Today’s ride was odd and started out with a bang. We were literally a mile or less into the ride when my group stopped at a stop sign. Two cars back we heard yelling that sounded something like “get out of the way.” The first car drove by us once we were moving and followed by that car was an old man in a pick up truck, yelling and pointing at us. We yelled some stuff, not bad or negative, but sarcastic like “Sorry for making a difference!” He slowed down to a stop and as we got closer he spun his tires spitting dirt and rocks up at us. The guy in front of me got most of it but I caught a little of his wrath. We just kind of laughed about it, that someone is filled with so much anger to do that. The ride was hilly all day and I pushed it too hard. My quads and knees were sore at the end of the day.
We had an arrival at an organization called Stonebelt. This organization planned their own picnic and activities around us coming so there was a ton of people waiting for us when we got there. We were served lunch and then some guys participated in the dunk tank, volleyball, and BINGO. As you might have guessed, I was drawn to the BINGO arena and it was there I played the game next to Frank. Frank is 60 years old and has Down Syndrome. I chatted with him a little bit and made sure he marked his card correctly. He was pretty friendly and I knew we were having a good time but I didn’t know how much of an impression I had left on him. When we got outside for the group picture we walked together and sat down in front. He needed a little help getting down and right before the picture was taken he rested his head on my shoulder. It just amazes me that we can have that much impact on someone in so little time, under an hour. 
There was another team member who made an impression. He spent the entire time with a girl who called him buddy and when we had to get ready to ride off again she started crying. She hugged him and went inside, but came outside in a couple minutes to hug him again and say good bye one more time. We stayed at the Pi Kapp fraternity house on the campus of Indiana University , which was enormous. The living legend Dr. Phil Summers made sure we had a great steak dinner at the house and gave us a small tour around campus (by car, not walking, I don’t think I could have handled that). On this night, I finally got around to cleaning my bike.
1 comment:
jake and andrew, you too are really something,so proud of you. just finally caught on to your blog. kept hearing that your other aunts were getting phone calls, nana had to let me know she got one also. love all the stories keep up the great work. tell all the riders we think you're all doing wonderful things here. love ya aunt M.E.
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