We were pulling out of the parking lot of the hotel before the sun was out which was not something we usually do. I rode today with David Iles from The University of Iowa and Chris Stubel from Georgia Tech. Chris really wanted to make it to Lincoln the entire way on the bike because he is one of only two guys that have been able to ride every single mile of the trip thus far. The team had some very strict rack points today so we really had to push a fast pace to make it on time. The first 15 miles of the trip went fine and then problems started unfolding in front of us. At around mile 20 Chris got a flat tire which wasn't to big of a deal. We got back on the bikes and not even 10 miles later the same exact tire went flat again, and Chris was very frustrated. Flat tire really set a pace line back and at this point we were going to struggle to make rack point in time. After struggling to change the flat we got back on the bikes and had zero problems until Chris wrecked. His front tire hit my back tire which caused him to lose control and wipe out. Although he was okay and had no serious injuries it was still annoying. Chris is by far our best cyclist and to have all of these things happen really infuriated him. The moral of our pace line was pretty low at this point and all we wanted to do was get done with the day. After getting a flat myself about 15 miles later we finally arrived at a crew stop and were told we had to rack our bikes. I felt back for Chris because he has rode every mile up to this point but there was nothing we could do about all of the set backs today. We were transported in the vans to mile 89 and were able to ride the rest of the way into Lincoln. After a 13 mile ride we pulled into Raising Cane's, a great chicken restaurant that sponsored a great lunch for us. The whole team got fed and it was often to lodging where we would be spending the next night.
After getting showered up and settled in at lodging we had about 2 hours of free time before dinner and our friendship visit. We went walking around Lincoln, got ice cream and then went to a bike shop to stock up on tubes because of all the flats we've been getting lately. At 5:00 the team loaded up in the vans and went to a local park for dinner. We met with the Lincoln Sertoma Club at Antelope Park and had a wonderful mean and great conversation. The members were very interested in the team and we all shared a common goal of helping others. It is great to see other organizations helping out communities and it was definitely something everyone had a passion for. After dinner we went to a church for our friendship visit. The team was told beforehand that we would be dancing with the Arc of Lincoln for two straight hours, so we got excited. When we arrived there were a lot of people there which really got the team pumped up. We enjoyed two hours of hanging out, dancing, and creating life long memories.
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| JOH North knows how to take control of a dance floor! |
Instead of being in the middle of the dance floor like usual, I decided to take a different approach to todays friendship visit and talk to clients that were not as into the big group setting and didn't want to dance. I went to the back of the room and met a 54 year old named Jerry. As soon as I walked up to Jerry I could tell he didnt let his disability stop him, which was being blind. I had a long conversation with Jerry spanning from hurricanes, to girls and even some of the routes we had taken this summer. Along with Jerry I was able to talk to a client in sign language which is something I have not tried to do since sophomore year of high school, and I helped a girl named Candy collect autographs from all of my teammates. Hanging out off the dance floor was a entirely different experience but very rewarding in its own way. I made a lot of connections with different people and todays friendship visit is one I will remember for a long time.
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| Jerry and I after a great conversation |
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