This summer I will be participating in the Journey of Hope, hosted by PUSH America and Pi Kappa Phi. For me, the journey begins in Seattle Washington on June 9th and will end on August 14th in Washington DC. We will be biking anywhere from 50-120 miles a day, and in every city or town that we stop in, will all be participating in service projects and events with children with disabilities. My brothers from all over the country will be participating with me.

There are three routes for the Journey, the North, South and TransAmerica routes. Each team has close to 30 riders, and many crew members to follow in cars if problems are to ensue. I am a part of the TransAmerica team and will start in Seattle. The other two teams will begin in San Francisco California. I am very excited to have been given this opportunity to participate in an experience of a life time while making a lasting impact in the community around me.

Training has been an adventure so far, and luckily I had been biking for around a year before I committed to this excursion. Living in Boulder Colorado, is a blessing and a curse because Boulder is one of the most biker friendly cities in the United States, but it also has some of the most schizophrenic weather patterns of anywhere I have ever been. With sun in the morning while I am sitting in class and then rain and snow in the afternoon when I would like to be outside getting in a good ride. But now that finals are over with and my commitments have slowly dissipated, I have been left with a month of solid training time to really get in the swing of things before I head out to Seattle.

A couple weekends ago, PUSH hosten a "Training Weekend" in Empire Colorado for all of the participants in the Journey that are in Colorado or were able to attend. All around it was a great weekend, I got to meet a couple of the Colorado State brothers that are on my route and we got to do a couple of more lengthy climbs, but one of the most useful things about the trip was that PUSH had a professional rider come out to ride with us in order to teach us all how to ride in pace lines and learn the rules of riding in the road. I learned a lot, and I attempted to pick up a credit card off of the ground from my bike....but alas, I failed. I have now made picking up that credit card a goal before leave, it may seem trivial but after falling over multiple times it is now taunting me...

I still have a long way to go, and this next month of training before we leave will be tough, but I think I will be more than ready before I leave on June 9th. The last thing that I have to accomplish is to reach my fundraising goal. In order to participate in the Journey, each team member has to raise a minimum of $5,000. As of right now, I have raised a total of $4,100 from many gracious family members and friends. I have a little ways to go, and any donations would be extremely helpful. If you would like to donate, you can follow; https://secure.pushamerica.org/events/profile.cfm?rID=1174365&ridecode=joh2010 and click on "Click here to sponsor Robert" in the top right of the page. If anyone knows of a family friend or co worker that would be interested in donating, forward me their addresses to Rob.Hamilton1488@me.com and I will send them a letter explaining my cause.

Itinerary

Thanks everyone! Until next time, enjoy the ride!