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!
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!
