Days 41/42 Wichita, Kansas

I love when people predict the future for you when they explain certain feelings you will have while on a trip.  Before the trip, everyone always explained how there will be a string of a couple days that will really hit you and make you realize what you are really doing on this trip.  It is a time where you really evaluate yourself and think about the little things.  We had another moderately light day at seventy miles.  What we have not had in awhile is an official arrival into the friendship visit.  Word going into today was that today’s friendship visit is one of the most fun of the summer.  To be the most fun of the summer, it would have had to top a lot of great ones. 

We rolled into the parking lot for the official arrival where the entire Rainbows Organization was standing there waiting for us.  They introduced themselves and invited us inside for some fun and pizza.  When we got in there, they broke us up into groups.  Each group was assigned to a “classroom” where a handful of clients awaited us.  This is where I met possibly two of the coolest little kids I have ever encountered: Ashley and Kevin.  Ashley suffers from autism and I am unsure from which disability Kevin suffers.  We sat around an extremely small table and ate pizza and gave the kids a chance to warm up to us.  Kevin loved clapping his hands together and making a motion of an alligator moving.  There was a song that went with it that he taught me and we sang it every three minutes it seemed like.  It put the biggest smile on his face every time the alligator “snapped” in the song and we clapped our hands together really loud.  The little girl Ashley, however, is now my favorite person of all time.  She had the most contagious laugh ever and you could not help but glow with excitement and happiness when she smiled and shoed those big teeth of hers.  She could not have been any older than four years old, and she loved every part of life.  I spent a lot of time with her, playing with stuffed animals and dressing up as Bob the Builder.  She would not leave my side.  One of the care givers came up to me and explained that he had never seen her warm up to a stranger like she had to me, and that made me feel so special.  Something inside of me felt so good to make this little girl do something she is not known to do.  After awhile, they took us out to their meeting room and sang to us.  The first song was, “Oh, Happy Days” form the movie “Sister Act II,” and then a person with Down Sydrome did a solo of  “God Bless the USA.”  There were so many times during the song where I almost teared up because this guy had one amazing singing voice.  The head lady of the organization did start crying if that puts it in perspective for you.  They turned the tables and told us that we now had to sing songs for them.  We quickly talked and put together ideas that we would sing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and I can honestly say that we would make an amazing men’s chorus.  After that, we had two of our guys that are amazing singers do a duet to “Lean on Me” while the rest of the team was behind them swaying back and forth singing along with the chorus. 

 

After the concert, they took us outside where there was a canvas hanging on a piece of wood and many buckets of paint sitting next to it.  They told us to have at it and just go crazy on the canvas with the paint.  Once we were finished and there was paint everywhere, they explained to us that they were going to auction off the painting and donate the money raised to Push America, so that was really cool.  This entire time, Ashley is right there by my side, holding the paint so I could dip my paintbrush and reload. Again, she never left me.  There were so many activities that they kept throwing at us.  They brought out bottles of whipped cream to put on the strawberry shortcakes they served us, and that quickly turned into whipped cream contests and who could hold the most in their mouth.  This contest quickly turned into guys giving handfuls of whipped cream to clients to smear in other guy’s faces.  Of course, Ashley immediately went over and held out her hand to get whipped cream.  Who did she pie? Yep. Me. All over my face. She started laughing hysterically, and the whole room busted out laughing because she made it so contagious.  Leaving his friendship was possibly the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  Kevin was definitely a crowd favorite so he was outside shouting at everyone yelling goodbye.  He would not stop saying goodbye and followed us all the way out to the vans.  Ashley held the hand of her care-giver as she followed me out to the van.  I knelt down and she gave me the biggest hug ever.  I told her I had a blast and she just started laughing, so I could not help but smile.  I said I hope I see her next year, and she gave me the biggest teeth-showing smile of all time.  It definitely lived up to the hype of being the best friendship visit of the summer so far, and I can thank Ashley for every little bit of that. 

