Didn’t want to leave our nice air-conditioned dorms this morning but hit the road we must. Got one more treat from the Morehead boys in the form of some McDonald’s breakfast on our way out…mcGriddles = scrumtrilescent.
Ride today was actually not half bad - starting to hit some hefty hills coming into the Appalachians but everyone’s got their “sea legs” by now (should hope so after 60 days of riding bikes I suppose). Rode up front with Geren and Nick at a brisker pace…got to pass some tobacco fields and some final pretty Kentucky scenery along the way.
Right before rolling into Huntington we hit the stateline…we’re officially in West “By God” Virginia folks. Got to see Marshall on our way in…turns out Huntington is on par with Charleston as the biggest town in WV (except for gameday in Morgantown, apparently). In classic Push America fashion there was a gigantic hill leading up into our lodging at the Huntington High School…which had endless signs out front of state championships and such, even a Rhodes Scholar! Pretty good school I guess.
Couldn’t get into the school until around 3 (some sort of weird meeting snafoo with the school peeps) so we ate some crew chief lunch out at the vans in the parking lot. Couple media units came out so we did not one but 2 of our wonderful stage pacelines…then Nick and I being the hometown boys did the interviews for both TV and print media…guess it’s my time to shine for the last leg of the trip!
Finally got into the school and got cleaned up…snagged a quick power nap before dinner at 6.
We packed into the vans and headed over to a park for a visit with a local chapter of Independent Living. Catered by Famous Daves BBQ…hard to beat. I spoke mostly with the organizations CEO, Anne, and policy advocate, Vanessa, about the troubles of getting individualized funding for people with disabilities for more freedom of choice in services…truly a fight being fought in most every state. The sweetheart Kara also sat with us and talked about her cousin getting involved with service as well. Got to do one more TV interview (pretty good media coverage in Huntington!) before we packed back in the vans to head home.
Got downtime now…some guys are headin over to see Marshall…sounds like another bunch are headin out on the town later (the fantastic foursome of Pops, Grant, Farley, and Small are even donning their suits). I’m feelin like another little cold may be comin on so I’m callin this one a night…hopefully can beat it with a little rest!
Blacksburg Countdown: 3 Days…
Only on the Journey of Hope is waking up at 8:30 considered major sleeping in…but man did we need it. Rolled outta bed to head down to the cafeteria for some hot breakfast. Sounds like we’re getting a legit day off today….just a couple of meals then the rest is downtime.
After breakfast a group of us hit the town…I needed a postcard run and some of the other guys were getting some haircuts to look spiffy for DC. Took a sweet nap when we got back…definitely a recharge day.
Around 3ish Josh from the Morehead crew brought us some Cici’s pizza for lunch. Grabbed a couple slices then headed up to catch up on the journals. Scootch even came by to offer his massaging services to some of the guys before he had to head to work!
At 6ish we all rolled over to B-Dubs for some free wings…man how I’ve missed em. Ezra and I rocked out on the trivia game…EZMARC was the far and away champion.
After dinner we rolled back to lodging…we’re all mostly just hangin out now in the dorms. Guess I’ll hit the hay soon (as if I haven’t gotten enough sleep yet today)…crossin another state line tomorrow!
Wake up was admittedly a bit rougher today than yesterday…but on the bright side we were treated to a hot breakfast by the Domek family, whose son Mike rode TransAm last year. Racked the first 25 miles or so this time for time constraint reasons (lots going on today) then finally got on the bikes…I ended up sweeping because Brendle had some bike trouble and needed to rack up. So Brent and I pulled up the rear for the day, which was kinda nice just riding in a pair. Hit more great scenery and more great hills as we went…including some pretty windy downhills. Josh didn’t fare too well on one of these and had a little run in with the guard rail…thankfully came out in pretty good shape: couple scrapes and a bruised thumb…but man this is like his fourth spill of the week, poor guy…Ezra took him up to the hospital just in case as we finished the ride.
Wes Cook actually crewed along in his truck with some Gatorades and candybars along the way which rocked. Before long we were pulling into Morehead…stopping first at a small church parking lot to eat some lunch provided by some of the Morehead Pi Kapps.
At 1 we did our first arrival at Buffalo Wild Wings (who will be sponsoring us for dinner tomorrow)…much like the Saturn in St. Louis we had a rather sparse crowd…but the point was to really just take a picture out front. Best part was seein Scootch in the crowd, who was on my Gear Up team last year….hilarious guy…just finished up his certification to do massage!
Arrival number 2 was at a bell tower on the Morehead campus…again to a modest crowd but cool nonetheless. We’re actually staying on campus, so we rode over to the “Alumni Hall” dorms and checked in. Pretty nice digs, always a treat to have a bed! Had some downtime before dinner so I think pretty much everyone took a much needed nap.
