It has been a long time, but not because I did not want to update the blog but because we have been without internet for a long time. Mostly because the places we have been have not had a Starbucks.... yea, I thought they were everywhere too. Currently we are in Beckley West Virginia and I guess ill let you know how we got here, and ill start with the worst day that I have had on the bike.

The ride from Columbia to Union Missouri was hot and humid, but the worst part about it were the arduous rolling hills. With 97 miles in between the two cities my pace line was the only one to make it all the way. We made it up and down the hills in good time but the heat began to get to us by the end of the day. With sweat running down our faces and wet jerseys on our backs, the final destination appeared in front of all of us....wow, I just realized that that last sentence sounded like it came out of an epic war book. But the point is that we made it.

The next day we had a short 55 mile ride into St. Louis.  For the last 25 miles of the ride we had a full police escort into the city which was pretty incredible.  It took us about an hour to ride into the city passing through every stop light with the cops leading us.  We arrived in the park right in front of the Arch, it was a great arrival, because after we took all of the pictures for the press we got to go play in the fountain, which felt great after riding in the heat of the day.  That night we had dinner at an older alums house,  then we departed for a place called Sky Zone which is a recreational center that is made all with trampolines. The wall and the floor all had trampolines on them, it was a ton of fun to bounce around and play dodgeball with all of the guys!  We all woke up for an awesome breakfast at the hotel and headed off to a friendship visit.  The whole afternoon I fished with some people from the Arc of St Louis which was a great time! Sarah, the girl I was fishing with caught two fish! Then I talked to a guy that knew everything there is ever to know about television game shows, when the hosts died and who took over the shows at what times. We had a lot of fun and spent over 4 hours with them!

Over the course of the next couple of days, we had some great friendship visits. One of them was with an organization called Happiness Bag, and we had a great dance with everyone there. there was a large group of people there so everyone had someone to dance with! One of the guys there kept getting Kenny and I to do the worm with him and by the end of the night I was all wormed out... This was a great visit, because everyone there was so thankful to have us there. We danced our socks off.

Next we were at the University of Indiana, staying in the beautiful Pi Kapp house there... We had a visit that had a ton of different activities ranging from bingo to basketball outside! The next day we got to Indianapolis and got to work with an organization called Out of the Box and we played kick ball with the group for a good hour and a half! Running around the bases with some of the people there we a great experience because it was great to see the everyone there get out of their shells and have an awesome time! We had a day off in Indianapolis, and on the day off we got to work with a group called Noble. This group was by far the most organized as the summer, they had us all in groups, and each group was doing a different activity with different people at the organization. I got to sing “Baby Got Back” with a guy named Phil that I made up a great handshake with and also played Wii with another guy named Robert. Robert also told me that he wanted to win me a car on the Price is Right, hahaha.

The ride into Lexington Kentucky was one of my favorite rides of the trip so far, and a lot of it was because the last 30 miles of the ride, was through the horse plantations of the area. Every house had multi-million dollar stables for their horses with some of the most amazing houses that I have ever seen. I would not be surprised at all if multiple Kentucky Derby horses were housed in these stables. That night we had another dancing visit and I busted some Michael Jackson moves with one of the clients at the visit! I moonwalked all over everyone there. We had a day off in Lexington as well, and we worked with an organization that specialized in art programs for people with disabilities, but they also worked with the local community to make lexington a more accessible city.

The next day we headed to Huntington West Virginia which is where my Dad grew up, so it was pretty cool to ride into another place that I had been before. My mom, or as the team has adopted as here name, Momilton, sponsored a hotel for us, along with my Uncle John! Everyone wanted to say thanks! It was a great hotel that had internet for all of us to use and really great beds. The whole team is excited to get to Roanoke so that they can thank you properly mom. We had a visit at a park that night, but unfortunately it was raining pretty badly so for most of it, we had to stay under the gazebo at the park. Although I did meet Robert who is a self proclaimed Karaoke master who gives out roses to the ladies in the audience as he sings, haha it was awesome. We woke up early the next day and ate at a local biscuit shop, which was pretty amazing for breakfast, but it sat like a rock in my stomach for about 30 miles of the ride... since then we have continued through West Virginia, which by far has the worst roads of any state we have visited so far. Everyone is excited to get to Virginia specifically because of the roads.