 

The dinner that night was at an assisted living center that does a lot for the community and people with disabilities.  We learned what they had to offer to everyone and what they do.  Back to my intro, the last three days have definitely been the time where it has hit me what I am really doing this summer.  A combination of Joe, Frank, the singer today at Rainbows, and especially Ashley has provided me with the realization that I should always be happy no matter what is going on in life.  Every time I listened to what Frank had to say the other day and every time I saw that amazing smile and heard that awesome laugh of Ashley, I told myself that there is no way I should ever be negative towards anything.  Here these people are, living every day of their lives with disabilities, and they could care less.  They are taking what God gave them and making the most of it.  After this trip, which I do not want to end by the way, I hope I will always carry the message I received from the last couple of days in that I should never take anything for granted and make the most of everything that is handed to me in life.  Hopefully everyone reading this understands and follows the same message that I took out of these days and visits, because I honestly believe there is no better way to live your life.  I want to give a shout out to my family who I love more than anything in the world.  I would not be where I am today without all of you.  This includes all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents as well.  I love all of you and I cannot wait to see everyone again. 

Day 40 Pratt, Kansas

There will be a couple of days that I will never forget form this trip, those that stick out above and beyond the rest of the days.  Today will be one of those days.  The ride was hot just like it has been the past week or two with this nation wide heat wave.  It was a relatively short day compared to the past couple of days with it being seventy-five miles.  Once we got to the high school gymnasium that we were staying at for the night, we had to hurry and shower and change to get to our friendship visit lunch we had.  When we get to the city park to where we were directed, we walked up to the shelter to yet another big welcome.  We went through a food line to get sandwiches and chips and watermelon.  I cannot explain how much I love watermelon (funny story coming up in a bit).  I started eating and visiting with a man who absolutely loves the Harry Potter movies, so we had a lot to talk about while we ate. 

After we ate, the woman in charge of the organization explained the day’s activities.  Just wait until I explain what all we did.  The first was a game called Water Balloon baseball.  It is exactly what you think it is judging by the name.  One person was the pitcher and would throw a water balloon to the hitter who was holding a metal bat.  If the hitter made the balloon explode with water, he would run to first base where a person was waiting for them with a bucket full of water balloons.  The person at first had two opportunities to throw a water balloon at the runner, and if the runner caught it, they were allowed to throw it back at the guy.  If the water balloon exploded, the runner was out, and if they missed or the runner reached first base before getting hit, they were safe.  It was a blast and everyone got soaked.  After pretty much every got a turn hitting, it pretty much turned into a straight up water balloon fight with the remaining water balloons. 

So here is the funny story I warned you about earlier.  So the next event they had planned for us was a watermelon-eating contest. Of course I entered myself to represent the great state of Indiana.  The contest was who could eat the most watermelon slices in a three minute time span. We had to eat them all the way down to the white part of it. I ate as fast as I could, but because the watermelons had the black seeds in them, biting into those seeds were unexpected obstacles every time and slowed me up. I had to fight through it! In the end, a guy from Virginia Tech had eaten 3 ½ watermelon slices to my 3. I gladly accepted my second place finish.  We were extremely sticky but it was so worth it.  After a quick session of karaoke that included “I Believe I Can Fly” and many Queen songs, we headed back to the high school to rest up before another sponsored dinner.

 This trip has incorporated many things that I have never experienced in my life.  Tonight was yet another one of those experiences.  Tonight I was able to shoot archery at a local field with an organization that focuses solely on archery and teaching how to shoot a bow and arrow.  The first one I picked up was a compound bow, where once you pulled it back a certain distance, it locked and all you had to do was pull a little trigger to make it release the arrow.  There was a scope to look through to make sure you were shooting completely accurate.  Once I pressed that trigger, I did not even see the arrow in the air before it hit the target bulls-eye.  The man explained to me that with the compound bow, the arrow was being release at 340 feet per second.  It was a really cool feeling to pull that trigger and see you hit the exact target at which you were aiming.  Later, we used traditional bow and arrows and tried to shoot a moving target they had set up for us.  They had a deer manikin on a line that they would release and “run” across the field.  There were three of us at a time that would try and release the arrow at the right time to hit the moving target.  It took my six times before I finally put an arrow into the side of that deer.  It was a great feeling, nothing like I had ever felt in my life.  It is really cool to partake in many activities that I would never think I would do in my life, and for that I am greatly thankful for this opportunity.  Kansas has been amazing to us, and I really look forward to the rest of the stops in this state.

