Athens, GA

8.2.2010

Today’s ride was about 90 miles, but we had to be at our friendship visit by 9:30. Obviously this rack point was not going to happen, so we ended up racking to our friendship visit at about mile 50. Our visit was at a camp for kids with disabilities. It was just like I was back in my boy scout days. They had a lake with paddle boats, horseback riding, a rock wall and ropes course, and a huge buffet style dining cabin. We assisted the camp’s 35 female counselors in helping the campers do various activities. The rock wall had a harness that could be used to hoist up people in wheel chairs, and once they were at the top, they could be attached to a zip line to come down. We helped out by providing muscle for the hoists, and by simply spending time and having conversation with the campers.

I met a guy at the camp named Ricardo who had cerebral palsy and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. He was one of the first campers on the trip to ask me about myself before I had a chance to ask about him. We got on the topic of Journey of Hope, and he said “Whoah, you guys are fighting for us! Come here!” and he gave me a big hug. It was literally the best feeling I’ve experienced the whole trip. We went on to talk a little bit about his love for reading and country music singer Hank Williams. He even went on to sing me a few bars from the song Jambalaya. I met up with him again at lunch, and he had just found out that a girl he had met at camp a few years ago was coming through the area and wanted to stop by to visit. He told me that he could barely drink his lemonade his heart was racing so much. Ricardo is really a fantastic individual, and someone I’ll always remember from this trip.

After lunch, it was time to get on the bikes (oh yeah, that’s what we do on this trip) and pound out the last 40 miles to lodging. It was a hilly ride, and we were definitely feeling the time out of the saddle. I kept my spirits up by playing acapella music the whole day.

We got to lodging and got showered up before we headed out to dinner at Harry’s Pig shop. There we met up with the famous Darius from the movie we watched in Arizona State University, Darius Goes West. He’s a man who suffers from Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that will eventually kill him. A few years ago he made a documentary about his journey to see the USA while he was still able and his mission to spread awareness of his condition. Unfortunately he was not sitting at our table, but I still got the pleasure of meeting him briefly at the beginning of dinner. We found out that he plans to complete another journey to Las Vegas for his 21st birthday. That one probably won’t be recorded on camera.

When we got back to the hotel, the good times kept rolling. A few of us founded a secret fraternity within Pi Kappa Phi, called Iota Beta. The details of the aforementioned good times are of course guarded secrets.