7/7/2011 - Roswell, Home of the Aliens

This journal entry picks up from where I my last update left off in Needles, CA and continues to where I currently sit as I type this message which is at another McDonalds (this one all the way in Roswell, NM).

On June 26th we left Needles, CA and traveled to Lake Havasu City, AZ. In case you didn't notice, a transition in states just occurred there; it wasn't until the beginning of our third week that we finally left California and began our journey through a new state. Lake Havasu was incredibly welcoming to our group. We all stopped at a gas station still a few miles from our ultimate destination so that we could pick up our largest group of Ride-Alongs yet, a handful of local cycling enthusiasts. Then, we rode into a Walmart that stood just on the outskirts of the main city. There we were able to refresh ourselves on lots of fruit and Gatorades that were graciously donated to us. Also, we first met Brighid Stevens there. She was the main coordinator for all the programming we were able to be a part of during our time in Lake Havasu. That night a large special dinner was put on for ourselves and the people with disabilities in attendance to enjoy. This was a great chance to meet many of the locals in this very welcoming town. The city had made a special committee of volunteers just to prepare for the Journey of Hope's time there. One of the coordinators gave us an award for the contributions we were making to assist people with disabilities. Also, at one point he mentioned that Lake Havasu City was in the running as one of America's more friendly and patriotic city. This claim from him definitely seemed founded after enjoying the hospitality that had already displayed in just the few hours we had  already been there. As a complete surprise to myself and many of the other cyclists, a band starting playing as everyone was completing their dinner. This band was rockin' too! They played a lot of classic rock covers, including Steve Miller Band, the Beatles, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Johnny Cash. I was up there near the stage dancing with the beat alongside many members of the JoH team and some others too. One of the locals was playing a mean air guitar as he stood against the stage right in front of the lead singer. A lady helped guide a man in a wheelchair up near the stage to my left. So, I walked over between songs and introduced myself to him. His name was Jeff and he had lived in New York City almost his entire life before moving to Lake Havasu about 5 years ago.  I was glad to help support him as he showed me some of his tremendous dance moves. He definitely showed a passion for his dancing as he swayed in rhythm to the music being played. Too bad they never played any Elvis songs, as that is his favorite singer. After getting to spend most of the concert at his side, I was truly amazed with the abilities Jeff possessed.

The next morning (for our day off from cycling) we got lunch at a local Knights of Columbus chapter in Lake Havasu. After finishing our meal, we divided up into our 6 van groups and each designed our own cookie from a whole roll of dough. My group ended up deciding on a map of the United States; I felt that this was appropriate considering that day's proximity to the 4th of July. Since we only had 10 minutes to complete it we had to work fast. Immediately afterwards, we drove over to New Horizons, which is an organization that had many at the dinner the night before. There we got a chance to catch up with many of the familiar faces from the previous evening. Our time there was short, but we got to spend it playing games and creating art with them. I painted a quick sketch of the Golden Gate Bridge to leave there at the center. Hopefully someone there will enjoy having it displayed wherever they wish. For that afternoon, we drove over to a local Pi Kapp and had dinner and got to spend some time at his pool relaxing. The host family and their friends they had invited over to meet us were all extremely supportive of our trip. Also it was cool to meet a UNC alum of Pi Kapp that was there as well in attendance. I invited him to Chapel Hill the couple days we will be riding through there, so I hope to see him then.

The morning of the 28th we left our favorite destination of the trip so far and headed to Parker, AZ. This was only a 40 mile ride. I swept for it and this gave me a nice and relaxing pace so I could enjoy the scenery a little more than normal. For lunch that day, we had our meals served by the local Meals on Wheels.

Leaving Parker for Wickenburg was our longest ride yet; the final distance recorded was 108.9 miles. As a result, this called for a 4am wake-up, our earliest of the trip. Right from the start I knew this was not going to be an easy ride. The headwind we were dealing with was just brutal. I don't have any numbers as to how strong the wind was blowing, but mile after mile it seemed to get worse, while our legs were getting tired still early in the ride. But, it was a pretty awesome feeling to complete my first ever century! That evening we had dinner at an Elks lodge in town. After dinner was complete, a few members of JoH performed our first ever Kids on the Block for an audience. KoB is a puppet show put on by us to display certain challenges and situations people with disabilities may go through on a regular basis. It is performed because generally someone in the audience may feel more comfortable asking a puppet questions about how they live with a disability than an actual live person. This method of raising awareness works especially well with an audience primarily of children.

