Day 71-Manassas Va to Washington DC

Today was the day, arrival in Washington DC the day everyone has been looking forward to but dreading at the same time. We had a very early morning to get to stage up at George Washington University before 9:30am which was a 35 mile ride. The ride was honestly pretty tough but it was all in my head, just being so excited to get to arrival made the 35 miles feel like they were only inching along. It didn't help that we hit almost every red light on the way, it was so frustrating. On the other hand I didn't exactly want the miles to fly by because I was enjoying the time on the bike especially because I was riding with Dean and Evan, the same way we started when we left from the coast. It is crazy to think back to that ride from the coast was like with them before orientation, kind of awkward, I hardly knew them at all, even though Dean is from my chapter (we were only active for a semester together) and now on this ride they are two of the closest friends I have. They are also two of the funniest guys so the frustration of the red lights was pretty comical with them. Finally we cross the bridge and get into DC and as we ride through the streets it becomes more and more real that the trip is quickly ending. A few blocks from GW a couple cyclists ride up to us wearing Push America Jerseys and welcome us to the city and congratulate us on the ride, the light turned green pretty quick so we didn't have time to talk but they were meeting us at the arrival. in the last bit we see the guys from the North and South routes riding in, the South route was in a 8-10 man pace line the last few blocks. Finally we get to the last turn and see a huge crowd of cyclists from North, South and the Trans guys ahead of us. It was an awesome feeling, so much excitement. After our whole team arrived we walked over to the GW Deli that Scott took us too which has amazing breakfast bagels, the pile it with bacon, throw some cheese on it and cook a couple fresh eggs, one of the best breakfast bagels I have had so I had to get two. After that we headed back to the lawn for stage up and circled up with all the teams to go over arrival and figure out what the order will be, sadly our route went second behind North. We clipped in and lined up on the road behind the police escort for the last time as a team everyone was screaming and yelling shooting water all over the place from our bottles, arrival was finally right in front of us. The ride down the national mall was insane, everyone was having a great time screaming and yelling and checking out the looks we got from everyone on the side of the road. As we get closer friends and family start lining the side walks taking pictures and we can see the capitol right in front of us. Finally I see my parents and my sister at the end of road right in front of me, we get off the bikes and walk onto the lawn and our rose, Liz Rodie, and Ben Jackson and Daniel Wilson were in the tunnel of people we walked through. We lined up in our full team picture and waited for Chad Coltrane, Mark E Timmes and the Project Managers to give their speeches then we got to run over to see our family and friends, my parents, sister and Aunt Ellie and Uncle Jeff were there. Of course my mom couldn't hold the tears back, my dad almost couldn't either and my sister had already let it go when she saw me ride in. After that it was crazy, families and teammates all over the lawn scrambling to take pictures with people and the epic picture in front of the capitol.
After that was all over we slowly moved to the hotel to check in and grab bags. They didn't have my room ready so I walked across the street with my family in my chamois and sat down at a restaurant outside to grab a drink and wait for the other big event we have been waiting for at arrival. It has been hard not to blog about it because of how much we have talked about it with the team but Brentley Wells has been planning to propose to his girlfriend all summer. He told us he was thinking about it after the first ride out of Seattle and we helped him set in stone by the time we got to West Yellowstone, get the ring box from a jeweler who decided to make it a donation to him, we helped him figure out a good way to pop the question and some guys drove into DC yesterday to scout out a good spot that they could walk to and we all pitched in to pay for a photographer to capture the moment. To add to the moment, after she said yes, they walked back to the hotel where we were all waiting on the sidewalk and as soon as she got closer we all got down on a knee in our chamois with Brentley and sang the rose song to her. It was an amazing moment for them and I was so happy we got to be apart of it not just today but all summer long. Talking to Brentley about our relationships has been such a good time.
I got to check in and shower then went to meet my family to go tour the Capitol Building, it was probably not the best idea, I should have just slept but we went anyway and it was very cool despite sleeping through the intro video.
The last event was the reception where they gave out the awards for fundraisers. They also had the teams go up and read the creed of the Pi Alpha. What really got to me was the slideshow, it really sunk in that it was done, we got the too quick recap of everything that we had done and all the places we had been and we had reached the end of the journey.
I don't think I will every be able to describe it all well enough to anyone but it I will always remember how it has effected me. I made it from Cape Flattery/Seattle to the Capitol in Washington DC on a bike with the Trans America route of Journey of Hope. This was the most incredible adventure I have had and I have never made closer bonds with brothers as well as people with different abilities that we met. It was an unforgettable summer and I am so proud of the entire team. It will be sad to see us split up after tomorrow. But for tonight we are still all together and it is time to celebrate with everyone.