catered Famous Dave’s BBQ dinner and meeting some of the amazing clients and employees from Mountain State.
We rounded the evening out with a trip to Coldstone Creamery and a $3 movie theater showing “Pelham 123” with Denzel Washing and John Travolta, how could you go wrong with those two? The movie was awesome and I’m so excited to be approaching the hometown of Blacksburg and the intimidating ride that awaits us from Beckley to Blacksburg!

Morehead, KY

2009-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

The first day we we’re able to ride due to weather, today was an incredible day on the Journey of Hope just without the riding aspect. We awoke this morning to pouring rain and overcast skies that gloomed of a troubled day. After packing bags we anticipated the normal crew chief breakfast, another morning with a solo cup full of cereal and peanut butter on a bagel. We were pleasantly surprise when we heard that a sponsor had decided to send us all to McDonalds to get whatever we wanted from the breakfast menu.

Not exactly cycling fuel, delicious none the less

After a less than healthy breakfast we headed outside ready to jump on the bikes and begin our ride to Morehead. A lightning bold in the distance and the following thunder immediately postponed our departure by 30 minutes according to Push America policies and procedure. Another lightning strike, and another; finally our project manager sent us back to lodging to wait the storm out.

64 days into the trip today was one of the first opportunities we’ve had to just relax and enjoy one another’s company without worry of riding or making a rack point. We sat around a table and played games including Outburst, Scategories, and puzzles it was just a unique opportunity to bond that we haven’t had yet; all the while the thunderstorm worsened outside.

The guys just hanging out

At 11:00 our crew chief called the day and let us know that we would be racking the bikes and driving to Morehead for our 1:30 arrival. Disappointed everyone piled into the overly packed vans due to the 7 additional bodies that are usually not in them and reluctantly drove to Morehead. At some points throughout the drive standing water as high as 3 or 4 inches covered the road we we’re supposed to riding on reassuring that we had made the right decision in racking for the day.

Upon arriving at Morehead State University we were greeted by brothers of the chapter there and fed pizza that we felt we hadn’t earned without riding. We enjoyed the company of the brothers for the afternoon and then headed to an on campus dorm where we had beds, warm showers, and wi-fi; all luxuries on the Journey.

Before dinner a few of us walked around in the pouring rain and found a bookstore/ coffee shop that kept us occupied until our evening friendship visit. We visited Horizon Riders an assisted living community for people with disabilities and played games for the evening. I played monopoly with a few of the clients, a personal favorite. Dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with the brothers of Morehead State was awesome and they provided us with tons of wings and fries to fuel us for tomorrows ride.

Today was a very special day on the Journey and even though we didn’t ride we had an incredible friendship visit with Horizon riders that made the day perfect.

Day Off-Lexington, KY

2009-08-03T18:05:00.001-07:00

My team mates called me crazy when I woke up early this morning to go for a run and about 15 minutes into the run I was beginning to agree with them. After running the half-marathon this spring I felt as if my running had developed and I was in decent shape, this morning my legs felt as if I had 20 pound weights attached to my ankles and I struggled to move every footstep. The run wound up being twice as long as I expected because I kept finding dead ends and run train tracks where I couldn't cross.

After my run and a nice stretch I had a crew chief breakfast at lodging and then headed to one of the local coffee shops to update some past blogs. I headed back for our 10:30 roll out and the team headed off to downtown to visit an organization called Latitude.

They prepared lunch for us and showed us what they're organization does in downtown Lexington. Latitude is primarily an art studio for individual with disabilities and had some incredible pieces of work including blankets sewn from plastic bags by a man who's deaf and blind.

Latitude

Munching down on lunch

The studio

The bike was for last years JOH arrival

Some artwork for today's rally

I had the rest of the afternoon to explore the city and I made a trip to Third Street Stuff coffee shop where some of the artwork from Latitude is on display for sale, it's incredible to say the least. I also stopped by the two local bike shops to see what they had to offer and talked to some guys about trainers.

Tomorrow we ride to Moreheade, KY which should be nice 70 mile ride! Just a few more days to Blacksburg!

Lexington, KY

2009-08-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

Our stay in Ohio was brief as we crossed into Kentucky today headed for Lexington. Today was a gorgeous ride with large farms and big money horses at we entered derby country. The day began with a ride from the Cincinnati Recreation Commission to the heart of downtown where we crossed the Ohio River on a pedestrian/bike only bridge right by the Reds stadium.

View from the bridge

VT and another state line

The day moved quickly as our paceline stayed flat free and rode fast over the rolling hills of Kentucky. As we grew closer to Lexington we rode along gorgeous horse pastures and saw some barns that were twice the size of the mansions they were next to.

We arrived in downtown Lexington to lodging which was only a few blocks from University of Kentucky’s campus and the famous Rupp Area, home of the Wildcats. The location of lodging was one of the best we’ve had all trip with a Starbucks and local coffee shop only a few blocks away, as well as two bike shops within walking distance.

The team headed out for a friendship visit with CAKY (Community Alternatives of Kentucky) which was incredible. I unfortunately made the mistake of not bringing my camera to the event so I wasn’t able to snag any photos of the event. We enjoyed singing and dancing and they even had a cornhole set that we got to play. It was another awesome friendship visit that made all the miles feel like nothing.

The rest of the evening was spent watching the cycling classic American Flyer's with Kevin Chostner, another awesome 80’s cycling flick. 12 days left on the Journey of Hope!

Cincinatti, OH

2009-08-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

The shortest ride of the summer does not necessarily mean the easiest ride of the summer, however today was an awesome day on the bike. Today was a day for record setting because not only was today the shortest mileage day on the bike but it was also the latest riding day wake up, 6:45 AM. After packing up our mattresses we loaded out gear into the vans and headed 1 mile down the road to the Eta Upsilon chapter house for another amazing meal. The guys were up early this morning preparing eggs, bacon, biscuits, and fried ocra for us; we devoured everything including an apparent record of 144 eggs. Our ride began with a scenic country road that had lots of rolling hills and twists that made the miles fly by in minutes. After stopping at the first crew stop for an early morning stretch the remaining 20 miles were finished before we knew it after skipping the two following crew stops. Our paceline was the first to arrive at the park for lunch which had one nasty hill between us and two 6-foot long subs. Matt and I climbed the hill to find the lunch spot and then decided to go back to the bottom to direct other pacelines as they arrived towards lunch since directions were clear. As the pacelines rolled in one after another Matt and I joined them to the top of the hill and then rolled back down to guide the remaining lines in, making the end of the day into somewhat of a hill workout.

Lunch was delicious and the team had no problem finishing the two huge subs and several huge pans of brownies and six-layer bars. We saddled and rode the 1.7 miles to lodging where members of the Cincinnati Recreation Commission were waiting with a sweet banner.

Today we the team had the unique opportunity to play wheel chair football with several incredible athletes with various physical disabilities. Catching the ball while running is difficult enough some times, mix into that rolling wheels and other chairs crashing into you and you have the making of a perfect afternoon. A delicious pizza dinner with salad and ice-cream was provided which was a great break from hamburgers and hot dogs, and will provide great energy for tomorrows ride into Kentucky. We all really enjoyed this event and it gave us a new outlook and appreciation for the incredible paralympic athletes we meet.

Just having fun!

Lined up for kickoff!

We had a real treat this evening with the opportunity to go see a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. This was really special because it’s the only MLB game I ever remember attending. The skies opened up a bit and taunted us with another Kansas City Royals incident, but fortunately held out enough for the game to be played. The Reds lost but it was a really fun way to cap off the evening, there’s nothing like a ball park dog and peanuts.

Oxford, Ohio

2009-08-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

Today was smooth easy day on the bike which sometimes makes me wonder if we're really in for it the next few days on the bike because it went too smoothly.

I was in a fast paceline and we moved quick for most of the morning. By 11:00 we were about 10 miles ahead of the other pacelines and forced to wait for the others to catch up before we could go further ahead. Part of the reason for the large gap between pacelines was our good luck with flats for the day, and also the two ride alongs that joined us. One of the ride alongs was a crew member, JT who had never bike longer than 30 miles but was convinced that he could do a century and wanted to prove to everyone he could. All of us really doubted him because he is a fond user of tobacco products and we didn't think he was physically fit enough to to it. When he finished the ride today at 88 miles he said he was happy he completed the ride but wish it had been the full 100, his paceline stepped up and decided to make laps around campus and the stadium until he hit his 100 mark, what a trooper!

Our crew chief set up lunch for us and we all ate and took a nap waiting for the rest of the pace lines to get there. We all enjoyed the leftovers and desserts we've acquired throughout the trip and even took part in an AMP challenge which involved shotgunning an energy drink before riding the remaining 20 some miles.

AMP Challenge!!!

We arrived at Miami of Ohio university around 1:30 and showered up at the Pi Kapp house. Today I was a road marshall which meant I was responsible for scouting tomorrows route after our ride so we took a van and drove the first part of the ride to verify the direction and check road and shoulder conditions.

Eta Upsilon

The brothers of the Eta Upsilon chapter really went all out for us and prepared the feast of all feasts including possibly the largest steak I've ever eaten as well as potatoes, bread, and a bomb salad which we felt we earned after our 90 miles ride for the day.

We closed out the evening with a trip to the local theatre and saw the new release Funny People with Seth Rogen and some other famous actors. The movie truly lived up to its name and really was quite hilarious, a long walk back to lodging put us in around 12:30, just enough time to get our mandatory 6 hours of sleep before tomorrows cake 32 mile ride.

Day Off-Indianapolis

2009-08-03T05:54:00.000-07:00

Today was one of our few remaining days off and an really awesome day because of a great friendship visit at Noble. I woke up early an headed down the street to the campus bookstore that’s associated with Barne’s and Noble and has a Starbucks in it to get my morning fix and attempt to post a few backed blogs. It took me nearly 24 hours to learn that IUPUI is not Purdue and is in fact a joint program between Purdue and IU.

At 10:30 we rolled out for a friendship visit at Noble. One thing that is really interested when heading into a friendship visit is that you have no idea what to expect sometimes, it could be one of your best friendship visits ever or you may not really connect with the clients; our visit at Noble was great because of how organized the event was. Noble is a resource center for people with disabilities and had our entire afternoon planned out. The visit began with a sponsored lunch and then a short presentation about what we would be doing for the next few hours. Noble has dedicated rooms for various activities including an awesome art studio, a music room, and a gym.

I was assigned to music room where everyone was excited to sing karaoke and dance; all of the client were really interactive and really impressive with the instruments. I had the opportunity after a little while to see some of the other rooms and activities including art Olympics in the studio. Art Olympics combines a rotational art project with bowling, football, and other coordination activities. At the first station every one received a blank piece of cardboard and had the chance to draw whatever they wanted, then you would have to throw three balls into three different baskets before advancing to the collage station. The last station was the coolest in my opinion because we took our artwork and put in a bucket with paint and marbles and shook the bucket around so the painted marbles rolled over the artwork; they all came out really neat!

Music room

The gym with Wii fit and some hoops!

Art Studio

Mike chatting it up!

Bingo and Bags room

After our awesome friendship visit we made a much needed trip to the bike shop where they warrantied my rear wheel failure and gave me a free $65 tire! I also bought a second tire so that I wont have to rack again if I ruin another one on the road.

We had a sponsored dinner at the Kelley household, David a Trans America Pi Alpha (someone who's ridden the trip before) kindly invited us into their home for a delicious tacos dinner. I ate entirely too much and gorged myself on dessert which was a warm brownie sundae.

Dean our cycling coach from Seattle lives in Indianapolis and coaches at a small private school Marion University. He invited us to meet him downtown and a bunch of us went out and told him all about our trip and our amazing (and not so amazing) rides and how great the trip had been so far.

