Bethesda, MD to Washington, DC

Today was just a whirlwind of emotion. We only had 10 miles today, so the ride was nothing but a dream. We woke up at 6, and had one last great crewchief breakfast…this time, we got to have as many banana’s or cereal or bagels as we wanted. We chowed down, know that this was it. 24 hours from now, we go our separate ways, never again being all together.

My paceline was decided a long time before today. Brad (UNC), Trent (Nebraska), Jeff (Kansas), and John (RIT). The five of us. They called us Super Best Friends Paceline, because we always rode together but never talked during our rides…we never needed to.

We started the ride, pretty easy, and carried through until we reached THE George Washington University, which was Stage up. We then cheered on the rest of the team as they arrived. As usual, we had to wait a half hour for the Trans team to show up, and a whopping 2 hours for the south team to show up…seriously, we know we are Varsity.

After a few pictures, and a tour of The GW Pi Kapps’ house, we started to get in arrival formation and headed to the Capital Building. As we approached, there was an army of spectators, cheering and noise from every direction…one of the coolest feelings I’ve ever experienced.

There were my parents and my family in their power blue T shirts with “Team Sean” directly displayed on them…I’ve never been so proud. Finally, we got to the Capital Building. It took 67 days, under 4000 miles, and a level of energy I have never reached before in my life.

Standing with the 100 or so cyclists, I saw all the families together, along with my own, and for once, I saw life with a little more clarity. I don’t know if I can describe that feeling. Sure it was a feeling of accomplishment, but it was more of a feeling of thankfulness, to all those that have help me get to where I am right then…all those that donated, those on my team that pulled me through tough terrain, but especially to my family who believed in me from day 1. We took a few pictures, paceline pics, team pics, and eventually met with our families and friends.

Thanks to my brother Neil, and his wife Rachel for being there, along with Sasha and my parents. I was also greeted by Alex Mitchel and Alan Willar and his sister Erica, friends from back home at Michigan. Finally, I got the chance to do what I was waiting for 67 days…to lift my bike over my head. Probably the closest feeling I’ll ever get to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup, but much more meaningful.

After a few speeches by Chad Coltraine (the CEO of Push America) and few others, we headed to our hotel for the evening. I quickly got changed and met up with the family and Michigan friends and walked over to some Irish Pub styled restaurant. They asked a lot of questions, which I answered just like usual. It still hasn’t hit me that it was over yet.

After dinner, we took a stroll down the National Mall, seeing all the great memorials, including the Lincoln and Washington Memorials. Not too long after, it was already dinner time and we headed back to the hotel for the Final Banquet.

The dress was business casual as it was told to us. The South team, decided to show up a little trashy with tanks…I guess that’s why they’re call the JV team. The banquet was pretty nice way to wrap everything up. They had a slideshow of good memories, along with a few awards. The entire time I was thinking of how it went so fast.

One banquet and a couple of cheesecake slices later, we departed and met in Drayton’s room for one last time as a team. We went around saying our goodbyes. Good thing I’m an engineer and don’t have any emotions, because if I wasn’t, I would have had tears pouring down my face. After a wrap of everything, we headed outside and onto a Party Bus/ Limo. Zak, the rider from Houston, dad is the owner of a Limo company and provided us a complimentary limo for the evening. We had a little fun driving all over Washington, before calling it a night.

That was it. 67 days. Less than 4000 miles. And one incredible journey. I don’t know what else to say. It’s been the time of my life, these past days. Never had I had such a feeling of accomplishment. But I do have one last thing to say…Thank you. Thank you for those that have been reading my blog and following me. It was those little comments you left after each entry, and those wall posts on facebook, and texts, that helped me get through the toughest days.

So what’s next? Tomorrow after brunch with my family, I leave for Traverse City, Michigan where I will be spending the next week with 3 of my best friends from high school, Jameson, Chris, and Brian. From tubing to putt putt, it’s going to be a nice break from reality. After a week of vacation, I’ll be finishing the differential equations class I was doing before my computer crashed, before I head back to Michigan. This semester will be a tough one, but its going to be especially great as I will be the upcoming Warden for the fraternity.