One thing that has been great ever since Colorado, is that the riding has become pretty supplemental to the friendship visits, its kind of like the riding is just a thing we sit on for a little bit so that we can get to the next organization! Having so many different visits with so many organizations has been an amazing blessing and getting to DC will be bitter sweet because I will miss everyone around me so much.

Currently I am in a Starbucks in Beckley West Virginia and dont have much time left on the internet, so I dont have any time to edit this post before I post it, so I am sorry if there are some typos. I will go back and edit it next time that we have internet at lodging, but until then, I am sorry if it doesnt flow very well.

I will be posting pictures again soon as soon as I get my iPhoto organized so be prepared for that!

Until next time, enjoy the ride!

Every day, we have a couple hours that we can hang out because we dont have a friendship visit until later, and during that time I can either run errands, write a blog, or sleep, and over the past week I have chosen sleep every single time. Now we are in Missouri, im as caught up on sleep as I possibly can be, and I have some time to write my blog. Because I am so far behind, im just going to highlight the main places that we have stopped, Colorado Springs, Wichita, Olathe, and Columbia. In Colorado Springs we had a day off and it was a lot of fun, we were able to get an in depth tour of the olympic training center form the public relations manager of the facility, he works directly with the sponsorships from NBC and other large companies. One of the coolest parts was that we had the opportunity to talk to some of the paralymipians about their experiences and training. The athlete that we talked to was a swimmer and trained every day of the week, she was a really fun girl to talk to, and then later in the conversation we found out that she won three silver medals in the Beijing olympics! We also found out that when Michael Phelps trains there twice a year and when he comes there to train, they have a whole second buffet specifically for him because he eats so much of specific foods.

The next day, we entered Kansas..... Kansas is a flat state filled with corn and smells that you never really want to experience if you dont have to. We had an arrival at our friendship visit and had a great lunch, we all sang karaoke for a long time, and if none of you know, I have a stellar voice.... if you cant sense the sarcasm, you should. But anyway I partook in singing Taylor Swift Love song with one of the girls at the visit. I had a lot of fun with it and got very theatrical, at the part of the song that says "He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring..." I knelt to the ground and pulled out an imaginary ring. Overall I had a great time at the visit and was able to spend a ton of time with the people apart of Arrowhead West. That night we ate dinner at the local archery club. After dinner we got to test out our talent with the bows and arrows, and et’s just say that even though I was pretty good with a bow, I am pretty lucky that we do not rely on hunting with bows as our main source of food. The next day, we had an 80 mile day into Wichita, where we had another great arrival to a friendship visit where we played Bingo and had lunch. One thing that I have found that is pretty cool about Kansas, at least the western side of Kansas is that there are a lot of Broncos fans, so at most of the visits im able to talk about football! That evening we had a sponsored meal from a parent of a 4 time Journey of Hope member, and they were very nice and hospitable to all of us. That night we went out on the town to enjoy our night off, and in the morning we had a sponsored breakfast. Breakfast is by far the best meal to sponsor because we are used to a half or bagel, half of banana, and a small cup of cereal, so when we are able to feast in the morning it makes for a great start to the day. From there we went to an afternoon friendship visit and lunch. That evening we had a friendship visit with a local organization that aids people with disabilities to become independent. I met a woman who was just able to purchase a walker from the funds that we donated to the organization. It was very fulfilling to see that the hard work that I put into fundraising has made a difference and allowed a woman to continue to live independently. I also met the CEO of an organization called Lose Your Training Wheels. The organization teaches people with disabilities to ride bikes. They hold camps around the country each summer. That night we took a quick swim in the hotel pool and called it a night.