Tomorrow we ride to Oxford, Ohio another state off the list and one closer to home which is bittersweet. We'll be joined by a three day Pi Alpha Tom Sawyer (yes that's really his name).

Indianapolis, IN

2009-07-31T18:20:00.001-07:00

Today began as any other day on the Journey of Hope with an early wake up, packing our bags, and eating breakfast to fuel up before our ride. Today’s breakfast much like last nights dinner was an unusually awesome meal for us because the house cooks prepared another delicious feast including my favorite, chocolate chip pancakes.

The house, or Frat Castle (sleeps 100 guys, awesome!)

After breakfast we took a photo in front of the house and saddled up for the ride. I’ve begun putting my tires to a higher pressure (130 psi. when the max is 120 psi.) in hopes to avoid flats on the road; it had been working quite successfully until today. The beginning of the ride was really fun with freshly wet road from an early morning shower and canopy covered roads that kept the overcast skies out of view made us feel as if we were riding in a rain forest for the first part of the morning. Once out on a main highway the shoulder quickly became a mine field and the team was plagued with flats. About 5 miles into our terrible excursion on Hwy. 37 going about 25 down a hill I heard a sound that no cyclist wants to hear at that speed, PPPSSSSHHHHH!!! A rear side wall blowout quickly put my rim on the ground and I let my paceline know that I had a flat, after examining the sidewall I realized this wasn’t a replace a tube type flat, but instead replace the tire.

Racked!

The rear tire failure

Today was my first day racking the bike for a non-construction related reason. I was disappointed because until today I had ridden every mile fighting through aching knees, saddle sores, and fatigue that I didn’t know was possible and a silly tire kept me off the bike. On the bright side however today was only a 52 mile ride of which I only missed 24 miles. I put my bike on the back rack of a crew vehicle that was jumping up and joined the crew to help the cyclists finish there rides. I directed the cyclist into stage up and gained a new respect for the crew position and all the hard work they do everyday. The day wasn’t all a loss since I was able to get coffee and an ice cream cookie sandwich for second breakfast at 9 AM. I rode with the lead vehicle behind the police escort and snagged some awesome photos and video of the guys riding in arrival formation.

Arrival paceline

On the other side of things

We arrived at IUPUI, Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis to a warm welcome from some IUPUI Pi Kapp’s and school faculty. The team showered up at the dorms and ran to the bike shop quickly before dinner. We headed to David's home for dinner and enjoyed spaghetti lasagna and some delicious carrot cake that I could not stay away from. Since we had the day off some of the team decided to go down town. Colin and myself decided to go for an adventure and hiked the 3 mile walk from campus to down town and saw some really neat war memorials as well as found a Starbucks that was still open.

An attempt at a cool photo at a fountain that failed miserably
(not easy with a point and shoot)

Sweet hotel in the circle with the fountain and giant obelisk

Excited for a day off in Indianapolis tomorrow and another awesome friendship visit!

Bloomington, IN

2009-07-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when we crossed into Indiana we changed to Eastern Time which was my fourth time zone of the trip and made me realize how close we are to DC. The ride today was quick with a noon arrival and 11:30-55 mile rack point; we had some pressure to keep the crew stops short and ride fast. By 11:00 we were at mile 57 and about 2 miles from stage up when disaster struck. We were riding downhill and looking ahead to merge over because of a right turn lane ahead when the leader of our paceline caught an edge merging from the shoulder to the road and went down hard. Fortunately we all managed to dodge the downed cyclist and quickly secured the scene by blocking traffic and I quickly grabbed my phone to notify the crew chief that a cyclist had gone down. There is a real danger to cycling and in this case everything worked out well and he finished the ride out with nothing more then a few scrapes and bumps, but an incident like this makes us appreciate how fortunate we are to do this ride and really enjoy every minute of it.

Once at stage up we prepared for arrival at Stone Belt, an organization similar to the Arc. We arrived at Stone Belt to a very warm welcome and a great group of clients. Stone Belt was having an outside fair with games and face painting. After lunch we played basketball and hung out for a few hours together.

Stone Belt Today

Brenda and I

Bingo!!!

We saddled up and rode the last few miles of the day to the Indiana University Pi Kappa Phi chapter house. The house is incredible and we were honored with two very distinguished Pi Kapp's including Dr. Phil Summer, past national president and Ledford Carter a 93 year old alumni from Mercer University. The house cooks prepared a delicious steak dinner for us including red skin potatoes, broccoli, and fresh dinner rolls.

After dinner Ledford drove us around campus and showed us some of the building he use to lecture at and answered lots of questions we had about the campus. We rounded out the evening with a trip to get ice cream where I had an amazing mint chocolate chip cone.

Terre Haute

2009-07-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! That's how I would describe the day today. The day began with a sponsored breakfast by Dick and Deb outside the Arc at 6:30. I invited Dick and Deb to ride in our paceline, it was fun to mix things up and made the 60 miles go by much faster.

We rode quickly today with most of the ride being flat and averaged about 19.5 for the day. Dick and Deb took us on a cool detour that took us over a covered bridge and by an awesome winery.

The covered bridge detour

Today we had a solid challenge of eating a personal cake each on the road, I had a German Chocolate cake that was amazing, and made the last 20 miles feel way better.

A paceline picture at stage up

We arrived at Indiana State University and had a cool arrival around a fountain where we were welcomed by the dean of students and Pi Kapp's from the ISU chapter.

ISU arrival

A great lunch at the university student union filled us up, and then we headed off to the Pontius' home. Dr. Pontius is the faculty advisor for the ISU chapter and was kind enough to invite us into his home for the night.

Cool historical home

We had the afternoon to find coffee and make a quick bike shop run before we headed off to our evening friendship visit. A venti iced latte had me energized for the friendship visit and when we arrived the clients were outside clapping and cheering for us, we knew it was going to be a great visit as soon as we saw them waiting. The Happiness Bag inc. is an organization that works with people with various disabilities, both developmental and physical.

This was a very special friendship visit for me because I met Sabrina. When I first met Sabrina she was very cold and didn't want to join everyone singing and dancing out on the gym floor. She did however want to sing Karaoke, and after singing Tim McGraw "Nothin to Die For" she really warmed up and we sang and danced for the rest of the evening together.

The guys singing karaoke

Drayton getting his dance on

Sabrina and I

We all left the friendship visit super jazzed, it was a really memorable night and everyone had a great evening. Fitting that tomorrows ride was to Bloomington, IN we decided to watch "Breaking Away" with Dennis Quaid about cycling that was filmed completely in Bloomington and on the campus of IU.

The days ride

Tomorrow is a short ride to Bloomington and I'm really excited to be in another college town!

Effingham (Teutopolis)

2009-07-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today was the second longest day of the summer, we rode from St. Louis, MO to Effingham, IL. The day started early at 5 AM and we packed up from the hotel and had a sponsored breakfast from some alumni Pi Alpha's. Everyone pigged out on donuts, sausage-egg-cheese biscuits, and fresh fruit that fueled us up for the long ride.

The ride out of the city was slow going because of all the stop lights and one way streets but once we made it out of the city it was gorgeous countryside and rolling hills.

The ride out of town

Part of our ride was on the historic route 66; we decided to stop and take photos over the Mississippi river and photos of the state "line."

Missouri Side

Illinois Side

Our paceline moved fast for the first 60 miles and had a great snack provided by a 2010 cyclist's family. We continued moving and had a nice break at 90 miles for lunch and finally trucked out the last 26 arriving in Effingham by 3:30. We rode over to Teutopolis the next town over and stayed in the local Arc.

115 Miles!

For dinner we headed to Deb and Dick's home where they grilled out and everyone hung out and watched the final stage of the tour. Deb and Dick are cyclist and just returned from a trip to Glacier national park; Dick is the CEO of the Teutopolis Arc and they'll be joining us for tomorrows ride to Terre Haute.

Day Off-St. Louis

2009-07-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

We had a jammed packed day off in St. Louis including a friendship visit and a trip to the Zoo. The day started early for me, while the rest of my team slept I got up and took advantage of the one washer and dryer the hotel had to offer. I walked 14 blocks to find the closest Starbucks and it was well worth the downtown adventure. After I had my morning fix I finished my laundry and the team headed out to a friendship visit with the St. Louis Arc as well as the St. Louis society for Individuals with physical disabilities. We had lunch together and then spent the afternoon playing games and enjoying their company.

Lots of photos from the friendship visit

After lunch and our friendship visit we had the afternoon off to tour the city. A group of us decided to see the St. Louis Zoo, a very nice zoo that was Free. The zoo is in the center of Forest Park, the second largest mid-metropolitan park, behind only Central Park. The zoo was awesome and we had perfect weather for an afternoon of cool animals.

The Zoo

After the zoo we went to the Holt home, Whitey a team member from St. Louis family invited everyone over for an evening of swimming, relaxing, and dinner.

Relaxing at the Holt's

Judy, Whitey's stepmother prepared a monster of a feast for everyone including bbq, lasagna, and some delicious salads. Clement's mother traveled from Illinois and brought everyone personal cakes from their families bakery. I indulged in the best Oreo Cheesecake I've ever had and really enjoyed getting to meet the Holt family. The rest of the evening was spent packing and preparing for the long 116 miles ride to Effingham, IL.

St. Louis

2009-07-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today we rode 60 miles from Union to St. Louis and had a police escort for 30 of those miles. We woke up at 6 AM and and quickly packed and headed out to breakfast. This morning was a real treat because had breakfast cooked for us, which meant no cup of cereal and half a bagel. Everyone enjoyed eggs, bacon, sausage, and fresh donuts that were cooked on site and really hit the spot.

Breakfast at Union High School

We got on the road about 7:20 and were told we had to be at mile 30 where the police escort began by 9, which meant we would really have to move to get there. At 9:01 we hit 33 miles where the police escort was waiting for us, and we had some down time while we waited for the rest of the pace lines to arrive.

The first police escort was a St. Louis County officer who escorted us for 20 miles into the outskirts of the city, where he handed us off to the St. Louis Metropolitan escorts who took us the rest of the way into the city. We arrived for lunch at Forest Park a very nice downtown park area where lunch was sponsored by a team members mom.

Lunch at a golf course in Forest Park

After lunch we had time for a quick nap and then got back on the bikes for our 2 PM arrival down town. Our final escort took us into the heart of the city and with two officers we were able to blow through lights and make the arrival quick. The St. Louis Arch, the gateway to the west and the state building made for a gorgeous backdrop for the reading of the mayors proclamation declaring July 24, 2009 Push America day in St. Louis.

Arrival

We rode a few blocks to our hotel which was provided by our generous sponsors and then cleaned up and ran to a bike shop where I had my rear wheel trued. It was another amazing day on the Journey of Hope and excited about a day off to explore St. Louis tomorrow.

Some very cool news about the Garmin is that I found free program that allows me to upload my rides to the internet so everyone can see them and if other cyclist wanted to try the ride they could download it to their computer, Very Cool!

Union, MS

2009-07-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

Missouri made us work for it today, no 15 MPH tail wind or negative elevation change, No Sir! Today I hit the wall, backed up and hit it again face first, but in the end managed to finish the day.

