Day 58
July 29th, 2007

The ride today was only 40 miles. The ride has without a doubt the steepest hill of the entire trip, it seemed to go straight up and straight down. Unfortunately on the down hill side there is also a really tight turn that caused a few wrecks. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. Once we arrived at lodging we were treated to yet another wheel chair sport, quad football. The game is played just like a traditional game of football but in a chair. It was a lot of fun and quite the work out. After quad football we headed to a Cincinnati Reds game vs the Chicago Bears. It was a lot of fun to go to a baseball game. I had never been to a professional baseball game outside of Seattle. It was cool to see Lou Pinella and Ken Griffey Jr who both us to be on the Mariners. Unfortunately the Reds lost to the Cubs but it may have been a good thing because I think there were a lot more Chicago Cubs fans in the audience than Reds fans. After the game we headed over to a local park for a great BBQ dinner provided by a previous Journey of Hope team member. At dinner we also got to play a great yard game called corn hole. It is like beanbag horseshoes.

Day 57
July 28th, 2007

The detour that never ended.
On the schedule it says that the ride was suppose to be 85 miles. Since the trip has never gone to Oxford before it was actually farther than that, plus there was a major detour which ended up turning our ride into what was looking like well over 120 miles. This unexpected added distance made it so no one was able to complete the ride on time and had to be racked up to Oxford. On the ride there we crossed the border into Ohio. We dropped our stuff off at our lodging and headed over to the Pi Kappa Phi chapter at Miami University of Ohio for some showers and a BBQ dinner. The Pi kappa Phi chapter at Miami of Ohio is really involved in Push America and often has many guys doing events in the summer such as the Journey of Hope and Build America. They had a lot of members out to greet the team. We hung out with them for the rest of the night.

Day 56
July 27th, 2007

Today we got the chance to sleep in a little bit before our sponsored breakfast at Marian. After breakfast a few of us watched a stage of the Tour de France. Then it was off to lunch at a very special friendship visit. We headed over to a facility called Noble of Indiana. The organization cateres to people with all kinds of disabilities and helps them by providing a great place to learn and hang out. Unfortunately I forgot my camera. The There was a lot of people there to greet us as we showed up. We had some BBQ for lunch and then headed around to different parts of the big building for games and crafts. I had the opportunity to hang out with a very special girl named Molli Noble. Her mother started the facility and Molli is now on the board. We first went to a room where we played Yahtzee! Then we went to a giant room dedicated specifically to painting. It was great. We painted a giant canvas with lots of color. For dinner we headed over to the house of one of the national Push America guy's mom's house. It was a great taco dinner!

Day 55
July 26th, 2007

Rain Rain
So I was kind of asking for it. I was just bragging the other day how wonderful it is to have such great weather. It rained the whole ride and stopped right when we stopped ridding. The day was started off with a great sponsored breakfast at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house at Indiana University. The ride was almost completely flat. In Indianapolis our lodging was at Marion College. Marion is the place that our cycling coach, Dean Peaterson, teaches and coaches. We stayed in the dorms where we each had our own bed and every two rooms shared a bathroom. Lunch was some delicious pizza at a local Indianapolis pizza place. They even had a special Journey of Hope cake! After lunch we headed back to the dorms and a few of us went out to do some errands to WalMart. For dinner we went to one of the local recreation center and had nice spaghetti dinner with a local power soccer team. Power soccer is a game of soccer played in a powered wheel chair. The chair is equipped with a metal guard on the front to hit the ball and protect you from being hit by other players. The ball was a little smalled than a beach ball but was hard much like a traditional soccer ball. We all had an opportunity to play the game but no one seemed to do all that well at it. It was a lot more difficult than it appeared to be. After dinner Andrew and I took a short ride across campus to the Marian velodrome (cucling track). A few groups were practicing. I was interesting to see how different this cycling is in comparison to what we do. After that a few of us went out for a late night snack. We went to White Castle. I had a few little mini burgers and some chicken rings. The food was disgusting! Absolutely the worst fast food I have ever had!