Around 6 we all got up to head over to a local park to hang out with folks from Horizon Village, an organization that the Morehead boys do events with every Thursday during the schoolyear…sounds like an awesome relationship. Enjoyed some spaghetti with Mindy, who wasn’t quite so talkative, and Debbie and Ethel, who were quite talkative. A bunch of the guys played some softball afterward while I did a small interview for a local newspaper…interesting dude but he actually had insightful questions: probing the idea that fraternity actually increased the desire and opportunity to do service for our team members.
So it turned out that there really wasn’t quite enough spaghetti to feed everyone, so we stopped off at McDonald’s for a little more food action…$5 limit goes a long way when double cheeseburgers are only a buck!
When we got back from dinner we were greeted by the one, the only, THE Bruce Pommier…a Pi Alpha from Morehead that had ridden GUF with me the past two years. Bruce likes to have a good time and brought that spirit to the GUF teams both years, so we like to joke on him a bit for it…Steve pumped him up so much that all the guys on our team (who had never met Bruce) were going up to him saying: “oh my God…THE Bruce Pommier?? Can I get a picture??” Pretty funny…Bruce rolled with it. A bunch of us went out to a local bar called the Front Porch…which had a great outdoor area with cornhole and plenty of pitchers. Had a blast catchin up with Bruce, Wes, and Scootch.
Got back to lodging around 1 to hit the hay…don’t have to wake up till 9:50 tomorrow!
Actually felt refreshed wakin up this morning…which has been rare on this trip! Got all packed up and had breakfast sponsored once again by Robbie the alum…some delicious Dunkin Donuts bagels and donuts…though only like 12 donuts so we were fightin over em.
Steve decided to rack us out of town rather than bike over a sketchy bridge across the Ohio River into Kentucky…so for the 4th time in a ROW we didn’t get to take a good state line pic…blast! (Though it has forced me to make creative ones). About 12 miles in we got on the bikes to start riding.
Not since Colorado have we had scenery like this…Steve mentioned Kentucky and West Virignia were some of his favorite riding last year. Hitting some more serious hills than we’ve encountered recently, but nothing unbearable. We passed several SUPER nice horse farms with long stone walls lining the property and endless acres of green green grass.
When we finally reached town we had to rack up the bikes one more time to zip over to our arrival/lodging spot at Community Alternatives…turns out Steve had quite the hectic day as he had accidentally went to the wrong place (some company called Access across town, who had nooo idea what he was talking about when he said “yeah, we’ve got our cycling team staying here tonight”). So we double pacelined it up to an awesome crowd (which apparently wasn’t the original plan…the real visit was tonight). It was about 3 pm by this time and we still hadn’t had lunch, so we said our hellos then packed into a conference room to feast on some Q’doba provided by Mike, a Pi Alpha from JOH North 05.
Afterwards we had just a short amount of time to try and shower 23 guys in one shower to get cleaned up for our dinner/party with the friends here. Just barely made it as people started arriving…and almost immediately the DJ had some music playing, kickin the dance floor into gear. I started to mingle when in walks Wes Cook…a fellow Gear Up ’05 cyclist from here in KY, with his girlfriend, Alli. Definitely one of my favorite guys on that team…it was great catchin up….but couldn’t for too long cuz it was time for some dancing!
Spent most of the night bouncing around…dancing all wild with Ericka right next to the speaker to the Michael Jackson tunes, and with Janie and Veronica doin all the moves to “Shout,” and with Kathy the sweet 68 years young gal still full of energy. I asked one lady to dance and after at first saying no she kept coming up to me the rest of the night to show me her doin the twist moves. All in all it was a blast…tonnns of people there; we all had some burgers and dogs to eat for dinner. We took our group pic around 8:30 but the party didn’t stop there…friends were still hanging out past 9 as the music kept playin!
Finally the festivities came to a close, and I headed out with Wes and Alli and Brent and some of the other guys to grab a drink. He took us over to this really cool bar called Bazo’s where they had over 100 beers from around the world to try and a nice selection of fine Kentucky Bourbons. I sipped on a Duvel, which brought me back to my time in London at a Belgian bar down the street from my dorm…good stuff. Sampled Farley’s sipper of Woodford Reserve as well as Ezra’s “Samiclaus” beer from Austria which was apparently 14% alcohol…yikes. Afterwards Wes and Alli brought us over to Whitecastle for some late night eats…it truly is gross but delicious at the same time…snapped a pic of them making the bizarre little sandwiches.
Now it’s about time to call it a night…yay for 5 hours of sleep!