Today's ride wasn't our longest 126 miles, nor was it the largest climbing day (although it was close), it was simply steep rolling hills over and over and over again for 106 miles and man did it wear on me. We really crushed the first 40 miles or so in a paceline of three and average around 18.5 until the 9% grades began to wear on me. Around mile 50 I was wondering weather or not I would be able to finish the day as my legs began giving out on me and I was having trouble staying in the saddle on the climbs. At mile 72 (around 11:30) at the top of one of the steepest climbs 0f the day I was done, BONKED! Shaking and dizzy I quickly polished off 2 bottles of water and Clif twists energy snacks like they were candy trying to get sugar in my system. I decided to keep riding and was certainly struggling with the heat and humidity of the day, working to keep my eyes open while riding from heat exhaustion. At mile 82 our crew chief prepared snacks for us to keep our sugar levels high and we all devoured snacks and gatorade trying anything to give our bodies quick fuel to burn. 24 miles is what I kept telling myself, 24 miles I could do in my sleep by this point in the summer and little by little it became 12, then 6 and by 2:30 we arrived 105.8 miles to Union High School home of the Wildcats.

A generous sponsor had pizza waiting for us; it could've been the worst pizza in the world and it would've tasted like heaven to us (it was great pizza by the way). After showering and an afternoon nap we headed to downtown Union to Aggies where we had a delicious sponsored dinner. Everyone returned to lodging and participated in a midsummer ritual which really helped us re-center our attention on why were out here and how to make the most of our remaining time together.

We determines that today was physically the toughest day on the trip so far, it may be a combination of the wear and tear on our bodies or the constant exhaustion that we're facing but it really made us earn it today.

We did it tough, as a team we all finished after no one though that we would, we completed what may be the hardest day on the Journey of hope..... together.

A night on the Journey of Hope wouldn't be complete without ice cream and I'm proud to say I polished off a 2000 calorie large browie batter blizzard from Dairy Queen, and three volcano taco's from Taco Bell; I burned 6500 calories today I feel like I earned it.

Columbia, MS

2009-07-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

After several hours of examining cornfields today I've determine one major difference between cornfields in Kansas and cornfields in Missouri, Nothing! The team awoke to a down pour which was supposed to be a zero percent chance of rain. The weather changed soon after we left and we rode into clear skies and warm weather that was much more enjoyable to ride in. A few crew stops into our ride the crew members bombarded us with water balloon which quickly escalated into a full on water fight, keeping spirits up and putting a smile on everyone's face.

Early morning stretch at a crew stop

We finished the around 1 and quickly headed to a bike shop in town to pick up the essentials; tubes, tires, and other misc. bike parts are always needed after a days ride. Again spoiled by one of generous sponsors we had a hotel to stay in and enjoyed beds and nice showers. The team headed to dinner at Jerry's house, the gentleman who put us up in the Holiday Inn, also grilled out and had a great BBQ for us.

The team had the evening off and being in a college town some of us decided to go downtown and get icecream and coffee. We walked the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia, also known as Mizzou.

Mizzou!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the Pi Kapp house and were fortunate to take a tour and see another neat chapter house. Another great day on the Journey of Hope!!!

Few news articles including video in the second one, which has some glamor shots of Heidi my whip.

Columbia News article from the Missourian

Video from our arrival yesterday

4 New Posts!

2009-07-22T21:38:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry internet has been so scarce, but I've caught up on the past 4 days of post tonight when I had internet and I'll try to post one for today Columbia, MS asap.

Thanks again for reading!

Sedalia, MS

2009-07-22T21:24:00.001-07:00

“We’re not in Kansas any more Toto!” –Wizard of Oz

Today we crossed into Missouri and after a day off in Olathe we were all jazzed to be on the bikes again. The morning started off as a terrible day to be on the bike with gray overcast skies and a morning chill that made us all wonder if sending home our cold gear was a good idea. The ride out of town was horrible with rush hour traffic, terrible city streets, and frustrated motorists all combining for bad conditions to be on a bike. Add to that the fact that it started pouring buckets about 15 miles into our ride and you had quite possibly the worst possible day to be on the bike, and WE LOVED IT. Today was FUN, and with spirits high everything and anything that went wrong we couldn’t help but laugh at. 5 flats, bike failures, poor weather and we all just kept smiling and enjoying our day on the bike together.

Missouri!!!

The team keeping high spirits during another flat, raging on the side of the road!

This trip has made us all truly appreciate being fortunate enough to get up and dress ourselves in the morning, let alone being able to ride a bike 100 miles as if it were work. My fellow schoolmate Matt said “that when the miles start to feel like work, you’re doing something wrong!” and he was definitely right about that. Once we arrived in Sedalia we walked to the community pool and showered up for our friendship visit in a few hours. A quick bike shop run for tubes and CO2 and we returned just in time for dinner provided by the Sedalia cycling club, who was kind enough to prepare a pig roast for us. We all gorged our selves with pork sandwiches, baked beans, and some great slaw that energized us for tomorrows ride. After dinner clients began arriving at lodging for our evening friendship visit. We enjoyed ice cream together and had a hula-hooping contests. I met an amazing gentleman named Robert. Robert has an acquired disability of blindness from a firearm accident that actually discharged a bullet into his skull, leaving him blind for the past 29 years. Today was a very special day for Robert seeing that he had proposed to his girlfriend and is now engaged. He was full of life and energy and really brought this whole trip home for me and why were riding. Tonight was a truly special night for me on the Journey of Hope and I’m looking forward to the very precious 23 days I have remaining with these amazing men I’ve been privileged to spend my summer with.

Day Off-Olathe, KS

2009-07-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

The team woke up at 6:00AM what we consider to be late these days and enjoyed an omlette breakfast provided by members of the independent living resource center. We then had a guided tour of the Deaf Cultural Center which was right off campus and viewed a demo home for someone living with a hearing impairment. Some of the things I found really cool were the flickering lights for the doorbell, and a bed shaker as an alarm in case of severe weather.

Some photos of the demo home

A special weather tracker to alert individuals of incliment weather

A cool sign language alphabet made from plater sculptures lined the entryway

The team loaded up and headed off to Mark Cameron’s home who was kind enough to show us his state of the arm home for a quadriplegic. Mark is an amazing gentleman was responsible for the Texas Roadhouse dinner and all of the events we attended while in Olathe. Mark is truly inspiring and showed us how he uses a dot on his forehead to control his computer and controls on his chair to open doors and change light settings in his home.

Mark in his Home

His website and amazing story can be found here:

The team had a crew lunch and then headed downtown for a friendship visit with TLC (Therapeutic Learning Center) of Kansas City. The learning center is a preschool for children with disabilities and has on staff OT (occupational therapists), PT, and teachers with focus in special education that are responsible for 5 classes of children with various abilities. We were broken into groups of three and placed in classes to meet and interact with the children. I had the opportunity to work with children that were ages 2-3 with varying developmental disabilities. Jake, Deshawn, and Kaylee were quite the handful; I spent the most time with Deshawn who used sign language to communicate and really put me through the ringer during story time trying to keep him focused on the teacher Hygun.

Drayton and I with the 2's and 3's

After our visit we all headed to the vans drove to Union station Kansas City to kill some time before the evening festivities. Olathe really went all out for us and scheduled for us to be recognized on field at the Kansas City Royal MLB game against the Angels. We enjoyed an awesome tailgate with delicious brisket and pulled pork and then headed into the field to be prepped for our appearance. Mother nature unfortunately didn’t cooperate and we waited 2.5 hours in the pressroom for the game to be cancelled. They made the mistake of placing 27 young men in a room with an open microphone and the K-crew, the royals cheerleading squad and wound up having a Backstreet Boys concert, interviews, and impressions done to the microphone while killing time.

After the game was called we at least had an opportunity to go out and walk around the field before heading home, it’s a shame that it didn’t work out but we all had a great time waiting for our time in the spotlight.

Olathe, KS

2009-07-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today was a short ride and an almost perfect ride until about 300 yards from the rack point we had a flat. The ride out of Topeka proved to be a tricky ride with lots of traffic lights and rush hour that kept us all on our toes. Once out into the countryside we all enjoyed some more rolling hills with a few moderate climbs before arriving at our rack point around 10:30.

For the most part we're always very safe on the road an obey all laws and traffic signals, however today we rode on a highway which had this sign...

This passed us at 25 MPH today!

Lunch was provided at our rack point and the team devoured Chipotle and a few dozen cookies before saddling up for the arrival. A short 2 mile police escort to the Olathe Stagecoach stop on the Santé Fe (the last working stagecoach stop on the Sante Fe) where we had the most warm welcome we’ve had all summer. The mayor of Olathe and director of independent living in Olathe spoke to us and the mayor declared July 19, 2009 Push America Day in Olathe.

The mayor and his sign language translator

Afterward we had an opportunity to walk the grounds of the stagecoach stop enjoying a horse drawn carriage ride and watching a blacksmith work. We hopped back in the saddle and headed to the Kansas School for the Deaf where we would be staying tonight and tomorrow night; we’re getting very spoiled with another night in beds.

Danny enjoying the stage coach ride

We had a real treat for dinner as the Texas road house donated dinner vouchers and we enjoyed an amazing steak dinner. We had the rest of the evening to relax and wander about the town, a few of us went and got coffee and then headed back to lodging to watch the replay of stage 13 of the Tour de France (Go USA!!!).

Topeka, KS

2009-07-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

Our ride into Topeka started later than usual and since the day was only 60 miles we were able to take our time along the way and really enjoy the day. For some reason the random number generator seems to select me frequently and again I was chosen for sweeps. Brian volunteered to sweep so that he could ride up front for the TV arrival for his family who live in Kansas. I felt bad letting Brian ride sweep for me so I stayed back with the sweeps and Brian’s uncle Herald.
The ride was gorgeous and reminded me the rolling hills of Purceville back home that I frequented while “training.” We took our time and averaged about 15 MPH for the day and when we arrived had time for a nap before our 1PM TV arrival.

Topeka Arc Group Photo

A few of the guys catching a nap before our arrival

We arrived at the Topeka ARC, or Tarc and enjoyed a street carnival that they had put on for us with live music and games for the kids. We shuttled guys to lodging so everyone could shower and clean up and then returned to Tarc for a dinner with the Board of Tarc. All the guys enoyed playing on the new playground and swings and I made for some fun pictures.

Boys will be boys

After dinner everyone relaxed and enjoyed our beds and rested for our ride into Olathe, the last stop in Kansas.

Emporia, KS

2009-07-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Another day on the Journey of Hope, another century behind us and one day closer to our DC arrival we arrived in Emporia, KS today.

It was a slow moving day on the bikes due to wind and lack of crew vehicles we struggled to make it 10 miles without waiting for a crew van to jump ahead so we could continue riding past. The day began with us making excellent time but quickly began to drag on and by 11:45 we still had to go 22 miles to our rack point of 80 miles by 1 PM. We made the rack point and the Argetsinger family continuing their generosity took the entire team out to lunch at a historic restaurant in a very small town called Cottonwood Falls. Everyone enjoyed several helping of salad, lasagna, and dinner rolls that didn't sit very well after we got back on the bike and rode another 26 miles but tasted so good!

Waiting at a crew stop for vans to jump forward, I actually caught a nap at this stop.

Shadow Games

106.92 Miles

The total mileage for the day was 106.92 and we all felt great after having a few rough windy days in Kansas. I made a quick trip to the bike shop in town and had my bike tuned since I was having some shifting issues today. A potluck was sponsored by the Kiwanis club of Emporia and we enjoyed their company and giving us the opportunity to get to know them.

Terry at Dinner with the Kiwanis Club

Two news articles about the Journey of Hope, one of which has video.

Emporia Gazette

Evening News
(CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON ON THE RIGHT OF THE ARTICLE IN WINDOW!!!)