After our police-escorted ride into Phoenix, we met some Pi Kapps from Arizona State University. Also, it was here where we first met Kim Novak, who certainly made us feel at home during out time here in Tempe (and Phoenix). She is the campus advisor for Pi Kappa Phi at ASU, so she was well-acquitted with the organization we were riding for, Push America, and what exactly the trip was all about. After getting settled into our lodging, an ASU dorm, all of us traveled over to a local disability center to watch "Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook". This documentary dealt with the eliminate of institutions where many people with a disability were often sent. It explained the reasons why the shift away from this style of "treatment" for people with disabilities occurred. One of the biggest opponents to this system were many influential members of the Kennedy family. As a result of the increase in the numbers of people with disabilities looking for places to become involved with, many more centers focusing on individualized care geared towards that individual's age and disability were created. For dinner this evening, we went to Peter Piper's Pizza (similar to a Chuck-E-Cheese) and ate pizza and played some arcade games with some of the those that showed up to join us. One kid, Sean was determined to play the coin drop machine until the roll of 1000 bonus tickets dropped from the shelf. After a couple hours of playtime (and a seemingly endless amount of tokens provided by various members of JoH), he successfully accomplished this! The money spent for tokens was well worth it to see the sense of accomplishment and joy displayed on this kid's face as we all celebrated with him.

On July 1st we had a noon wake-up; our latest of the trip so far. Since I had become accustomed to waking up between 4 and 6am, when I got up around 8:30 I felt like I had slept in for ages. Me and some of the other guys on JoH walked from the dorm we stayed in to go to the student store. There I purchased an Arizona State t-shirt. I'm planning on getting some sort of collegiate wear from each of the universities we stop at along the way. This is the first major one for us on the trip, but many more will be reached before the summer is over. These include Texas Tech, UT Arlington, Texas Christian, 'Bama, Georgia Tech, and UNC-Chapel Hill (of course). There are probably a few more, but those are ones that came to mind right now. For lunch we loaded back up in the vans and traveled into downtown Phoenix to eat some Chipotle that a local franchise had kindly sponsored for us. After this we walked across the street and spent some time interacting with the residents of the Westward Ho. Kim had informed us before then that this was the only time during the year that a large group like ourselves came and visited the residents that called this place home. During my time at the root beer float social that we put on I got to meet Larry, a retired college chemistry professor. Getting a chance to chat with him about the little bit of chemistry I could remember from AP Chem junior year of high school truly showed how incredible this man's abilities were.

On Saturday we left Tempe and headed to Globe. This was honestly one of our toughest rides we have cycled, especially considering that it was only 80 miles. The combination of high heat (around 110° or more most of the day) and several steep climbs made for a hard day in the saddle. But, the dinner provided to us that night was awesome! Pizza, fried chicken and watermelon (along with a seemingly endless supply of chilled Gatorades)...what could be better?

On the 3rd we biked through what was probably our most scenic ride of the trip. A large portion of it was through the Salt River Canyon. We approached one side of the canyon and then biked down to the base of it. Then we got to climb back out of it. As tough as this part of the ride sounds, the views afforded to us during this whole time were simply amazing. To be expected, I captured plenty of photos whenever possible. That evening we spent the night at a church in Lakeside. After dinner at the church, we performed KoB for our second time. Because of the tight fit all of us caused inside their chapel, I originally had put my sleeping bag on one of the pews (with my bags stuffed underneath me). But, I could not fall asleep because I keep scaring myself that I might fall off. I had to find a new place to sleep, even if it meant sleeping right next to the door that seemed to stay partially open all night, letting in a cold draft.

We celebrated July 4th with a 115 mile ride that crossed into New Mexico towards the end of that day's trek. Graham, one of the cyclists I rode with that day broke his rear derailleur cable early in that ride somehow, so the rest of the day he limped along on two speeds, as he could only change his front two gears. Since his rear derailleur was stuck in the smallest cog in the cassette, he had a little bit of a tough time on the hills. But he made it through the whole ride that day...what a stud! We had dinner at a local cafe that was next door to our lodging. Here they served home-style pizza, oh boy!! Also, they had ice cream for dessert. For a town of only a couple thousand, this treatment was pretty awesome and unexpected to get.

