Today was our first off day of the trip. YES!
Yesterday we rode from Pullman to Spokane, which was about seventy-five miles. The ride started out pretty miserable. There were gusts of winds that were extremely high with rain and cold temperatures as well. During the first half of the ride, the cyclists were going straight into a strong headwind, and then they got a relief of nice tailwinds the second half. Once we got up into the mountain, the fog dense rose significantly and got so bad that the visibility was low enough to rack the riders. We drove them up to rack point where a police officer met us to escort us into town because the streets in the city were too dangerous for bikers. We reached our lodging point, which was a kid’s center at a church, and got to hang out for awhile before we left for dinner. This kid’s center, to say the least, was freaking awesome. There were pool tables, foosball tables, basketball goals, four square, and an endless amount of rooms with couches for us to sleep on. Except for bedtime, I can honestly say that people were either using every game table, playing four square, or shooting a basketball.
When we woke up the next morning, we actually got to sleep in until 7:30. Yes, I did say we SLEPT IN until 7:30. We packed the vans and headed out to an organization called The Arc of Spokane for breakfast and a friendship visit. The food was amazing, as always. We had three different types of casseroles, bagels, fruit, and muffins. After eating breakfast and talking with some of the clients, it was time for games and activities. One of the big spots to be was at the Wii. Many people kept the bowling game going for awhile, and one guy was extremely good. I did not stay to watch very long, because I was working on a puzzle for quite some time, and then I made my way over to the pool table where we were working on domino train designs. What was really cool about this visit is that the care givers gave each client a piece of paper that had a lot of boxes on it and they walked around to each of us and asked for our “signature.” We would write our name, where we were from, where went go to school, and something we like to do. Every person that came up to me had the biggest smile on their face and asked me for my autograph. It was definitely one of the more fun friendship visits of the trip so far, but that is not saying much because we have so many good ones.
We had all day for free time to walk around the city of
Spokane, which is actually extremely cool. I was not aware that it is the second biggest city in Washington. Something else I did not know is that
Gonzaga University is in Spokane – I always thought it was in California
somewhere. Unfortunately, because
were walking around the city and then found out about Gonzaga, I did not have
my camera on me, so I was unable to take pictures of the campus, which was
extremely nice. At night, we had a
sponsored dinner at a Pi Alpha’s parent’s house in the mountains just outside
Spokane. When we got there, the
Panda Express catered food had yet to arrive, so we all spread out over the
land they owned that had tennis/basketball courts, ping pong tables, hillbilly
golf, a big basement, and common room where people just hung out and
talked. After we ate the food, a
lot of people watched the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Spurs to clinch the
series because normally we do not have access to TVs, so it was a blessing to
be able to watch that. They also
set up a volleyball court in the grass in the backyard, so there was a continuous
game of that for hours and hours.
The family was extremely nice and caring because they know what it is
like to have a son/brother on this trip.
Overall, it was an extremely fun time in Spokane, even though the rain
did not hold off the entire time we were there. Tomorrow we enter a new state…IDAHO!
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