Making Vast Improvements!

Since we have been having problems with tons of red flags and slow bike riding we were looking for ways to improve.  While we know that it is impossible to bike every single mile, we still want to bike every mile that we can!  So last night we had a meeting to try and decide the best ways to improve our efficiency on the bike as a team.  One major issue that kept coming up is that the strong riders kept together and the weak riders kept together.  We decided that we needed to mix up the stronger and weaker riders more so that we would have less red flags and the pace lines would wouldn’t get so spread out.  So we split the strong, medium, and weak skill level riders up and mixed them all together to make our pace lines.  And it shocked us all how much we improved.  From yesterday to today it was a night and day difference.  The pace lines were staying close together, everyone was biking harder, there were no red flags, and everything was running so much smoother!  And it was a perfect day to be clicking so well together because we had 115 miles to ride to Pullman, WA!!  This was the longest of the trip so far and for most of us it was the most miles we have biked in one ride! We did so well that we beat rack point  by over an hour and we made it all 115 miles to lodging without having to rack!  It was a huge team booster and you could tell how excited and pumped everyone was.  We all helped each other through it and pushed each other to finish.  It was amazing how 22 people that just met each other nine days ago were working so well and hard together to encourage each other to finish the ride.  It was the first century that we have finished and you could tell that the spirits of the team were high.  Today showed us all that we have what it takes and it definitely brought us more together as a team.  It was an amazing ride!!  After the ride we all went to lodging and got ready for another friendship visit.  We got there and they had karaoke and pizza for us.  So naturally after we got done eating we started singing and dancing with the kids.  We all had a great time!  By the time we got back to lodging we were all exhausted and it was safe to say it was the best sleep we got all summer.  Overall it was a huge milestone day for the Journey of Hope Trans America Team today!!

Bike Every Mile or Cange Lives??

With a 5:30AM wakeup call we were on our bikes and headed to Walla Walla for a 75 mile ride.  Our rack point was 60 by 11:30AM, which we didn’t make.  Due to rough riding and some flats we got red flagged a lot and were not able to bike as many miles.  Five miles into the ride we got red flagged because of a flat and when I stopped I heard medal fall from my bike.  I looked down to see that the screws of my pedal came out and part of my pedal was laying on the ground next to my bike.  Not wanting to rack I took a screw out of my other pedal and put it in my broken one hoping it would last the day so I could fix it tonight, but it didn’t.  About four miles later it broke again.  So I had to decide to either rack my bike and call it a day or bike the rest of the day with only one clipped in shoe.  And again the power of motivation, teamwork, and the Journey of Hope came through for me and I naturally decided to bike with only one clipped in shoe.  That day I was in a pace line with Joe Konnerman, and after about 20 miles of biking with one working pedal it started getting very hard and started hurting really bad.  But Joe kept telling me to push through it and that I would be disappointed with myself if I racked myself, and he was right.  He didn’t care that we had to go slower than others all he cared about was keeping my mind off my one burning leg and foot that was doing almost all the work.  But I pushed through it for 40 miles, and then we had to rack due to timing and all the red flags we had that day.  We have rack points for when we have programming during the day.  Because even though it is awesome that we are biking across America that isn’t really what our summer is about.  Helping improve the lives of people with disabilities dwarfs our personal goals of biking every single mile everyday.  The biking is just a means to an ends of our goal to change lives across the country during the Journey of Hope.  And even though we may not bike every single mile every day we realize that we can still say that we biked across the country because the route we take is far from straight.  The most direct route from Seattle, WA to Washington DC is only 2,700 miles, the distance from coast to coast is only about 3,200 miles, and the route we take consists of over 4,100 miles!  So as you can see we can miss a few miles in order to change lives and still bike across the country!!  But overall the days ride was amazing and it was awesome to see myself do things and push myself through things that I never thought I could!  After we racked we headed to lodging at the Sustainability Center at the Walla Walla Community Center.  Form there we went to a sponsored lunch at Jim Peterson’s house.  He had amazing food that filled us up and even allowed us to swim in his pool and sit in the hot tub to relax.  When lunch was over we had little time to get back to the Community College to get ready for a friendship visit at the Lillie Rice Center.  We were overwhelmed by their hospitality. It was great again to spread the message of Push America with new people. It brings a lot of joy to them hearing of fraternity men doing what we’re doing.   We ate dinner their while talking to the guests that were there.  It was a lot of fun but after dinner we had to head back to lodging where we got nice and greasy.  We all went outside to clean our bikes, which they needed it badly, under the instructions of Branden Sowers!  Then we were able to relax and enjoy a movie on a projector before going to bed.  Today was an amazing and very important day.  It again showed me that nothing is impossible with the right teamwork and motivation!  It also made us all realize that in the big picture the miles we bike are not as important as they lives we change!!

