Ah, Hagerstown: 75 miles

This morning we awoke to an intense rain storm. We ate a complimentary breakfast at the motel consisting of a piece of fruit and toast. Much of the team chose not to ride today due to the fact that they were feeling the hilly roads would be unsafe with the water added to them. Regardless, the half that did choose to ride had a wet and chilly ride but thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery and challenging hills. The picture at left is atop one of the climbs. Despite the rain, this was probably one of the most beautiful rides of the summer. We stayed in Hagerstown at a center for people with disabilities. We had a friendship visit with many of the residents, all of whom had severe mental disabilities. I had the priviledge of feeding a woman named Teri dinner. While this was a first for me, it was actually much easier and more enjoyable than I had expected. After dinner we circled up for our final team meeting where we all shared our thoughts and feelings on the summer. It was great to see everyone reflecting on how positive of an experience it had been for them. Following the meeting we were surprised by a special visit by the Grand Island Ladies who were in DC for the banquet a couple days early. It was great to talk with them and share our memories of the trip. Just before bed, many of us jumped in the vans and headed out to grab a snack and ended up going to a Sheetz Gas Station. I share this with you because I discovered a machine that will change the lives of all of us who love milkshakes. This machine is mounted atop a small freezer. First, you pick a flavor out of the freezer and open the top. You will notice that the cup is only half filled but that is when you place it in the machine and select your thickness. At that point the cup disappears into the machine, makes some crazy noises (which I presume are the stirring and mixing of milk into the concentrate), and reappears as a tasty fresh shake! Ok, ok, I thought it was cool...

On to Maryland, our final state!

Wow, only 3 days to go from here. It is so amazing to think about how we were actually in San Francisco 60 days ago! Today's ride was probably our most hilly ride of the trip. We had roughly 60 miles of ups and downs. There wasn't a bit of flatness to the ride today. These climbing days make me feel old which is sad, I know. The view at right is atop our first big climb of the day, looking back down upon Uniontown, PA. I made it though and got to soak in the hot tub at the Best Western which was actually very nice lodging. (Mom and Grandma, don't read this next sentence :) )One upside to the hilly day is I was able to set my speed record of 54.3 mph! For the afternoon we visited the Brandenberg Center. This facility is government funded and serves 22 clients who all have servere mental retardation. These facilities are always the toughest visits for the team because it is so incredibly sad and it is hard to interact with these people. Nonetheless, it was great talking with the loving individuals who work there to see the passion they have for what they do. The bulletin board at left is one they made for us and was pretty neat to look at. It was full of pictures, blog entries, and a map of where we had been. For dinner we were sponsored by the local Rotary Club with an amazing catered ribs and chicken meal. They were very kind and interested in what we were doing. For the evening we had a team meeting to decide which visit across the country had had the most impact and would be awarded the Jason Tirado Grant from Push America. Due to all the impactful experiences we have had, we debated over this topic for quite some time. Finally we agreed to give the grant to Independence First in Milwaukee, the organization that sweet little Gabi is a part of. I am sure they will put the money to good use. Well, Cara and the family flew into DC this evening and will be there waiting for me until Saturday!

Stay tuned!!!

Don't worry, I plan to finish out the blog in the next few days. I have had a very busy week back at school for recruitment. I havn't forgotten about all of you faithful followers this summer! Keep an eye on the blog to see if I made it to DC or not ;)

Day 59! Uniontown, PA 50 miles

Despite the constant rolling hills, the ride today was pretty nice. I rode with Woody and we just talked and laughed the entire time as the miles passed by. After eating some Subway sandwiches, we went to the movies since we could not set up lodging in the YMCA yet. The only movie that fit our time frame was "John Tucker Must Die" and it was a terrible chick flick. If you want something to laugh at, I recommend it, otherwise don't waste your time! For dinner we were hosted by the local Knights of Columbus for some great Italian sausages. The evening was pretty relaxed since we have a tough ride tomorrow. We spent the evening exchanging gag gifts which was hilarious and lots of fun. I got a bunch of "old man" stuff since I am engaged and all, it was pretty fitting. Ask about that story later! The picture at right is of Scott and his shoes. The story was that since he is the shortest on the team, a mere 5'4" I think, that he might have trouble being allowed on rollercoasters. So if he is ever in that situation where he is too short to ride, he can just slip on them shoes and ride away!

