Day 51 - Birmingham, AL

Tonight is a calm night before our last ride over 100 miles. Tomorrow we ride from Birmingham to Carrollton, Georgia. We've had an awesome time in Alabama - we had a day off riding today but we had 3 friendship visits in Birmingham.


The first was at the paralympic training center of Birmingham. This place was incredible! We got to meet two athletes who placed in the paralympic games in Beijing. One was a gold medalist in wheelchair basketball, and the other won bronze for floor volleyball. The paralympics are a competition for people with physical disabilities, such as spinal injuries or amputations. In other parts of the world, the paralympics are the second most popular athletic competition in the world - bigger than the men's world cup. Unfortunately, it does not get the same amount of attention in the US... I actually never even heard about them until today. The facilities were really awesome, and the athletes were amazing.. their disabilities didn't even seem to phase them. I'll definitely be paying more attention when the next paralympics come around in London.


The next friendship visit we had was at the UCP of greater Birmingham, a center for people affected by cerebral palsy. There were tons of people there; we pretty much just kicked back, had lunch, and chatted. The occupational therapist had a couple of us fix the chain on a specially designed bike, which was a challenge at first, but our bike mechanical skills were proven when we got it to work again.


Later, we went to a park in Moody, Alabama to play baseball with the Miracle League. The field was packed, and everyone was enjoying games and fun.



Crossing the Alabama state border



Pi Kappa Phi house at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa - omicron chapter



Air rifle at the paralympic center - adapted for people who are blind, etc.


Miniature horse... only in Alabama


We ball until the sun goes down. What.

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 51 - Birmingham, AL

Tonight is a calm night before our last ride over 100 miles. Tomorrow we ride from Birmingham to Carrollton, Georgia. We've had an awesome time in Alabama - we had a day off riding today but we had 3 friendship visits in Birmingham.

The first was at the paralympic training center of Birmingham. This place was incredible! We got to meet two athletes who placed in the paralympic games in Beijing. One was a gold medalist in wheelchair basketball, and the other won bronze for floor volleyball. The paralympics are a competition for people with physical disabilities, such as spinal injuries or amputations. In other parts of the world, the paralympics are the second most popular athletic competition in the world - bigger than the men's world cup. Unfortunately, it does not get the same amount of attention in the US... I actually never even heard about them until today. The facilities were really awesome, and the athletes were amazing.. their disabilities didn't even seem to phase them. I'll definitely be paying more attention when the next paralympics come around in London.

The next friendship visit we had was at the UCP of greater Birmingham, a center for people affected by cerebral palsy. There were tons of people there; we pretty much just kicked back, had lunch, and chatted. The occupational therapist had a couple of us fix the chain on a specially designed bike, which was a challenge at first, but our bike mechanical skills were proven when we got it to work again.

Later, we went to a park in Moody, Alabama to play baseball with the Miracle League. The field was packed, and everyone was enjoying games and pizza.

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Crossing the Alabama state border

[image_1]
Pi Kappa Phi house at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa - omicron chapter

[image_2]
Air rifle at the paralympic center - adapted for people who are blind, etc.

[image_3]
Miniature horse.. only in Alabama.

[image_4]
We ball til the sun goes down. What.

-Mikey

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 46 - Jackson, MS

Had a much cooler ride into Jackson today. We saw some awesome architecture and smaller towns on the way; when we got to the Walmart we were staging up at outside of Jackson, we decided to have a little bit of fun. A couple buddies and I each bought half gallon jugs of chocolate milk to see if we could finish them in under 5 minutes. Did we do it? Yes. Was it an awful decision to make right before getting back on our bikes? Oh yes.



Building in a town we passed through today


Matt and me after the half-galling challenge


Burgers in a park for dinner. Adam and Ethan had an eating competition man vs. food style

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 45 - Vicksburg, MS

We made our stop today in Vicksburg, right after we crossed into Mississippi. A few guys are out exploring the town, but I decided to stay at the YMCA we're staying at with some other guys to relax; it gives me time to blog, listen to Drake, and ice my knees after a couple of tough days. I'm feeling good as new!

For a while I was feeling a little burnt out, but the comradery of the team and excitement of travelling has pushed me through. It seems crazy that we're already in Mississippi making our way home.