Richland, WA

This morning was one of the roughest mornings I had ever had and was so hard to wake up.  After such a grueling and physically demanding ride from yesterday I was sore all over and didn’t want to move from my bed.  I was sore in my legs, butt, back, neck, and everywhere else on my body!!  But as we were awaken, the Brink family was carrying in sausage, bacon, and French toast for our breakfast so that gave me a little motivation to get up and move.  After breakfast we had a 75 mile ride to Richland, WA.  This is where the true struggle began when I tried to get on my bike.  Every part of my body was telling me no but I knew everyone else was feeling the same pain so we all pushed through it together.  With head winds, tons of rolling hills, and sore muscles the ride was a pretty tough one.  But we all finished on time and this was our first full ride where we didn’t have to rack our bikes.  This gave tons of excitement to the team.  And the first thing we noticed as we rolled into Richland was that there was a river going right beside the local community center that we were staying the night in.  So naturally after a hot day on the bike a few of us jumped in to cool down.  The current was strong and the water was freezing cold but it was a great decision and made us all feel refreshed.  Then we all unpacked the vans and set up in the community center which was really nice!  Then we went to a friendship visit at the local arc.  When we got there they had a line of people waiting and cheering for us as we walked in.  It was amazing and really cool to see so many people so excited to see us.  We went through the line introducing ourselves and shaking everyone’s hands and then going inside and eating a taco dinner, which was delicious!!  Then we played bingo which sadly no body from my table won but we all had a great time!!  Then we ended the night by going to lodging and watching a movie!!

Feel the Burn!

In the mornings we have exactly 30 minutes to get out of bed and have all of our stuff packed up and our bags packed on top of the vans.  If we don’t get it done in 30 minutes we have to wake up 30 minutes earlier the next morning.  Well yesterday morning we didn’t get packed in 30 minutes so we had to wake up early which made us wake up at 4:30AM.  We packed our stuff, ate breakfast and started riding.  Our ride was 124 miles to Yakima and we had to go through the Cascade Mountains, which sounds hard enough.  But when we found out we had two mountain passes to climb on day 2 it made it sound even harder! The first mountain pass was basically one hill that didn’t stop for 10 miles and the second one lasted for 12 miles. That’s 22 miles of climbing.  We climbed a total of 8,500 feet for the day.  The first pass was difficult but we all made it and they had lunch waiting for us at the top.  Then we got to descend for 15 miles while hitting 45 miles per hour.  I don’t know if you have ever been on a bike going that fast but it was exhilarating and kind of scary!! But as soon as we got to the bottom and turned the corner the second pass sat there staring us in the face.  We were all tired and already sore but we just dug deep and started climbing knowing that the end would come and we would have another awesome descent waiting for us at the top!!  And after 2 hours of non-stop climbing I was only a mile away from the top but it looked like it was an eternity away yet, and it came to the steepest part of the climb.  My legs were cramping, my muscles and butt sore, and all I wanted to do was quit.  I was literally seconds away from giving up when the unbelievable power, teamwork, and motivation of the Journey of Hope came from out of nowhere and kicked in.  I spent the whole day riding with Branden Sowers, who is an avid cyclist, and one of the best on the team.   But even though he knew I was hurting, struggling and wanting to do nothing but give up he made sure I didn’t and did nothing but encourage me and kept my motivated and focused on the amazing descent waiting on us.  But about a half a mile away that was starting to not be enough.  And that is when Dean, the professional cyclist with our team, came and gave me that last push I needed.  He rode beside me with his hand on my back filling me with even more encouragement and motivation.  There were times I would just stop pedaling but the two of them together would not let me quit or stop no matter how badly I wanted to.  When I got to the top I have never felt more tired, accomplished, motivated, or proud.  I have never physically pushed myself as hard as I did to get up that hill.  I was 1 of only 11 riders to make it up both passes, but the fact that I have known these guys for only 6 days and they believed in me more than I did myself, showed me just how close we are all going to be at the end of the summer.  While standing there this overwhelming warm happy feeling came over me and my eyes started watering!  It was such a powerful and amazing feeling that words cannot really describe it.  But I will never forget what I accomplished and how I felt when I finished.  It was one of the greatest feelings in the world!!  After a little meeting we got to go down the 25ish mile decent and hit speeds of 45mph again but this time we were swerving and dodging potholes the whole way down.  It made the ride that much more intense and exciting!  We racked at 94 miles at 5:30 due to time, but that was a total of 11 hours on the bike!  What an amazing day!!

