While eating breakfast it started sprinkling a little bit but the weather was still okay to get our ride started. After breakfast by the fountain, we did a quick circle up and welcomed our ride-a-long for the day, a former Pi Alpha named John Shumacher. We then made our way around the fountain to take a group picture with the Chicago skyline in the back. The sunrise was absolutely beautiful and it was a great way to start our morning out of the city. I rode with Kyle Marpe and Luke Millen, our two Purdue guys who were very eager to get back into Indiana. We started our ride with an awesome bike path that ran along Lake Michigan, and I can't think of a better way to begin the morning on the bike. It was only about 15 miles to get to the state line but it took a little while because of a lot of construction, traffic lights and detours. After a little over an hour of leaving Chicago we arrived in Indiana and Kyle and Luke were very happy. The ride from there was very interesting and pretty dangerous at times. The beginning of Indiana was very sketchy and the towns we were going through were not some I would like to be walking through at night. When we rode through Gary, Indiana I saw more than one sign with bullet holes in it. The roads were also in very bad shape with huge holes, open water drains, and cracks throughout the lanes.
We were riding at a very strong place and we arrived at our lunch location right behind the first pace line. We stopped about 45 miles in at a beach along Lake Michigan to eat with a Pi Alpha from 1991. He was the project manager that year and it was crazy hearing him tell us about how much different things were back then, including a lack of rules and structure. He said he would wake up every morning and drive to the next town to try to find a place to sleep and eat for the guys. It blows my mind how much things have changed. I do not think my Mom would allow me to do this trip without a cell phone either. After about an hour at the beach and a good lunch we got back on the bikes to finish the last 45 miles. The ride remained flat pretty much all day which helped the day go by faster. Everyone was rolling smoothly until we were a mile outside of lodging and I hit a huge rock. No more than 100 feet later my front tire was flat so we had to stop and change it. Fortunately I was able to get it changed quickly and get back on the bike to finish the day. Five minutes later we pulled into St. Josephs's High School which was our lodging for the night. Once we arrived everyone had to rush to get showered up and ready for dinner with the Knights of Columbus.
At 5:00 we drove over to the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus, who have been hosting the Journey of Hope North Team for 7 years now. They prepared an awesome spaghetti dinner for us which was awesome after a long day on the bike. By the time dinner was coming to an end around 7 everyone had been up for close to 16 hours and were getting very tired. I caught not only myself but a bunch of my teammates dosing off during our introductions and all I really wanted to do was go to bed. After dinner Colin's mom took the whole team to go get ice cream which was very nice. I never thought I would be so excited to get ice cream but the whole team really craves it after riding all day. The milkshake was the perfect way to end a long day, and while there everyone had a blast hanging out.
When we got back to lodging Spencer asked me if I wanted to go out with him and check out the route for the next day. We drove about 20 miles into the ride and then turned around and went back to lodging. Within 15 minutes of getting into the building and laying down I was out for the night. Another amazing day, and I look forward to enjoying these next two weeks with the 34 most amazing guys I have ever met!
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