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.