Day 8-Richland to Walla Walla WA

We rode through the middle of nowhere today. Almost the entire ride after getting out of the city through farmland or vinyards that extended as far as we could see in all directions. It was crazy looking to the sides of the road and seeing vineyards or farmland all the way to the horizon, over rolling hills and valleys, it was an amazing sight, something I have only ever seen flying over in a plane.

The ride was not very tough, stayed pretty flat with only a few big climbs with rewarding downhills to cruise down. Today I rode with Brandon, who I know from regional training weekends, and Sam but about 20 miles in Sam's knee was killing him and he decided to rack himself so it could get better and hopefully be able to ride with us for the long day tomorrow. He wasn't the only guy either we had 3 others, Preston, Dean, and, Dylan who didn't ride at all today all from feeling sick in the morning, Dean and Dylan are still recovering and will hopefully feel well soon, Preston is ready to ride tomorrow.

I feel great after the ride, legs a bit stiff and sore but not feeling very tired. Unfortunately everyone got racked today due to time constraints. We had some delays in the morning so we left a bit late and couldn't finish the full 80 miles. Our rack point was to make 70 miles by 11 but I made it 55 by 11 with Brandon and the next group was just a mile behind us, without the delay we could have really pushed it at the end and had some pace lines finish. We also had a great conversation, today is the one year anniversary of Brandon's grandpa's passing and it got me thinking about my gandma and missing her and remembering how incredible she was, we dedicated our ride to them and it honestly did help us crank out some more miles, we found some energy and picked up the speed to get to 55.

I mentioned one of my goals in my last post about being physically prepared for the ride so that I could focus on friendship visits and not my riding but I forgot the second half of that goal which was that I also wanted to be able to help me teammates on the bike and today made me realize that, when Sam mentioned his knee was hurting I started taking longer pulls (pulling is being the lead man in a pace line, cutting the wind and creating a draft for the people behind you) once Sam racked, Brandon and I were switching off until his legs started getting burnt out so I pulled a long ways in the end cuz we really wanted to finish the ride. I mentioned a goal I had in my last post about being physically ready for this trip so i could put my focus and energy into friendship visits but forgot the other half of that goal which I really saw achieved the last two days. I wanted to be able to help my teammates push themselves on the bike and ride as many miles as possible and be able to encourage them to keep peddling, riding yesterday and today I found I was really able to do that and glad I put all the training miles in.

Our friendship visit was really relaxed it was with Lilly Allen who helps people with disabilities find work, many of them work at their facility. Unfortunately a lot of the people who they help were out of town for a Special Olympics event but we still had a great team hanging out and meeting a lot of the staff who were so thankful for the commitment of our team and mission of Push America.

Tomorrow is 115 and the terrain is to be determined but after everyone getting racked today we are ready to move quick in the morning to get on the road as soon as possible and have plenty of time to make it to our rack point.

Day 7-Yakima to Richland WA

Another tough day today. We did 85 miles today and I was hurting more at the end of this one than I was at the end of the 125 yesterday. But my pace line and I killed it, I rode with Jeff and Cameron and we were really pushing each other throughout the ride and overall we were averaging just under 18mph, it was a blast. We also were doing an amazing job of keeping a tight pace line and drafting off each other, first time I have been able to do that really well. I may have pushed them a little hard cause by the end they were struggling and I ended up leading us the last 8 miles into town to our rack point. Also had our first of many days with a tough rack point (which is a set number of miles we have to finish by a certain time in order to make our friendship visit/programming) today was 75 miles by 12:30 and 13 of the 19 cyclist made it, the others really would have but got held up for some knee or wrist pain or too many flat tires.

Nothing today comes close to beating the views from yesterday but still some great sights to see, beautiful grasslands farms and hills, great scenery and on our way out we rode by a lot of hops fields, I learned Yakima produces 75% of America's hops and apparently tomorrow we will be riding through a lot of wineries. Only downside of the ride today was we had maybe 20 or more miles on this awful state road that was almost as bad as just riding on gravel. It claimed a lot of tires and tubes today including one flat for me.

When we got to Richland we staged up and had a parade formation arrival into The Tire Factory who hosted us for lunch. There I got to do an on camera interview with ABC KVEW (I don't know if they will use it, I think I had something in my tooth the whole time, but I will post the link if they do). We also had the honor of meeting the mayor and had today proclaimed as Push America Day in Richland. Thanks to a past crew member for JOH North route, the local Rotary Club sponsored lunch and dinner and will be sponsoring breakfast in the morning. We really lucked out in Richland already.

Today's friendship visit was with the Arc of Tri Cities, same organization my mom works for, in fact I met some staff that knew her. We had so much fun there getting to know new people and dancing until we worked up a sweat. This is only the first of many dance parties this summer. I ate dinner with Cassey and a staff member who had a lot of questions about what we are doing which I love talking about and Cassey was just excited about the food and dancing. I danced a bunch with Terrell who thought he was too cool for the cha cha slide at first but I convinced him to try it with me and it was so fun, everyone was throwing down the most goofy dance moves they could think of. It was crazy to me that after biking 85 miles, right after biking 125 miles yesterday and my legs being more tired than they have ever been, the second we get into a friendship visit none of that was on my mind. Now that I think about it though, this makes me realize I have already reached my goal I set the day I got my bike last summer, to be well enough physically ready for this trip so that biking is the least of my concerns and I can focus fully on the friendship visits. I am very happy that i have accomplished that and am ready for everything this summer.