Day Off-Wichita, KS

2009-07-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

A day off on the Journey of Hope is never truly a day off, but it was nice to give our bodies a rest. Today was awesome, and it all started with me waking up early to do laundry and finding out our hotel didn't have laundry in house but the hotel behind us did and was generous enough to let me use their facilities. The family that provided dinner at the bowling alley the previous evening had asked friends and family to help by doing a few loads of laundry and did the entire teams laundry; the people we meet are incredibly generous and willing to help in any way possible.

We all piled in the vans at 8:45 AM to head off to breakfast at the Aregetsinger house. The team dined like kings and had eggs Benedict, Einstein bagels, breakfast casseroles and every imaginable fresh fruit all while watching the Tour de France. Adam, who rode the Journey in 2005 is now a Shimano rep. and had a very cool bike with the brand new Dura-Ace component group and was kind enough to let me ride it; it's not every day that you get to ride a 7k$ bike! This truly made my day and everyone could tell that I was all giddy after and couldn't seem to hide my smile all day.

Immediately after breakfast we headed to Rainbow United an organization that is a summer camp for people with disabilities and focuses on singing, we were welcomed with three very fun songs and the entire team enjoyed their performance. We split up into the different classrooms with the children where I met Josh and Chris, two children with down syndrome that I spent most of the afternoon with. We ate pizza for lunch and afterwards had strawberry shortcake with whip cream for dessert that turned into a whip cream fight. After it was the teams turn to sing and being put on the spot we sang our fraternities song "The Rose," Backstreet Boys "I Want it That Way," and Aladdin's "A Whole New World." The Journey of Hope has become a cycling mens acappella group singing where ever we go.

I made a trip to the doctor in the afternoon to seek advice on my saddle sores and then had dinner with the board of directors for the ILRC, Independent Living Resource Center. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and preparing for our long 100 mile day tomorrow.

Wichita, KS

2009-07-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a mentally demoralizing day on the bike, battling against a strong head wind for 70 miles only to be racked before the rack point in order to make it to our lunch friendship visit.

The day started off early as we left from Pratt to embark on what should have been a relatively easy 85 mile day. Right as we left we felt a strong head wind and immediately knew we were in for a long day. I also swept, AGAIN today and was in a pace line of three which made battling the tough head wind much more difficult. We pushed each other and actually caught the pace line in front of and rode within eyesight of them all day.

To make matters worse there were only three vehicles in rotation which meant that cyclist could only be spaced 30 miles apart which seems like a lot but on a day like today where groups were traveling at very different speeds it was tough to keep things flowing.

It was getting close to rack point and we were about 10 miles away when we were finally racked at 75 miles. It was unfortunate to not get to ride the whole way, but when you're a sweep things are out of your control and you really just have to go with the flow of things, it's somewhat liberating.

Close, but still got racked Bummer!!!

We arrived at the YMCA where we showered and unloaded our bikes. The team headed across the street to Homestyle Buffet where we met Arrowhead West of Wichita and had a delicious lunch with them. I've been trying to eat more reasonably since my body is becoming accustomed to riding everyday and not burning as much, but it's tough when you go to an all you can eat buffet. After lunch we went back to the Y and played games and enjoyed another incredible visit with Arrowhead West. I snagged some more blurry shots of us playing games, I met an amazing woman Carla who was a ton of fun to hang out with and was a natural at basketball.

Lunch at Homestyle Buffet

Playing Games

Carla shootn' hoops

Jeremy, our PM with a Patricia

Jeremy presenting a grant check to Arrowhead West

We stayed at the Fairfield Marriott and each of had our own bed which was a first for the trip and really helped me catch up on some needed sleep. Dinner was provided by the family of two Pi Alpha's and we had endless pizza from a sports bar attached to an awesome bowling alley. Everyone bowled a game of cosmic bowling and then headed back to our hotel for a team meeting before being dismissed for the evening. We caught a 10:15 showing of the new Harry Potter, "The Half-Blood Prince" which was a very expensive nap for me, it's tough to stay awake after riding for 6 hours a day and being awake for 20 hours; the parts I saw I liked a lot though.

I managed to find several articles in the news about previous cities we've been in.

Here's an article from Dodge City with Eric Galdo

and another from the Pratt Tribune

Pratt, KS

2009-07-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

80 miles and it was a tough 80 miles. We woke up as usual at 5 AM packed our things and ate breakfast, but when it came time to leave the sun still wasn't up so we had to wait until it was light enough to ride.

Once on the road we faced a harsh head wind for the first 35 miles until we turned to have the wind at our backs, making the later half of the ride much easier; everyone needed it after the headwind.

We were told that if we to make the 80 miles before noon to lodging that we'd be able to shower and change into our "JOH Tux" (Khaki's and our red shirts) instead of having to wear cycling clothes all day, which was a big motivator on the road.

For lunch we had a friendship visit in town with Arrowhead West at the local teen center. We had an awesome arrival and they had made signs for us and were very excited to see us. They had subs and ice cream for lunch and afterward we played air hockey, pool, and some of the guys sang karaoke with the clients. This was a really neat friendship visit for me because I met a young man named Marty, who was non-communicative but Trevor and myself spent most of the visit it with him just tossing a pillow around. The joy that he expressed for us being there and just spending time with him put a smile on my face and really confirmed why were on this trip.

The afternoon was spent exploring main street and visiting a few of the small shops in town. Dinner was sponsored by the Pratt Archer club and we visited their property where we all had the opportunity to shoot several type of bows including recurve, long bow, and compound. They cooked us steaks and it was amazing! It was the first time I've had steak since I left and it really hit the spot. They also had homemade snickers and strawberry ice cream which we devoured.

We made the front page!

Although the ride was tough and tiring, the friendship visits really make up for all the pain we feel on the bike and helps get us through the day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we ride to Wichita where we'll be staying in a hotel and each of us will get our own beds, a real treat these days!

Dodge City, KS

2009-07-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Lets the Hech into Dodge!!!

Today we arrived in Dodge City, Kansas the famous gun slinging town of the west from Gunsmoke and also the metal packing capital of the US. Our day couldn't have started better with an awesome breakfast from the comfort inn where I ate entirely too much including an English muffin, yogurt, a waffle, and a banana-nut muffin.

Once on the road we faced a strong head wind all day but managed to complete the majority of our ride before 10 AM, we were all feeling the heat from the road as it continues to get hotter earlier everyday.

Saw this cool Dodge City sign on our way in and had to take a photo!

We arrived at Arrowhead to a very warm welcome from all the clients, Arrowhead is an organization that works with people with disabilities here in Dodge City. We ate lunch together and then played bingo for some of the afternoon. The team also had the opportunity to watch a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new gazebo funded by Push America.

Lunch with everyone!

For some reason the camera is handling inside photos well (probably user error). Here are some more photos, unfornately they're blurry but better than nothing.

This evening we visited boot hill which is a living museum of Dodge City and had an opportunity to visit the museum, a saloon with a musical, and an awesome dinner that really hit the spot. All of this was sponsored by a Grandmother of a Pi Alpha, Donna, who also made homemade cinnamon rolls and brought us fresh fruit for breakfast tomorrow.

The meal and evening really energized us for what is sure to be a tough ride tomorrow if Kansas holds true to its windy reputation.

Garden City, Kansas

2009-07-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

A new state, a new time zone, another century behind us, and over 2000 miles into the trip we reached Garden City, Kansas today.

I would describe today as nothing less than EPIC, no we didn't ride 130 miles or climb 8000 ft. but we crossed the half way point of our trip, and while passing train cars this morning I thought the photo couldn't be more suiting.

EPIC

I love the early morning photos!

Today we had Bryce and Kyle who's families fixed us dinner last night join us for the first 20 miles of the ride. Our project manager decided today that we could up our pace lines from 4 to 6 which makes everything move much faster for both the crew, and the cyclist since were now dividing the time pulling by 2 more people. We made great time averaging nearly 25 mph for the first 2.5 hours with an awesome tailwind; we went the whole 102 miles before lunch and really had a great day on the bike.

Paceline's of six. Awesome!

Kansas! The paceline minus Bryce who turned around early to go to work
(left to right, Kyle (ride-along), Ben, some guy, Mike, and Trevor

Matt attempted the Ironman challenge today which involves not unclipping all day, and makes going to the bathroom, filling water bottles, and stopping at crew stops every ten miles difficult. His paceline helped him out and held him at stops while bottles were filled and took care of him, he was doing really well until mile 82 when he got a flat and had to dismount. Bummer!

Team Ironman, Matt (from VT on the bike)
(left to right. Issac, Brian (Kankles), Matt, Bobby, Max)

A day in Kansas wouldn't be complete without a photo in a cornfield!

We arrived at a local pool where media was waiting to film our arrival and we had an opportunity to go for a swim. Everyone enjoyed cooling off after a long ride and an awesome lunch from leftover burrito fixins' from the night before.

After our swim we all loaded up in the vans and headed off to lodging. We stayed in a comfort in that had Wi-fi, a pool, evening snack time, and a hot breakfast which we planned on taking advantage of; all amenities that are a big deal for us these days.

Another Century, they're cake these days!

A sponsored dinner at the Golden Corral was a real treat and when the guys heard buffet it definitely made every one move faster on the road. After dinner we capped off the evening with a trip to the movies where we got in for half off because the gentleman working the ticket counter used to work at a school where the team had performed Kids on the Block puppet shows several years ago.

Lamar, CO

2009-07-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Today's challenges brought the Journey of Hope to a new level. With a relatively easy ride including only a few small rolling hills and another -500 ft. elevation change we breezed through our 57 mile ride in just over 3 hours, even with a decent head wind for the last 25 miles. The ride from La Junta to Lemar was also our last day in colorful Colorado, which saddens me because I'm sure it will be some time before I'll be able to return.

Another awesome day on the bike!

The crew members decided to raise the bar today by challenging several pacelines to finish a few two liters that we had leftover from friendship visits. Two pacelines finished a two liter of soda between four people and then decided to get back on the bike and ride. Down the road another crew member had stopped in a quick mart and picked up two gallons of milk which the same two pacelines finished between 4 riders before getting back on the bike and ride the remaining 20+ miles into town.

Robbie manning up at the gallon challenge!

The ride today marked the official count of day 36, halfway through this amazing trip and summer. Last night at our Lions dinner each team member had an opportunity to describe our favorite event or friendship visit of the summer. We all had different experiences that truly touched an moved us, but we all realized how incredible this summer had been and that we still have so much left.

With some downtime today I headed into town looking for coffee and Wi-fi, and only found coffee. I did however find the public library which had LAN available for use and decided to try to catch up on some posts. I'll update this post at some point but wanted to post while I had the opportunity, as Internet access is questionable for the next few days.

Thanks everyone who's been reading and keeping up with my Journey so far, its been an incredible half of a summer and I look forward to spreading the HOPE and changing the way society views people with disabilities and fraternities.

La Junta, CO

2009-07-11T13:51:00.001-07:00

Today was awesome, Period. Today was a hot day and the team decided last night to have an early start of 5 AM instead of the scheduled 6 AM wake up. We had beds again last night since we stayed in a hotel (4 nights in a row on the JOH is considered unheard of) and a Colorado State University alum provided us with Pueblo breakfast burrito’s which we all scarfed down. Once on the bike we cruised all day finishing 63 miles before 10 AM, we averaged 21 MPH for the day over 67 miles; one of our fastest days yet with only -600 ft. elevation change.

One of our fastest days so far!

Cool photos of the early morning ride

We raced a train that rode next to us for most of the day.