Day 54
July 25th, 2007

Another bright and early start to a bright and happy day! Breakfast was provided for us by Mr and Mrs Pontius who also housed us in their beautiful house. It was a great breakfast of bagels and eggs. The day's ride was a moderately easy 60 miles into Bloomington Indiana. Bloomington is the home of Indiana University. Once into town we had an arrival event at a place called Stone Belt. Stone Belt is an organization that caters to people with disabilities by helping with social abilities. Stone Belt had a great sloppy jo lunch waiting for us. After lunch they had a big carnival set up for us all to play games and enjoy they great day. They had many different stations set up such as bowling, bingo, volleyball and a dunk tank! I spent this time with a guy by the name of Wes. It was funny when Wes and I went to the dunk tank because the person over the pool was a crew member also named Wes. After the great friendship visit we headed over to lodging. While in Bloomington we are staying at the Pi Kappa Phi chapter house. The IU Pi Kapp chapter is HUGE! They have about 180 total members and 92 of which live in the giant house. Before dinner we had a little bit of time to check out the campus with a really special tour guide. Dr Phil Summers is a really well know Pi Kappa Phi who is a previous national president. He showed us the cycling track and a really cool walkway on campus dedicated to the school's greek chapters at IU. For dinner we had a really special dinner at the chapter house. Dr. Summers and the alumni fraternity sponsored the meal. Another special guest at the dinner was a Pi Kappa Phi member from Mercer who was 90 years old!

Day 53
July 24th, 2007

Dance Party!!
The day started off with every cyclist dream, an amazing breakfast. The Effingham Rotary once again treated us to a meal. They fed us easily one of the best breakfast we have seen on the trip yet! Once on the road we saw terrain similar to what we saw yesterday, mostly flat with not much shoulder. And with our luck continuing we had some beautiful weather. At one point in the ride we got held up by a tractor pulling some farm equipment. It was unsafe for us to pass the tractor so we had to stay behind him but the good news was he we breaking any wind making it really easy to peddle. Once into Terre Haute we had a neat arrival ceremony put on by some staff and Pi Kappa Phi from Indiana State University. While in Terre Haute we are staying at a professor's house. The house use to be a fraternity house but has since been remodeled back into a single residence. The house is amazingly beautiful inside and out. For dinner we headed over to a place called Happiness Bag. I know, I know it sounds like a goofy name but it was one of the best friendship visits of the summer! We ate some good food then danced the night away!

Day 52
July 23rd, 2007

The day was started off on the right foot by a visit to City Grocers for breakfast. I had a very healthy array of the entire food pyramid. The day's ride was suppose to be over 100 miles but we had to rack up our bikes for safety through St Louis so it ended up being more like 90 miles. Even with that long of a ride it was not a bad ride at all. The terrain was a little more flat than we had seen in the past few days and the weather was great. The roads however only improved a little bit once we headed into Illinois. After the long day on the bike it was nice to arrive into Effingham. The lodging that was set up was perfect for us. We are bing housed at the First Baptist church. The church had lots of room to sleep, a pool table, ping pong, shower, laundry and even the video game guitar hero! Dinner was a brilliant cherry on top of the perfect cake. Dinner was catered in the church by the Effingham Rotary club. It was some of the best food we have seen on the trip so far! After dinner we all had the chance to relax and play some games.

Day 51
July 22nd, 2007

Sleeping in the fast lane.
That is right we got the chance to sleep in a little bit this morning before we headed down for a breakfast in the hotel lobby. After breakfast it was straight to St. Louis' forest park's science center. The science center was great! We got the opportunity to walk around a little bit with the people that met us there from a St Louis disability organization. After the science center we made our way over to a go kart track that was a ton of fun! The track took the racing of little electric go karts very very serious. I think it was kind of a lot for show. We all wore jumpsuits, neck braces, and hoods under our helmet. The race was not for who was first to finish it was all about who could get the fastest lap time. I ended up getting third place in my group. After go kart racing we went to dinner at Ozzie's. The food was excellent. I had some very spicy chicken.