We have reached our mid-way point and most southern point of the trip in Wichita. From here we start heading north and counting down the next 2000 miles till Washington, DC. The day after Wichita, we had a 60 mile ride into Olathe, KS. We arrived at City Hall where the Mayor of the city proclaimed July 19, 2010 to be Push America Day which was a pretty awesome experience to have a whole community accept us so readily. We departed City Hall to the Kansas School for the Deaf which was our lodging for the next two days. After showering up we went to Marc Cameron's house to get a tour. Marc is a quadriplegic that had a diving accident in his 20's that left him paralyzed from the neck down. His entire house is accessible through buttons that he can press with his head on his wheelchair and through a lift system. Whether it is using the computer, answering the phone or opening doors, everything can be done from his chair. It was a really eye opening experience to see how someone who is a quadriplegic can live completely independently. That night, we ate a Texas Roadhouse and we stuffed our faces. If you dont know this about me, you will know now, I love bread... I must have eaten 10 rolls before dinner came out which proved to be a bad idea because I barely finished dinner, but in the end, it was so worth it. The next morning we had an omelet breakfast followed by a friendship visit at a local therapeutic center for children. I dont know what it is about our friendship visits with kids, but for some reason I always end up paired with the destructive kids that like to beat you up, so every time I leave these visits, I have bruises and slobber all over me, so hurray for that! That night we had a tailgate dinner and went to the Royals game, although the Royals are terrible, we had a great time at the game. Part of that fun arose from the gail force winds and hurricane rain that poured for 45 minutes before the game. James and I posed in the rain while people took pictures, only to later go out onto the field to be recognized on the jumbotron while soaking wet from the rain. We went to bed pretty early as we had three 5 am wake ups in a row...

We had a 75 mile day today into Missouri and it was extremely hilly... My legs were on fire basically all day, but we made it though. We arrived at the University of Missouri Pi Kapp chapter house which is our lodging for the evening, and it is an amazing house! It is a dry campus, and the house used to be a sorority house, and it still looks like a sorority lives there. My old chain was stretched out and started to skip gears so it was time for a new one, so I replaced my chain and now my bike shifts like it is brand new. The brothers and alumni of the chapter grilled burgers and hot dogs which were really delicious. Im going to call Sara and go to bed now because we have another 5 AM wake up tomorrow which is really starting to get old, but at the same time im getting used to it.

Until next time, enjoy the ride!

We finally made it to Colorado! My home state, the greatest state in the nation, a state that is much better than any other state. The best part about Colorado so far, is that we have been busier than have been on the whole trip! Not only with riding, but also with friendship visits! We had a nice 60 mile ride into Fort Collins to start it off. Fo Co was a great place to start our journey through Colorado even though it home to the rams. We stopped at the border to light off fireworks because Colorado has a ban. Once we got into Fort Collins, we got to the Chapter house of the local Pi Kapps and they sponsored a lunch for us which was pretty great. We were able to use their internet and hang out with the guys from the chapter. That night we went out to a local bar and had a great time with all of the local Pi Kapps.

The next day we had a short 50 mile day into Boulder. My home town! It was pretty great being able to show the team my school and home town. It was a beautiful day and we really got to see Boulder at its finest! We arrived at the a local rec center to meet with some paralympic athletes who race wheelchairs. One of the men there is a former Boston Marathon winner with a time of 1 hour and 30 minutes! It was a pretty amazing experience to see the athletes in action because these guys are world class athletes. They set up two racing chairs on rollers for all of us to race each other on. Each person had one minute to see how fast and far we could go. Needless to say, after that one minute my arms were dead and the next day I could barely lift them above my head. These guys will average 19 miles an hour over the course of a whole marathon, and the fastest that I got in my 1 minute was 11 miles per hour working as hard as I could. It blows my mind that those guys can even begin to go that fast! Overall this was a great friendship visit that really showcased the abilities of people with disabilities. The media was out at the event and you can read the story and see the video they took from this link:

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_15444552.

We also had a friendship visit with Sky'z the Limit, a local organization that works with people with disabilities. We had dinner, played basketball, softball, and yard games. That night our lodging fell through and Jessi, one of my older Boulder brethren let us all stay in his apartment. We crashed in the garage which was a funny site to see 20 guys pile into such a small space. Sara got home from Europe the same day that we got into Boulder so it was pretty exciting to be able to see her for the first time in a month.

