Day 35-Colorado Springs, day off the bike

The day started off with breakfast sponsored by a family with two sons who are both Pi Alphas, it was delicious. After breakfast we had some time to relax before our friendship visit with Stellar Care. We met them at Memorial Park to play games. It was a huge park with a lot of space, the area we were in was a massive open grass field that had a beautiful background with the Rockies and Pikes Peak, I loved it. There we played kickball and tossed a frisbee with the Stellar Care members. They brought out their entire day program group and a lot of their residential care members so we had a huge group, we had so many people we had to start two separate kickball games. When we finished up we learned a little more about Stellar Care, they are a pretty new organization but have been growing very rapidly. They started as solely a day care facility for people with disabilities but expanded to residential and assisted living. One of the programs I have never heard of was host homes. Families with extra rooms and beds will host a person with disabilities to help them live independently, one of the staff that I talked to was saying that in most cases the host families welcome them like they are part of the family and eat and hang out and do activities with them. They also have many members that live on their own and will meet with Stellar Care groups for activities.

 After our friendship visit we went strait to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where we got a private tour from a staff member who is a Pi Alpha from 1988, the first ever official Journey of Hope with a team of cyclists and crew. It was so cool to see the training center, we got to tour the olympic pool, and gym then we got to go into the athlete only area that has all the dorms that athletes stay in while they are visiting the training center. Many athletes will stay temporarily to train while there are some that are there full time. For lunch we got to enjoy the all you can eat dinning hall the athletes use, it was quite the treat, I got to eat grilled salmon for the first time in too long, it was incredible, they also had soup and pasta and stir fry, we filled our plates and more and got desserts and coffee. While we were eating we were joined by some Olympians, they had a couple guys from the Paralympic Cycling team, a Paralympic Snowboarder and a women from the Olympic Cycling team. I had to take the opportunity to talk to the women about racing and getting into racing and she had some good advice, she recommended starting as soon as I can, she didn't start racing until graduate school but started winning races and earning points to move up categories until she became one of the best in the world. After she left I sat down at a table with a bunch of guys talking to Keith Gable the paralympic snowboarder who won a bronze medal in Sochi. It was so fun to talk to him about what the Olympics are like, he was telling us hilarious stories. At the Olympics each team is given commemorative pins for their country, Keith started trading pins with other countries and filling his lanyard with cool pins and they became like currency, some were more rare and worth a lot more than others, at a bar one night he ordered a bottle and gave the bartender a pin rather than cash and seconds later the bartender came back with two more bottles. He also was able to trade pins for a police officers badge and a medal of honor from a security officer who was ex Russian military, that is just how treasured some of these pins were. It is safe to say that Keith won the pin war and a Bronze medal in Sochi. On our way out we got a special treat, the paralympic cyclist brought out his bike and gear and gave us a demo of how his bike works, he has a special modification to fit his right leg that attaches to the seat post and he uses just his left leg to pedal. The shifting and breaking is all done with his left hand as well, the one brake lever brakes the front and rear wheel and he added a special shifter so he can shift both front and rear derailleurs with the same hand. To top it all off, Keith went and grabbed his medal to show us, it was so cool to hold an actual Olympic medal, when I asked if we could get a picture together he said sure but only if I wear the medal!! I got to wear an Olympic medal around my neck! I think that makes me an Olympian. After they had to leave we stopped by the team store so I could get a sweet shirt and sticker.

Our dinner was with the Dean of Students at Colorado College, we ate at his house, the Dean's College which is very cool because it is just about done being converted to a completely off grid home, using no electricity from the power grid. The Dean Mike Edmonds is a really nice guy and has been sponsoring this dinner for the team for 13 years. He was a very entertaining guy and his laugh was the most contagious laugh I have ever heard, he was making us laugh from opposite corners of the yard, he didn't want us to leave but we had a leadership meeting to have after dinner. The meeting took a bit longer than expected which was frustrating because I wanted to see Emily before I left. Finally when we were done I got to hang out with her, we just hung out at a park nearby for a couple hours before I had make curfew. I was so happy to see her one last time to say goodbye for now until we get back to Arizona August 10th, always hard to say goodbye but a memorable 4 days it has been that I have gotten to see her. I think about it sometimes how cool it will be to be able to look back on these times with her later on, it is so amazing, I am so lucky.