Pittsburgh, the Steel City

The ride into Pittsburgh was pretty long and I sort of had an off day on the bike. Nonetheless, I made it successfully. However, there was a point when we were in two tight lines trying to safely get the entire team through a narrow, one lane construction zone. There was a transition onto some fresh pavement that caused a parallel lip and when Winston tried to merge over it he wrecked very hard. Luckily he only suffered minor scrapes, the jersey barrier caught him, and the rest of the team avoided a "pelaton pile up". Once in Pittsburgh we grabbed some lunch at Qdoba and headed for the Holiday Inn. Later we celebrated Andrew Abbott's bday with a dinner at a Brazilian steak house. They feed you endless amounts of meat, 14 different types, and it is all cut directly onto your plate at the table. It was awesome and we all ate a ton of food! All in all the day was pretty light on programming but tomorrow would be much different.

We started our day off in Pittsburgh with a friendship visit and lunch with the UCP, a city Cerebral Palsy organization. We were hanging out at their center and ate some pizza with them. Above is the guy I talked with the entire time. His name is Vince and it was pretty amazing getting to talk with him along with the other two guys there, Wes and DJ. He had no motor skills and would use the wand on his head to type letters on his keyboard to make words and sentences. It was truly amazing to see his level of intelligence released through a computer. Although I would ask a 10 second question and he would take 10 minutes to type an answer, they were all complete sentences with high levels of intelligence. I could sense frustration on his part with the board but was fascinated to be able to catch a glimpse of who he was and what was going on inside his malfunctioning body. Quite the experience! The leader of the organization also awarded us with their annual Humanitarian Award normally given to a community member. What an honor that was. For the afternoon we were treated to free tickets at Kennywood Park. This amusement park was very historic, one of the first in the country, but was quite weak compared to Cedar Point just days ago. Apparently Cedar Point is THE best one in the nation!

Youngstown, OH 60 miles

The ride today wasn't too bad as we meandered through rolling hills. We stayed at Fairhaven School for the Disabled and enjoyed a great lunch at Olive Garden courtesy of the school. After lunch we all enjoyed a dance with students and alumni of the Fairhaven school. The picture at right is of the team doing the YMCA dance, pretty funny stuff. From the school, we spent the afternoon at the mall shopping for gag gifts for each other. That was definitely a lot of fun! After dinner at Max and Erma's grill, sponsored by Saturn, five of us decided to attend the "Scrappers" minor league baseball game. We had a great time and even got asked by the promotional staff to do the "Cha Cha Slide" on top of the third base dugout! The picture at right is Mulch, Wade, and myself on the dugout. Great memories. Anyway, for those who are counting, there is only 1 week left! It truly has been an incredible summer and it is crazy to think about how fast it has gone.


The picture at left is of Bri, the little girl who had a ball deflating our mattresses in Cleveland. Pretty cute!

Double Dose of Cleveland

Today we had the pleasure of riding with Jim Kovalec who was the original project manager of the first two Journeys of Hope. We rode hard with him and made great time as we meandered along Lake Erie. We were also on the road with people doing the "Big Ride" for American Lung Association today. To the left is Josh, myself, and Winston with the Cleveland skyline in the background. Soon after this picture, we arrived to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The team enjoyed a complimentary visit to the Hall which was a pretty cool building with 6 floors of exhibits. From there we made our way to the Cleveland Children's Rehab Center where we would stay for the next two days. It was there that we got our last maildrop of the trip. Thank you to all who sent mail. A special thanks to Scott, Aunt Jodi, and Sis for sending me packages. Scott, the pics were great and the cards a great idea, I'll run it by the team and see if they would like cards in their spokes! Jodi and Sis, thanks for the fudge! For that first evening we were treated to a dinner cruise aboard the Nautica Queen on Lake Erie. It was a great evening of good food, great views, and fun times with the boys.

For our day off, we had a friendship visit with the kids at the center were staying in. We basically toured the facility and interacted with all the patients. It was so much fun seeing all the different patients with different needs. I really enjoyed hanging out in the dialysis room with those kids. They were a lot of fun and very positive about life in general. After the tours, we caught two of the cutest little kids in the center unplugging all of our mattress' with the help of their nurses. Bri and Sammy were both pretty funny as they ran around our "bedroom" unairing our beds. Once again, the center treated us to a great meal of fajitas right before our last Kids on the Block show of the trip. The unique part of this show was that Renaldo's nose was hanging by a thread which made it difficult for his glasses to stay on. For the evening we headed out to a park where we had another friendship visit. There we enjoyed some oven baked pizza and fishing on the pond with the clients. Fishing was a first for some of the guys so that was cool to help them learn to fish.

I had two more cool pictures that I wanted to include on this page but for some odd reason the computer I am on is having major issues uploading the pics. I appologize for my lack of technology patience! I will try to add them next time in a posting by themselves.

