End of a Journey

Charlotte (Day Off)

We began our day off in Charlotte with a late 9:30 wake up. But, by now, we have realized that these later wake-ups serve no additional benefit because we stay up much later the night before and it is only for one day so our body doesn’t get used to it. We headed to the mall first, but being a Sunday, the mall was still not fully open. A quick change of plans took us to Panda Express and Chipotle for a brunch around 10:30. We returned to the mall later and had an opportunity to purchase “gag gifts” for our secret team member. Next, we departed for a friendship visit at a local lake where we had the opportunity to go on boat rides and had fruit sundaes (they made a change to fruit from ice cream this year, unfortunately). To cap off the day, we had dinner at an Alumni’s house in a Charlotte Suburb. Our fraternity CEO, Mark Timmes was there and we had a chance to talk to him for a while. But, the highlight of the night was getting to watch most of Transformers there and relax for an hour or two.

Charlotte to High Point

Today we had a ride along from Chad Coltrain, Push America’s CEO. The ride was a little on the longer side (>80 miles) but remained manageable the whole time. We arrived at the Arc of High Point and spent about half an hour with the people they service. One kid, Bradley, loved my bike and playing with the brakes. We then departed to lodging at the local YMCA where we had plenty to keep us entertained once again. After, we had dinner with the Arc once again at a facility that teaches kids about health matters and their body. We had an absolutely fantastic time there and the best part was the Gross Encounters show that was intended for a much younger audience, which made it that much funnier. This was a great day and we hope the coming days are just as good!

High Point to Danville, VA

The ride from High Point to Danville was originally billed in the grids as a short 50 miles, but we learned that morning that the route would in fact be 68 miles long. But, due to time constraints and an earlier than attainable rack point, the team was racked at mile 45 to make it to the friendship visit on time. We had a fantastic lunch in Danville and then headed to lodging at the Best Western. Later, we returned for a dinner and dance that went from 4:30 to 6, which was absolutely perfect. This early bird dinner allowed a few of us to get out to the movie theater and see Pineapple Express, a fun break from the monotony of our average days. We returned to the hotel around 9:30PM, watched some of the Olympics and went to bed.

Danville to Lynchburg

For this 65 mile ride, I let a crew member do a ride-along on my bike. So, I had a break day. At our first stop (mile 10), the crew member Erich came to a very slow speed and forgot to clip out sending him falling towards the van and barely missing another rider’s bike. It was very funny until I realized the next day that this fall caused my gears to shift only to 6 of my back 8 gears. Luckily, the problem was remedied by a quick trip to the bike shop and some simple adjustments. For dinner in Lynchburg, we had a dinner and dance at the local Arc which was a great time.

Lynchburg to Charlottesville

Everything about this ride that could go wrong went wrong. We got off to a late start because of a bad route choice. This left us about 3 miles away from our starting point for over half an hour. Then we got a frantic call from our Project Manager: he had forgotten that we had a sponsored breakfast that morning. We arrived to that breakfast 5 miles away over 2 hours late. This was embarrassing to say the least. From there, we headed towards US 20, only to realize upon our arrival there (3 miles away from our second breakfast) that bikes are illegal on that road. Next Choice: US 20 Business Route; Too bad it had construction that made it a two lane highway with virtually no shoulder. We stopped a few miles up that road due to safety. After a long time of trying to find alternate routes, we ended up racking the team at mile 10, which was a good decision because of an unusually early arrival. We arrived at the Arc in Charlottesville around 11:30 am, which is where we would be staying that night as well. Over the past few days, I have been in touch with Reg Hubley, a close friend of my grandfather’s, and we managed to meet up shortly after my arrival. Although we only had about 45 minutes, he gave me a tour of the pedestrian mall and we talked about the trip, business, and my grandfather. It was a great break, as this is the first family or friends that I have seen in over two months. After saying goodbye to Mr. Hubley, I was off to a wheelchair basketball game. I think I may have finally gotten a knack for this game: I scored 4 points in my 30 minutes of play time. But, regardless, we got completely obliterated in both games we played against the home team. Next was dinner and our last friendship visit at the Arc of Piedmont. This was a fantastic finish and drew a very large crowd (it was scheduled at the same time as their annual meeting). Manassas is tomorrow and despite the 90 mile ride to get there on the horizon, we can’t wait.