Day 6-Enumclaw to Yakima WA

Well I had no idea I could climb 8000 feet over 125 miles and sit on a bike for 10 hours but I did just that today with the help of my team. We were the second team (last one was 2013) to complete today's ride with the entire team. That is crazy, we worked so hard together and help push each other through the sore legs and exhaustion, so proud to br a part of what we accomplished today. That is easily the longest and most difficult ride any of us have ever taken on, 10 to 15 miles of Incline just inching along. I rode with Evan and Randall today and we struggled to find a good pace through the beginning bit once we hit the first mountain pass we clicked and found the rhythm and just knocked it out slow and steady. The first pass we climbed up far enough to be surrounded by snow banks, it was so cold that we had to hide x 6while we ate lunch which the family of a teammate Cameron provided for us. The really went above and beyond and followed us over both passes and had snacks for us along the way.

I have lived in Washington my whole life and the views we got today were without a doubt some of the best I have seen, I wish I could have gotten a picture of it all to share with you, guess you will just have to do the ride to see for yourself. The first pass, like I said was snow covered and cruising down the other side was very chilly, we all had multiple layers and scarves or face masks. Climbing up the second pass, White Pass, the weather cleared up more and the views just got better.

I am literally falling asleep as I write but I will add details in later when I have more energy

Day 5-Seattle to Enumclaw WA

Today was fantastic, we had a great ride out of Seattle following the roads right along Lake Washington heading south with some great views across the lake and out through Renton on our way to Enumclaw. It was super smooth coming out of the city the crew did a great job of marking turns for us and we had a killer pace the whole way. Best view of the day was coming into Enumclaw on Highway 169 going over the Green River Gorge bridge, huge cliff faces and the river was at least 75 to 100 ft below us, very fun, especially coming down onto the bridge from a steep hill with a lot of speed. I rode with Dean and Jake the whole ride and after the first few miles we were really comfortable riding together, we were efficient and had great communication and a fun time.

For our friendship visit we got to do our first arrival where we ride into the visit in a parade formation, a double pace line, everyone had a lot of fun with that. Our friendship visit was with Ashley House a organization that provides assistance for kids with intensive medical needs in a home environment. They operate out of an incredible house in Enumclaw with a lot of space the kids we met there were so happy to see us. Gilbert, the star of the visit gave us all tours of the house and had to show off his Seahawks pride to us with his posters and jerseys. His joy was contagious and I loved seeing how much the staff appreciated what we were doing.

Tomorrow is the first long day 125 miles around Mt. Rainier and over 2 REALLY big climbs, luckily we have about 12 hours to finish it!

Day 1-4

Day one was amazing, all the anticipation was over and I finally got to meet all the teammates that I will be biking with all summer. We arrived and checked in at the hotel where there was a mess of bikes being reassembled. We spent the rest of the day getting to know everyone and the most interesting part for me was listening to why people decided to participate in the Journey of Hope. It was inspiring and will be very exciting to see how those stories will help drive everyone to finish each ride and put their all into every friendship visit. Also I got to write the first team journal for day 1 Seattle that you can read here and all summer long. http://www.pushamerica.org/johtajournal.aspx

Day two was long with a lot of policies and procedures but we also spent time doing some leadership development which was a great experience and helped me realize the kinds of leaders that I am around and also the type of leader I am and areas that I can improve myself. I can't wait to continue to develop this skill over the summer. It was also my birthday and I had the evening to go out to get a drink with my friends and family. Most of my friends are gone for the long weekend but everyone that is still here came out which was so fun and a couple Pi Kapp brothers and childhood friends stuck around late with me at the brewery. It meant so much to me to have them there right before I begin this journey. I also came back to the hotel to see a birthday surprise on my bike, spoke decorations and horn with a funny card from Dean and Evan.

Day three we finally got on the bike for a skills assessment but hardly got to ride. We have a phenomenal volunteer cycling coach who is an incredible athlete and has so many tips and knowledge to share with us to keep us safe and successful on the bike. It was good to clip in again and role around and test my skills. We got to spend a lot of time in Seattle as well and I got the chance to share my love for this city with everyone. We went to Pike Place, and Folk Life at Seattle Center which was a blast to walk around at with the team, we all stand out in a crowd with our "team tux", khaki shorts and blue team shirt.

Day four, today, we got out on the road for the first time with the whole team and crew for a practice ride. Only 37 miles but it included some good climbs. It was great conditioning and good practice getting used to riding in pace lines and following turns marked by crew. Following that we had our first friendship visit with my mom's organization, The Arc of King County and then a friends and family kick off dinner at Buca Di Bepo. I also got to do a live radio interview with Komo news radio which was really fun. Sharing the mission we have set out to accomplish is one of my favorite things to do and I hope that message reached a lot of radio listeners. I don't know if it is available online but it was at 3:40 today if you want to search for it.

Tomorrow is the first real day of riding, we are off to Enumclaw with a 40 mile ride up and out of Seattle. We are all unbelievably excited to get this Journey started tomorrow.