Sandusky, OH home of Cedar Point Park

Today's ride consisted of great roads (finally) and pretty decent weather. We arrived to our lodging, SS Industries, just in time for lunch. After the lunch, we had another fun dance with their clients. While at the dance I met a guy named Tony who could have easily joined Team Nashville with Winston and I based off of the number of country songs he knows. I also had the brief opportunity to meet a woman named Joanne who is pictured at left. We all had a fun time with her. She hated being photographed and so it became a game to try and get her in a picture. She also liked coming up beside you and bumping hips. She definitely had an impact on a lot of guys. After cleaning up, we headed to Cedar Point, rated the number one amusement park in the country. It was pretty special because in the past the park has donated tickets to the team. This year they discontinued the sponsorship but the people at SS Industries wanted us to be able to still go so they put on car washes to raise money so we could continue the Cedar Point tradition. It was a pretty special gesture. Anyway, despite the incredible humidity, we really enjoyed riding the many great roller coasters at Cedar Point. These rides were incredible and definitely set the bar for amusement parks in the future. Later in the evening Dave Brown and myself grabbed Arby's jamocha shakes before we all headed to bed for our ride on into Cleveland.

Ann Arbor, MI & Toledo, OH

With the intense heat still taunting us, we rode hard all morning to try and beat it. The ride was great and we once again had a lunch with the folks at Saturn in Ann Arbor. From there we made our way to the Weber Inn for the night's lodging. This place was really nice and the AC was working! For the evening we had a friendship visit with the Eisenhower center for people with auto-caused brain injuries. It was a casino night with all sorts of games, prizes and food. One guy that Dan and I were talking with kept telling us we had "beautiful feet and good looking faces", it was pretty hilarious the way he kept going on about it. Afterwards a group of us stopped by Wendy's and got some snacks. Once again, we did a Frostee challenge with Josh winning for the second time in a row.

Today's roads were TERRIBLE and the heat was rough but eventually we made it to Toledo and our lunch/friendship visit with the kids at the Sunshine Center. It was a good time eating Olive Garden lunch and playing Yahtzee with some of the kids. Due to the rediculous heat, we racked our bikes back to the chapter house at U of Toledo. The picture up above is a lighted sign that was in the Pi Kapp house. After getting cleaned up, we grabbed some sponsored dinner at Outback. Let me tell you though, they hooked us up with a blooming onion per table, steak, chicken, and baked potato per man, and a milk shake for dessert. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and all felt gorged afterwards. To the right is a McDonalds in Toledo. As you can tell by the fact that I took a picture, it was a pretty incredible building for a McD's.

Lansing, MI 70 miles

This morning we rode through some sweet terrain with subtle rolling hills, lots of green vegetation and very dense fog. It was pretty humid but a cool ride nonetheless. Once in Lansing we staged up at a park where the Luster family had arranged a gyro lunch and some hand cycles for us to try out on the sidewalks. We then headed for the capital arrival. As soon as we got on the bikes the weather went from being gorgeous all morning to a torrential downpour/flashflood for the three block ride to the capital. We were so soaked that once we got to the arrival we all had to cram into this tiny room at right for the welcoming speech. From there we rode on to the children's museum and once again had a fun time playing with all the simply machines and toys. After putting on a KOB for the kids there, we took a police escort to "Lusterville" where we were all hosted by about 5 different families and neighbors of the Lusters. It was great having a warm neighborhood welcome, laundry facilities, and a bed to sleep on. The dinner was a good time too as we all met in the neighborhood park for a delicious dinner topped with great ice cream from the local MSU creamery. Today we all got to meet Ben's girlfriend, Anna. It was great to finally put a face with the name and she seemed like a great girl.

Kalamazoo, MI

The 85 miles today were completely flat although the heat was pretty extreme. Ironically, it hasn't rained a drop since I bought my rain jacket in Chicago. Anyway, we had our arrival at the local Saturn dealership where we were fed lunch and I finally got to meet Brent's Grandma Beckman who has been following the trip and my blog all summer. It was great to finally meet her and the rest of the family. From the lunch we rode on to YMCA Camp Sherman where we stayed the night in their cabins. We had a good time swimming on Lake Sherman where Brent and I played on a log rolling toy and a huge water trampoline. Dinner was provided by the local Jaycees and we all got to write letters for next year's team members. The rule was if we didn't have the letter done by Lansing we couldn't eat dinner! The cabins were miserably hot and stuffy but somehow we all managed to get some sleep.