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.
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.
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.
