7/28 - Update in Jackson, MS

Fort Worth to Dallas
Our ride from Fort Worth to Dallas is one of the shortest on the itinerary (under 50 miles) but was still a long one. After a sponsored breakfast at lodging, we rode about 25 miles to Arlington City Hall for an arrival and another breakfast. We stayed there for over an hour before departing for our final destination of Dallas (actually just outside of dallas). At Dallas, we arrived at the Bachman Center where met residents, put on a KOB and had a sponsored meal. After dinner, we had a team meeting in which Andy, one of the crew members, informed us that he would be going home because of an alcohol violation after he had received an earlier warning. Zach, one of his best friends and another crew member, decided to head home as well as an act of loyalty. This event left all team members stunned and at a loss for words. Their departure was so quick and without prior notice. After they left, we heard that Adam had been sent home from the North route, another alcohol violation. These hit the team like a ton of bricks and made it hard to enjoy the night at all. As we fell asleep that night at the Bachman Center, we were noticeably two less.

Dallas (Day off)
For our day off at Dallas, we woke up at 8am and had a sponsored breakfast at lodging. We began the day by traveling to a local church for an outdoor water “fair” for children with disabilities. Most of these children were under 5 and all had a fantastic time playing in the small pools and on the water slides. This was a lot of fun and a great way to jump start the day. After eating lunch there, we left for Hurricane Harbor, the water park of Six Flags. While there, we spent time with friends riding rides, played volleyball, enjoyed a break from riding, and stayed cool for once. After a fun day, we left for dinner at Pumpernickel’s Brew House which was fantastic. Then we went to play whirlyball which is a combination of lacrosse and bumper cars: yes it is amazing. The night didn’t end until 10 pm but it was worth the tiredness the next day. Dallas was a great break!

Dallas to Terrell
Dallas to Terrell may well have been the easiest day of riding so far. We rode 55 miles before 11am and arrived at the Super 8 motel before our rooms were ready. After some waiting time, we took showers and headed to the traditional lunch at the Terrell Truck Stop with the Lions. While there, we listened to a presentation from a speaker from the 4-H club who talked for about 15 minutes, mentioning 4-H no less than 80 times, and I still don’t know what 4-H stands for or relatively anything about their club. But, he did assure us that their club was far superior to any other club and without them he wouldn’t be speaking to us today (well, obviously, you are their speaker). We then left for the local park and performed a KOB for a camp that served elementary-school age children. After this fantastic visit, we departed for the state hospital where we had a friendship visit and dinner. One interesting thing about the hospital was that we weren’t allowed to take pictures and had to sign a confidentiality agreement because some of the kids came from child protective services. Despite this restriction, we still had a great time there and met a lot of great kids, both with and without disabilities.

Terrell to Longview
Today was a rough day, perhaps the worst so far for me. It was a 100 mile, rolling hill day on an awful tiring road surface. We had lunch at 70 miles, which was rejuvenating, for about 10 more miles: do the math. Over the last 20-25 miles, I felt as if I was getting the first symptoms of heat sickness, despite the fact I was drinking bottle after bottle of water. Now, I think I just wasn’t keeping up with my body’s need for water before and it built up on me over the ride. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon at the Fairfield Inn in Longview and got our rooms for the night. After the usual showering and washing of clothes, a few of us left for Chick-Fil-a where I met a worker who was absolutely ecstatic to learn about what we were doing. I gave her the pitch and she even wrote down our website and my name to look up that night. On my way out, I saw her telling a coworker about what we were doing and who it benefited: that’s spreading awareness in action. We had a great barbecue dinner later that night with the Ambucs Club where POWER (People on Wheels Exercising Responsibility) president, Judy, gave what may be the best speech of the journey. She truly was inspiring and we were glad to meet her. Also there was our ride along for the next day, Mike, who rode a hand cycle and had biceps bigger than both of my legs put together. We headed back after dinner for a relaxed night at the hotel and prepared to finally leave Texas.

Longview to Shreveport, LA
The ride from Longview to Shreveport was an all around fiasco. We began the day by leaving the fantastic breakfast at the Fairfield Inn (luckily I had a bacon-egg-cheese there) for a restaurant that we were being sponsored at for breakfast. The sponsor was a Pi Alpha from 2007 and the location he chose was the Cotton Patch Café, where he worked. Too bad the café was 4 miles in the wrong direction from the hotel, adding 8 needless miles to our route. Also, it’s too bad that he forgot to check if the restaurant was open. So we arrived for breakfast to a closed restaurant 4 miles out of the way and his only solution was donuts and Sunny D. He was quite smug about it, but the team was nothing short of pissed. Especially when we learned that he had driven to the Wal-Mart directly across from the hotel to buy these goods and then not called Ezra, our Project Manager, or waited in the parking lot at the hotel for breakfast instead. We would have been much better off had Tim Allen, the sponsor, not ever signed up for this sponsorship. The day improved from there, we double pace lined slowly out of the city with Mike, the hand cyclist, in tow. When we finally broke into pace lines, I chose to hang back with Mike and a few other riders: Jon Ciani, Spenser Smith, and Chris Curphey. We rode at an excruciatingly slow pace but it was so worth it to see Mike push himself to the limit on the hilly ride. At times, we had to hop off the bike and give him that little bit of encouragement in the form of a push to make it up the steepest ones. We were racked at mile 25 of the ride because we had a poorly planned arrival at 12 that we couldn’t possibly make it to otherwise. We arrived shortly after noon at the Children’s Hospital in Shreveport which quickly became one of my favorite friendship visits so far. There I met Juan David and Javier, played basketball with them and even used some of my Spanish to interact with the parents (many of whom were foreign – the care was completely free of cost). That night we had dinner at a BBQ restaurant with a Pi Alpha from the Beta Omicron chapter and went to bed early; preparing for the next day’s long ride.