Me crossing into Louisiana. I know, the pose is ridiculous. I might have been a little bit delirious..


Tree got cut down in front of us when we were riding in LA.. Geez!


I'm a pretty terrible photographer normally - while I'm riding it's just absurd. On the bridge crossing the Mississippi


Bye bye Louisiana.

Thank you for paying attention!
Mikey

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 41 - Terrell, TX

Dallas and Fort Worth - what a great part of our country! It was really neat to make our way through the area, even if it took us a few days to do so.

The last three days we had lots of friendship visits, made some tourist stops, and had the best meals provided to us. We visited the Fort Worth stock yards, got a VIP tour of the Cowboys' stadium, swam at a water park, played whirlyball, shopped at Bicycles Incorporated; to say the least, we had a lot of exciting experiences back to back recently.

As you can probably relate, though, it's always the little things that stick out. When we arrived at our lodging in Dallas, there was a little girl named Megan and her mom holding a sign that said "thank you for riding for us!" Megan is a friend of one of my team mates, Graham. Graham is a pikapp at Texas Christian University, and is one of the nicest and most upbeat of our team members. Megan and Graham know each other from the best buddies program Graham participated in when he was in high school. When Megan was being interviewed by abc news, the reporter asked her if she ever knew that this many people cared about her. She shook her head and began crying; to me, it was intensely emotional to see how much we are affecting peoples' lives and how much they appreciate us.

That's all for the mushy stuff, but here are some pix!


Humungo Cowboys' stadium


Me being awkward everywhere I go.


A hard to see Pi Kappa Phi house at Texas Christian University, where we stayed on Fort Worth for two nights


Never seen so many cowboy hats and boots, cool place to hang out!

Thank you for reading!
Mikey

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 37 - Stephenville, TX

I regret it, but this will be another shorter post because the last couple days have been jam packed as we're making our way toward Dallas.

In a way though, it's been nice to have a lot to do. In the moment, it's hectic and stressful but we're fitting in some of the best memories of the trip. For example, yesterday we rode to Abilene, TX where we had not one, but two friendship visits in town. The first was a lunch with Disability Resources, which was amazing! The people there can work for money by making chocolates, jalapenos, chou-chou, and tons of other stuff. It all tastes great! The team was lucky enough to get to try it all for free.

After our ride and the first visit, we were drained of all of our energy. 12 or so team members including myself went to the second friendship visit sort of dragging our feet. Before we walked in, we reminded each other that we needed to put smiles on our faces since we owed it to all of the people who were waiting for us. We pumped ourselves up, ran through the doors, and the dance party of over 130 people who were waiting for us turned out to be the greatest time ever! I'm so glad we got to go.

Today we did a lot too - in the middle of our ride, a few of the pikapps from the Texas Christian University chapter grilled us lunch on the side of the road. We also stopped at the Dr. Pepper factory, and ended our day with a pool party and dinner. I'll throw up a couple or pictures that are neat to look at -



One of the coolest moments of yesterday was riding through an enormous wind farm; there were turbines as far as the eye can see.


The jalapeños at Disability Resource! They were great but made me cry a little...


These are the guys I rode with today and me outside the Dr. Pepper factory and museum. The man all the way on the right is riding along with us for three days - he now serves full time in the Army Reserve and did journey of hope back in 1996. Every once in a while, a pi alpha will join us for some of our journey.

Thanks so much for reading!
Until next time,
Mike

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 35 - Snyder, TX

I don't have much time to write tonight, but I wanted to post a little bit about my day.

We rode through some decently discouraging headwinds today... I guess that's the tradeoff for being in good ol' flat Texas!

When we got to Snyder we had a shorter friendship visit where we got to cool down and devour some special k bars and powerade. On top of that, I got to play my favorite board game, candyland! 3rd place out of 4 ain't bad - I'll take it.

After our FV and dinner, I basically had the most productive evening ever. Did laundry for $2.75, shaved my legs, cleaned my bike, watched some Harry Potter, and got my bags organized.


The world's never seen bike components so fresh and so clean clean. She's gonna fly the next couple days.


Forgot to mention, there was a dust storm. I may have overreacted... I was scared when I saw it coming but it turned out to not be bad at all.

Time to get some rest now, gnight everyone.

Mikey

posted from Bloggeroid