As we leave the foothills behind and ride into the plains the team is finding new ways to keep ourselves entertained on the bikes. We’ve begun doing challenges every day including the push-up challenge which consists of 20 push-ups at every crew stop, and on 100+ mile day can quickly add up to 200 or more push-ups. Several of my teammates recently graduated with degrees in education, and Whitey from Truman State University decided to teach everyone sign language with weekly sign language classes. Today on our three hour ride I managed to learn the entire alphabet and while my 9 year old cousin Seth and certainly do it faster than me, it feels good to learn and it helps pass the average 5 hour day in the saddle.

Shane doing push-ups at a crew stop, Mike (left), Trevor (right)

When we arrived in Pueblo we decided to partake in a salsa challenge a few miles before we arrived, which involved shots of salsa left over from the breakfast burrito and we split a few remaining burritos that we didn't polish off earlier; did I mention that Pueblo is know for their chili’s and spices?

After our salsa challenge we rode the few remaining miles into town and arrived at La Junta High School where we were staying for the night. The team was overwhelmed with the amount of time we had and played volleyball and swam in the high school pool. Everyone was all jazzed and excited about being done early and having time to run errands and get an afternoon nap in.
For dinner we all piled into the vans and headed to a local park where we me with the Lions Club of La Junta, which primarily focuses on assisting individual with vision impairments; the Lions Club was originally associated with Helen Keller. Dinner was great and the Lions Club really made us feel welcome and thanked us for doing what were doing.

Today was also one of our teammates 21st birthday and we had an opportunity to celebrate it after our dinner with the Lions Club. We all walked a few blocks to the local bowling alley so everyone on the team could celebrate with Moff; we all had a great time and played some pool and enjoyed a sheet cake that our PM had picked up earlier.

Pueblo, Colorado

2009-07-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today began by waking up at 5:30 and packing our things as usual, except since we slept in a residence hall on Colorado College's campus we didn't have to worry about packing up air mattresses and sleeping bags.

The family of one of my teammates the Fredricks, cooked us an amazing breakfast including honey baked ham, a great casserole, and fresh fruit that was a real treat compared to our cup of cereal and a bagel with peanut butter.

We had a hand cyclist join us for the first 20 miles and he was incredible. He's flying up to Alaska to compete in the hand cycling "Tour de France" next week and he recently completed independence pass.

Today I was a sweep and had the opportunity to ride with every paceline because of all the flats the team had today. We had a 60 mile rack point at 11:30 and at 10:45 we were 15 miles out. My paceline decided to pick it up and give our best shot at making the rack point and we did, we flat out flew the last 45 minutes against a strong headwind and made it just in time.

This eveing we had a great friendship visit with a local ARK and met some amazing individual and ate some great pizza at a local shop in town.

Colorado Springs!

2009-07-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today was another very special day on the Journey of Hope. After a day off, a short mileage day into Denver and another day off it was difficult to prepare ourselves for the ride this morning. Not having to pack up air mattress and sleeping bags certainly makes things easier in the morning, but I suppose we can't stay at a Marriot every night.

Today we had Bruce Rogers join us on the ride and several of his associates from KRG, our main sponsor for the Journey of Hope. Bruce is an incredible man and started the Journey of Hope in 1987 with his solo ride across the country.

A photo with the man himself

Todays ride was nothing short of disastorious however, we started on a bike trail that was a really neat ride out of the city, but it was poorly marked and led to some confusion on which way to go. We also had a 2000 ft. climb and a rack point of 73 miles by noon with a head wind that lead to a stressful day to say the least. We also managed to get lost and speed down a hill that we had to come back up once we were turned around. None the less we made it to our police escort at 12:30, a little late but we made it.

The ride out of Denver

Robbie and Kevin

On the road, traveled in force today!

Our police escort into the city was bigger then Denvers and also about a 10 mile escort because of the hairy roads into Colorado Springs. We were joined by Alison a 4 time Olympian who competes in skiing and cycling paralympics and was an amazing cyclist, you can see her in the circle up photo with an awesome prosthetic, but she cycles only using one leg and kicked our butts.

5-0

We arrived at the Olympic Training Center which was a real honor and treat to get to see. They prepared a huge lunch for us and we gorged on the buffett that was increbible. During lunch we had the privlege and honor of meeting Lopez Lomar a USA track & field olympian who was also the flag bearer at the 2008 Beijing olympics. He has an incredible back story and was one of the lost of Sudan, this has been one of the highlights of the trip for me.

At the rings

Our Amazing crew, they rock!

Lopez Lomar

After lunch we had a tour of the facility and got to see all of the gyms and meet some more athletes, Very Cool! We hopped back on our bikes and headed to lodging where we had dorm rooms on the Colorado College campus. We showered and walked down three houses to the home of the Dean of students who was kind enough to provide dinner for us. It was a great opportunity to sit down and talk with the Dean of students over a casual meal, he's an great guy and we truly enjoyed eating dinner with him. We had the rest of the evening off for errands, tomorrow's a big day as we head south to Pueblo and really begin to enter the plains. Colorado was beautiful while it lasted!!!

Denver-Mile High City!!!

2009-07-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today we had a short 30 mile ride from Boulder into Denver, the mile high city. We woke up early even though we had a short ride because we were meeting up with the north team who was riding in from Empire. The ride was cake and we arrived at Invesco field (where the Denver Broncos play) the meeting point for the two teams by 8:30 AM. The north team had a 50 mile ride and wasn't scheduled to arrive until 10 AM so we had time to take off our shoes and relax before their arrival.

Invesco Field on the ride in

Once the north team arrived Danny, Matt, and I had time to catch up with the three Virginia Tech guys on the north route. We had a police escort into the capital but before we got back on the bikes we had a very special tour of the stadium.

North and Trans together, plus friends and family!

Check out the Jumbotron!

Tech guys reunite!

Several Pi Alpha's chipped in and got everyone Chipotle for lunch which we all wolfed down in a matter of minutes and then quickly got on the bikes and prepared for our ride into the city, a five pound burrito is not recommended before riding.

We had an awesome arrival at the capital building with media and several speakers, after which everyone "fraternized" and told stories of our trip so far.

This was the first time the team was split up on the trip for lodging with half of us being in the Marriot Courtyard, and the other half in the Marriot Residence Inn. Having a bed is awesome and the hotel staff was awesome providing us valet parking for two days.

We had the afternoon to clean up and see the city, I decided to go get a hair cut...and boy did I get it cut. It's all gone but it grows back and it was a fun thing to do.

Bic'd

At 5 we loaded up the vans with our bikes and headed to Pedal for Pennies a program sponsored by special olympics Denver that pairs cyclist with special olympic athletes and ride laps around a lake together.

Pedal for Pennies

Afterwards we had dinner and then had a dance with the atheletes. This friendship visit was really incredible, where else could you find 60+ guys on one knee singing to two girls every word of "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. The evening was incredible and Denver has been my favorite stop so far!!!

Boulder, Day Off

2009-07-07T07:16:00.001-07:00

Today was a much needed day off. I've come to learn that a day off on the Journey of Hope doesn't mean a day off, it simply means you won't be riding for 6 hours that day (not to say you wont be riding).

I woke up early and got coffee with Ben who goes to school in Boulder and walked around downtown while it was quiet; he showed me some cool architecture of the city. Slipstream sports an awesome professional cycling team is based out of Boulder and we walked by their office and even got some free swag from a local coffee shop who supports them and promotes cycling advocacy.

We attended the 9:30 service at the First Presbyterian church which was a traditional service that we all enjoyed. After church the team head to OHOP, the Original House of Pancakes not to be confused with IHOP for a delicious brunch with friends and family. After brunch a few team members who go to school in Boulder showed us around the town and took us up to Flagstaff mountain which had a great view of all of Boulder.

Apparently you can see the glow of Denver at night

After our trip up to Flagstaff we had a few hours to kill before our friendship visit with Skies the Limit. We walked up and down Pearl street, the happening place in Boulder and a neat walking mall with some great coffee shops. A few of us decided to get Henna Tattoos for fun of the Pi Alpha Journey of Hope symbol on our calves, they look totally sweet and act as sunblock so they'll hopefully leave a cool tan line once it fades in a a week.

Don't worry Mom, they're temporary!

At five we piled into the vans and headed off to a local park for a friendship visit with Skies the Limit, a local organization that works with people with disabilities. The friendship visit was small but still very special to us. I met Bryce a young man who was very enthusiastic about life and excited to be hanging out and playing basketball with us. Ben's dad, Rod Thacker manned the grill and cooked up some burgers and Brats and we all enjoyed a beautiful Colorado sunset playing volleyball, basketball, and baseball!

Boulder

2009-07-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Today was a very short day on the bike from Fort Collins to Boulder, about 45 miles. A late wake up immediately put everyone in a good mood and to top off the morning we had a sponsored breakfast from several Colorado State University Pi Alpha’s including muffins, yogurt, and fresh fruit.

A shot of our pace line, plus Eric our ride along Pi Alpha

We had three Pi Alphas ride along with us today which was neat to hear stories from older years Journeys and how things have changed since those times. We were cruising along until I had my first flat since I changed my tires in Butte, Montana; a staple put two nice wholes in my tube and was still in my tire which have proven to be great against flat protection (knock on wood). About 8 miles out our pace line hit a patch of gravel on the side of the highway and had another flat; we were in front at the time and first in line for showers until that flat (first showers are key for hot water with 27 guys). After changing another flat we continued into Boulder to the Eta Gamma house where we showered. A delicious lunch was provided by our project managers parents who were in town for a family reunion.

After lunch we headed to First Presbyterian Church downtown where we would be staying for two nights. We set up camp in the church annex and had some downtime before we headed back to the house for a 4th of July cook out. Unfortunately our scheduled wheel chair rugby game, or "Murder ball" was canceled because of conflicts with the club which was a real shame. The Eta Gamma chapter provided a perfect 4th dinner with pulled pork, corn, and some delicious Cajun potato salad.

We walked and toured CU's (Colorado University at Boulder) campus and had a chance to meet Ralphie, the school mascot (A Bison!!!) waiting for fireworks. We headed towards the stadium where the fireworks were and enjoyed some entertainment before the main event. The fire works were phenomenal and the resonance and echo of being in a stadium was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Four of us picked up two extra large pizza's on our way back from the Buffs stadium for a perfect ending to a great independence day.

Fort Collins

2009-07-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

FO. CO.!!!!!!

Today was our last day in Wyoming and not to say that we didn't like Wyoming but we were glad to finally get to Colorado. We only had 8 miles until the Colorado border and we decided to stop and take photos to mark our fifth state. For the most part the ride was downhill and we had an awesome tail wind so we were cruising and managed to tackle most of the 55 miles before our 10 A.M. rack point.

Colorful Colorado!

We rolled into Fort Collins and arrived at the Fo. Co. Pi Kappa Phi chapter house, Zeta Phi who had lunch for us.

Zeta Phi!

The team devoured several large subs from Silver Mine subs, a new favorite sub shop of mine. We took a tour of their house and mingled until an afternoon shower persuaded us to get on our bikes and ride the few miles to lodging. We stayed at the Fort Collins Senior Center which was a great facility with a good location.

We all showered up and ate a second lunch provided by our project manager who ordered 27 Jimmy Johns Subs, its never ceases to amaze me how much we can eat. Our scheduled friendship visit at 5 had been bumped up to 3 and we were all excited to play some games and eat some pizza with ARO, the organization we were working with.

Issac, Amy, and I

Playing Keep the Balloon UP!

The team had a great time at the friendship visit playing several ice breakers first and then relay races and a few other fun activities. The members of ARO had a wonderful time and we were all glad to meet and spend time with them.

After the friendship visit we made bike shop runs and ran necessary errands before evening activities. We had to carry on our tradition of eating ice cream everyday so we made a trip to dairy queen for a cookie dough Blizzard, and then over to a Mexican place for some fish taco's before the movie.We decided to go see the movie Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, I liked the movie a lot but some of the guys thought it was too slow.

