Day 16 -- Park City, UT

We rode into Park city, a small mountain resort over the hills near Salt Lake City. The ride was a short 25 miles, although it was all uphill with 6 to 8% grade. To make it worse, we had to ride on the highway (I-80) for the first time. There was even construction on the road which we had to dismount for (right as we entered the highway). Despite all of this, there were breathtaking views of the city and a few sparse lakes up in the mountains that made it all worth it.

To top it all off, we stayed in a hotel for the first time since Cali! Five other guys and myself shared a suite that had laundry, a kitchen, a computer, and multiple TVs as well as 3 separate bedrooms. Mine had a large king size bed and tiled bathroom with an enclosed shower (wow!) and a Jacuzzi. We all stood in awe at these incredible accommodations, especially considering the fact we have been staying in school gyms and small churches for most of this trip. Individual showers seemed to be in a distant past. The complex even had a pool and a lodge with wireless internet, where I spent a lot of the night.

Our friendship visit today took place in Camp Kostopoulous, which has been serving people with disabilities since 1967. I talked to Kevin, a man with severe CP (Cerebral Palsy) for most of the day through simple yes-no questions, as he was unable to verbalize communication. It was tough, but we taught him how to play blackjack and ended up having an awesome time!

Finally, we had McDonald's for the first time. After hundreds of miles in the desert, I never imagined how relieved I would be to see or have McDonalds (I took a picture of a sign advertising Mickey D’s on a previous day just because it was so rare). It’s weird because I never have it during the year and I mostly avoid it. It was nice to have a delicious, fat, greasy Big Mac after these past few weeks. I’m not too worried about gaining weight either.

Day 14 & 15 -- Salt Lake City

It’s been an incredible two days in this city. I love the Midwest.

The ride in from Payson was a short and mostly flat with some rolling hills. The roads were nicely paved for a change although we did have to get racked (off the bikes and in the vans) for the last 20 miles because of construction. It was pretty tight in the back of the vans with all of our stuff! Saturn kindly sponsored our lunch (which was catered by Subway, mmmh). We had a good laugh when the sales team told us they were going to sing the song they sing to their clients when they buy a car and took 10 minutes to assemble their crew. It then took them about ten seconds to blurt out: “I say! I say! I say! Journey of Hope!”

On the first day, we spent the afternoon in a water park! You can see a lot of the pictures I uploaded from the park (I know, I have really distinct tan lines. I’m as white as snow, I can’t help it.). I spent the afternoon with a girl named Jessy. She was deaf and non-verbal so it made it difficult to communicate. I did learn how to say my name in sign language, and I found a way to get my messages across with a lot of pointing and mouthing. She was really excited to go down the rides with me on a double-tube as her parents hadn’t let her go alone before we arrived. It put a smile on my face to hear her scream in joy (although at first I though she was scared, and it frightened me).

That evening, I did something I’d been thinking about for a while and shaved my head. It was a tough decision for me since I have never had short hair, much less a buzz-cut. In the ends though, I think it came out nice and it has served me well so far on the road. Furthermore, I don’t have horrible bed-hair in the morning anymore and I look decent for team pictures, even after long days riding and sweating.

My friends Matt Casale, Adam Southard, Scott Leighty, and I went out to see the movie “The Hangover” in downtown Salt Lake City in the night after some food at Chili’s. We got terribly lost on the UTA-TRAK tramway when we were trying to find our way back to lodging at Judge Memorial High School (near University of Utah), and spent 2 hours wandering around before we got a taxi. To make it worse, we got lost while in the company of a college girl we meet that apparently didn’t know the way around her own city. It was quite the night and although it didn’t go as planned, we had a lot of fun!