The next day we all woke up really excited to get into Denver. We had a short 25 mile day and the weather was perfect. The route that we took was the same one that I took going home during training so many times, so I was really familiar with it. The team arrived at Invesco Field with the North Team cheering us in to the arrival. Brendle and I got to see some of our fellow brothers from Boulder who are riding on the North route this summer. Both teams got a tour of the field and took tons of pictures. After the tour both teams ate lunch and prepared for our arrival to the State Capital Building. We had a police escort from Invesco Field to the Capital for the entire 5 mile ride which was awesome. They shut down Colfax which is a main road through Denver for us to ride in. We arrived at the Capital to cheering parents, friends, and sponsors. The Governor Ritter spoke about the initiatives the state had embarked on for people with disablitlites and came around to thank each one of us individually for the work we are doing. Meanwhile Momma Hamilton or "Momilton" as the team calls her, went down the line making everyone put sunscreen on their noses. After our huge arrival we departed for lodging which was at the Marriott Courtyard in downtown Denver. Lodging was provided by Bruce Rogers, one of the founders of KRG Captial, Journey of Hope's title sponsor, and the man who rode his bike across the country in 1987 to raise money and awareness for Push America's mission. Bruce is the inspiration for the Journey of Hope and it was incredible to meet the man who started it all.

That evening we had one of biggest friendship visits, Peddle for Pennies sponsored by KRG Capital and Push America. At the event, cyclists from the two teams join up with Special Olympics athletes and ride laps around the pond in city park. The Special Olympics athletes are sponsored for each lap that they ride. I rode with a high school student named Mellissa. Together we completed 9 laps around the pond and we had a great conversation and a fun time barking at the geese surrounding the area. We all had dinner together and had a huge dance afterward with all the athletes and the Push America staff that flew in for the festivities. Everyone knows I like to bust a move, and if you are not everyone... I like to bust a move. I partook in the worm and a wonderful slow dance with Emily, a 24 year old special olympics athlete to the tune of "My Heart Will Go ON" by the one and only Celine Dion. Sara was able to come to the event as well, which was a ton of fun especially when she got a video of everyone dancing to "Party in the USA" - Miley Cyrus. That night we all went out to a bar with the North team to hang out, and then Sara and I walked up and down the 16th street mall for awhile.

We woke up early the next morning to go watch the 30th annual Paralyzed Veterans of America Wheelchair Games. We watched table tennis, nine-ball, and the slalom, which was essentially a huge obstacle course meant to mimic the daily obstacles that one in a wheelchair encounters. Watching the slalom was really inspiring and once again showcased the incredible abilities of one with a disability. That afternoon we traveled to Craig Hospital which is one of the top 10 rehabilitation centers in the country for spine and brain injuries. We toured the hospital which was extremely interesting to see the medical advances in the field. After our tour we got a chance to take on the local quad rugby team. Quad rugby, or murderball (should still be called this), is a 4 on 4 game where athletes who are quadriplegic try to advance a ball down a court to score through a goal line. Jason, a Gold Medal quad rugby player from the Beijing Olympics, taught us the rules and we jumped in the chairs to play. It was 2 JOH members and 2 quad athletes per team. We each played for 5 minutes and those 5 minutes were exhilarating. There is a main strategy to set blocks for the player with the ball. To set a block you literally get going as fast as you can in the chair and hit the opponents chair as hard as you can. At first it was scary but after being knocked around a couple times it became fun. Some guys got hit so hard that they got air in the chair and one of the guys actually had his chair, which is about 50 pounds, knocked over by a hit. The teams then split and it was our best four versus their best four. We scored first and then they went on a 10-1 run and won the game 10-2. This sport is part of the total rehabilitation for patients at Craig Hospital and once again showed that no one should be defined by what they can not do but rather by what they can do.

