Howdy everyone,
Today's ride, on June 19th, was from Thousand Oaks, CA to Rosemead, CA. I rode today with Matt (guy from TCU from the day before), Cory (from Michigan State), and Brent, who did JOH-South the year before, and was from CSU-Long Beach. The ride was moderately difficult, featuring a few hills to start out, and then more intense city-street riding. The terrain was mostly flat, but we had to keep an eye out for traffic and debris/cracks in the city streets. I got a flat tire with about 2-3 miles left in the ride, but decided to ride it out until we got to our lodging at St. Joseph's Center to fix. We all got settled into the dorms there (reminded me a lot of something out of Full Metal Jacket), and had Quizno's Subs for lunch, provided by our sponsor, a Pi Alpha (someone who has done Journey of Hope before) from 2007. We had a quick friendship visit with 2 individuals with Downs Syndrome who were prominent actors in Hollywood, and had met quite a few celebrities and had been on lots of TV shows, including E.R., the West Wing, and Glee. We all hung around and kicked around the soccer ball, tossed the frisbee, and ate some snacks with our new friends for a while until it was time for them to leave. After our friendship visit, we all went over to the house of a Pi Alpha in Pasadena, CA, who had an awesome backyard set-up for our make-your-own-burrito dinner, complete with smores for dessert. When dinner was over, we all went back to lodging for some rest time. A few of us decided to head over to BJ's to have a few beers and wind down for a bit, since we had a day off the next day. Found out through talking with one of the other cyclists, Scotty (from CU-Boulder) that he had my Uncle Craig for math class in the 8th grade (small world...). After a few pitchers, we decided to head back to lodging to get some rest for the next day.
The next day, June 20th, was another day off. It felt really weird being able to sleep in--we all woke up at 9 AM and had no idea what to do, since we weren't used to having a slow morning where we weren't being pushed out the door and on the road by our Project Manager (PM). We all took our sweet time getting ready and hanging around our dorms, enjoying not having to be out of the door by 6 AM. I got a nice surprise visit from Michael Hervey, my chapter's President and a Pi Alpha from the Soiuth route the year before, along with his girlfriend, Gayle, and his parents, who were very generous in their donation to my JOH fundraising. After talking for a little bit and catching up on life, we said our goodbyes as the rest of the team and I headed over to the local IHOP for a breakfast generously sponsored by my own mother. Everyone seemed to be really happy with their meal and was thankful for my mom's generosity. After breakfast, we took the cars to a car wash to give them a much needed scrub-down, inside and out. We went back to lodging after breakfast for some relaxation time, where I put on some music and took a nice long nap before heading over to our friendship visit that day. Our visit was with AbilityFirst, a Southern California organization that hosts a wide variety of activities and programs with teens and young adults with disabilities, including field trips, after-school activities, and much more. After getting a tour of the facilities, we helped set up for the carnival that we would be putting on later for some of the participants at AbilityFirst. We set up a popcorn booth, a snow cone booth, face painting, and a few games with prizes. All of the kids there were really excited, and even showed me up in a dance-off when two of the participants there busted out the entire Thriller dance! When the carnival was over, we all cleaned up the parking lot and went back to lodging for a great dinner of flank steak, rice, and beans, with a delicious pineapple pie for dessert. A few of the guys went to go see a movie after dinner, but I decided to stay at lodging and clean my bike, call my parents/girlfriend, and go to bed early to prepare for the ride the next day.
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