Until next time, and thank you,

Sean

Hagerstown, MD to Bethesda, MD

Today was our last full day of riding, and the riding today went pretty smoothly.

We woke up at 7:30, which was nice but we had so much to do and still had a 60+ mile day, we were fighting time.

I rode with Jason today and we basically kept changing pacelines. We started off with Jorge, but after he had 3 flat tires before 10 miles, he basically decided to rack. So Jason and I kept going until we met up with Stefan and Nick. We kept moving but we were hurting. Call it fatigue from the Appalachians, but we were for sure getting tired, and we had a very strong head wind. Even on the downhills, the fastest we could go was 10 mph. We kept pedaling and before we knew it, we were the first paceline. From last to first. We kept pushing ourselves knowing that time was not on our sides. After passing all but one crew stops, we made it to the 55 mile mark, where the crew had to serve us a crew chief lunch and then rack us up to lodging. It sucks that we couldn’t finish, but we didn’t have much options.

Our lodging for the night was the Landon School which was really nice especially for our final lodging of the trip. It was basically the preppiest school, which had money pouring out of it.

After getting ready pretty quickly the team set off in their route specific team shirt to go to the all team dinner. At the dinner we were able to catch up with the other routes and see a few frinds from the other routes. Like usual, we were the first one to arrive, and we eventually had to wait an hour for the south team to arrive. All three teams enjoyed pulled pork and chicken from Red Hot & Blue Barbeque at the St. Stephens United Methodist Church. After everybody was filled up, we began to go over plans for the big arrival tomorrow.

When we returned to lodging all of the team members laid their jerseys, maps, and anything else that they wanted autographed by the entire team in a line, and then we spent a good amount of time going through and signing each article. It is going to be nice having these jerseys and maps to look back upon and remember the great summer that we shared with everyone. Finally, we began by saying our goodbyes, to each one of us. I don’t know where the summer went by, but it was too fast.

Cumberland, MD to Hagerstown, MD

Today was a great day; we woke up and departed our lodging at the Western Braddock Inn in Cumberland Maryland.

There was a lot of climbing throughout the day, which made it tough for us as we were also battling the humidity on the ride. I was drenched in sweat through most of the ride. I kept pedaling and before I knew it, it was over. It was definitely one of the tougher days. The ride was capped off with a little drizzling rain at the end of the ride.
We arrived at the Potomac Center which was sponsoring for the rest of the day. We quickly got showered and prepared for a tour and friendship visit of the facility. We toured the facilities and we broke into smaller groups and played board games at the residence halls. After we played games for a little while we headed back to the gym for dinner with our new friends. I played a couple card games with Brad and some of the campers. We were playing spades with a bunch of new rules. Brad was getting a little irritated because every new rule seemed to hurt him only, but he shrugged it off. We soaked up every bit of this time as we could, because this was our last friendship visit for the summer.

After dinner the team had a little time to themselves, and then we participated in our last team ritual. Finally, I am a Pi Alpha, which has given me a new perspective on college, and even life. It was a tough day for me when I came to the realization that we were only two days out from DC and our friendship visits for the summer were finished with, but I cannot wait to see all of my family and friends when I arrive. Afterwards, we called it a night especially since it was approaching 2 AM.