That night we had a sponsored dinner at Chipoltle and headed over to Coors Field to watch the Rockies play the Cardinals. Sara and my parents met me at the game which was pretty great because I havent been able to see them all summer. During the both Trans and North joined together to start the wave which lasted the entire 7th inning which was a spectacle to see because guys were just yelling to the lower level to get them to do the wave with us. The Cards were up 7-4 in the 8th when the Rockies scored 4 to tie the game. The game came to the bottom of the ninth when the Rockies hit a walk off home run and everyone went crazy. It was a great way to end an awesome two days in Denver. I said my goodbyes to my brothers on the North team and my parents, headed back to lodging knowing we had an early wake up to get to Colorado Springs in the morning.

This post is starting to get long, so I will cut it off now and post another blog in a couple days, keep checking the photos tab for new photos!

Until next time, enjoy the ride!

Reliable internet is something that is hard to come by on this this trip, and most of the internet that we are able to use is through high schools which block blogs and many other sites so that hooligan high school kids dont waste their time. Anyway, we made it through Wyoming! We rode 530 miles in 6 days, with stops in Casper, Cheyenne, Jackson Hole, Dubois, Shashoni, and Wheatland.

All of these days have been great. We woke up early, which I am starting to get used to. I have always been a morning person so the wake ups on this trip are not extremely hard to deal with, at least so far. In Jackson Hole, we got to go to a buffet breakfast at a steak house which was nice because it is not often that we are able to eat warm breakfast. After that, we went to K-Mart. Yea, K-Mart, I didn't know that they still existed either.... its like a step above the Dollar Tree and a step below Wal Mart. We got to the white water place and we got our wet suites because the water was 40 degrees. Then the lady for that owns the place came out and asked us if 9 of us wanted to go again later in the day, so of course I said yes! I got to go white water rafting twice in the day! We rode the bus out to the river and hopped into the rafts. We had a great time, and it was very pretty country! We went over this rapid called the "Lunch Counter" It is called lunch counter because people walk down to the rapid to eat lunch and count how many rafts flip over. After we finished rafting, we went to a local resort and did an alpine slide, but the group of us who were doing the white water again had to leave early to eat and get ready again. The reason that we got to go again was because a family that is from Tennessee paid to go later but they didn't have enough people to paddle so they needed some hefty strong fraternity men to go with them to help paddle. Brandon and I went with the family and the other guys went in another raft. It was really fun the second time around because we were in smaller rafts, so all of the rapid seemed like they were twice as large! The lunch counter rapid just tossed us around, it was nuts! In the other raft, one of the guys got thrown out and went under the raft and lost his paddle. He ended up being fine, but it was pretty crazy!

After the ureal day in Jackson Hole, we had three days in a row of 100 miles or more.... my legs are dead, and they hurt, but everything is going great! We have also had a couple of friendship visits which have been a lot of fun! Everyone that we meet has such a happy spirit no matter what their situation is. We have been working directly with organizations that do great things for people with disabilities, like the Arc and Nowcap Services. I met Mary who does secretarial work for Nowcap, the organization that we were doing an event with a couple nights ago. She was an amazing person that does a lot for the community around her and was really great to talk to.

A couple days ago we had a day off in Casper, Wyoming and it has been on of the best days on the Journey so far. Not only because we got to sleep in until 8 am, but we also had a ton of activities today to keep us busy. And yes, 8 am is sleeping in. With consistent 6 am wake ups it is nice to spend some time on the trusty sleeping pad. We had a Kids on the Block performance at 11 am for the Boys and Girls Club of Casper, Wyoming. The Kids on the Block is a puppet show that we as a team put on throughout the trip that teaches kids the abilities of people with disabilities. There are multiple puppets and skits that we use to promote our message.