After the end of our ride this day, we arrived in the middle of Socorro to spend some time with their residents with disabilities. A couple people I talked to explained to me the intense history that Socorro possessed. First, they told me the significance the Civil War had on their town. I never knew that Socorro, a small town in the middle of the desert in New Mexico would have been a battle during that war. That evening for dinner I met Royce that competes regularly in Triathlons. He said he competed in them before an accident left him without use of his legs and said that after a couple years away from competing he wanted to continue this passion he once had. So, he acquired the proper equipment needed to contend and is once again competing...quite successfully at that. In fact, on August 7th he will be competing in a triathlon in New York City!

Leaving Socorro, we continued on to Carrizozo. This was a pretty eventful bike ride to say the least. Probably the craziest thing that happened was when we got chased two separate occasions by two dogs that day! The first occurrence was pretty early on in the morning and we thought the dog might just be wandering down the street, but once we started approaching it decided to give chase to our paceline. None of us expected this to happen, so we had to kick it in high gear and get moving fast. Later on in the afternoon, we were biking along having a nice conversation about each of our individual colleges when a Rottweiler looked down at us from someone's front yard. It barked a little bit at us, but nothing to worry about. But as we were passing, it decided to come sprinting down the hill and try to reach us. We watched, waiting for the electric fence to halt the dog's furious sprint, but it never happened. As a result we got a little antsy and had to accelerate rapidly once again to avoid the dog taking out anyone's rear tire, or worse. Eventually we made it to our arrival point, where then all the cyclists got in formation and arrived at New Horizons, a local disability organization in this small town. There we got to each lunch with those that resided there, close to 20 in all. After our meal, we got massages!!! This was such a welcome relief, as I had not had a single massage during this trip up to this point. The lady showed me several stretches I could do to help keep everything in smooth working order after a long day of cycling.

This morning we left Carrizozo and biked around 90 miles into Roswell, the land of the aliens. Unfortunately no UFOs were spotted during the entire bike ride that day. But, after our arrival with Tobosa, a local disability organization, myself along with several other guys went into downtown to check out the Roswell UFO Museum and Research Center. Here I learned a little bit of the history behind all the hype; what actually occurred and all the speculation on both sides since then. Afterwards we went back to our lodging for the night and got a chance to open our mail from our latest maildrop! I received several cycling magazines (a couple of them on the Tour), some candy to munch on, and several wonderful cards from my family. Also my sister sent me a cool postcard from Boston, where she is currently spending several weeks at a ballet intensive. This evening we met with the same group again for dinner. After we took care of a few 6' Subway subs we got to enjoy a magician perform some pretty awesome tricks for us and the others in attendance.

So here I am, sitting at McDonald's again wrapping up my latest blog entry. Of course this time I'm in Roswell, NM where for some reason they didn't have Sweet Tea available. It's ok, once I see a flying saucer cruise through the drive-thru I will forgive them... still waiting...

Location: Roswell, NM

(Not sure on the ride data - I need to sync my bike computer to my laptop)

Today's temperature:  100°

Today's humidity: 23%

6/25/2011 - It's Been Awhile...Here Goes

Ok, so this is my first time I've had access to Wi-Fi since my last journal entry. In fact the only way I have internet now is because I'm sitting here in a McDonald's in Needles, CA which has got to be one of the hottest places in the US. When we finished our ride today it was 112°. Alright, I'll pick up after my previous journal entry.

On Tuesday, June 14th we had our longest day yet and we climbed the largest coastal peak in the contiguous 48 states, Big Sur. I climbed 7700' feet over the course of that day's ride. This day didn't turn out to be as bad as I expected, this probably had to do with the awesome views of the Pacific Coast we had the chance to see as we rode.

Wednesday our friendship visit consisted of spending lunch with a local Special Olympics organization in Santa Maria after cycling from Cambria that morning. Getting a chance to play different games including soccer, ultimate and softball was an awesome experience along with the tasty subs that they sponsored as well.

The next day we cycled to Santa Barbara and had the wonderful opportunity to eat lunch at the Jodi House and get a chance to meet some of the people there. This organization works specifically to assist people that have suffered from some variety of traumatic brain injury. They help adults that may have suffered from a stroke, received their injury because of  an auto accident, along with other reasons as well. This center was started by the mother of a college student who received a severe injury when she was hit by a drunk driver while she was walking down the side of a street. Because she was at the age that no youth centers would accept her for treatment, her mother sought out any kind of place that would agree to care for her. Sadly, no place existed. As a result, Jodi's mother ended up creating her own place to care for her daughter, and soon after other adults with brain injuries. While Jodi is no longer alive, her mother and the center continue to care for a large number of individuals who come there and partake in a variety of different social and therapeutic activities. James, one man I talked to for a while during lunch was active in the ceramics programs offered by the Jodi House (and partially funded by a grant from Push America). Also, he was employed  by the FAA for the local airport. Learning about the awesome abilities many of the people at this center was incredibly inspiration for me.