Moved a bit slower getting out of bed this morning from all the fun last night…but we were out of lodging on time and headed over to the chapter house one more time for some breakfast. Josh once again cooked us up an awesome meal: delicious little cinnamon roll ball things…cheesy hash with crispy topping…quiche-style eggs with cheese, ham, and corn flakes on top…everything was just amazing…this guy can cook. Afterwards we set out for a nice short day of riding.
Pretty smooth sailin overall…save for right up toward the end where we hit some super-steep hills. First going up, which sucked, but then going down…which was freaky. Who woulda thunk it but the fastest hill we hit all trip was today…steep as can be but unfortunately on more a windier road. Slowing down toward the bottom I took my first spill of the trip…no great shakes at all just rolled into some big gravel chunks and after nearly coming to a stop kinda plopped off…total damage: one tiny scrape on my left elbow. I was mostly pumped that my sweet new tires didn’t go flat!
Got into lodging at around 10…where Jamie (who sits on the Push America board) and her husband John were there to greet us, as well as Drew, who had ridden the south route in ’03 and his mom Molly. Jamie went to TCU where the chapter had fundraised to get her a new power chair and has been involved with Push ever since…sweet as can be.
Lodged at a rec center just outside downtown…had to shower up quick because folks from the Cincinatti Recreation Commission were already there to play some wheelchair football! Ann Marie, one of the directors of the commission, told us about all the sports they do (like quad rugby and power chair soccer, which we’ve gotten to play before) and explained they game, which was basically a game of touch football, just in wheelchairs! So we all took turns playin…getting pretty dominated by Jake and his dad Mike, as well as Andy and Derrick…all veteran players. It was a blast.
Right after football we packed into the vans and went over with the whole football crew to a Cincinatti Reds game…they were playin the cubs. Went straight for the skyline chili coney-dogs…a specialty of the city and highly recommended by Nick. The “chili” is pretty unique tasting and apparently has chocolate and cinnamon in it…they slap a hefty serving on a little hot dog and cover it with a huge handful of cheese…absolutely delicious. The game was a blast…too bad the Cubs kicked the Reds butts. To add to the insult the Chicago fans often outnumber the Reds fans at home games…and you could tell as the Cubs chants echoed around the stadium toward the end.
Went straight to dinner after the game a local park which was actually on the Kentucky side of the Ohio river. Robbie, and Matt…Pi Kapps and past JOH riders and their friend Jen cooked us up some delicious bbq as we hung out in the sun and played some cornhole. Their dog, Maggie, a half lab/half jack russel terrier could catch toys in her mouth after you threw them up like 20 feet in the air…awesome trick!
After dinner we rolled back to lodging where I promptly passed out (it was about 7) and awoke around 11 to write this. Some guys went out but most are asleep…Ann Marie is actually stayin with us here which is pretty funny, not sure how she got roped into that! Ready for some more sleep though…heading into Kentucky tomorrow!
Woke up nice and early to a sponsored breakfast, Lisa, who had worked with Pi Kapp through national greek advising, and her husband Kevin brought us some delicious bagels and pastries. We got informed by Steve that our ride was actually more toward 90 miles-ish….always great news!
The ride started off smoothly…rollin with Jay of course as today was a state line crossing. Orange tires were workin like a champ! Team really stayed together as we passed through little towns on our way out of Indiana…prolly were stayin a wee bit too long at crew stops socializing in hindsight. When we hit the town of Rushville we got informed that the road we were taking had a detour…turning our ride into something more like a 110…115-ish mile day…woo! So we set off but by this time the day was already rather far gone, giving us little chance of actually making it.
Around 3 we stopped for lunch…only at about mile 80 at this point. Learned that if we didn’t make it to 100 miles by 4 (an impossible goal considering a half hour for lunch) that we’d have to rack up and sure enough…after just a little bit more riding we were putting the bikes on the vans. Bittersweet as usual…nice to be off the bike but kind of a downer we couldn’t make it the whole way…especially as this was Nick Cramer’s college town.
So for the THIRD time in a row we missed the state line crossing…had to snap a pic from the van window of the Ohio sign. Rolled up to our lodging at Miami University…the “western lodge” building on campus…which was, pretty much, a camping style lodge. Grabbed our shower stuff quickly and headed over to the Pi Kapp chapter house. (Brief history note…Miami University of Ohio (confusing name, I know) is one of the birthplaces of fraternity…three national fraternities had their foundings here and greek life continues to be extremely strong).
All the Miami boys were already at the house having a good time…they make it a summer event to come out and see the team. So between conversations we all hit the showers then sat down for some awesome awesome dinner prepared by Josh Poling, one of the brothers. Nick’s parents came to join us, and as planned, we all sang the rose to Mrs. Cramer as her birthday was coming up (a great move, I know) which was awesome.