Charlottesville to Manassas

The ride to Manassas is widely considered the last “real ride” of the trip, being a robust 85 miles. Surprisingly, the day went by fast (under 5 hours on the road) and was relatively simple with slow rolling hills the entire time. We stayed at the Antioch Church that night, our last lodging of the trip. The moment of arrival there was almost surreal, knowing that we were doing everything for the last time. That night, we were “initiated” as Pi Alphas (people who have completed an event) and got to hang out with everyone one last time as a group. We signed jerseys, maps, t-shirts and anything else there was to be signed that night, seeking to capture the team in one last way possible. That night, we had dinner at Hooters which might have been good, but the food took close to an hour and a half to come out and our stipend of $7 was hardly enough. We were ready to get to DC. Everyone stayed up until after midnight, trying to enjoy the last real team moments of the journey and hardly worrying about the 5:15 wakeup the next morning.

Manassas to Washington, DC (FINAL DAY!)

We began the day as we did any other day of this trip, with a circle up and breakfast. But, this day was different: no one looked tired, no one looked sore, no one had that distant stare of “why am I here?” We were ready. That morning we rode a fast 45 miles, despite some of the largest hills we have seen in a while. We reached stage up at George Washington University last of the 3 teams, thanks to the most indirect, inefficient route our Project Manager has found so far. But, we arrived on time. We spent close to an hour there, seeing friends from the other teams, taking pictures, and getting ready for the best time of the trip and our lives. We then saddled up and were off in a paceline of 90, led by police and a crew van. These 2 miles were undoubtedly the best of the trip. The capital came into view and then we heard the roar of the crowds there which was inspiring. The meaning of the trip, the reason for all of the pain, and the things we have been missing instantly came into focus. The emotions were overpowering and I was rendered in a state of disbelief. Had I really made it here? How did I make it during those rough days? Well, upon arrival, all of those days instantly became worth it. I feel like I have accomplished something that is so big that I still can’t entirely grasp it. I hope that in the coming days, weeks, years, I will gather more of the value of this experience and see how it shapes and directs my life. I have finally finished the Journey and it was and remains the best experience of my life.

Side-note: Thank you to all of my sponsors: You made this dream possible, you helped me to keep going, and you have made an investment in the people who need it most.

Sincerely,

Alex Mitchell

8/12 - Preparing for the End

Carrollton to Atlanta

Carrollton to Atlanta was a shorter ride that had about 15 turns. It seemed that we stayed on no single secondary highway for over 3 miles. Clearly, this was pretty inefficient and contributed to many delays to set up the route and many route changes. Because of this, we had to rack at mile 40 to get into the city for our arrival at time. We arrived a little while later at the Emory Autism Center where we were greeted by our largest and most enthusiastic crowd thus far. We spent a few hours at the EAC, getting to interact with 3 different classes (differentiated by age) and meet plenty of kids. After departing the EAC, we had dinner with a large group of Pi Alphas and Alumni at Lori Ebert’s house. Lori is the Pi Kappa Phi national risk management director and was rated the number one college speaker last year. We swam and had the best steak dinner of the trip at her suburban Atlanta home. We then returned to the Pi Kapp house at Georgia Tech, our lodging for the next two nights.

Atlanta Day Off

Our day off in Atlanta wasn’t as resting as it could have been for me. I had to wake up about 2 hours before wake up time to visit the Emory Sports Medicine Doctor about 20 miles away. My knee has been bothering me for a while now and I just wanted to get it checked out to get some prescription pain medicine and of course to make sure that I was doing no permanent damage. Well after about 2 and half hours at the clinic, I was diagnosed with Quadracept Tendonitis and given a prescription for Naprosyn, a prescription-strength version of Advil, which also acts as an anti-inflammatory. After this visit, the day improved. We had a friendship visit at Mad Mad Whirld where we played laser tag and Whirly ball with the kids from the Autism center we had seen before. After this we had some free time where we visited the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta. Here they detail coke’s history and have a tasting room with over 50 carbonated coke products. Following this break time, we headed to a friendship dinner at a bowling alley. Here I met Melanie and Marc who both were in wheelchairs but absolutely loved bowling. I am not ashamed as well to say that they beat me both games that we played! This was a fantastic visit and probably one of my favorites so far.