We got to the building and were instantly swarmed by the groups of kids. Whether it was incessant poking or games of tag where you are always “It” because the kids insist, we were active for 2 solid hours. First we had lunch with all of the kids, which really reminded all of us of our childhoods with orderly lines, chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. A couple of us spent the time during lunch to use up some extra energy by playing tag and cling to the cyclist, which go one in the same. After all of the kids had finished eating they shuffled into the gym in as orderly of a fashion that a group of 5-10 year old could be. From there we began our performances and the kids received the messages very well. In the end, they all had questions, ranging from “Why don't you have any teeth?” (about the puppet) and “What is Cerebral Palsy?” Overall the visit and performances were a great experience for all of us even though we may be a little sore from carrying around kids for a couple hours.

In the couple of hours that we had before dinner, all of us used this time to go to bike shops and to go shopping for an assortment of different things. After shopping, we had a sponsored dinner and activity with the Arc of Casper, Wyoming, which was outside in the style of a picnic. We all got glimpses of our childhoods once again by running around playing lava monster with all of the people at the event, throwing footballs and double-dutching in the park. It was a great event that got everyone’s heart rates up by doing a bunch of different activities with the people there. We are all looking forward to working with Arc again, we have a ton of fun at every event that we have had with them so far.

We are in Colorado! We made it to Fort Collins, which means that we only have one more day until we get to Boulder! The Journey of Hope is naturally an emotional ride for everyone involved and being able to see your family at some point during the trip is always a blessing. That day for me is tomorrow, im very excited to be able to see everybody, including Sara who gets home from Europe tomorrow as well. Perfect timing!

Check out the photos tab to see some new photos!

Until next time, enjoy the ride!

“You gotta live and learn, you gotta crash and burn, you gotta make some stances, and
take some chances, you gotta live and love and take all life has to give. You gotta live
and learn, so you can learn to live.” - Darius Rucker

The northwest is gorgeous! The only issue is that we have barely seen any wildlife that is actually alive, the other day we saw at lease 10 dead animals raccoons and deer alike... also a bunch of birds and squirrels. It was sad to see, and also came with a potent smell...We started calling Montana the land of wild-dead, instead of wildlife.

We had a friendship visit the other day and it was a ton of fun! We walked into the room and got an ovation from about 100 people which was pretty cool! I wasn't expecting that at all. We sat down and ate a delicious chicken dinner that the organization provided for us. I sat with some folks that were from California and were in Montana for the past 15 years to take care of family members that were involved in the organization. Next we had a dance with everyone that was there! And one thing that I love to do is bust a move! I danced strait for about an hour and a half with a bunch of different people and I had a great time! There was a lot of country music from the live band, gotta love the two-step! It was a really fun time and there were a ton of people there.

Today we had a 110 mile day and it was long.... 7 hours riding the bike. There was a big wreck in my paceline today too, which was a scary experience. We were going almost 30 miles an hour and a guy behind me hit the brakes on gravel that he didn't see and skidded out. Luckily he is doing just fine. He just has some bad road rash and needed to get 7 stitches in his hand, but he should be able to ride again soon! We are in Bozeman staying at a pretty cool place named Eagle Mount, and they do amazing things for people with disabilities. Here is a link to an information page on them;

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8098079813590561247#

Today we rode into yellowstone! It was beautiful! I have never been here so it is pretty exciting, although we have yet to see a moose, or a bear. Hopefully soon we will actually be able to see some animals that you only every get the chance to see on the discovery channel. Tomorrow we head off to Jackson Hole. It should be a lot of fun there because one of our main sponsors, Mountain Khakis is located there, so there are a bunch of activities planed for us. Keep checking the photos link for new photos!

Until next time,

Enjoy the ride

Sleep is something that is hard to come by on this trip, but we all got to enjoy that luxury Two days ago. Although most of us continued to naturally wake up at 8 in the morning, there were a select few who made the most of our day off in Missoula, Montana by sleeping in until noon. For those of us who decided to seize the day, Montana provided us with many opportunities for fun activities. A group of us went to hike the local mountain named “M” Mountain, because of the large concrete “M” that sits at the top of the mountain for the University of Montana. The top of the mountain gave us a great view of the city and the surrounding hills. Montana is a very pretty state that reminds me a lot of my home state: Colorado.

