Day 5 Enumclaw, Washington

Well today is the day. Over 4,000 miles. 27 brothers. Last night during circle up before bed, Dad (our project manager) told us that the motto for when he rode JOH in 2009 was “27 in, 27 out.”  So obviously we adopted that motto for our own team.  This means that we started with 27 team members in Seattle and we want 27 people to head out of Washington D.C. at the end of the summer.  We woke up at 6:00 a.m. again this morning to get ready and the cyclists rode from the hotel to Olympic Park where we had our first friendship visit.  When we got there, family members and friends greeted us with an amazing breakfast that consisted of casseroles, bagels, and an assortment of fruits.  After some time visiting and saying goodbyes, the crew members set out to their spots and the cyclists began their first true day of being on the road.  Weather conditions were of course raining and cold again, seeing as how we were in Seattle, but that did not stop the team from having a great time.  During my crew stops, I was going to play certain songs that pertain to that day or just songs from the 90s that no one has heard in a very long time.  Because I was only marking turns for today, I was not unable to release my plans to them, so they will have to wait until tomorrow for that when they ride 125 miles over two mountain passes. 

Our friendship visit tonight was with an organization called the Ashley House of Enumclaw.  This organization is set in a home that assists people and families that have children with disabilities.  They care for the children until they are twenty one to help out the family who cannot provide support for their own child.  The house was so cool.  It was a pretty good size house and had every handicap accessible part of a house you could imagine.  There was a twelve year old named Derek who was completely confined to a wheelchair and could barely move any parts of his body.  I am not exactly sure what his disability is called, but some of the things he was doing were incredible and as if he had all the abilities in the world.  He loved to play video games.  After reading that he has trouble moving body parts, you are probably wondering how he could play video games.  There is a motocross video game that has is obsessed with on his computer.  He positions himself in front of the computer, and there is a joystick that comes out of a device in front of him.  He puts it in his mouth and moves the joy stick to steer his player.  What I still do not know to this day is how he accelerates and brakes, but you better believe he was controlling that somehow.  It was truly amazing to see and he had about fifteen guys surrounding him cheering him on every time he won a race.  It was definitely an amazing first day of the trip, and I cannot say it enough how excited I am for the rest of the summer.