It was another great day on the Journey and were all excited to ride into Boulder tomorrow for a day off!

Cheyenne

2009-07-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

So I'll preface this by saying that my day count is off and I'll now be titling each post by the location of the town.

Today began like every other day on the Journey of Hope, a 5 AM wake-up mix that I had the opportunity to create. Today's mix included Counting Crows, Zac Brown Band, Old 97's, and others. After packing our sleeping bags and air mattresses we gathered to eat our usual bagels with peanut butter and honey and a bowl of cereal. One tradition we have on the JOH is that if you leave something in the crew vehicle or if you forget something in lodging you have to dance at morning circle up to get it back. I've danced several times this summer already, but caught some of the guys in the act today.

Break it down!

Our scheduled ride was 100 miles today but our project manager spoke with some locals and decide to take interstate 25 for part of the ride to reduce it to 75 miles. Once on the road we learned we would be riding the whole day on I-25 shortening our ride to 70 miles. I unfortunately forgot to charge my computer, so I know have to add 150 miles to my trip odometer.

Today was the most physically and mentally challenging day for me so far. We were all feeling the ride from yesterday and no matter how hard I seemed to push on the pedals, the rolling hills and strong head winds seemed to get the best of me.

To add to the challenge of the ride we had a scheduled lunch with another cattle woman association and had to make rack point by 11, which proved to be more difficult than we initially thought. My pace line had two flats within five minutes and finally had one member rack because he wanted us to make the rack point.

Flat #2 on I-25

The three us pushed hard for the next hour but unfortunately missed the rack point by about 5 minutes, making today my first time racked other than for construction. Only one paceline made the rack point, leaving 12 racked because of time, 2 racked for knee issues and 3 because of damaged bikes. When we arrived we had a news crew waiting to film our arrival and I was fortunate enough to have an interview; check out the article and video links below.

CBS News!

News Story
http://www.kgwn.tv/story.aspx?ID=2442&Cat=2

News Video
http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200907023946.html

We immediately cleaned up and headed off for or cattle woman lunch at a local ranch; the lunch was phenomenal and the Cowbell ladies were extremely friendly and supportive of our ride.

After lunch we washed the vans at a local DIY car wash and headed back to lodging for a quick break before our evening friendship visit. Tonight we met with the ARC of Cheyenne and had my first really special friendship visit where I met several amazing people, John who was great with a Frisbee and worked for the state of Wyoming packing license plates; Chris and JR were special Olympic athletes that joined in our Frisbee game and had a dance off before evenings end.

This has been my favorite friendship visit so far. Everyone seemed a little down on the way there especially after most of us being racked and as soon as we met everyone and they were excited to have us there and look forward to us coming each year, everyone instantly had smiles on there faces.

One thing I've realized is that the ride is just to get from place to place, the real Journey is through the people we meet and affect.

Day 19-Wheatland

2009-07-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

126 Miles! One-hundred and twenty-six miles! 126 Miles! The longest day of our trip is now behind us and I feel great. We woke up at 5 AM as usual well rested from a day off in Casper and ready to tackle what seemed to be a daunting mileage to cover in one day. At circle up I was fortunate enough to be assigned sweep; not exactly the best day on the trip to be sweep but I politely grabbed my orange vest and found a group to ride with for the day. We departed from the high school around 6 AM and headed in the direction the crew told us to go. No more than 4 miles into our ride we were chased down by a crew vehicle and told to turn around and take a different turn, while the rest of the crew chased down the lead pace lines who missed the turn. Once found the pace lines were racked and taken back to the correct turn, unfortunately this is where our bad luck began.

Did I mention it was 126 miles?

A crew van with three bikes on the back rack, one of which was already in pretty rough shape from a wreck into Casper, lost its back rack over a speed bump with all three bikes attached. The total damage was two totaled full carbon bikes and a badly damaged Masi bike.

The rest of the lines continued on our very very long ride and stopped for lunch about 60 miles in, where we learned the full extent of the damage. The guys will be up and riding in the next few days, but its unfortunate they had to miss today’s epic ride.

One disadvantage of being a sweep is not being able to pass anyone in front of you, so we stopped several times throughout the day for flats and had to wait for pace lines ahead of us at every crew stop.

SWEEPS!!!

Even though today was tough, long, and unfortunate circumstances kept several members off the bike, it was a great day and everyone was in high spirits! We averaged about 19 MPH today, over 125.9 miles; not to shabby if you ask me.

After a very long day we had a fantastic dinner prepared for us by local cattle women where we gorged ourselves on delicious brisket, fresh fruit and vegetables, and a whole spread of desserts.

Day Off-Casper

2009-06-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today we had a day off in Casper and had two friendship visits which were both great. This morning we had the opportunity to sleep in until 10:15 which was the latest wake up we've had so far; some of us woke up early to do a bible study to prepare us for our day.

A few of the team members brought their bikes for our first friendship visit with the Boys and Girls club of Casper where we did arts and crafts, a Kids on the Block puppet show, and a short bike ride with some of the kids. It was a great friendship visit and the kids were definitely tired after the ride, we all had a great time!

We had some down time between friendship visits where we split up and ran necessary errands. Dinner was with the ARK of Casper at a local park where we played on the playground and played baseball. Everyone enjoyed several helping of food and didn't want to leave.

Another great day on the Journey of Hope and a perfect day of rest before our longest ride of the trip, 126 miles!!!

Day 18-Casper

2009-06-29T20:11:00.002-07:00

Today was incredible and by far my favorite day on the Journey so far. We had a 100 mile day from Shoshoni to Casper of which the first 45 were uphill to a little town Highland, population 10. The ride was far from scenic, but my pace line had great conversation that made the miles fly bye. Today was the first day that we didn't have to add layers to endure the cold weather, which reduced down time at crew stops.

Highland

The locals called the ride the "longest 100 miles in America" and said that you could "put your head down for 50 miles, look up and have not missed anything." One gentleman went as far as to say that "there were more trees inside the senior center than on the ride" and that wasn't too far from the truth.

During our ride we rode past the Texas 4k group that bikes from Austin, Texas to Alaska for cancer research; the team is associated with Lance Armstrong.

Texas 4k

One exciting part of today's ride was that we rode past Hell's Half-acre, which is really 320 acres and is more of a mini grand canyon; it was the canyon for the battle in the blockbuster hit "Starship Troopers.

Hells Half-Acre

After arriving in Casper we cleaned up and prepared for dinner provided by the Kiwanis club which was a delicious buffet. We all ate to our hearts were content and stomachs were miserably full.

Casper Population 49644

We returned to lodging at a local high school for a team meeting to recap the past few days of riding and debrief. The team ventured out to the local theatre to catch Tranformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen.

It was another great day on the Journey of Hope!

Day 17-Shoshoni

2009-06-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today we rode from Dubois to Shoshoni, Wyoming which was a 100 mile ride. The day began quickly with a strong tail wind and an awesome descent that had us averaging 22 MPH for the first 60 miles compared to 15-18 MPH usual pace. I unfortanetly forgot to get my Garmin bike computer out of my backpack before so I had to wait until I arrived at the second crew stop (20 miles in where my computer was to start recording) so my total daily milage was 21 miles short.

However the day took a turn for the worse around mile 60, plagued by 3 flats in a less than a few miles my paceline quickly lost an hour of the day making repairs on the side of the road. We finished the ride by 12:30 and had lunch upon arriving in Shoshoni, a small town of a little more than 600 that used to be a hot spot for uranium mining.

The afternoon was filled with napping and a trip to the local malt shop, a great dinner was sponsored by the cooks at the Shoshoni senior center and a trip to Walmart in Riverton capped off the night.

Here are some photos from a mountain top sunset after the cattle woman dinner:

Ben Thacker, Thackdaddy!

Cool shot

Day 16-Dubois

2009-06-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a wild ride, including the highest elevation of our trip and some of the steepest climbs well see. We prepared to depart the church at six this morning for our long days ride which started with a 30 mile ride out of Jackson which we had already ridden, except this time it was all uphill. Visibility was low and thick fog made for treacherous conditions on the road, but it made it the time go by fast and before we knew it we had begun our 2o miles, 3000 vertical ft. climb. Nearly halfway into our climb at about 8700 ft. we pulled into a crew stop with more vehicles than usual and immediately knew something was up. Our project manager who had already driven the route decided the construction ahead was unsafe for us to ride on and would be racking us to the peak, a heart breaker! After talking the rack over with him we were allowed to ride the last half mile of the climb hitting our peak elevation of over 9600 ft. We were all very disappointed that we didn't get complete the whole climb on our own but knew that we could if allowed.

My helmet was raining all morning, cool shot of Trevors glasses Sweet huh?

The team being racked, bummer!

A shot at the peak, kinda a half earned photo

The rest of the ride was cake with an awesome descent and freshly paved roads which made it more enjoyable. We were able to catch a tail wind and finished the last 25 miles in just under an hour, incredible!

The town of Dubois sits just below 7000 ft. and has a poplulation of 962 people, pretty small but had everthing the team needed including an awesome cafe which I'm writing this blog at with awesome espresso drinks and a laundry mat for some much needed fresh clothes! Tonight we have a sponsored dinner by the Cattle Woman's association which will be great and lot of time to relax before two 100+ days followed by two friendship visits on our day off.

Day 15-Jackson

2009-06-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today we rode from Yellowstone to Jackson, for a total of 46 miles. Our scheduled ride of 80 miles was cut short due to complications with a one day cycling permit for Yellowstone, which forced us to rack 21 miles until we were out of the park. That in combination with 2 miles of good roads and 8 miles of construction after the park forced us to rack for 31 miles which worked well since our scheduled arrival time was 11:00 AM.

Where we began our ride today, Gorgeous

Today's paceline

The scenery was just....okay

We worked very hard today to make our scheduled rack time of 40 miles by 10:00 AM. We pushed hard and worked as a team barely making it. The scenery today was gorgeous, we rode along the Tetons couldn't help but stop and take lots of photos forcing us to work harder to make our rack time; we rode along an amazing new bike trail that was super fun to ride on and was nice to get off the road away from cars.

Jackson

These antler arches are all over town

We had a police escort into Jackson and a warm welcome from a large crowd. The team mingled with everyone before packing into the vans and heading to lodging. We stayed at Twin Creek Ranch in Idaho, owned by a former Pi Alpha. Horseback riding, skeet shooting, and driving golf balls off a cliff were just a few of the activities everyone partook in; we dined like kings for the evening, well fed before white water rafting tomorrow.

Kevin on a horse

Again another amazing view

Shortened ride

Day 14-West Thumb, Yellowstone

2009-06-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today began by riding a mile to the park entrance, where we formed a double pace line and were permitted to ride in the park in groups no larger than 4. No more than a few hundred feet into our ride we stumbled upon some bison on the roadside and stopped for a few pictures.

Bison with their young

4 States

Although the day was short in mileage it was not easy by any means, because we crossed the continental divide twice! We spent the majority of the day above 7000 ft. and today was the first day the altitude bothered me. The climbs were gradual but my heart was working hard to keep up with the thin air. We reached the top of the first divide and stopped to take a photo in the “Two Oceans Lake” which runs both ways down the mountain and feeds both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

VT conquers the divide

Two Oceans Lake

We continued on our ride and summated the second divide 5 miles later, winded and out of breath but proud of ourselves and having conquered the difficult ride.

Second Divide

The rest of the ride was downhill and we stopped and ate lunch before checking into lodging. The ride was gorgeous and even though it was challenging its been my favorite ride so far.

