First day in Grand Island

Woke up in Minden at around 6 am for a short ride to Grand Island. By this point in the trip we have surpassed the half way point in mileage and have almost done the same day wise. In the past 4 days we have rode almost 400 miles so everyone was very excited for a 47 mile ride. The team got outside and had breakfast which included donuts and then we circled up. During circle up we made a video for my mom thanking her for the donation so that we could go to the movies, did our morning prayer and then got ready to leave. I rode with Doug Meenan for the second day in a row and David Iles from the University of Iowa. With such a short ride we were ready to get the miles over with quickly and get a day off the bike the following day.

After 4 consecutive days over 85 miles the 47 miles seemed like nothing. The three of us kept a quick and consistent pace and before we knew it we arrived at our stage up spot in Grand Island. The team met up at a John Deere Dealership to wait for our police escort to take us into town. Because everyone got there so early we had about 1 1/2 hours of downtime so I ended up taking a nap on the side walk outside of the building. When the police arrived we got into our double pace line formation and followed Benny and Kyle's van into town to our lodging location. After a 4 mile ride we arrived at the Holiday Inn to a group of about 50 people very excited to see us. The Arc of Nebraska was there to greet us along with many others. Along with the Arc, there were two news stations which everyone was very excited to see. The team met with all of the fans and then a representative from the city announced that July 8th, 2013 is declared the first annual Push America Day in Grand Island, Nebraska! This was very exciting and it was awesome to see a city be so gracious and welcoming to us. 

We finally got out of the heat and enjoyed a fantastic lunch from KFC and Sonic and had the opportunity to shower. We were given the option to hang out at the hotel and relax or go to the bike shop so I went to the shop and stocked up on bike supplies such as tubes, CO2 cartridges, and a new bike computer. We got back to the hotel about an hour before it was time to leave for our friendship visit so I was able to get in a quick nap before we had to meet back up. At 5:30 we loaded up in the vans and went to the Elk Lodge of Grand Island for our friendship visit with the Arc. While there we had dinner, had a dance party and hung out with the clients and it was an absolute blast! Today was definitely one of my favorite visits of the summer thus far and we made a lot of new friends. Along with everything else, the Ladies of Grand Island recognized those who celebrated a birthday on the trip with a t-shirt. It is amazing to see how a group of 35 guys can find all the energy that we do to dance and have a great time after spending all day out in the sun and working our butts off.

Chris Stubel getting wild on the dance floor 

We got back to the hotel around 8:45 and I went straight to the pool. After swimming for a little bit we went to Sonic to get milkshakes and then went back to the hotel. We have a long day during our day off the bikes tomorrow so lots of rest will be nice! Excited for a full day of programming tomorrow!!