With the exception of just a few guys the team wanted to go out tonight…so we quickly changed up back at lodging and came straight back to the house…where they Miami boys were waitin for us. Kicked it with the chapter guys in between games of Battleship…an intense 8 person pong-style game where you set something like 40 cups up as “ships” on your sides then just fire away with 6 balls until the whole other sides cups are gone…pretty sweet game. Some guys ended up “uptown” for a little more fun before curfew at 12:30….I ended up strolling home with Grant around 11:00 to catch some much need shut-eye!
Kinda nice waking up on your own once in a while…I slept like a rock last night (didn’t notice at all when the rather rowdy crowd that went out rolled in late). Roused at about 7:00 am which was perfect because a group of us were heading over to a local news station for a morning spot (Channel 59…FOX baby!). Jake, Pops, Nick, Snyder, Ezra and I were chosen by our PR coordinator Rodney for the show…so we roll up to the station (which also houses the local CW channel!! Sidenote: Smallville is the greatest show ever) Just had to take some pics by the wall of tv show characters. The rather highly attractive Heather was the producer and came out to greet us...got ready with the cameraman Reggie before Gene the well face-powdered reporter arrived. It was a quick spot for the morning news…Snyder and Pops were selected to do the talking…Jake and I held the map wooo!
After the quick spot we rolled back to lodging (with a stop at Starbucks) for breakfast…again sponsored by Dave and Tammy Shanklin…delicious pastries and juice, good stuff! Had some downtime after breakfast so most everyone went back to bed.
For lunch we had a friendship visit with an organization called “Noble of Indiana” …awesome place with tons of day programs…and boy did they do it up for us! After some delicious burgers and meatballs we were split up into groups to bounce around a bunch of different activity rooms. Todd and I hung out with Molly…the daughter of the organization’s founder who appeared to have mild down syndrome…such a total sweetheart! Started with some Yahtzee in the gaming room, then a little dancing and cornhole in the gym, topped off by some painting in the art room…just a blast. The visit ended with a presentation by Mike, the CEO of Noble…and of course a group pic!
Most guys napped it up again between the visit and dinner…I worked on a little correspondence. Around 5 we packed in the vans to head to Mary Anne Kelley’s house over in the nearby town of Brownsburg. Mary Anne is actually David Shanklin’s mother…and was nice as can be to have us in her home. We got to watch some t.v. (Home Improvement and Seinfeld…old favorites!) and munch on some tacos…truly the little things ya miss!
Got back around 8ish from dinner and had a quick team meeting…and welcomed the return of Chadd “Double D” Cockrell from his trip back home. Still hasn’t quite set in that we are in the home stretch as Steve went over the next few days through Ohio and Kentucky.
After the meeting I rolled with Britton and Chadd to walmart for some essentials…and now its time to hit the hay…back on the bike tomorrow! Hope the sweet new orange tires work out!
So all I have to say about the ride this morning is: ugh. Morning started off all fine and dandy: had a great hot breakfast at the Pi Kapp house…said goodbye to Tommy…and got underway with some guys in the front group. Thennn soon after getting off campus we hit some awful awful road conditions. Popped my first flat going over a bump…patched up and within about 10 miles popped another…turns out there was a tiny tiny burr in the tire. So I hop back with the sweeps and get it fixed, and as soon as we start rollin again it starts to rain! And this rain was coooold. Despite my slowing mishaps the team actually stayed pretty together and we trudged another 40 miles or so in the dirty wet conditions…only saving grace was a slight tailwind so we were actually moving at a good clip. At around mile 55 we had to rack up the bikes the rest of the way because of construction.
So we cruised into Indianapolis by Van, arriving at Marian College where we are staying. Our old cycling coach from waaaayy back in the beginning, Dean Peterson, coaches cycling here and apparently they are national champs…go Dean wooo! We all hopped out of the vans to do one of our patented faux arrivals….but low and behold my tire was flat yet again…nice. No fake arrival for this guy…afterwards we all got cleaned up for lunch.
David Shanklin, who recruits team members for Push America’s national events, grew up around Indianapolis and his parents sponsored us for a rockin lunch. Chowed on awesome pizza and salad at Bazbeaux, a local joint, while chatting with Mrs. Shanklin, her high-school age daughter Michelle, and family friend/exchange student Alba…a tall, striking French girl whom Brent quickly attempted to recruit for his budding modeling agency…apparently she gets the “you should be a model” line all the time though.
After lunch I headed to the bike shop to see what could be done about my flat-prone wheels. With one look they showed me that the back rim was badly dented and needed to be replaced…crap. So after realizing my price range was way below the $230 pair of wheels they wanted to sell me, the shop hooked it up with a modest $70 back wheel and some new super-sweet tires (they have orange tread, so my bike is Hokie colored now :-) All told I still spent $170…funds are hurtin.