Day 50
July 21st, 2007

The short/long ride.
The ride today was only about 55 miles however only the first 28 of that was unescorted. So for nearly half of today's ride the team was lead and followed by police cars. The first arrival we were under the escort of the St. Louis County police department to the Saturn dealership. Saturn use to be a Journey of Hope sponsor nationally but now its on just a local level. At the dealership we were fed some great sandwiches. After lunch we were once again escorted by the county police to our next stage up area. At this stop our escort was switched to the St. Louis metro police. The metro police called ahead and had all of the lights we would be passing through turned to flashing red for us to pass through. This escort took us into the heard of St. Louis up to a park overlooking the old court house and the famous St. Louis arch. After that final arrival we were off to our sweet hotel. We are staying at the Marrott at the airport. Once again we are super spoiled and many of us had our own bed to sleep in. After getting all settled in it was off to dinner with the Build America team. It was great seeing Shawn and the rest of his Build America team who are in the middle of a project that parallels ours.

Day 49
July 20th, 2007

Today was one of the most grueling days of the trip. At the beginning of the ride the roads were horrible. The entire ride was spent avoiding holes and cracks in the road. The ride was the farthest from flat it could be. The whole ride was into a head wind so we were either climbing a hill or fighting our way down into the wind. After the 80 mile day on the bike we arrived in Union, Missouri. For lunch we had Imos pizza that was waiting for us at the gym. After lunch it was time for a short and much needed nap because today was exhausting. For dinner we headed over to a local park for a nice dinner with the Union Rotary club. The pavilion was also host to a local band that played us some great music before we headed back to the gym.

Day 48
July 19th, 2007

So apparently no one really wants to say they live in Missouri because it seems like every town we pass through is named after somewhere else. For instance we went through California, Missouri today. Our ride to Jefferson City was once again a demonstration of how bad Missouri roads are. Once into Jefferson City we had a really fun arrival up to the steps of the capital building. Jefferson City is one of the smallest capital cities in the US however, the capital building is one of the largest. The original capital building burned down in the early 1900's and the state passed a bill for $3 million to rebuild it. The building was completed with only $2 million so they spent the extra money on sculptures. For lunch we crossed the street to a local church for a great meal sponsored by the local Jaycees. From lunch we went to our lodging at Lincoln College. The team was then taken out to ice cream! I had some Moose tracks in a waffle cone. After ice cream we headed back to the college for a quick nap before dinner. During this time it started pouring rain. For dinner we had a BBQ at a local park but unfortunately the go kart track we were scheduled to go to was rained out.

Day 47
July 18th, 2007

After an early morning kick off from the Kansas School for the Deaf we were on our way. Today was scheduled to be one of the longest days of the entire trip. For the beginning of the day we had a few ride along cyclists from the local bike club. After a re-route the ride was set out to be nearly 130 miles. However, at about ¾ of the way through the day we had lunch and had to be racked due to construction. The days ride really showed us the sad state of Missouri roads. Lodging was set up at a local community gym where we also had a wonderful chicken dinner sponsored by the family of cyclist Josh Donde. Today was a special day because it marks the birthday of our youngest team member so for the evening we took Mike out to the local sports bar and relaxed and played some good games of shuffle board.

Day 46
July 17th, 2007

Chillin in my happy place.
Olathe overdid themselves. They really went all out to try and provide the best stop of the trip for us. Our day off started with breakfast at an old farm. The farm is now a national historic site for its role of acting as a stopping point on many wagon trails heading West. The omelet breakfast was great! After breakfast they gave us a tour of the farm showing us how things would have looked back then. The farm is now home to some interesting chickens, horses and oxen. We also had the chance to check out some replicas of the wagons that would have been used back when the farm was in its glory days. After touring the farm we headed over to a place called the Lake Marry Center. The facility serves those with disabilities by offering services such as housing, jobs and a place to hang out. The people there can earn money by doing contract work that the center receives such as bagging small parts for an irrigation company. The center is also home to a couple of dogs. The dog shown here may just look like a morbidly obese pug but he is more than that. He can sense when someone around him is reaching dangerous blood sugar levels or is about to have a seizure and will notify help. For the evening we headed to the ballpark. The Kansas City Royals were out of town so we went to a Kansas City T-Bones game. Before the game we had a terrific sponsored tailgate party. One of the sponsors of the BBQ was American Barbecue Systems. They had the most magnificent meat cooker I have ever seen! It carried layers upon layers of hot dogs, sausage, burgers and steaks all on a rotating grill. The baseball game was a lot of fun but unfortunately the T-Bones lost the game. By the time the game was over we were all exhausted and went straight to bed.