Toledo, Ohio

As we leave the state of Michigan today, I cant say I am too upset. Other than the fact that it sucks we are leaving another state, Michigan was very rainy and gloomy for the majority of our trip and I know the team is hoping for better weather in Ohio. We woke up around 5 A.M. and made our way downstairs to go back over to the Pi Kapp house to have breakfast and get our bikes. Breakfast was sponsored by the Ramptons, who are parents of a former JOH cyclist. This was probably one of my favorite breakfasts of the trip which included lots of fresh fruit, delicious pastries and the best cereal I have ever had. Once that was done we got our bikes and got ready to make our way to Ohio. I rode with David Iles once again and Jack Johnson, my chapter brother. We planned on having an easy day on the bike and keeping a steady pace during our 60 mile ride and that was going pretty well until about mile 25.

The ride was pretty flat and although the roads were crappy we were rolling well. We were approaching some railroad tracks and the best way to go over them is to run them perpendicular. Jack was in the front of the pace line and he took the tracks at a bad angle and his front tire got stuck in between the tracks. He ended up crashing and when he went down he slammed his shoulder down on the ground as well as hit his head. He wasn't feeling to well and after going to the hospital he found out he got a concussion and several other scratches. And to make matters worse his bike was pretty beat us and had to be taken to a bike shop to get repairs. It is always hard to see one of your teammates go down so afterwards David and I were pretty flustered. Once Jack made his way into the van and I racked his bike on top we continued on our ride to Toledo. David and I talked about what is going to be happening in the next week and how we planned on going to visit each other. The roads continued to be pretty bad throughout the rest of Michigan and we were very excited to cross into Ohio. We got to mile 43 and noticed a few of the crew vans racking the cyclist. We knew there was a tight rack point but we thought they would let us ride longer. We racked our bikes and rode in the vans to our stage up location for our arrival to the University of Toledo.

Team Bilo arriving in Toledo

We hung out at stage up for a little bit and then got into our double pace line formation to do our arrival. We rode about 1/2 mile and arrived in front of the University of Toledo student union. this was a fun arrival because Beau Samples is from the area so he had a lot of family come out and welcome us. After the regional governor of Pi Kappa Phi and a Dean at UT spoke we went inside and had lunch. I was so happy to hear that we were having Chickfila for lunch because it is one of my favorite places to eat. The sponsors also had chips, fruit and cookies for us which was a nice lunch after a ride. The president at the local chapter said a few words and then we got ready to get to lodging. We were staying at one of the dorms which was really nice. After getting situated we got showered up and then went to the Sunshine Foundation for a friendship visit. The SF is a group that houses over 75 people with disabilities and while there we played different games in their gym. It was a lot of fun to interact with people of all different abilities and I had a blast playing basketball with a few of the clients. We weren't able to stay long because we had to leave to make it to our sponsored dinner.

For dinner we hd Outback Steakhouse which was AWESOME! Everyone got steak, chicken, salad and a baked potato. The dinner was so delicious and a nice change of pace. While at Outback one of the tables of our guys challenged themselves to eat as many loaves of break as they could. I think between the 4 guys they ended up eating 13 loaves of bread which reminds me of Beebs who loves the bread at Outback. We left the restaurant and went back to lodging to discuss the rest of our night.

Finally it was the moment we had all been waiting for; MASSAGES! The sponsors in Toledo arranged massages for the entire team. I have never had a real massage so I was very excited. My group got to the clinic and the massage was just as good as I expected. The lady worked my legs and lower back a lot which was exactly what I needed. We left and were free for the rest of the night and I planned on catching up on sleep. We have a ride to Sandusky tomorrow and we have another fun day ahead! I can not believe July is almost over. It is almost hard to imagine that we have come so far and we are almost to D.C.