Got in a little bike cleaning after getting back, then it was time for our friendship visit and dinner for the evening: playing power chair soccer! Such a blast…a lot like our quad rugby visit. In power chair soccer, electric motorized chairs are equipped with front bumpers you can use to “kick” the ball…either pushing it along in front of you or more often passing it by spinning the chair around (looks really cool). Anyone that uses a power chair can play…so the disabilities are broad. The sport is quite competitive: divisions based on skill level…an apparently they will be holding their first World Cup this year in Japan! Learned all about it from Dominic, President of the national organization, over some delicious Olive Garden…then it was time to play!! Jennie, Katie, Jordan, and Andrew were there to play with us (all teens) and man were they good. All the guys got a chance to try it out…and we got our butts whooped…Katie especially was like the Pele of power chair soccer. Granted the chairs we got to use were a bit slower than regulation…but even with sup-ed up models I think we would have gotten worked.
Day was pretty much done after the visit…I rolled with some guys over to Kinko’s and then Whitecastle (my first time…good stuff!). Bunch of guys are out at apparently a pretty nice club hooked up VIP style cuz Pops knows some of the bouncers from back home…should be a good time. I’m pretty beat though and it sounds like tomorrow’s a big day, so it’s time to catch some shut eye!
Woke up this morning to the wafting smells of a home-cooked breakfast…man it feels good to be staying in an actual house. The Pontius’s cooked up the best eggs I’d eaten all trip and had gotten some square donuts (quite rare apparently) form a local bakery. Took a nice group pic and hit the road.
Easy riding today…Indiana is actually pretty flat, though it wasn’t without its share of issues. Ezra did a ride along today so we started out with a van four memorial paceline: Me, Jake, Jay and E. So there we were cruising through town when a none-too-happy guy in a truck passes by pointing (which we figured meant he desired us to get off the road)…a little ways up he comes to a stop in the shoulder, presumably to say something?? Then all of the sudden slams on the gas to try and kick up dirt and rocks at us…thaaaannnks. Fortunately we were all unscathed after passing through the nice cloud of dust…yay Indiana drivers!! Not long after that I suddenly pop a wicked flat…only to discover that a huge nail had driven right into my tire…wonderful! So I dropped into the back group where none other than alpha-male Geren Brown himself was doing his first Sweeps ever, quite a momentous occasion.
Despite all the issues we were all staying pretty close together…caught back up to poor little E who was complaining of stomach issues, then vom’ed everywhere hahaha. Trooper got back on the bike though! It was starting to look like rack point was going to be an issue, and, not wanting to ruin Geren’s so-far accomplishment of riding every mile we let him bump up to the front. Some how I got roped into cruising with him and Britton, and we pretty much flew the rest of the way. So with legs on fire we pulled into stage up at Indiana University pretty quick-like. Hung out in the shade of a tree while the last groups were still coming in…bout 45 minutes later there was E huffin and puffin but he made it! (sidenote: Ezra looks absolutely hilarious in a helmet…kind of like a toad from Mario haha)
Hopped into our double paceline and did an awesome arrival at the Stone Belt organization…tons of friends outside, along with sweet old Ledford Carter, a Pi Kapp initiated in the ‘30s at Mercer in Georgia who had brought us some “chilled Gatorade” We all went inside for some awesome sloppy joes and a great friendship visit. Got to hang out with Sandy and Joy and Babet and Mary Jane for lunch…all sweet as can be and eager to show off their truly awesome artwork they had made. Had a little carnival of sorts going on after we ate so I got to play some bingo, some volleyball, even took some tosses at a dunk tank…all in all a really great time.
After the visit we headed over to the Alpha Psi Chapter house…a huge mansion for a huge chapter (over 160 men strong!) Super nice common area downstairs…rooms were a bit more frat-like in their state of disrepair but the really interesting part were the “sleeping chambers” …no one actually sleeps in their room, rather, about 50 guys sleep in a room full of bunkbeds! (we all wondered how that impacted certain aspects of college life…apparently the Indiana boys have found creative ways to cope.)
Dr. Phillip Summers, an Alpha Psi alum and all-around Pi Kapp legend was there to greet us and show us around, as well as Tommy Eckerle, a good buddy from my GUF team last year. They both took a group of us to see the campus. Indiana has a really strong Greek community…tons of huge houses, lots of Greek markings around campus…even the big event of the school, the “Little 500” bike race is predominantly a Greek event with the main competition being among chapters. After out tour we headed back to the house for dinnertime.
The dining room was definitely my favorite part of the house (even had cool chairs with Pi Kapp letters engraved in them!) The boys that live-in here eat 3 square meals a day prepared by the house cook. A great time to bond with each other: an aspect of fraternity we don’t have at our chapter. Cooks came in specially for us today and served up some awesome ribeye steaks. We all ate like kings while Dr. Summers gave an extensive rundown of Indiana U and the Pi Kapps here…man is he proud!