Atlanta to Athens

Today was a very unorthodox day in structure: just about everything was different than normal. We began by racking 40 miles to the Twin Lakes Camp to arrive there by 10am, our scheduled friendship visit time. We got a tour of the expansive camp and got to meet loads of campers (it was Sickle Cell Anemia –week.) Every week they cater to a different disability and bring in specialists to support those campers. We had a very unsubstantial lunch at camp and were off for the final 35 miles of the ride in the peak heat time of the day: 2 pm. These combined factors made this short ride horrific. After this, we arrived at Georgia and visited the Pi Kapps house for dinner. After this, we headed to the Best Western and prepared for the second to last over 80 mile day (yes we keep the countdowns going!).

Athens to Clemson, SC
Today was one of our three last days over 80 miles and we can’t be happier. But, unfortunately this ride was not easy and had temperatures climb well into the 100’s with a large amount of humidity. After the hot ride, we arrived at the Clemson Outdoor Lab, an oddly named camp that caters to individuals with disabilities. There, we dropped off our stuff in camp cabins that were actually fantastic lodging (8 to a building – 1 big room, each with its own attached bathrooms and showers). We then got a tour of the facilities, unfortunately with no campers there, which were a little older than those found at Twin Lakes, but still nice. We then watched a slideshow compiled from the summers camp programs which was fantastic for the first 15 minutes and then a little bit repetitive and exhausting for the next 45. After the eventful night, we were off to bed at about 9:30, plenty tired for sleep.

Clemson to Spartanburg, SC
The ride to Spartanburg began early in preparation for the early 11:00 am scheduled arrival; but, we still had to wait for the sun to come up of course. The highlight of the next two days will surely be Bruce Rogers who arrived today after flying in from Colorado. Bruce was the first rider on the Journey of Hope: he solo rode across the US in 40-odd days in 1987 and then went on to start his own company that became the major sponsor of the trip in the 1990’s, KRG Capital. KRG currently sponsors our cars, our gas, and any other incidental expenses of the trip. Without them, the trip would be very different. So clearly, meeting and riding along with Bruce is a fantastic experience that only the Journey of Hope could afford us. The ride was rolling hills for 60 miles, but we were racked at mile 40 in order to arrive for the lunchtime friendship visit on time. After lunch, we headed to lodging at Wofford College, where homemade Strawberry Ice-cream was waiting. We stayed in the dorms that night, which each had a main room, two private bed rooms and a large bathroom with a shower and two sinks. Definitely the best dorms so far. That night, we had another Miracle League baseball game which was a lot of fun. My buddy was Torrey, a blind 12 year old who absolutely loved radio. He has satellite radio, HD radio, and even listens to internet radio. Despite living in South Carolina, he knew more radio stations from the CT area than I did, including WEBE 108… After the game, we had some terrific barbecue for dinner and I ate across from him. He is incredibly modest: when talking to the Miracle League board member, it took him about 5 directed questions to finally admit he was the first one to ride across the US and begin what is now the Journey of Hope. In normal conversation, it came up that I was from Southeastern CT, by New York City in Wilton. Guess where Bruce is heading later this week to check out an advertising company to potentially acquire? Wilton of course. Even though KRG capital is located in Denver, Colorado I may now consider applying for an internship there next summer because of my meeting with Bruce. Today was a good day.