On Friday June 17th,  we had our first day off from cycling. While this might sound like we didn't do anything that day, in fact we had a pretty full schedule; although sleeping in until 9:30 was awesome! The latest wake-up for the trip up until that point had been 5:30am. That morning the cyclists assisted with a biking camp that the Down Syndrome Association of Santa Barbara County had been putting on that week. This camp utilized bikes that were adapted for those children participating in the camp. The first few days, the camp organizers used bikes with a very wide rear wheel that allowed the children to focus on basic aspects of cycling without worrying about the risk of falling from imbalance. But, during that week, they had progressed to bikes with decreasing width rear tires. Because this was the last day of the camp, almost all of the participants were able to ride on a traditional bike. My job as a volunteer for the camp was to assist those cycling around the gymnasium in regaining their balance should they begin to fall. Let me tell you, this was tough work! This required lots of running as I had to keep to their side as they pedaled around on a set course. Sometimes they would veer towards a wall; this led to some near-misses and a few gray hairs on my head haha. After the camp had concluded, there was a ceremony recognizing all the children that had participated along with the Journey of Hope volunteers. I watched proudly as Liezel and Holly (two of those I had guided as their lost their training wheels) were recognized for their accomplishments. Right after the ceremony had commenced, all of us left to meet a group that was camping at a local park right beside the Pacific Coast. At the campsite, I assisted Eric put together his unique tent called the "Tent Cot". This was a pretty sweet design that I had never seen before in all my years of Boy Scout outings. He and his father were both active outdoorsmen. His father parasails regularly near Big Sur.

Saturday morning we departed Santa Barbara for Thousand Oaks. This 72 mile ride started out as a pretty simple task; Scotty Hamilton and I were cycling between 20 and 25mph for much of the day. But, a incredibly steep, seemed to materialize out of nowhere right at the end of the ride. This three-mile hill behemoth strained my body more than any previous point of this trip. One mile of this stretch was never less than a 10% uphill grade. In fact, a couple instances my GPS bike computer recorded grades as high as 21%! (although I somewhat doubt whether it was quite that steep haha). It didn't help that we got our first taste of the desert as we left the California coast and began to head east.

On the morning of the 19th, we left the YMCA we stayed at in Thousand Oaks and headed for Rosemead, which is a suburb on the north side of Los Angeles. Towards the end of this ride, we got to experience true city cycling for the first time on the trip. The last 15 miles of so of the 65 miles ride we had to maneuver through the congested streets of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas. I learned a couple years ago when my family vacationed in LA that traffic is simply horrendous at almost all times of the day. Now Bradley Fleck, Matt Calardo, John Roman and myself got to experience that on bike...and at rush hour in the morning. But, at least we did not end up cycling through Compton, as some of the cyclists had joked about how they thought that would be a little interesting. I considered the idea, but only if I was able to ride a different bike for that stretch - one that could get stolen and it not matter too much haha. For lunch a couple local people with disabilities came over to where we were staying. One of them, Elliot, had been in a number of different TV shows including Glee and Grey's Anatomy. Also, he had been able to get a private tour of the White House. I felt honored to have met such an important person! That evening for dinner we went to a local home of a Pi Kapp that had previously done Journey of Hope in 2005. The Mexican food they served in their backyard was delicious!  