The next day, in my opinion, was the best friendship visit so far. We went to the National Ability Center near Park City, Utah. They had some of the best facilities I have seen so far with an indoor climbing wall, and outdoor ropes course, and an equestrian center designed for physical rehabilitation for those with physical disabilities. Some of us climbed the wall blindfolded, others rode special bikes with hand-pedals, but perhaps the most significant for me was the conversation I had with a 17-year old girl named Breagan who is blind. Not only did I learn a lot about the disability itself and how she lives her daily life, but she told some really funny stories. One was about her first kiss and how she ended up bonking heads with her boyfriend, who is also blind. She showed us her Paul McCartney tooth tattoo (yes, I did not know they existed too until I saw it). She talked a lot about her Braille computer and how she has a facebook. She mentioned her desire to go to college and become a teacher. All in all, it was a very casual conversation that really put disabilities into perspective for me. It’s easy to treat people with sympathy and talk down to them, but it’s much harder to look past a disability and see the person behind the veil. I’m hoping that by the end of the summer, I’ll be able to treat everyone I meet in this same way, regardless of the disability or the barriers between us.

Day 13 - Payson, UT

We are slowly creeping out of the desert and into the green heartland of Utah. I was a sweep today (which means I was the last rider so vans could keep track of when to leave). It was a nice descent into Payson, and we saw a lot of new things (or things we haven’t seen in a while). For the first time in a week, we ran into a stoplight! On one of the downhills, we were being chased by the shade of a cloud, which was fun considering we were hitting speeds of 30 to 35 mph. Grasshoppers were all over the place to the point where at crew stops, any step you took in the grass would be followed by a sea of moving insects. A lot of us took videos walking through the grass. Finally, we saw both a pool and a house being transported separately on the highway. Although I had heard of this as a kid, it was an experience to be passed by such an oversize load. They both had two convoy vehicles following them, and took up almost two lanes. Good thing there was no traffic on the opposing side of the road or they would have practically blown us off the road.

After the 80-mile ride, we arrived in the early afternoon to the Payson Community Center and Town Hall where we were staying only to be told we had to stay outside for another 2 hours before lodging was clear. I took the time to clean my bike and take a nap under a tree.

That night, we went to the single bar in Payson (which is actually a decent sized town) to celebrate our friend Alex Rosell’s 21st birthday. We had to get memberships to the bar (which I kept as a proud memento) because Utah state law requires it. It seems as tough this state, which is mainly Mormon, has pretty strict alcohol rules. It was a fun night out with some pool and country singing! Since it was karaoke night, we saw most of the town’s best singers fight it out for the best song. There were some great tunes and a lot of theatrics.

Tomorrow we roll into Salt Lake City!

Day 12 -- Sandstorm into Utah

We left early from the town hall of Baker today for a 96-mile ride into Utah. After 7.5 miles, we had reached the border and a new time zone. We spent some time there, and one of my friends, Adam Wilson, thought it was really funny to jump across the border declaring he could travel through time (anyone ever see that Simpsons episode where Homer is on the border of the US and Canada?). We pushed on through the deserted plains and climbed two peaks in the first 40 miles.

It was a tough day because on of the riders in my pace line, Scott, was struggling. We had to push him through the day and slow down tremendously all while being as encouraging as we could. Having been in fast pace lines before, I have to say being there to support someone and putting your own abilities to the side is much more difficult than pushing yourself as fast as you can for a day. It means jeopardizing your ability to finish that day (because we have certain “rack points” we need to reach at an assigned time) and putting your own feelings aside.

As we reached the top of the last summit of the day, the sky darkened and gusts of wind and sand blew through the crew stop in which we were taking a break. In an attempt to outrun the sandstorm we jumped on our bikes in a hurry and pedaled as fast as possible down the hill. The wind blew at our backs and we achieved tremendous speeds. I reached 50 mph on that downhill and we were able to keep paces of 35 to 40mph even on flats! It was such a surreal feeling. The grass on the side of the road was flattened to the ground by the wind behind us but because of the speeds we were achieving, no wind was rushing past our ears. I was able to have a conversation with the cyclist behind me without raising my voice. We pushed through for 15 miles before the visibility became bad and the crew chief racked the team less than 25 miles from the end of the day.