Spartanburg to Charlotte

Today we had another ride along with Bruce Rogers in which I actually had a chance to ride with him for the last 20 miles. He is a great guy and definitely made the close of the ride a lot easier, even if we sped up a little bit to keep up with him. We arrived at the Pi Kappa Phi and Push America headquarters in Charlotte and had the building to relax in for a while. We had lunch there, went on a tour and got to explore old founding documents from each of our chapters which were very interesting. After we left the HQ, we went to our hotel (the Omni) in uptown Charlotte and showered to get ready for our friendship visit. At this crowded visit, we had a dance and a Mr. Journey of Hope Contest (like a Miss America Contest). After the dance and visit we headed back to the hotel and took advantage of the night off. We ended up celebrating Chelsea’s Birthday and having a few interesting elevator rides; even catching some of the Olympics.

8/6 ----- 9 Days!

DC is looming and I can't be happier. The trip has been everything I expected and so much more. I have become great friends with many of the people on this trip and I can't wait to visit each others chapters in the years following this journey. But for now, I'm ready to get out of this exhausting routine and for once not have my entire day so planned out.



On that note, here are a few more journal entries...



Livingston to Tuscaloosa


The ride today was short and felt very good. We arrived at the Arc of Tuscaloosa where we had a great lunch/dance party. From there we departed to the Pi Kapps house at the University of Alabama which was absolutely enormous. It is a very longstanding chapter that is already up to initiation numbers in the 1500’s. Currently, they have about 130 actives and in the house almost all of the rooms are singles. The guys were southern fratty for sure: All of them were wearing polos, short khaki shorts, and loafers. We then departed for lodging, a freshman dorm. Later we headed to dinner at the University Club, which by far was the highest-class meal we have had so far (Tilapia, Sautéed Steak and Mushrooms, and an interesting type of Pineapple Cake were the highlights). To celebrate my birthday, I and a few teammates headed to one of their step-brothers who lived in the city and hung-out. The night ended late, but it was a good break from the same-old, same-old routine.



Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, AL


Today I decided to take it rather easy. Spencer Smith and I swept at a relaxed pace for the 45 mile ride. We managed to get the group red-flagged 2 times (one was our fault and one wasn’t). The arrival was at the Exceptional Foundation whose specific mission is to provide its clients with a place to have fun, something that is often lacking in their lives. After heading to lodging at the University of Alabama in Birmingham for a break we headed to a Softball game. Every batter hit a home run and we managed to get everyone involved in the game. Alabama has been great to us so far, but we can’t wait to get to Georgia and start making some northern progress.



Birmingham to Jacksons Gap


The trip from Birmingham to Jacksons Gap is a designated “team rack” day. It is the only off day of the trip that we actually make progress (remember it has been since Dallas that we had a day off). We arrived at Camp Ascca around noon. This camp services a different disability every week throughout the year from Diabetes to Hemophilia to mental disorders. Their facility takes up 240 acres and has frontage on a lake, an extensive ropes course, a fully functional farm and stables, and numerous other activities. Unfortunately, there were no campers there on the weekend so we just got a tour of the empty facility. That night, we watched Armageddon which had been a long time coming. The past month or so, quotes from the movie had been rampant in the pace lines and efforts to acquire the movie had been unsuccessful. After the movie, it was sleep time getting ready for the longest ride left on the trip.



Jacksons Gap to Carrollton


The ride from Jacksons Gap to Carrollton was one of the longest remaining days on the trip if not the longest. It was hilly, hot and lengthy. We arrived after the ride at the Pi Kapps house (West Georgia) and they had about 35 people waiting there for us which was fantastic. This has been the greatest turnout at a chapter that we have experienced so far. Dinner was at the Arc of Carrollton where we only met a few persons with disabilities but still had a great time and enjoyed the Italian meal for a change (it’s been since Nevada!). Finally crossing into Georgia was the highlight of the day and we can’t wait to make it to Atlanta tomorrow!

8/2 - Getting Close!

Shreveport to Monroe

The ride from Shreveport to Monroe began with an unorthodox breakfast at McDonalds. But, the change of pace was refreshing and the meal actually provided a great amount of calories for the start of the day. The actual riding was lengthy, humid, and slightly hilly but was made more interesting by the myriad of ride-alongs from local bike clubs and Pi Kapp Alums. In Monroe, we arrived at the local recreation center where we would be sleeping on the basketball courts that night. We had dinner with an organization called Arco and finished the night with about 2 hours of volleyball. It was a rather uneventful day, but still a good one.