ITS FINALLY HERE!!!! OUR FIRST DAY!! :)

TODAY IS THE BIG DAY!!! I woke up with a huge smile on my face and excitement running through my body.  I have been preparing, fundraising, training, and waiting for this day since November.  For the past 8 months I have been questioning if I should be doing this, if I could do this, what this summer was going to be like, how it was going to change me, if I was going to enjoy it, and had countless other thoughts running through my head.  But today was it the day we get on our bikes and departed from Seattle to ride our bikes across the country to try and improve the lives of people with disabilities.  It was almost an overwhelming feeling, but I was so ready for it!  We had a kick off breakfast at the Olympic Sculpture Park.  One of my fraternity brothers from ISU, Chase Gray, came and wished me good luck.  It was nice to see a familiar face and was greatly appreciated.  After breakfast we took some last minute pictures and got a speech from Kyle one of the Push America Staff and went to the start to get ready to start the ride.  As soon as we got start everyone couldn’t help but to smile and be extremely happy.  I couldn’t help but to think of everything I have done in order to be able to go on this trip, but that feeling of when we started washed away every worry I had and I knew it was all worth it.  The smiling faces went away 2 miles into the ride when we approached our first hill that was half a mile long and had a grade of 15%. Lol  And the rest of the ride didn’t get much better.  It was the hardest and hilliest 45 miles I have ever biked in my life! We did have one guy wreck his bike while going down a decent going 35mph.  Luckily he wasn’t hurt as bad as he could have been and just had some road rash.  Everything else went well and no other injuries happened.  Some of us decided to do a Push Challenge which consisted of us doing 1 pushup and sit-up for every mile we ride, so we did 45 pushups and sit-ups.  Then we had a sponsored dinner at the Ashley House.  The Ashley house is a transition house.  When families first find out they have a family member living with a disability it is a huge shock for most of them.  So what the Ashley House does is houses the person with a disability until the family is able to take care of them themselves, and they also help support them in any way they can by giving advice and contacts in the community that will be help to help them.  While there I met this 13 year old boy named Gilbert and this 18 month old girl name Camellia.  Gilbert was bound to a wheelchair and had no use of his arms or legs.  His head and mouth were the only parts of his body he could move.  But when we went into his room he was playing a nascar racing game on his computer using a joystick in his mouth.  Blowing made it go faster and sucking in made it go slower.  And then he used his tongue to control the car and in which direction it went it.  This is also how he controls his wheelchair.  He talked crap to the game just like any other teenage kid would do.  And watching and listening to him play his game you would never guess he was living with a disability until you see his wheelchair.  Seeing this kid play, act and smile the way he did even though he had every reason to complain about his life just inspired me like I have never been inspired before.  Most people would of just given up, complained, and let those challenges ruin their lives.  But not Gilbert he still lived life to the fullest and is happier than most people I know.  And Camellia had a disorder that caused her bones to not mature or grow strong.   They were so weak in fact that at 18 months she already broke her arm from crawling and broke her leg from trying to walk.  The disorder is not fixable and her caretakers said she was not expected to live long.  Her own weight will one day most probably break her spine.  This really caused me to take a step back and look at life in a different way and choked me up a little.  Because even though this little girl will most probably face many struggles and live a short life all she cared about was playing with my plastic water bottle.  And she did it with the biggest smile on her face.  Being around her made you do nothing but smile and appreciate life that much more.  It really made me realize how the small things in life really don’t matter and should never bring you down.  These two kids are the reason why we are going to get on our bikes every morning no matter how bad we hurt and no matter how tired or sore we are.  They are the inspiration that makes us want to make a difference for people living with disabilities because all they want is to be accepted and treated like a normal human being instead of being judged just because they have more obstacles in their lives then we do.  This first friendship visit was an amazingly powerful one and I will never forget it.  It will touch me and inspire me to never let the little things in life get in my way from loving life and smiling.  I hope stories like this will inspire you to do the same!!  I know I am biking across America to improve and change the lives of people with disabilities but today I feel like Gilbert & Camellia changed my life more then I will ever be able to change theirs!  “The only disability in life is a bad attitude!”

