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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