When we all woke up yesterday morning, everyone took the time to give their fathers a call given that it was Father’s day! It was good to talk to my dad and the family to update them on everything that has been going on with us. Throughout the day, everyone got their errands finished at the local bike shops and we cleaned the vans for the first time. After we all got our errands done, we had a sponsored dinner at a local Chinese restaurant.

The dinner was sponsored by Jeremy Jones, his sister and her family. Jeremy was the Project Manager for the Trans America route last year and was a great guy to get to know. The food was all great and we were stuffed by the end of the meal, because it was a buffet style meal. Jeremy is going to be doing a ride along with us later on in the summer and we are all looking forward to seeing him again!

Everyone did really well riding and there was a tail wind so we kept a really good pace! We got into the town Philipsburg Montana. We had a sponsored dinner through the rotary club of the town and it was really good... really good. We had these things call pasties, which if you were to look up the word in the dictionary, it would say that a pasty is something completely different than what we ate last night. It was this meal that was made for miners when Philipsburg was a silver mining town, and it is basically a bunch of beef and vegetables wrapped into a pastry roll that the workers would take into the mine for lunch.

What was great about the day, was that outside the school that we were staying at there was the most epic play place/swing-set or whatever you would call it. Lets just say that we played tag for 2 hours outside on the play set! It might have been the most fun that I have had in a really long time! All of us turned back into little children again, when all of the ground was lava, and the lava monster hunted us all. We had a great time! I think that JOH is like a time for all of us to become children again, it has been pretty fun, I havent done that in a really long time! The trip is going great so far and we have had a ton of eye opening and great experiences so far! Check out my photos tab to see the photos from the trip!

“Chances lost are hopes torn up pages”

Take every chance you can in life, because every chance gives you the opportunity to change you life or the lives of your loved ones for the better.

Until next time,

Enjoy the ride!

We made it through our first state! Washington is out of the way, but certainly not forgotten. In the last couple days in Washington we had a very cool opportunity to work directly with the Executive Director of the Ronald McDonald House. Through him we were able to do tours of two nearby children's hospitals. During the tours, we met kids with varying forms of illness and different disabilities, but their attitude was always the same. Happiness, and hope. It has been proven that many cancer treatments have a higher success rate with children and that that success is directly correlated to their attitude that they go about their lives, and we got to see that today. One little girl, Annesia, a Leukemia patient that is three years old was one of the patients that touched all of our hearts. Dressed from head to toe in pink with a smiling face and an attitude to go along with it. Her good spirit and heart showed all of us what we are biking for, particularly in one instance. I was sitting on a bench with Ronald McDonald and a young boy named Justin. Justin and I were talking about Nickelodeon and his favorite shows, but it took quite a bit of time to get him to talk. He was very shy and seemed to be a little bit down. While I was sitting with him Annesia came and sat on the bench next to Justin and I, put her arm around him and said "Its all going to be ok" She sat with us for a little bit longer while we talked about his favorite television shows, and he significantly improved in his mood through our interaction. Although it was a small gesture it showed us that we are all in this together and even the smallest things can make a difference.

I have posted pictures that can be accessed through the "photos" tab along the top of the page

Hey all, sorry it took so long for another post, but we have been traveling through small towns that do not have wireless internet connections. But we have started! on the road and have so far riden 240 miles over the first four days! The first two days coming out of Seattle were extremely rainy and tested all of us, because during training when it would rain like that biking was not the first thing that came to mind as an activity. But we ended up making it to the very small town of Skykomish which was named after the river that we rode next to the whole way there. The river was huge with impressive rapids. I have never seen anything like it even being from Colorado.

I have always pictured Washington as a very rainy and depressing state because that is how Seattle is always described, but this state is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The landscape is bright green with expansive bodies of water covering the state. In Colorado you mostly just see different shades of brown with some other colors mixed in every once in awhile. These bright colors are amazing to see, its like biking through a poster or a painting.

In Skykomish we stayed in a church which was a great time, because it was small and we all got to really bond as a team for the first time. The town was being torn up because the government found lethal amounts of oil in the soil under the city and there was a ton of renovations going on but the area was still extremely pretty. We biked the next couple of days for a total of 240 miles in the past 4 days, with a lot of climbing.