Day 39 Dodge City, Kansas

“GET THE HELL OUT OF DODGE!” Before coming to Dodge City, I had never heard this phrase, but apparently it’s pretty famous.  This city was pretty popular as far as old westerners and Western Movies.  Today is the 4^th of July so I am pretty excited to see what this somewhat-small town has to offer us for the celebration.  I heard somewhere that fireworks are banned in the state of Kansas like they are in Indiana and Colorado, but I am hoping that is not the case. 

For lunch, we had a friendship visit with an organization called Arrowhead West.  They had wrap lunches for us when we got there after we were greeted by a ton of people.  I sat down with a guy named Roy who was probably around the age of 60 if I had to guess.  We started talking movies, music, sports, hobbies, and anything else you could imagine.  He is a DIE HARD Kansas Jayhawks’ fan, so we had plenty to talk about with their basketball team.  After we were done eating and had snow cones for dessert, it was time to take part in a number of activities.  They had a ball game that was similar to cornhole, but there was a trampoline in front of four different holes that you would try and bounce the ball into the hole.  There were a number of us who were around the ball game, and we formed a line of clients so they would have a chance to bounce the ball into a hole.  We let them bounce ball after ball until they got one in one of the four holes because we wanted to see their face light up.  No matter how many tries it took, the biggest smile would surface on the face of a client who just successfully bounced a ball into a hole.  We always raised our arms and cheered when it happened, which made the smiles even bigger.  It was a cool thing to see.  Other activities included a dance game on the Wii, button making, and just sitting around and talking.  My friend, Chris, and I talked to a man named Frank who was one of the coolest guys I have ever met.  He had such a positive outlook on life that it makes you think if you have really appreciated all of the little things in life that go unnoticed.  “You have to have a positive attitude about everything in life.  No matter how bad things are going or if you have something wrong with you.  There is no way a person can be happy throughout life without having a positive attitude.”  These are words I will never forget. Here is a guy with cerebral palsy and almost no functionality on the right side of his body, and he is telling me about having a positive attitude at all times.  It really put things in perspective for me.  He was a great man and I will always remember him for making me appreciate the little things in life no matter how hard things get.

 Tonight was absolutely fantastic.  Dodge City used to be a pretty famous old western town, as I said before, and there is still a part of the city that resembles the old western style.  Boot Hill is a museum type setting where there are many saloons and taverns set up with displays in each one.  We had a sponsor take us there for dinner where we were fed barbeque, corn, rolls, and apple crisp.  It was just like a good home cooked meal and it was delicious.  They acted out a famous gun fight for which Dodge City is known, and then we got to see the great “Miss Kitty and her Can Can Dancers” show.  Of course we were close to 30 college guys at a can can dancing show, so of course we were very enthusiastic and let our presence be known.  As soon as the actors picked up on it, they started using our enthusiasm in the show and made us a part of it.  There were a couple times where one of our guys was called up to the stage to act as a special person, and we were all dying laughing.  It was awesome.  As we were walking out, one of the dancers said, “Hold on boys. You are supposed to take pictures with us.” So we all posed for pictures with them and had a blast talking to the actors and explaining what we were doing.  Then one of our guys asked if they could teach him the can can dance.  Naturally, once one guy wanted to learn, everyone did.  Group by group, we got up on stage with the dancers and learned the can can dance.  We had an absolute blast with them because they were making fun of us and how witty we were acting.  All in all it was a fantastic Fourth of July.  It was definitely different than any celebration I have ever had back in Indy. There were occasional booms of fireworks of in the distance, but nothing about which worth talking.  Hope yall had an amazing Fourth of July!

