Day Off-Wichita, KS

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.