Uniontown, PA to Cumberland, MD

We woke up at 6, had another crew chief breakfast, and got ready for one of the toughest days on the trip. In my paceline was Brad (UNC), Brian (Colorado), Chris (Colorado), and Tommy (Illinois). Hill after hill, mountain after mountain, we just kept pedaling. It wasn’t easy my any means. We were going up pretty steep hills for miles, one of the roads had at least a 15 percent grade uphill. I was in a pretty fast paceline, and we made it up to lunch as the second paceline, with the sweeps over 2 hours behind us…we were that spread out. I felt a little dizzy, but nothing too bad, I’m guessing it was just over exposure to the sun. At lunch we had a crew chief lunch, consisting of a 2 meat, 1 cheese sandwich and some fruit. I was dripping with sweat but we only had 12 miles more, with what I was told, a pretty sweet downhill. We started rolling, and before we knew it, we were flying at 50 mph down the mountain, into the town. We lost Tommy in the downhill, and we were worried sick. We gave him a call, and apparently he got stung by a bee on the way down, but was fine and racked himself to lodging. A few miles later, we saw him and he basically just had some bad luck.

We got to the hotel, and unpacked and relax. After I took a shower, I fell on the bed and was out until dinner. I was so tired, and it was just what I needed, a 3 hour nap.

For dinner, we were again sponsored by a rotary club at a park. They served us ribs and this lemon chicken that was pretty scrumptious. I ended have a ton of ribs, over 12. After dinner, we went back to hotel, where we cleaned out the vans, as it was getting to the time of the summer. We finished things off by going to the conference room and having our version of secret santa. It was pretty funny, and a lot of fun, and kind of sad that out time as a team was running out. We then had the rest of the night off, where we just watched TV before calling it a night.

Pittsburgh, PA to Uniontown, PA

Today was a pretty usual day on the bike. We got a little taste of the Appalachian Mountains, which are getting to be a bit of a challenge, I suppose a good way to end the trip.

We woke up at 6, packed up and had a crew chief breakfast. It’s been a while since we had a crew chief breakfast, so it brought back some memories…half a bagel, half a banana, and cup of cereal. After breakfast, we headed out to Uniontown. I was riding again with Jorge, so I knew that there was a good chance I would get frustrated at some point today. I also rode with Houston (Tennessee), Tyler (Southern Miss), and Zak (Houston). We headed out going at a pretty good speed. Then we hit a few steep hills. Now, they weren’t too bad, but they were pretty steep, probably 13 percent grade. Sure it sounds tough, but with the conditioning we had for the past 2 months, it should be bearable. However, Jorge decided to test my limits, and we were going at roughly 4 mph up the hills. I could run faster. Regardless, we pushed through, and we made it to lunch.

25 miles in, we were sponsored by this hotdog place called “The Red Caboose.” It was in the middle of nowhere and had ridiculously low prices. Surprisingly, they had lines out the door, and it was barely 10 AM when we arrived there. They gave us chilli-chaz dogs and brownies. Probably not the best lunch, especially considering that we still had 35 miles to go. We had a little contest at who could have the most chilli-chaz dogs. I topped out at 4.

During the rest of the ride, I thought I was at a severe disadvantage from the amount of food I had for lunch. However, I was feeling fine, if not better than before. There were a few more climbs, but nothing too bad, and we managed to get to lodging. Houston and I were struggling, not because the terrain was tough, but because we were going so slowly.

We were staying at a YMCA for today, my favorite type of lodging. We cleaned up and we had some downtime before dinner. We went to the Uniontown Mall, which felt really empty, probably because it was a Tuesday afternoon.

Once we got back, we headed to a park where we were provided a pasta dinner by the Knights of Columbus rotary club. The meal was great, the perfect carb load-up for tomorrow, what was going to be one of the toughest days on the bike.

After dinner, we headed back to the YMCA where we had the rest of the night off. After a quick workout, I just relaxed. Right before lights out, Tyler came back from scouting looking scared. He was telling me that scouting was torture, seeing what he would have to climb tomorrow. Basically, harder than anything we have ever done. There were literally, two walls that we had to climb. They stopped at a gas station, and the clerks actually referred to the hill as “a wall.” Well, it didn’t exactly help me go to sleep.

Regardless, I think tomorrow will be alright…hopefully.