With the rest of the night off Tommy took a small group of us downtown to a local bar called Nick’s. Played some “Sink the Bismark” where you fill a little bucket with beer, float in an empty glass, then take turns pouring beer into the glass until it sinks…he who sinks it drinks it! Pretty fun game and all in all a good night out. Had to be quiet getting back with everyone in the same “sleep chamber”…haha I can’t imagine trying to sleep there during the school year with guys coming in and out.
Woke up at 6 am to the smells of a hot breakfast being brought in by the catering company…good stuff. Got all packed up then enjoyed some a meal with the Rotary Club once more…had to be sure we were out by 7 though before their meeting started! Sat once again with Vicki…who was nice enough to mail off some postcards for me.
Ridin through the rest of Illinois wasn’t half bad…enjoyed some great scenes of the heartland of America…classic middle America farm action. Before long we were pulling into the stomping grounds of our very own Ezra McCalment: Indiana State University. Did a small arrival right in the middle of campus where some chapter brothers and university representatives were waiting for us…had some snacks and drinks while Ezra did a little introduction for the team. Nearby was a ground level fountain you could run through (apparently a favorite spot of drunk passers-by at night) so obviously I had to run through it (even scored me some media pics and an interview for being the “fun” guy on the team - no one else wanted to get wet, wusses). Pretty high on myself there for a hot second until realizing we had to get back on the bikes to ride over to lodging (not fun with a soaking wet chamois under your butt).
Zipped over to lodging at Dr. Steve Pontius’s house - a professor at the school and Pi Kapp alum. Super nice house, actually converted from an old Lamda Chi chapter house that got disbanded. Apparently last year there was a little snafoo when the team left a wet towel on the banister, so Steve advised us to be on our best behavior (this house was waaay too nice for us to be staying there). I lodged up in one of the guest rooms, and after a shower in the bathroom with a window looking into the other room (somewhat awkward) I snagged a quick nap.
Dinner was a friendship visit at the awesomely-named “Happiness Bag” organization…a day programs and education/work assistance service provider. Talk about a huge party: there must have been over 50 friends there…which was awesome because we danced up a storm!! I sat with Dorris to eat dinner, who told me she had just finished up her associates degree and was going to start taking classes at Indiana State in Information Technology, total sweetheart. Brought Dorris out to the dance floor for a little bit, but also snuck in some hip hop dancing with the shy Brittany, and a lovely slowly dance (with the number 3 move!) with Kelly. Awesome awesome visit…everyone really gets out of their comfort zones at these dances and lets loose.
Back at lodging we had the rest of the night off and got changed up to experience a night in the life of EZ E. His chapter bros threw a little shindig at one of their houses, which was a lot of fun. Ez and I dominated at the pong table…after Chad tried to kick it into high gear Over the Top style (“when I turn my hat around…it’s like a switch”). Made a late-night food run over to Rally’s which hit the spot, then quietly tip-toed our way back into the house to grab some shut-eye. Pretty good town ya got here, E!
Prettty rough getting up this morning…had an optional breakfast downstairs of donuts…which the “Blackman Family Reunion” folks kept trying to come over and ask for some…ummm, sorry, we don’t have enough?? Kinda awkward.
Got to go back to bed for a little bit before our lunchtime friendship visit which was glorious. Around noon we headed over to the St. Louis Science Center…super cool place with a planetarium, a bunch of spaceflight exhibits on the Ansari X prize (won by SpaceShip 1 of the Burt Ratan/Richard Branson fame, for all those geeky folk like myself), a sweet dinosaur exhibit and a bunch of other engineering themed things….right up my alley :-)
Met up with some folks of the St. Louis Arc who were already eating lunch down in the food court. Britton and I took two of the ladies around to see the dinosaur exhibit which was pretty cool, but not long after Steve was already rounding us up to take a picture. Turns out there was a mixup in the plans and we weren’t actually having a sponsored lunch here so we had to head out a little earlier than expected. So we said our goodbyes and piled back into the vans.
Cruised over to Mickey D’s for some creasy hamburgers and fries…some kids tried to make off with a box of Gatorades we had left near the van…pretty hilarious.
Next up we headed over to an indoor go-kart raceway where Jay’s parents had bought us all a free race...after a cheesy orientation we suited up and hit the track…Andrew came out the big winner with the fastest laptime…though my 10th place finish in the team overall is nothing to gloat about I did have the most consistent lap times, which is better, I think.