Seattle Orientation Day 3 & 4

Monday was not to exciting of a day.  We just had our orientation stuff again to go over how the summer was going to go and to make sure that we all were comfortable with the policies and procedures! And we went over the punishments for not following them and or riding our bikes in an unsafe manor.  The punishments went from being racked for the day all the way to being sent home.  It sounded kind of harsh that we could be sent home after doing all this preparation for this trip.  But its necessary to enforce the punishments to make sure we all make it across the country without anyone getting injured or hit by a car.  We also had skills assessments so they could see as bikers where we all stood and how comfortable we all were on our bikes.  This just amounted to us riding our bikes while pointing out debris and other obstacles like potholes that could be on the road.  We also practiced looking back without swerving all over the road.  That is so we can look back to see if traffic is coming when we are out on the road.  Dean Peterson all watched us and critiqued our riding styles and positioning on the bikes to see if we could do anything to improve them.  Then he gave all our bikes a quick look over to see if everything looked good.  Dean is a professional cyclists that we are fortunate enough to have come help us out while giving us tips on cycling and even showing us how to do maintenance on our bike.  Then we just had another free night to walk around Seattle.  I just want to get this journey started, I am getting really anxious!! Today we had a 30 mile training ride in Seattle.  This was so we could get used to biking with each other and riding in pace lines.  We had a few problems as far as keeping things going and got red flagged a lot.  So it took a little longer then it should have but other than that we all did a great job and had a great ride.  The ride made me that much more excited and anxious to start our journey across America.  I am wanting to start so bad its almost becoming unbearable!!  Also during the day we learned that this summer there is going to be a lot of “hurry up and wait.”  Its just due to programming of the summer and the friendships since we have to hurry up to get some places but then have to wait to either leave or start. But this ride and the 4 day orientation just showed me how amazing this summer is going to be!  We had a kick off dinner at an Italian restaurant and then had rest of the night off, but since tomorrow is the first day of biking we spent most of the night packing all of our stuff up and getting our bikes and bags ready!!  Tomorrow is going to be the start to the greatest journey of our lives!!

Seattle Orientation Day 1 & 2

Well I landed in Seattle safe and sound.  I called one of the Journey of Hope guys and had them come pick me up at the airport, and in about thirty minutes they were there.  The crew guy driving the van already had two other cyclists with him so I put my bike and bags into the van where I could find room.  And this was when I met the first three guys of the 28 that I would be spending my entire summer with.  I am not going to lie I was a little nervous but also very excited.  The first three guys I met where Chase, Bryce, and Paolo.  My flight was delayed by an hour and a half so I was late getting to the hotel we were staying at sp we were in a rush.  We threw our stuff in our rooms real quick and had our first team meeting.  We started by going around the room and saying our name, where we are from, what school we go/went to, and what we are studying/studied.  We also had some of the national Push America staff there.  They are staying with us for the first few days to make sure everything got running off to a good start, and I was finally able to put a face to the voices that I have been talking to for the past 6 months about the Journey of Hope.  As we went around the room introducing ourselves I just looked around trying to comprehend how these 28 complete strangers were going to become my best friends over the next 71 days.  All I could come up with was this summer is going to be a wild, crazy, incredible, unforgettable, and life changing journey!  After the team meeting was over we all got in the vans and headed to the University of Washington where they where grilling burgers and hot dogs for us.  We all got there ate and then re introduced ourselves and started going over the policies and procedures and the rules of the road that Push America has for the Journey of Hope.  Then we did a little ritual that each Journey of Hope route does on the first day.  For it we just went around the room said what our name was again and said what made us do the Journey of Hope and why we wanted to do it.  It was really awesome to hear these guys give personal reasons of why they were here and what they wanted to get out of the summer.  It broke down the walls we had and really let us to start to get to know each other.  Then we had the night to ourselves so some of us just explored the city of Seattle and got some ice cream at a restaurant called Dick’s and called it a night.  On Sunday we just woke up ate breakfast and headed to REI, which is a recreational store.  It was the largest REI in the country.  It had everything including a waterfall, climbing wall, a test bike trail, conference rooms, and a huge sales floor.  It was pretty awesome to walk around it.  Then we stayed there all day in one of the conference rooms they provided for us and went over the policy and procedures to make sure we all knew all the hand signals and safety rules we would be using this summer while we were biking across America!!  A Pi Alpha(someone that has participated in a summer event of Push America before) brought us lunch for the day.  After that we had our first friendship visit at the ARC of Seattle.  It did not have the turnout it was supposed to so we had to change the plans a little bit.  But it was still a lot of fun and was a good opportunity to learn what to do and how to act when things don’t go as plan, since plans will change often over the summer.  And this is when I found out that we did not have somebody there to put out bikes together like I thought we were going to.  So it was interesting trying to put my bike together when I did not know how it was taken apart and have never put one together.  But luckily a few of my teammates knew what they were doing so they helped me out and made sure that I did it right.  We had another free night in Seattle so a big group of us walked around Seattle and got ice cream again.  Then we walked to the Pier and walked around for awhile.  As we were all walking back to our hotel and joking and talking about nonsense I realized that I have only known these guys for less than 36 hours but it felt like we have been friends for months.  This is when I realized that these guys were going to slowly go from strangers to my best friends in a short 2 months.

