Day 41 (7/12): Wichita, KS; 75 Miles

Got to sleep in a little to 6 am before getting up to some awesome breakfast. The Buchannan family had driven over from Wichita with some delicious pastries for us. Their son, David, was my Project Manager on the Gear Up Florida ride in ’05…one of the finest leaders and nicest guys I’ve ever met. His parents are now huge supporters of Push and are taking awesome care of us all through our time in Wichita.

Ride wasn’t bad at all…passed some really nice neighborhoods coming into town…reminded me of good ole suburban northern Virginia in fact.

After rolling through the suburb area we all of the sudden just emerged on downtown Wichita…and right on the edge was the beautiful Hyatt hotel…where the Buchannans had sponsored our lodging for the next two nights (in all honesty, the hotel was waaay too nice for us!)

Before getting all cleaned up we headed straight over to Chipotle for lunch, sponsored by Geren’s parents who had driven up from Graham, TX…also got to meet his fiancé Laura…a sweet southern belle.

After lunch we showered up and had some downtime to read mail :-) Then it was time to head over for an awesome friendship visit at the Jaycees “Cerebral Palsy Ranch,” which is a summer camp that invites kids with CP and their friends every week for some fun times. I sat at a table of cool cats…Bubbles, Roller Boy, and Tootle Bug (everyone’s got a nickname here…mine was “Crazy Thumbs” cuz I can bend them all the way back) Munched on some awesome pizza and salad before it was time for activities!

Pretty much just had fun stuff happenin left and right for the next hour….I hung out at the fishing game first where the kids would toss a line over a sheet then reel back in a sweet prize. Cody, Fisher, and Colin couldn’t get enough of the game….even the headstrong Kaci came over to play…cute as can be! Soon after I got to meet Marcus, who was blind but did the funniest voices you’d ever heard (my favorite sounded like a cross between the Terminator and Hannibal). Marcus and I bonded pretty quickly and I hung with him for the rest of the visit…he would hold my hand as we went around places and call for me if I wasn’t right there. During wish time around the campfire I got to read Marcus’s aloud…which was that he wished he could listen to music all of the time (he was really into rap…eminem especially haha). Finally had to say goodbye as we were leaving…which was tough to say the least.

Back at the hotel we had the rest of the night off. I capitalized on the opportunity to sleep in a comfy bed and called it a night early. A few guys went out on the town which I hear was a pretty good time…day off tomorrow!