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…
1 comment:
Good for people to know.
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