Hey

Hey sorry guys it has been awhile since I have posted anything but we don't always have internet.  So just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about the blog and am still doing it.  I will post several posts the next time I get internet so keep checking back!!

Seattle here I come!

So I am currently on the plane and heading towards Seattle!! And I can’t wait to get there.  Thursday and Friday were both hectic and busy days.  Thursday was my last day of work before leaving and after work I had to move all my stuff out of my current house.  I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to rent a place or buy a house so I just rented a storage unit and moved all my stuff there until I get back. But I finally got all my stuffed moved and got home around 11:00PM.  Friday I woke up and cleaned out my car, vacuumed, washed, and cleaned it all up so it wasn’t dirty while it was sitting in the garage for the next three months.  Then I headed to Evansville to pick up a few last things for the trip and headed back home. Then I had to go visit my sister, my niece and nephew, and my grandparents so I could say bye.  After that I went to visit my aunt and uncle Rich and Mary Lou.  My uncle Rich is a big reason of what has been pushing me to prepare and participate in the Journey of Hope.  About two years ago he had a severe stroke and became disabled.  Seeing and hearing them talk about their daily struggles to get through each day just makes what I am doing that much more real and important.  Them, like many of us, were just living a normal life without a worry in the world until he had a stroke and their lives were forever changed.  Which just proves that our message of acceptance and understanding, which will be promoted across America, is that much more important, because any of us at anytime could be just one health condition or one spinal injury from becoming disabled?  I will bike the entire summer with my uncle in the back of my mind!  After leaving their and saying all my goodbyes I finally made it home and was able to finish packing.  When I got done it all started to sink in and it was crazy to see that I had the next 2.5 months of my life packed in a duffle bag! But sadly enough I didn’t get done packing until 2:30AM and I had to leave my house to head to the Indy Airport at 3:30AM.  So I was only able to get about half an hour of sleep, which made the 3 hour drive to Indy from St. Anthony a little rough.  My first flight flew out of Indy and landed in Las Vegas with no problems.  Yeah I was in Las Vegas for the first time, exciting right??  Except I was stuck in an airport the whole time so I didn’t get to go explore the city but after all it is Vegas so they had slots everywhere in the airport.  So I naturally had to play a few of them, and actually came out $100 ahead! So the trip has started off great so far minus the lack of sleep!!  Our plane in Vegas was delayed an hour due to mechanical issues but we are now in the air heading to Seattle.  I was able to get about another hour of sleep on the flight to Vegas so now I am running off of only 1.5 hours of sleep in the past 36 but pure excitement and adrenaline is running through my body keeping me awake and going.  I cannot wait to start this awesome summer and journey across America!!  We have a four day orientation in Seattle before we actually start our Journey of Hope across America, so as always I will keep you all posted on what we are doing as a team!! Until next time, remember that we all have disabilities just some of us are fortunate enough to hide them and others are not!! “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”