After everyone showered and cleaned up we made our way to Old faithful; we made it just in time to see it go off.

Old Faithful

We also made it to the Geyser Bash which was incredible.

Yellowstone is a gorgeous place!

Day 13-West Yellowstone

Today was another very tough day, we climbed 1% grade for 70 miles and fought a head wind for the last 40 miles of the ride. I also swept today so there was a lot of stopping and starting and after yesterday it was exhausting. We arrived in West Yellowstone late in the afternoon and quickly showered before attending to a few chores we had to do before our night off. The team loaded up in the vans and headed off to the local car wash where we all cleaned the vans and vacuumed them out doing our best to keep them in good shape. After that we were set free to explore the town and eat dinner; we found a great pizza shop and I had no trouble polishing off a large pizza on my own.

Sweet rolling photos

Day 12-Bozeman

2009-06-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today was our first true century (we actually did over 100 miles this time) from Butte to Bozeman. The day started off great with an early wake up and a goal of ~65 miles by 11. We had a tough climb to begin the day, our first time crossing the continental divide; one of many for this trip. The ride today was the most scenic ride we've had so far, we rode along a river for a good bit of the ride and the were taken aback by the scenery.

Our climb early this morning

An amazing view

Along the river (representing school spirit)

The guys taking in the view

My paceline was moving right along at about 58 miles when we hit the worst head wind I've ever experienced. Our pace was drastically slowed and it took us about an hour to make it to lunch ~68 miles into our ride. We all huddled in the vans while we ate lunch and then took a valley that sheltered us from the wind for the rest of the way.

107 Miles!

We arrived at our lodging and quickly ran errands to the bike shop and Walmart before our friendship visit at six. The team met with Eagle Mount an organization that teaches people with disabilities to ski, ride horses, and hand cycle. I had a chance to try out a hand cycle and man was it tough work, my arms are sore from the short ride.

Day 11-Butte

2009-06-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

A few photos from the night before at the famous Doe Brother's Ice Cream Soda shop.

The best food I've had on the trip so far, a Montana Moose Moss Malt
(Peanut butter with mint)

We left Phillipsburg early in the morning but before we left the owner of the candy shop opened it especially for us and gave us all free samples. The candy shop produces 500 lbs. of candy a day and doesn't distribute any of it; here are some photos of the amazing shop.

Every type of taffy possible

The beginning of the ride was cold and wet, we were rained on for the first hour of the ride until the climb began and then thankfully the skies let up. The climb was challenging but had an awesome waterfall at the top and a beautiful mountain lake that made the work well worth it.

My paceline at the top of the climb

We finished the day early and had a friendship visit in the evening with BSW, an organization that helps people with disabilities live independently. The facilities had a wood shop and sewing machines where clients sew up to 200 pairs of boot liners a day that are used by the Navy and Army.

Day 10-Phillipsburg, Montana

2009-06-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a very long day, not long in the sense of mileage but in the number of flats. Between 4 people in my paceline including myself we had 6 flats; this drastically slowed down our day and made everyone a little frustrated. We worked as a team and with some help from our crew bring us extra tubes we were able to finish our ride for the day of 75 miles.We arrived six and half hours after our departure time of 7 AM, but averaged 17.2 MPH considering we only spent 4 hours and 20 minutes in the saddle; so we were making good time when we weren’t fixing flats.

1 ride, 6 flats

Flat #5

I stopped by several bike shops during our day off in Missoula and picked up a new saddle in hopes to alleviate my sit bone issue and some new tape to replace my torn bar tape. They didn’t have any black tape and all of the other colors didn’t really work with the color scheme of my bike, so I chose the boldest color they had, Pink.

Some photos of my new whip

On Thursday evening we had a team meeting and our project manager handed out two awards one of which being the Hammer Head award for the best cyclist and team member, which I was honored to receive. I have the privilege of handing off the award to who I feel worthy next week, pretty cool!

Phillipsburg is a very small town that doesn’t even have a stoplight. There are a lot of really neat stores and shops and a famous soda shop that was recently filmed in "Call of the Wild 3D" movie, I had a delicious Montana Moose Moss Malt. For dinner we went to a town cook off where we had incredible food that was piles 8 in. high on our plate; awesome meal.

Day 9-Missoula, Montana

2009-06-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today was all business on the road. The team had a scheduled lunch with Adventure Cycling at one, so we had to do 100 miles before then; we woke up at 5AM and were on the road by 6:15. Usually we play games and tell stories while were on the road to make the time pass faster but today we took turns putting our bodies through agony pulling up front in a strong headwind. In order to make the ride without being racked we had to hit 85 miles by noon, we pushed hard all day and make it to the rack point by 11:40. We finished our ride into town and met the rest of the team that had been racked to prepare for our arrival. One all cleaned up and looking pretty we formed a double paceline and road to adventure cycling. Adventure cycling is a NPO which organizes ride routes across the country and around the world. They provided us with stickers for our bikes that say "I Ride Therefore, I Transam" which everyone proudly displayed.

Those of us who made the rack point, Wahoo!

Adventure Cycling

After lunch we set up camp in Hellgate Highschool and showered up for our friendship visit. We loaded up in the vans and headed to a home where we met 8 amazing individuals who were very excited to have us visit. They prepared amazing pork ribs for us and we all really enjoyed talking to them and meeting them.

After dinner we headed to a local homemade ice cream shop where I had the recommend Huckleberry Malt which was fantastic.

Day 8-Paradise? Montana

2009-06-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today we arrived in Paradise Montana after a long day from Kellogg. The scheduled ride was 105 miles today, the first fifteen or so being on the trail we took from Coeur D'alene to Kellogg. The ride had two very tough climbs which were short and steep; we were told from Pi Alphas that today was our hardest day on the trip and it certainly was a tough one. We reached the second peak at 12:30 to conclude our 5000 ft. ascent, it was a real sense of accomplishment looking back on what we had just climbed.

9% Grade

At the top of the second pass

After the climbing was done everyone was hungry so we ate lunch at the bottom and continued on our very long ride. We still had 50 miles to do after lunch and we continued riding until we were racked at 85 miles due to lightning. Everyone was disappointed to not have ridden as far as they wanted but it was a great day of riding and everyone finished the day safely.

A long days ride

We bunked up at Quinns hot spring resort (yeah we're roughing it alright) and since we didn't have any programming for the afternoon we were able to enjoy the spring to relax after a hard day.

The staff was kind enough to cook us a fantastic spaghetti dinner that we all had no problem finishing. I spent the rest of the night posting my blogs that I had written but did not have internet to post. Tomorrow is going to be a killer, another 105 mile day that we have to finish by 1:00pm because of an arrival.

Thanks for reading!

Day 7 – Kellogg Idaho

2009-06-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today we rode from Coeur D’alene to Kellogg Idaho, and it will be our last stop in Idaho before Montana. Before we could pack all of our stuff on the boat to leave Camp Sweyolakan, we had to unload 3000 lb of food that was being brought across on it. It was the least we could do with the hospitality provided, so we formed a line and passed the stuff from the boat to the kitchen with the help of the camp staff. Once on the other side we began our 85 mile ride to Kellogg. Our original ride was supposed to be 45 miles but our project manager heard about a trail that was supposed to be gorgeous, so our ride was increased to 85 miles.

Ride route

The first 30 miles to get to the trail were tough because they were uphill with a very strong headwind which made for a long day.

The team taking a break

Once on the trail it was smooth sailing, as the route is part of a “rails to trails” program converting old rail road bed into bike paths, and the trail was nearly flat the entire way. Along the way we saw 3 moose, and we stopped and took pictures.

Bullwinkle

Today was physically the toughest day for me, while we didn’t have a large climb or even long miles I’m still terribly saddle sore and it makes 5 hours in the saddle extremely uncomfortable; I hope to find a new saddle in Montana. We arrived in Kellogg around 5pm and did a quick photo shoot. Jeremy, our PM, decided we had earned a dinner out so we all went out and got what we wanted, and while at dinner we found a newspaper with an article about us on the front page. On the way home we were flagged down by people who saw the decals on our vans and ran waiving to us, we really are out here changing the way society views fraternities and people with disabilities. Tomorrow is a long day of 105 miles, and two very tough climbs, it will certainly be our hardest test yet, but I’m confident we can finish it as a team.

Day 6- Camp Sweyolaka, 1 state down

2009-06-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be a very easy 35 mile ride from Spokane, Washington to Coeur D’alene, Idaho on a bike trail. We finished the day at 55 miles after getting lost several times throughout the ride. The scenery along the ride was gorgeous and crossing into another state was a real sense of accomplishment.

State Line Crossing

Tech Pride

35 miles turned into 55 miles

We arrived at our scheduled lodging Camp Sweyolakan around noon and took a pontoon boat across to the camp, the only way in and out of the camp.

The boat packed to full capacity

The camp counselors had just arrived and were in training, so we served as their practice campers. Sloppy Joes were served for lunch, truly bringing home the camp feeling. The afternoon was open and the counselors were nice enough to open up their stations for all of us, so we all had an opportunity to do the high ropes course, archery, and play on the water trampoline and go swimming. The day was relaxing and a perfect way to spend a day, somewhat nostalgic for me.

Day 5-Day Off

2009-06-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day off and we really needed the rest. After 325 miles in the saddle in 4 days everyone was ready for a break from the bike. The team was fortunate enough to be able to sleep in to 9:30, which is like 3 in the afternoon these days. The team cleaned up and prepared for our friendship visit that morning at Meribeau Park. This friendship visit was very special for me because I met my cousin Pam that I had not had the opportunity to meet before. Pam and her husband Gary live in the area and I invited them to our friendship visit, Gary was on his way back from a fishing trip, but Pam was kind enough to come out and meet the team and organization we were working with.

Me with my cousin Pam

Kathy coloring my hair (She had a blast)

The team at MD family fun day

We spent the afternoon at MD (muscular-dystrophy) family fun day which had lots of games that the team participated in and the kids had a great time. Kathy spray-painted my head orange and pink which looked awesome! (took forever to get out of my hair though) A kids on the block puppet show was put on by several members of the team educating everyone about the incredible abilities of people with disabilities. The afternoon was finished with a giant water balloon fight which none of us seemed to escape unscathed.

The afternoon was spent doing laundry, getting the paint out of my hair, and picking up a new pillow at REI. We were all re-energized and prepared for the days to come. Tomorrow we have an easy 35 mile day.

Day 4 – Spokane (Pronounced SPO-CAN)-First Century

2009-06-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today was our first century (or 100 miles) and it was a blast. We woke up early (as usual) to depart from Coulee city. There must have been something in the ice cream from the night before because we flew on the road.

First Century

We had a fantastic lunch provided by a Pi Alpha from subway 60 miles into our ride. The food and rest off the bike gave us the energy we needed to finish the ride strong. We finished our ride in just under 6 hours, which was great time. The day went flawlessly with zero flats, which is practically unheard of for a century ride for 21 cyclists.

We had a police escort into Spokane which was very cool and made us feel like pro’s riding into a big city. Dinner was provided by Pi Alpha’s and their family and was delicious, we had burgers and hot dogs and there was even an eating contest to see who could eat the most burgers.

The day was finished off with KOB practice and then everyone hit the town, we walked around Spokane trying to find a place with milkshakes, but had trouble finding a place to serve 27 guys at 11p.m.

Day 3-Coulee City

2009-06-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

We awoke early to prepare for another long day in the saddle on our ride to Coulee city. A great breakfast was prepared for us including bagels, cereal, and fresh fruit. After breakfast the day began with a short ride on a bike path and then onto route two which we followed to Coulee city. The scenery of the ride was incredible; I’ve never been to the grand canyon but cliffs and rock faces we saw were amazing. The total ride was about 70 miles, but my computer died a few miles into the ride so I don't have any data for the days ride.

