Rockford, Illinois

Waking up today I was still blown away by how much fun everyone had at the dance last night. The energy the team is able to gather out of every inch of their bodies is amazing and truly inspires me to continue to push myself in every aspect of this trip. We woke up at 5:30 to get ready for a long ride into Rockford, Illinois. Unfortunately the moment had come where we had to leave the state of Iowa, but it was also exciting to check out a new state I have never been too. After a wonderful breakfast in the dining hall of the camp, the team met for a group picture and joined their pace lines. I rode with David Iles and Alberto Minnocci today and we chose to sweep, which I was very okay with after a rough day yesterday. David and I always have a blast when we ride together and today with Alberto was no different. We talked a lot about making sure we stay in touch after the summer, which included us planning trips to each other’s schools in the fall. Everyone was going at a slower pace today due to being worn out from yesterday so we were a little bit behind schedule. We got to lunch around 11:30 and by that time we were in a time crunch to make it to our friendship visit in time. Mark racked as many people as he could fit on the few vans that were at lunch, but because we were sweeps David and I had to keep going until we made it to a crew van with open spots. We ended up riding about 15 more miles and we caught up to all of the vans and racked our bikes up.

We drove about 20 minutes away from our rack point and arrived at an indoor sports complex in Rockford. While there we were going to play some different games with a group that was using the facility as a daily summer camp. Upon arriving I met a girl named Christie, and we quickly bonded. Before I knew it, I had a new girlfriend and I was being introduced to all her friends as Christie’s boyfriend. The team split up into two groups and with the clients we wrapped each other in toilet paper to make mummies. My group wrapped Travis, and after everything was all said and done we were declared to have the best wrapped mummy. Everyone in our group was very excited, and after Travis escaped from his wrap we moved on to other games. To end our visit some of the guys volunteered to get whipped cream pies thrown in their faces. It was pretty crazy to see how some of the participants reacted. While some were very eager to pie our riders, others didn’t like the situation at all and refused to do it.

One of the craziest things I have seen all this trip happened at todays visit. While some of the guys were outside, there were still some of the clients, as well as my teammates hanging out inside. I went inside and met a guy who knew every single mascot to any college I threw at him. He went around the table and asked everyone what school we went to, and without hesitation he named the mascot. I even tried to trick him by asking smaller schools, which did not faze him.

Doug Meenan who is from Rockford set up most of the days events for us besides the friendship visit. He lined up the lodging location, dinner, and breakfast for us tomorrow. Doug took a poll of what everyone wanted to eat for dinner and after a very lopsided outcome the verdict was Chinese food. Everyone was super excited and when we got to lodging and it was time for dinner the guys went crazy! I think I ended up eating so much my stomach hurt but it was so worth it! To end the night everyone laid out there beds in the middle of the room and watched Borat together. Everyone has a lot of fun going out and doing different things but these kind of bonding moments are what make us more closer!

After a long day I was ready to lay down and get some rest for our last 90+ mile ride of the summer. It is absolutely crazy how quickly this journey is going and if I could slow it down I would definitely try. 

Can't believe we rode across another state!