Day 38 Garden City, Kansas

Well Colorado pretty much lived up to all the hype from past JOH’ers.  It was a lot of fun with a lot of great experiences and memories.  Today we entered yet another state: Kansas.  At the beginning of the trip, it seemed like new states we a rarity.  Now it seems like time does not even go by before we are in another state.  There are not really any huge expectations with Kansas except for a lot of rolling hills and farmland.  Our PM and crew chief keep saying this is the part of the trip that the days get long and boring and it is very easy to become lackadaisical and get involved in a wreck, so we will see how this stretch of days go. 

 

If today was any indication of how Kansas will be the rest of the days, then the expectations will be far surpassed.  Today was awesome.  Yesterday, our PM (Project Manager) received a call and an invitation to come to a dance party today.  We did not originally have any friendship visit on the sheets for today, so of course we could not say no to a friendship visit, let alone a dance party.  We love dance parties.  We got there and immediately threw ourselves onto the dance floor.  The clients were kind of skeptical at first because most of them are normally shy when we first get there no matter what the activities are for the day.  Once they realized how much fun we were having, they joined us out there and it was a blast.  There were balloons everywhere, so the added games of hitting the balloons up in the air while dancing made it even more fun.  We met a guy named Joe who was sitting at a table and not dancing, and he absolutely loved Coke more than anything in the world.  When he saw me carrying a coke over to a different table, he asked one of my friends what my name was and called out to me.  He motioned me over to his table and we started talking and had a great conversation.  The Coke cans were the special Olympic editions and had an athlete on the can.  There was a face or anything; it was just a white figure.  He started talking about his days in the Olympics (he was talking about Special Olympics but we kept egging him on that he was in the real Olympics and he loved it), and then explained that the figure on the can was actually him.  Every person that passed our table was told how great of an athlete Joe was and how famous he was for being on the Coke can.  Little did we know he was actually a professional arm wrestler, too.  He challenged all of us.  When it was my turn, I was expecting a pretty fair match and I may knock him out of the winner’s seat because he had already beaten five of us.  I did not stand a chance.  This guy was so strong I could barely last five seconds.  After almost two hours of nothing but dancing and hanging out, it was time to head back to lodging and get ready to head to dinner.

 

Dinner was unlike any we have had so far this summer.  We went to the fancy, tasty, classy Golden Corale! We had an absolute feast.  Some people had four or five plates full of food.  If you think about it, that is not very surprising because of how many calories these guys are losing every day so they have to stock up.  After we were finished, you could tell people were hurting because their stomachs were so full, but we did not care one bit.  Back to THE HOTEL we went for yet another great night of sleeping in a bed.  I am not sure why the sudden string of hotels and beds, but I am not complaining at all. Thanks for reading!

Days 36/37 Pueblo and Lamar, Colorado

I probably should have done this to the day in Wyoming that did not really have anything really exciting, but I am combining the last day cities into one to make the blogs more bearable.  When we left Colorado Springs, Bruce Rogers joined us for yet another ride-along.  If you are a first time reader, Bruce is the first man to do Journey of Hope and kind of created the event.  Every time a team gets to have him as a ride-along it is a very special day.  The funny thing is that here is the man who has been riding with Push America from day one 25 years ago and he is the one who had the most flats on the day.  Just goes to show that it does not matter how talented of a rider you are, you can still get a lot of flats on the road.  I had Bruce’s son with me in the van all day and it was cool to talk to him about the bikes he races and what it’s like to have the almighty Bruce Rogers as a dad.  He had some cool stories to tell me about him and he is everything I expected him to be: a smart, loving, old-fashioned father that makes you work for everything and earn it.  Pueblo was a cool little town with yet another old-fashioned city feel to it.  We stopped at a place called the Gold Dust Saloon that fed us with some great burgers.  It was also a good stop because a lot of us wanted to watch the championship match of the Euro Soccer Cup.  We hung out at the saloon for a while and visited with Bruce and his family as we watched the game and waited for our rooms to get set up.  Yep, we stayed in a motel again last night.  We love when we stay in these places with actual beds. 