The next day was our second day off from cycling. For brunch we went to IHOP and enjoyed a nice big meal there. I couldn't decide on one thing to get, so I got the Split Decision. But, being the picky eater I am, I didn't want the sausage links or eggs, so I had my own "Split Decision" of extra bacon, pancakes and french toast. Also, I couldn't decide on just one syrup, so I went with a combination of traditional, blueberry and strawberry all melded into one tasty mix. The only way I could rationalize eating a meal this fattening was the fact that I was burning thousands of calories all the other days thanks to the cycling. Later that afternoon, we all loaded up in the vans and traveled over to Ability First. This is an after-school organization that primarily works with school-aged children in helping them develop their social skills by interacting in small groups of other children overseen by a volunteer. After we got a turn of their facility, we helped set up for the carnival they were putting on for the children of that organization and another local branch of Ability First. They certainly turned this into a full-scale event with lots of games for those in attendance, snow-cones and popcorn being served, along with face painting all managed by Journey of Hope participants. In addition, one of the center volunteers played some dance music and many of the children there got pretty into it! Many of them knew the Thriller dance far better than I did, and some of them were even break dancing. That evening me and a few of the other guys traveled from our lodging and went to Hollywood Boulevard to check out the city a little. We walked along the sidewalk there and I got my picture with a few of the stars on that walk. Later on we drove up the windy road that leads to the Hollywood sign. As it was already dark when we got to the sign (and for some reason it is not lit at night), we were unable to get any quality pictures with it in the background.

On the 21st, we left Rosemead and traveled a full 36 miles to Ontario. Compared to some of the other rides we had up to that point, this was nothing. About the first half of it was on a bike path, which made it even easier as we didn't have to worry about watching out for vehicular traffic. After getting settled into our sweet lodging for that evening, The Doubletree Hotel (aka not a high school gym), we attended a City of Ontario Town Council meeting. One of the members of the Town Council is a Pi Kapp. At that meeting, the mayor of Ontario presented us with a Certificate of Recognition because of the positive effect we had on his city!

On Wednesday we left for Victorville. This was probably our toughest ride up to that point. Not only was the temperature continuing to climb day after day (at lunch it was around 105), we had to deal with the other type of climbing - lots of elevation ascent. The hardest example from the day was a 10 mile stretch that increased over 1800' during that span. I just kept my pedals moving along at an even pace even though I had no idea when this continuous climb would end. We were rewarded with a pretty sweet downhill on the other side of the crest; I hit 43mph without even pedaling very hard.

Thursday we had a pretty easy ride going into Yucca Valley. It was flat pretty much the entire way, so we were able to average 20mph or higher for most of the 75 mile ride. I bought a pretty sweet American t-shirt at Walmart that I am looking forward to wearing on 4th of July. That day we will be in Reserve, NM. I don't know much about it, but I'm sure they will be shooting fireworks there so that's all that matters

On the 24th, we cycled to Twentynine Palms which was only a 21 mile ride (our shortest so far, and probably the shortest we will have all summer). Since it was pretty much all downhill - there was only about 200' of ascent that whole day - my paceline (consisting of Cody Poplin, Patrick Sullivan and Alex Everline) and I were able to average 21.6mph. So, if you do some simple math, that results the total riding time being just under an hour - a luxury that will be enjoyed no other day on this trip I am sure. That day was the first time that a crew member participated in a "Ride Along" with the other cyclists. Addison rode Graham's bike for the day. That evening we visited Joshua Tree National Park nearby. Climbing up some of the rock formations there provided us with some pretty spectacular views of the surrounding "forests" of Joshua trees and desert.

Today (at last!!) our destination was Needles, CA. But, before we could reach this lovely little resort in the middle of nowhere we had to cross the Mojave Desert...approximately 100 miles of it. Needless to say, this was one of our toughest rides. Riding a century is tough on its own; adding in the temperature at the finish (112°) didn't exactly help either.

You will notice some of these days do not include any mention of a friendship visit we got to partake in. Unfortunately many of these smaller, more remote areas do not have organizations that work to assist people with disabilities. So, on those days primarily consist of only biking. Although over the years the Journey of Hope has been organized there has been a substantial increase in programming in this area of the country which is very positive to see.

Hopefully I will have more regular internet access from now on, so I do not have to write these marathon blog entries. Maybe I can sneak away to McDonald's more often from now on; the Sweet Tea I'm sipping on now is starting to remind me of home all other good things Southern...Hope all y'all back home are doing well! Shout out to my cycling group back in Fuquay-Varina, The Spiritual Spinners!

Location: Needles, CA

Total mileage traveled: 540.5

Total calories burned: 31653

Today's temperature: 107°

Today's humidity: 3%

The Trip Commences

Since I haven't been able to update my blog for a few days I will start with Friday, June 10th. That morning we had our team pictures taken at Fort Baker which sits at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. That evening we ate at an In-'N'-Out Burger near Fisherman's Wharf. This was my first time eating at this West Coast version of Cookout, so of course I had to commemorate the event with the purchase of a t-shirt from the restaurant.