We arrived in Delta, UT and had a sponsored milkshake (I had Oreo Mint for the first time, delicious) and dinner. We preformed Kids on the Block for the 3rd time and I played the role of Ellen Jane this time, a girl with Down syndrome. Overall, this was an incredible day. Scary, but truly awe-inspiring.

Day 11 -- Baker, NV

Population: 53 (We effectively increased the population by 75%)

Small town, but a great atmosphere! The ride in was short (only 62 miles) but tough because of climbs and strong headwinds. We took showers at the truck stop upon arrival. Although we did not have a friendship visit, we went on a tour of the Lehman Caverns, a complex of limestone caverns in the Nevada Mountains. The Homefarm provided an amazing meatball dinner, and we spent a few hours chatting with the locals. They invited us to go watch a movie, Baghdad, at the local coffee shop. It was a relaxing evening, and a nice end to the state of Nevada. Tomorrow, Utah!

Day 10 -- White Pine, NV

We rode 80 miles over 4 summits to Ely, Nevada. It was a cold morning, and even with tights and an undershirt, I was shivering for the first hour uphill. My gloves didn’t cover my fingers and I felt like they were going to frostbite. I don’t think I had sensation in my toes for most of the morning. The last few days in Nevada have been gorgeous. Our arrival into White Pine wasn’t too eventful, although we did have a hamburger dinner sponsored by the student council.

Perhaps more importantly, however, I rode with a new pace-line today. It made me realize a lot of things about my team and the motivations different people have for doing the Journey of Hope. For some, it’s about challenging yourself to do something great. For others, it’s all about the physical prowess and doing pushups for every mile they bike. More still don’t know what to expect, myself among them. I’ve noticed some people are distant at friendship visits, almost awkward. I guess with a trip like this, it’s hard to expect that everyone wants to grow in the same way. I'm just going to put myself out there as much as possible and see what comes of it.

PS. You can find more pictures of the trip at the following address:

Flickr North Team

Day 9 -- Eureka!

Although I will only be able to update my blog sparingly, you can follow our team on twitter and on the Push America website (we take turns writing journal entries). This is the entry I wrote for today, so I am just going to re-post it:

Push America Journal

Twitter

e woke up today at 5:30am in a small church perched in the hillside mountain village of Austin, Nevada. After a quick breakfast on the steps of the church, we mounted our bikes and started a rough climb up 2 peaks in the first 8 miles of the trip. The mountains quickly became deserted plains. Although the ride was of average length, headwinds of up to 15 to 20 mph slowed us down tremendously and made the ride across the loneliest highway in America quite difficult. The team pushed on through, however, and all but one of the cyclists made it through the day.

Naturally, Eureka was on top of another mountain—we were glad to be welcomed with a double burger, French fries, and a milkshake sponsored by the local DJ’s diner. It was a delight after a challenging day across the desert. We left our mark by adding a dollar bill signed by the JOH ’09 team to their wall of fame.

Our afternoon was mostly spent napping at the local Eureka Elementary School which is kindly lodging us for the night. The local chapter of the Lion’s Club sponsored a delicious spaghetti diner made with a locally famous marinara sauce. The Lions proudly talked about their town and the fact it does not have one stoplight. It has been almost 20 years since they started sponsoring us and they were proud to say that they plan on keeping the tradition alive.

Tomorrow, we ride to Ely! We’ll be in Utah within the week...

Day 8 -- 1st Century (100 miles) and Austin, NV

Things I have done today:

1) Finished the 99 bottles song for the first time.
2) Got hit by tumbleweed when a dust devil swept through and almost blew us off the road.
3) Saw the infamous “Shoe Tree.” I can’t wait to find the money tree someday.
4) Left my mark on the side of the road. JOH ’09 baby!
5) Discovered a new species of 3-inch long grasshoppers.
6) Ate some of the best homemade bread in existence. I love thanksgiving dinners.
7) Biked 116 miles across the “Loneliest Highway in America.” Hardest thing I have ever done. 10 hours. 4 summits. Not a town or building in sight for miles.

Enough said.

PS. Still no pain in my elbow!