Today was miserably hot.  It was a pretty long day as far as mileage goes, and an even longer day as far as how it felt.  There were a couple times where we had to rack because of construction, so we had the vans stop before the construction and load the bikes.  If you are unsure, it takes a pretty long time to load the bikes on the vans and get everyone inside.  We carry everyone’s backpacks in the vans on the road, so we have to unload the backpacks for the cyclists to get in and then load the bags on top of them.  Once we got through the construction spots, we had to unload everything just like we loaded it.  Because we had to do that twice, even though it meant traveling the miles faster, the time it took to load, unload, load, and unload again made up for the time being in the vans.  We stopped at a small little town in a parking lot for a crew lunch of sandwiches and chips.  It was so hot that our water was not cold anymore, but because the water was not hot, some of the cyclists volunteered for a bath.  We poured the rest of the water in each cooler over a cyclist and got them nice and wet.  It was pretty funny.  To make it even worse, people from past trips have said that the lodging in Lamar is the worst of the summer and it did not disappoint.  It is by far one of the worst.  We were all relieved when it was dinnertime and we got to go to someone’s house in the air conditioning.  We were staying in an auxiliary gymnasium that is dedicated to wrestling.  The year on the bricks outside the front door say 1919, and I honestly think no renovations have been done to this structure.  The hour that we had before dinner was a relaxing time, but no one was able to relax because they would start sweating within five minutes of sitting down.  As hard as it is to believe, being outside in the heat was much better because of the wind.  I will be so glad to leave this place in the morning.   I cannot even imagine how bad it will be when we are all trying to sleep tonight.  Well wish us luck and pray we do not get dehydrated in our sleep! Night y’all. 

Day 34/35 Colorado Springs, Colorado

The last two days have been very interesting.  Yes the fires are right here in this city and we can constantly see smoke from them.  When we were riding into town yesterday, we could see the smoke rising above the mountains many miles away.  The smoke was blowing in the opposite direct from us so it did not affect any of our cyclists.  We rode into the Olympic Training Center where we had a tour of the entire complex.  First thing we did when we got to the complex, however, was eat lunch in their cafeteria.  It was everything you would imagine an Olympic training center’s cafeteria would be.  It had all different kinds of food from which we could choose. As we walked around, we saw a couple of athletes still there training.  Most of the athletes were home to visit with family for one last time or already overseas.  The few athletes we saw were mostly wrestlers and boxers.  It was still cool to see real life Olympic athletes training right before our eyes.

After more tours and pictures, we headed to lodging which was a dorm on the campus of Colorado College.  I say dorm because that is the term that they used, but it was really a Victorian House with a bunch of rooms in it.  Supposedly this is how most of the “dorms” were set up on campus.  It was multi-level and had a lot of really cool rooms inside, and on the main floor there was a game room with a pool table and then a common room with beanbags and a huge TV where we watched movies at night.  Dinner that evening was at the house of the President of Colorado College who has been sponsoring this dinner for many years.  He was unfortunately unable to make it, but still had his staff make us dinner.  Everyone said it was a shame that he could not be there because the memories they have of him are hilarious. We got to go out that night around the town because it was yet another college town. This time we were by the campus of both Colorado College and Colorado University at Colorado Springs, which is a branch of CU-Boulder. 

                    

Our day off may be the only day where we have no sponsored events at all.  We had the entire day to ourselves to do whatever we please.  In the morning, some of us did laundry to get it out of the way.  I had not done laundry in forever so I had a lot to do.  It feels great to have clean clothes again.  After lunch, we took a van to see the Air Force Academy.  Because we were going to see the campus and the grounds, I can now say I have been to nine different college campuses on this trip.  The night was ended with a big game of ultimate Frisbee, which was a lot of fun.  Not much going on here in the city of Colorado Springs because of the fire, which is a shame because there is supposedly a lot of fun things to do in the mountains that are closed.  But it was a pretty cool city all in all.