Saturday was the last day of training before the trip began the next day. So, we started the day off with a 24 mile training ride. While not exactly a very long ride it did include some pretty good inclines; we finished with 2,400 feet of ascent. The downhills were a little scary because along with being pretty chilly most of the year, the Bay Area is also quite windy. A couple time the crosswinds were pretty strong. Dinner for that evening included a meal at the Buca di Beppo in downtown San Francisco. This was a great event that brought together the participants of Journey of Hope (for both the North and South routes), their families, and the staff of Push America. The CEO of Push gave a speech that stressed his urge for us to get as much out of this awesome experience we are privileged to be a part of.

Moving on to Sunday, the day it all officially began. We had to wake early this morning...really early (4:45 to be exact). After getting all our gear and bicycles packed, we left the Alpine Inn for the last time and headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. We had breakfast on the San Francisco side with our families, and then after a couple speeches we were driven over to the opposite side of the Bridge to bike back and kick off this ride. This breakfast was also the last chance we had to hang out with the North route cyclists and crew who biked north off the Bridge and headed on their own separate course to Washington D.C. As I cycled on the Bridge I was able to snap some photos of the other cyclists, myself and the scenery. After we crossed the Bridge, the South route cyclists and the supporting crew traveled through San Francisco on our way to Santa Cruz. Because of some delays experienced at the start of that first day, we were unable to complete more than 50 miles of the 80 miles we were scheduled to cycle for that day. Also lots of construction traffic kept the vans from continuing to move ahead and support us as we rode. As a result we had to be racked and driven to the lodging for the remaining 30 miles. After arriving at our lodging for that night, we met with the organization for that day for dinner in a local park.

This morning we began the day with our 50 mile ride leaving from Santa Cruz and traveled down the coast to Monterey. This ride as a whole was not too difficult; there wasn't as much ascent that we experienced the day before. Primarily the roads we were riding on bordered strawberry fields, lots of them. After the cycling was complete and while we were preparing for our first arrival of the trip, the crew fed us an awesome snack of fresh strawberries and cherries. We rode in formation to the Gateway Center. They warmly welcomed us with applause and a banner they had made as all the vans and bikes rode into the entrance. The lodging tonight had wireless internet, which I was very pleased to learn. This allowed me to type and post this entry you are now reading.

You will be able to tell which pictures were taken while cycling because most likely they will be pretty crooked.

Location: Monterey, CA

Total mileage traveled: 100 miles

Total calories burned: 5559 cal

Today's temperature: 60°

Today's humidity: 83%

The North and South cyclists and crew at Ft. Baker

The UNC participants of JoH

Madison Philips, Rose Queen for our chapter of Pi Kappa Phi, shows up bright and early Sunday morning to support us as we begin our ride

Me with the family outside Buca di Beppo

All of the South cyclists crossing the Golden Gate

Just one of the many spectacular views of the Pacific Coast I was able to capture on the bike

 Strawberry fields forever

 Riding in our formation on the way to the Gateway Center

First Blog Entry

Here is my first blog entry to document my time spent on the Journey of Hope. Today the cyclists and crew continued our orientation meetings in the morning. This primarily dealt with policies and procedures to make sure we stay safe in all situations we may encounter. This is especially significant because there will be many different scenarios we will have to deal with during the 4,000 miles of cycling on the road over the next two months. After this, we quickly stopped by the coast near where we are lodged. Though it is early June in California the temperature was a bit chilly along with some pretty strong winds; needless to say no one actually entered the water more than ankle-deep. In the afternoon we had our first friendship visit of the Journey of Hope. It was located at the Janet Pomeroy Center where we had a chance to interact with the people with disabilities there by playing basketball and sharing dinner with them. One of the members of the club, Michael, celebrated his 52nd birthday at the center with us. Another person that made an impact on me was a girl named Skylar who basically made up whatever dance she wanted and then myself along with three other cyclists just followed along. Skylar, myself, and the other cyclists were all laughing and having a great time the whole  30 minutes or so we  copied every move she wanted us to mimic. This was my first friendship visit of the kind I have had the pleasure of participating in, and this is something I definitely look forward to as a regular part of our evening schedules over the next couple months. That is all I have for today but I will keep this as updated as I can with information about the outings at the charities we will work with and those we get the opportunity to meet at these events. Also, once the cycling begins on Sunday I will include information and photos from that portion of the day as well.

Location: San Francisco, CA

On the (cold and windy) California coast

Michael and I