The mood of the day took a downturn when we got back to the hotel. Steve called a team meeting to inform us that Country was being sent home for multiple policy violations…overtly for not coming back to lodging last night as he was out with his girlfriend who had come to visit, but other things had been building up to that. All in all not a fun situation…it was tough to see Country go, we’ll definitely miss him…but I respect Steve’s decision for the greater good of the team.
For dinner we headed over to Ozzie’s, a nice sports bar restaurant where Matt from yesterday was sponsoring our meal. Had a delicious chicken salad (decided a bit more healthy eating was in order) while we all caught up on sports highlights.
After dinner we had our main team meeting to go over the next few days of riding into Indiana. Took care of some laundry in the hotel when we were done and now its time to hit the hay!
This morning started out with some sponsored breakfast which is always good. Hopped in the back group with Jay and Chad Small for what would be a pretty easy ride. Only had to go about 35 miles or so before we staged up for a long string of arrivals into St. Louis, which is Jay’s hometown. Some family of his were waiting for us at stage up with some delicious pastry treats.
Our first police escorted arrival was through the suburb towns leading into St. Louis. Probably went a good 15 miles before our first stop: a Saturn dealership that was providing lunch for the team (Saturn used to be a big corporate sponsor of the Journey of Hope but stopped due to finance issues apparently…now just a few dealerships still sponsor the teams along the way on their own). We rolled up to the dealership to the raging crowd of just Steve and Jay’s family…Steve did a mock “please help me welcome the Journey of Hope”…pretty hilarious and a tad awkward. So we went inside and ate some deli sandwiches and chips in the little back office room while the Saturn staff went about their days.
Hopped back on the bikes for arrival round 2…this time it was about 10 miles the rest of the way into St. Louis…which we affectionately came to refer to as “The Jay Pride Parade.” It was absolutely hilarious…one of Jay’s neighbors hopped in front of our paceline on a motorcycle with a huge American flag flapping behind him, honking his horn the ENTIRE way…Jay’s family kept driving ahead to corners and hopping out to hold up signs for him…a couple of people even came out to say hi, including one guy working at a car dealership who ran up to give Jay a high five and an old man who held up a sign that simply said “Hi Jay” (which moments before he apparently was holding backwards on accident, haha).
Finally we reached the city and were riding directly toward the arch…totally awesome. Arrived at a beautiful city park area with a big fountain right out in front of the arch, and a representative of the Missouri government welcomed us with a proclamation. Afterwards as we racked up our bikes to zip over to lodging an old rasta-ish man came up to us and introduced himself as “P-Funk” and told he use to roll with George Clinton, and even had pics of himself and Rick James…he simply asked us to “bring back the funk, brothas.”
days…sooo glorious to be in a hotel room with beds and a tv. Had some downtime before dinner so Snyder and I got caught up in watching the Devil Wears Prada…definitely a defining motion picture of our time.
Jay Stuckel, an alumni from Missou, had our team and the Build America team to his house for dinner…it was weird rolling up to the house where 4 other Push America vans were already parked. Right there at the front door was good ole’ Andy Brown, man it was great to see him. We all caught up with each other over an incredible spread of food…the BAM guys were really a nice bunch. Andy’s been loving every second of the trip…they had just completed a huge warehouse-type structure at one of the camps…BAM really does some incredible projects.
After dinner we rolled back to lodging to get changed up…then pretty much everyone went out on the town. Matt, another Missou alumni and a TransAm Pi Alpha was nice enough to ferry us downtown. We met up with most of the BAM boys in an area of town called “the Landing” which is a great little strip of bars near the Rams stadium. Had ourselves quite the fun evening…even tried to make it over to the Arch at one point but never quite got there. Matt got us back home with time to spare and after some pizza and shenanigans (like putting noxema on Small’s chest…he was upset at first but then admitted it helped him breathe better that night) we were all out like lights.
Woke up feelin preeeetty good this morning…which was good cuz today’s ride was a doozy. During circle up this morning Sollner decided to make Shek (our lifesize stormtrooper cutout that we had picked up in Wichita; named after our beloved Push intern Scott Shek) an official team member with a t-shirt presentation and all…pretty hilarious.
Hopped up in the front group with Geren, Small, and Pops and started cruising…hittin some major steep hills right off the bat. Poor Chad dropped his chain up one of the steepest ones and fell over when trying to start up again…though after the small break waiting for him my legs started feelin great. But man what a tough day: tons of steep hills, SUPER crappy road conditions in a lot of places, and a nice little headwind to top it off. Our one saving grace was overcast skies so the heat wasn’t bad. Funny highlight of the ride was trying to chase down some wild chickens at one of Farley’s stops…used bait to lure them and everything but those suckers were too fast.