The view from the bike path

A tough climb early on in the day

Terrie and I at lunch

The view at lunch

Tech boys at Dry Falls

Once we arrived we showered and had time to relax before the Cattle Women arrived for dinner. We had a fantastic meal from the Cattle women's association. The rest of the evening was spent with a trip to dry falls and ice cream at Big Wally's.

Day 2-Wenatchee

2009-06-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today was our second day on the road and one of the toughest days of our trip. The day started by leaving early from Skykomish and crossing over the cascades through Stevens pass. The total climb was 3500 ft. and it really wore on most of us. The crew really helped us through the day and it was great to have some encouragement at the top of a long climb.

The guys on the way up Stevens pass

At the top of Stevens pass

A Flat on the road

The Wenatchee community center

The ride for the day

The rest of the day into Wenatchee was a breeze being downhill for the rest of the way. We arrived at the Wenatchee community center and unloaded our stuff and quickly cleaned up to prepare for our friendship visit that evening. The team piled into the vans and headed over to a local park for our first on the road friendship visit. Last year the attendance was about 25 people, this year however there were easily three times that amount; it was a fantastic visit and everyone we met was absolutely amazing.

Day 1-Skykomish

2009-06-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our departure from Seattle and our first ride to Skykomish. The ride was a great and the scenery was amazing! The ride was the longest I've ever ridden (70 ish miles) and was certainly mentally and physically challenging for me.

The ride from Seattle to Skykomish
(click on the photo to make it bigger)

The day started by waking up early and taking the cars over to gas works park, which is where our first friendship visit was. Several Pi Alpha's and their families cooked up an amzaing feast including shrimp casserole, donuts, and fresh fruit. We had a big circle up with friends and family before we left and Jeremy our project manager said a prayer for the group before we left.

Gorgeous view from Gas Works Park

The ride began on a bike trail out of Seattle, however bike trails in Seattle are more like freeways since everyone uses them to commute. I was sweeper for the day, meaning the last cyclist wearing orange vests making sure no one fell behind. We stopped and ate lunch about 45 miles into our ride and then got back on the bikes to head to Skykomish. We arrived at the high school we were staying at around 5:30. It was a very very long day in the saddle, but everyone made it and that was the important part.

Skykomish High School

Push Vans

We didn't have any programming for the evening, but the high school had weekly volleyball in the gym where we were staying so some of the guys joined in and played with some of the locals. Skykomish was a very small town with a population of 240 people and an average graduating class of 4.5 people. We all went to bed early to get a good night sleep and recover from the long days ride.

The river we followed all day

Practice Ride

2009-06-09T21:16:00.001-07:00

Today was an exciting day; the team woke up early to prepare for the practice ride. We practiced racking the bikes on the vans (which hopefully won't be on there very often) and then ate breakfast.

We headed over to Lake Sammamish and began our ride. The ride was short, 22 miles but was excellent practice for everyone including the crew who are responsible for directing us on the rode, and who are really the backbone of the team.

I'm riding with a Garmin 305 cycling computer, which is a GPS with a heart rate and cadence sensor (cadence is the rotations per minutes of the pedals or cranks). It tracked our route and can be uploaded to my computer to correlate heart rates, elevation, percent grade, speed and many other things.

The team circling around our project manager Jeremy

Todays route and heart rate speed graph

The program is really neat and it will be cool to have the total mileage from the trip. After the ride we got a chance to practice in the a velodrome and it was a really neat opportunity to ride one of only 20 or so velodromes in the country.

Tomorrow is our first day on the road and the trip is 75 miles, I can't wait!

Been a Busy Two Days!!!

2009-06-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a great day we woke up early and had a practice pack of the vans. We were the first team to ever make our deadline of our practice pack. After the pack we ate breakfast as a team and prepared to go to skills assessment.

The team at breakfast

We headed over to the Seattle center to do a skills assessment where we practiced changing tubes, picking up bottle from the ground, and working on riding in pacelines. Dean our cycling coach for the next few days had some great advice for us and will be riding us for the first two days and then heading down to San Fransisco to help the other teams.

Some of the guys with Dean

Trevor navigating cones

Everyone at the base of the Seattle Space Needle

The team loaded up into the vans and went for a photo shoot and lunch at Cary Park. The view of the Seattle skyline was incredible.

Virgnia Tech Guys

After the photo shoot Dean talked to us about nutrition which is going to be very important with the hours we'll be in the Saddle. We had the evening off which was our first free time since Saturday when we arrived. We hit the town and headed down to Pike Place Market for all the guys to see and experience the market. Dinner was amazing, we at at Anthony's on the water and had some amazing Alaskan salmon. The rest of the evening was filled with sight seeing and walking around town.

Awesome Day, 1st Friendship Visit!!!

2009-06-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today was a really long day we woke up early and had breakfast as a group at the hotel. After breakfast we headed over to REI who was kind enough to donate a meeting space to us for the day. We went over policies and procedures for the vast majority of the day, covering road safety to ensure we're all safe on the road. Lunch was provided by a former Pi Alpha (some one who has participated in the Journey of Hope in the past) from 2003. He was able to provide some useful advice to us and had some fun stories from his trip. After lunch we were given some time to shop around the store and make some last minute purchases. We returned to the meeting room to cover some remaining information and walked back to our hotel to prepare for our first friendship visit.

We headed to Gas Works park on Lake Washington for our first friendship visit, also the site where we'll be leaving Seattle from. We met with an organization called ARK, and met some amazing individuals who were really fun to hang out with. The team did a meet and greet and ate dinner together, provided by another Pi Alpha.

I played football with Paul, a young boy with Down syndrome who had a rocket for an arm and was very excited to spend time with us. Below are some photos of todays events and sites, again it was difficult to take photos but here are some of the ones I did take.

The view from Gas Works Park

Kevin with Paul (Paul didn't want us to go)

Once we returned from our friendship visit we began practicing for KOB (Kids on the Block) a puppet show we use to teach young children about people with disabilities. The skits are really fun and well each be participating in the shows throughout the summer. Tomorrow we have a short day, getting up early for a practice pack of the vans and a skills assessment on the bikes. We'll have the afternoon off to explore the city and go out for a good meal. Today was an incredible day, certainly the first of many!

Big Day!!!

2009-06-06T21:08:00.001-07:00

Today was an exciting day, I woke up early and excited to get out of the Hostel and meet the guys I'll be spending the summer with. I got a cab to the Quality Inn since wheeling my bike, and all my gear across town didn't really seem like fun. I was the first person to arrive at and check in at registration and had the rest of the day to burn while other team members arrived and shuttled from the airport. We received our crew gear and clothing, one word, AWESOME! (stay tuned for pictures tomorrow of the jersey and shorts). I ate at Whole Food for lunch to kill some time and when I returned other team members had arrived and begun assembling their bikes. I gave them a hand while I built my bike, and was a good opportunity to get to know some of the guys. I wheeled my bike case all the way across town to a UPS store and returned drenched in sweat, cleaned up for our first group meeting and tried on our new gear.

We all piled in our vans and headed over to "U-district" to the University of Washington and visited the Alpha Delta chapter their. The house was incredible and the guys fixed us dinner even though they were in the middle of studying for exams. We ate some great food and continued getting to know one another and had some more "icebreaker" activities, This Journey is going to be incredible, their are so many selfless and amazing guys on the crew, this summer will certainly be amazing.

Here are some pictures from today, I'm going to try to be better about taking photos throughout the day.

Dinner at the Alpha Delta House

"Picture Formation"

Tomorrow is a long day of meetings and rules at REI, who was generous to donate meeting space to us while we're here. Monday we have a practice ride and all of us are just itching to get on the bike and get going. Stay tuned for more, thanks for following and the comments.

Meet the team tomorrow!!!

2009-06-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

Today was very laid back, absorbing Seattle and relaxing as much as I could since I won't have much time to in the next couple months. I snagged a few photos from around Pike Place:

Pike Place Market

Amazing Produce

Famous "flying fish"

Live music outside the first Starbucks

Starbucks is like stop signs here in Seattle, there's one on every corner and sometimes directly across from another. I did a search online today and found mixed answers but there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 Starbucks here in Seattle.

The first Green Starbucks (serving drinks in "for-here-ware")

Tomorrow I meet the guys I'll be spending my summer with, building my bike, and shipping home my bike box. Can not wait to meet them, Stoked!

Seattle=Rain? 85 and Sunny two days in a Row!!!

2009-06-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

Today was my first full day in Seattle and being that it was the first Thursday of the month, all the museums in Seattle were free, so I decided to take advantage of the free admission and visited a few.

The hostel provided free breakfast this morning which was nice because it was one less meal that I had to buy. The hostel is right in the center of downtown at the intersection of Pike St. and 1st Ave., directly across from public market center, home of the first Starbucks and world famous Pure Food Fish Market packed fish to go.

I started my day with a Venti Caramel Macchiato(compliments of my Aunt Kristen) from the Starbucks that started it all, it might just have been the atmosphere but it tasted better than usual.

Seattle Art Museum

I then headed to SAM (Seattle Art Museum) to begin my Seattle museum tour. I easily could have spent all day in the Museum with 2,600 art pieces and 35 galleries but choose to do the "Less is More Tour" suggested by the Museum highlighting pieces they felt were necessary to see. my two favorite exhibits included Corin Hewitt, a New York artist who used 4x5 in. format camera, 35 mm., and Polaroids to capture images of inoragnic and organic materials combined; and Titus Kaphar's, History in the Making exhibit which were oil on canvas paintings. Unfortunately no photographs were allowed in the galleries.

I ate lunch at "Piroshky Piroshky" a popular Russian restaurant in Pike Place market and then went down the road to Elliot Bay Cycles and met world renowned frame Builder Bill Davidson, of Davidson Cycles. It was a great opportunity to speak with a frame builder who's been building frames for over 35 years and he had some pointers for beginning frame building. His shop was incredible with a large stock of handbuilt and custom bicycles, this was a real treat.

The EMP (Experience Music Project) museum and Science Fiction museum had free admission between the hours of 5-8 so I decided to go to Seattle most famous landmark, the Seattle Space Needle. The view from the top was incredible and today was a perfect day to go up since the skies were clear.

520' up (forgive the overexposed, its a point and shoot)

The Space Needle

A new Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets) exhibit opened at the EMP last week so it was packed tonight and again they wouldn't let me take photos, but I did get to see the original Kermit. They also had a really neat Jimi Hendrix exhibit which had some of his guitars and a lot of his personal history including old napkins from hotels that he scribbled lyrics on.

The EMP Museum

2 more days until I meet the rest of the Trans-America team, and then the real fun begins!

Hello from 40000ft. !!!

2009-06-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!!!

Welcome to my blog about my 2009 Journey of Hope-Trans America Route. Tune in for information about each day on this amazing 72 trip, learn about the people I meet and the places we visit.

I'd like to begin by saying thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, for all of your support and generosity. My total fundraising to date is $5,467.00, and combined we have raised over $40,000 from Virginia Tech between 7 cyclist, all because of your generosity.

AirTran has Wi-Fi on board and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start blog, where better than 40000 ft.

I'll be arriving in Seattle this afternoon and will be staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel, which is in the center of downtown, about a block from the famous Pike Place Fish Market, and the countries first Starbucks, Pike Place. I'll be touring Seattle for three days on my own before I check in with Push America and begin my Journey.

Stay tuned for more information and updates, I'll be doing my best to update this blog daily.