After the first days ride we had the first of friendship visit of many more to come and it went really well, everyone had a great time and met a ton of amazing people. It was a great opportunity for a lot of the guys to get great interactions with a wide range of different people. We have 100 miles tomorrow to get into Spokane with a 5:30 wake up so I am going to go off to bed. I will be uploading pictures as soon as I get a reliable internet connection, but until next time...

Enjoy the Ride!!

I have now been in Seattle for over 48 hours and I have yet to see a Starbucks, not that I necessarily need coffee, but being that I am a block and a half away from their headquarters, I figured that the place would be crawling with them. Everywhere I turn in boulder I see them, so why not in their home town? But anyways, this is my frist time to Seattle and so far it is not what I expected, normally when someone explains Seattle, the only thing that you hear is how much it rains. But so far on the trip we have had a beautiful day and a day that was a little overcast, but no actual rain. Although I figure it must rain sometime because everything here is so green... In Colorado most things are different shades of brown and maybe a yellow is thrown in there every once in awhile, but here everything is a bright vivid green which is impressive. Not that I dont like brown, its just different....

We are in Seattle for 4 days of training and then we leave for our next stop. The first day, everyone checked in and by three in the afternoon, we were off to the University of Washingtons Pi Kapp chapter house for an informational meeting and dinner. The campus was beautiful, full of trees and students, because Washington is still in school.... muahaha The only thing that I did not like about the campus was that it seemed to have a lot of driving traffic around, and one thing that I like about Colorado is how pedestrian friendly our campus is, and Washington seemed to be a little bit different in that regard.

We parked and started walking to the fraternity house, and the greek row is full of behemoths of houses, some of them must hold up to 100 people! The Pi Kapp house was a little smaller, but it was still a very good sized house. Going into the fraternity house, we sat down and did some introductions then ate dinner. One thing that this dinner made me realize is how small the world really is, and ill tell you why.... In 7th grade, we had locker buddies who were our friends that we shared a locker with. That year, my buddy was Curtis Santianez. We were good pals and had a lot of fun, but then he moved, and I never heard from him again. This was before Facebook everyone, dont freak out on me.... But guess who sits next to me to eat dinner!? Thats right! It was Curtis! 7 years of never seing someone and then ending up in the same fraternity on separate campuses, it was a pretty awesome and a little bit of a surreal experience to see him. and another great chapter of PI Kappa Phi.

Moving onto today, we had somewhere along the lines of 7 hours of rule reading and lecturing which I will not go into immense detail on, but we did have a stellar lunch that was provided by a fellow Pi Kapp that lives in the area. The other cool thing about this meeting was that it was at the Flagship store for REI, and ill tell you what, this place was cool! Leading up to the entrance you follow a path through a forest area, past a waterfall, and the inside of the building is gigantic! This place had any outdoors anything you could ever need! REI is also the only place that you will consistently see customers in the store who wear helmets on a daily basis.

After REI, we had our first friendship visit with a non profit called The Arc. There was a catered dinner and a lot of different people to talk to and have a good time with, it was a really great first experience on the trip, and everyone was very nice and extremely grateful. This visit was also a really good time to get to know the rest of the guys that I will be riding with this summer. Although we have been spending a lot of time together, it has beed in confined areas with just us, and it was a good time to see everyone getting out and being active.

And that brings me to right now, it is 11:40 PM and I have to wake up at 5:30 AM for some activities so I am going to say goodbye for now. Sorry there were no pictures in this post, I will put somethings up in the photo gallery soon, so check in for updates, but until next time...

Enjoy the ride!

Everyone has an enemy, Batman had the Joker, Superman had Lex Luthor, and Rob Hamilton(me) has been in an epic arms race since birth with the Sun. The great protector sunscreen is no match for the suns greatest weapon, UV rays... Hopefully this summer ill be able to find something that can fend off these skin reddening bullets, but until then im just gonna have to deal...