Monroe to Vicksburg, MS

Today was a great day of riding; according to our Crew Chief who rode in 2007, this is the only “flat day” of the trip. The biggest hill we climbed was a short incline to get over a highway. We had lunch on the Mississippi side of the Mississippi river with some parents of former riders. They had homemade ice cream for us in a variety of flavors which was one of the absolutely best things we’ve had so far. After lunch, we compensated for the lack of hills before lunch by climbing out of the river basin and heading across hilly Vicksburg to our lodging at the YMCA. The YMCA quickly turned out to be one of the best places we have lodged so far because of all the space, a pool, and no supervision. The “all-call” on the intercom got a lot of usage that night. We had a sponsored southern dinner – Catfish, biscuits, and hush puppies. This was a great day and we are definitely excited to be passing through states now in no longer than 4 days for the rest of the trip.

Vicksburg to Jackson, MS

Vicksburg to Jackson was one of our shorter rides (about 40 miles) but had a considerable amount of hills. The entire day went in the pattern: ½ mile uphill then about ½ mile downhill (repeat). The road surface was pretty bad so we couldn’t keep up enough on the down hills to put a dent into the uphill portion. In Jackson, the state capital, we had an amazing arrival that consisted of 4 motorcycle cops, 3 police cars + our 5 vans. It made for an awesome experience that drew plenty of people out of the buildings along the route to watch. Upon arrival at the capitol building, we were greeted by the mayor of Jackson (who is also currently under indictment, but that’s another story…) who delivered a fantastic speech for us. We had a lot of press coverage at the event, both TV and newspaper. After the arrival, we headed to LIFE (living independence for everyone) and had lunch and spent time with some of the individuals we had seen at the arrival. This facility catered primarily to those with physical disabilities (blindness, inability to walk, etc.) and we learned a lot in our time there. We then traveled to lodging at a religious college/school in the area. This facility was in one of the poorer sections of town and was surrounded by an 8 foot fence complete with barbed wire and a full-time guard. We were notified that we would be locked into the compound at 9 PM. Good thing we had plenty of movies and internet access to pass the night faster.

Jackson to Meridian

Jackson to Meridian was one of our remaining longer days. We rode until about 2 PM when we arrived at the community college there. We then showered up and departed for a sponsored sonic drink which I made the biggest meal I could find there (Extra long Chili Cheese Coney with large fries and a large coke. This was very filling, but I still believe I could have eaten much much more. We headed back to lodging and had some free time to nap or use the internet before leaving for dinner. That night we had dinner with the Civitans in the cafeteria which was a very short walk away from our dorms (a definite plus). The highlight of the dinner was a local police officer who came and told us some captivating stories about the week’s 3 bank robberies. He also pulled out his taser and offered to let people feel what it is like to get tased (no one obliged…). After dinner, most of the team watched Saw and headed off to bed.

Meridian to Livingston, AL

We began today’s ride with a breakfast at McDonalds, which contrary to common thought, is a fantastic breakfast before biking. After this meal, I didn’t need additional food for about 35 miles (compared to the normal 15). We pace lined out of the city with a police escort and had a very short day of riding to Livingston. We had an arrival at the front of the University of West Alabama where we met a few Pi Kapps from the local chapter. We had a sponsored meal at the cafeteria for lunch and at a local restaurant for dinner. This restaurant has provided food for us every year since the Journey of Hope began, and they did everything right! That night was the night we had heard about for a while: the trailer trash party thrown at the actual doublewide trailer that our fraternity has at UWA. I decided against going and I was glad I made that decision when most of the under-21 crowd returned within 30 minutes of leaving. There will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate once we arrive, no need to ruin all the progress made with one bad decision.

Small Sample of Pictures from the Trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015306&l=39b9e&id=1088280919
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015604&l=2bdef&id=1088280919