After what seemed like forever we finally pulled into lodging at the local high school in Union (nice little town; population around 7700). We always complain about cold showers on this trip but these ones were freaking HOT!! You can definitely have too much of a good thing, that water must have been like 100 degrees. The locker was a bit confusing as it had both a urinal and what we’ll call a “feminine napkin” dispenser…hmmmm. After getting cleaned up we had pizza and salad provided by a local shop called Imo’s….delicious.
Used the downtime before dinner for a much needed nap. Around 6 we headed over to a local park pavilion where the rotary club provided the team with roast beef sandwiches and hot dogs. Sat with Pam and Steve, who ran the local park services and were super excited to tell us all about Union’s parks…nice folks. Special treat was a live band (it’s concert night in Union!) so we enjoyed the smooth sounds of “Fanfare” who covered great songs like “Under the Boardwalk.” Jay Holley even bought the CD!
Been catchin up with old friends on the phone for most of the evening now…hard to believe I’ve been away for almost 50 days now! Heading to sleep soon…gotta rest up for all the craziness to come in St. Louis tomorrow….finally going get to rock out with Andy B. and the BAM boys!
Woo for waking up at 5:30 after goin out the night before…though none of us were feelin quite as rough as Country! Had some crew chief breakfast and hit the road with Donde, Jake, Todd, and Cramer…we were movin pretty smoothly all day long. Road conditions were in and out and we hit some more intense rolling hills…but a little cloud cover kept the heat at bay and we actually had a tailwind on us.
Highlight of the ride was passing through Donde’s childhood stomping grounds: the small town of California, MO. For some reason cities in the Midwest love to use names of bigger places (like when we passed by Manhattan, KS). When we passed the sign for California it seemed like we had taken a serious wrong turn on the Journey of Hope. Donde nostalgically pointed out his old hangouts and even took a pic by his Grandma’s old house…awww.
Before long we reached Jefferson City, the capital of the great state of Missouri, and did a double pace line arrival up to the capital building…had a sweet ONE car police escort so we were following the rules of the road….the cop even got stopped at a stoplight that we rolled through haha. One light stopped our line in the middle of an absurdly steep hill which is always fun. The Capitol building was actually really cool with a big ole’ statue of Tommy J. out front…several aides of Missouri legislators were there to greet us with resolutions from both the house and senate which was cool.
After the arrival we walked over to a nearby church for some lunch. I sat with Kelly and Matt…director and intern (respectively) of the “Leadership Office” …referring to the fact that they work for the minority party leader. Had a rather politico style talk…turns out MO approved a crappy plan for transportation improvements years back, and when the state realized it sucked and asked for more money the voters said no because they had already approved the last plan…ahhh politics.
Rolled on the bikes over to lodging at Lincoln University after lunch…using their pretty sweet gym facility. Had time to shower up and unpack before we headed over for some ice cream sponsored by Chuck Howard, Regional Governor (advisor) of the Pi Kapp chapters in Missouri and all around hell of a nice guy. We were all treated to cones and malts at the “Central Dairy” …a nice old fashioned shop.
With the downtime before dinner most of us hit up a nap. Got totally faked out by Sollner when he woke us up: he blasted music and said “let’s go to Union, boys!” as if we were getting up to ride….I totally fell for it thinking I had passed out in my clothes, haha. Dinner was a little barbeque provided by Chuck and Jerry Dowell, another Pi Kapp and campaign manager for the Lt. Governer of Missouri (not much of a conversationalist, this one). Grubbed on some burgers and dogs and played with Chuck’s kids Emma and Jake…pretty cool cats.
With the rest of the evening free it was high time for a hair cut…so Farley and I tested each other’s barber skills which thankfully turned out pretty well. Gonna catch up on some correspondence now and hit the sack before we ACTUALLY get up to ride to Union tomorrow.
NOTE: This is possibly the first time ever this blog is updated to the day...I hope you are as pumped about that as I am haha :-)
Fifty short miles later we were rollin into Charleston…plenty of time to spare so we staged up at a gas station. At 11 we did an arrival at the Children’s Therapy Clinic where the kids were waiting…cheered for a second then kinda looked at us with puzzled faces as we waited for Steve to come back out haha. Took the bikes inside then got a short tour from the clinic’s director. They provide services like physical and speech therapy free of charge to children here…looked like a pretty fun place to be!
Bigtime mountains the next couple of days…but it’ll all be worth it on Sunday!
Fifty short miles later we were rollin into Charleston…plenty of time to spare so we staged up at a gas station. At 11 we did an arrival at the Children’s Therapy Clinic where the kids were waiting…cheered for a second then kinda looked at us with puzzled faces as we waited for Steve to come back out haha. Took the bikes inside then got a short tour from the clinic’s director. They provide services like physical and speech therapy free of charge to children here…looked like a pretty fun place to be!
Bigtime mountains the next couple of days…but it’ll all be worth it on Sunday!