Pittsburgh, PA (Day Off)

I woke up at 8, not because I had to, but because I was so used to waking up at the break of dawn. We got ready and walked over to UCP (United Cerebral Palsy), a non-profit organization helped with providing independence to people with cerebral palsy. We met a few of the art classes and hung out for a couple hours. I met this guy named Nathanial who was just as big of an ESPN buff as I was. We spoke a lot about college football. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a big fan of Michigan. I also spoke to a girl named Missy. She didn’t have as much ability as Nathanial, and required a computer for her to communicate. Because of it, it took quite a while for her to say only a few words. It was truly amazing to see her go through such barriers every day, as I couldn’t imagine how frustrating it would be.

We had a brunch consisting of a very traditional Pittsburgh meal. We had cheese and potato pierogies, kielbasa, and haluski (cabbage and noodles). It was pretty good, but a little greasy. After the meal, we got a Pittsburgh Pirates hat and some candy.

We headed back to lodging where we got only a hour or so to relax before we headed to lunch. For lunch, we went to a cycling themed bar and restaurant called “Over the Bars.” They served us cheeseburgers and fries, and we also met an alumni that did the trip three times in the early 2000’s. The food was pretty good, and the décor on the walls were pretty interesting. After lunch, we had some downtime at the hotel before dinner, which I pretty much napped.

For dinner, we went to Dave and Buster’s, where a sponsor donated us a meal and about 10 bucks worth of games. It was pretty fun, but a little boring at the same time. I’m not too big on cheesy video games, so I pretty much played pool and shuffleboard the entire time. We headed back to the hotel. We went to bed early, considering that we had another early wake up.

Niles, OH to Pittsburgh, PA

We woke up at 5 and got ready just like usual. For breakfast, the sponsors put together something in the cafeteria. It was basically some sugared muffins and left over cold pizza…disgusting. Easily the worst meal of the trip so far.

We got on the road and just kept pedaling. In my paceline was Rich (Iowa), Jorge (George Washington), and Brian (Colorado). The roads were pretty good, nothing too bad. However, those rolling hills from yesterday started to appear again but worst. We got a pretty good idea what the Appalachian Mountains were going to look like. Once we hit past the state line, we stop seeing the never-ending sight of farmland and instead started to see these old fashion towns. They were pretty nice, each with a little downtown and streets of small mom and pop shops.

Rack point was pretty lofty at 55 miles by 10:30, especially considering the terrain was much tougher than anything in the past month. Considering that Jorge was in my paceline, I was particularly nervous, but we pulled through. For a while, we got to the point where rack point was going to be tough, but after giving Jorge a little motivation, it worked out. Right before we entered the city of Pittsburgh, we had lunch. For lunch, we had McDonald’s, a chicken sandwich, a double cheeseburger, and half a box of French fries. It was nice to know that all the calories that we with great effort burned, were gained backed by in roughly 10 minutes. We were about 10 miles away from lodging. Due to the unsafe-for-cyclists bridges all over the Pittsburgh, we were given a police escort into lodging. It was pretty sweet to go through the streets of Pittsburgh, especially as we got to pass by Heinz field and Pitt’s campus.

Once we got to lodging, which we were lucky enough to stay at a Holiday Inn, we had to wait a couple hours for our rooms to get ready. It wasn’t much fun just sitting outside the hotel when all I wanted to do was to shower and then sleep.

We finally got our rooms and got cleaned up. Afterwards, we had a sponsored event with the parents of a Pi Kapp from Virginia Tech who did Journey of Hope the previous year. We went across from Robert Morris University to a bowling alley from cosmic bowling. Of course, bowling isn’t my specialty, so I tried to not be the worst one there. I don’t know how, but I succeeded. For the third game, our group got a little too bored, so we put bumpers up and tried to get the lowest score possible. It was a pretty good twist to bowling and finally, I was competitive at bowling.

After bowling, we went back to our lodging. For the rest of the night, I met up with one of my closest friends from Michigan, Jason Banish, and the rest of his family. Him and his brother, Shawn, picked me from lodging, and drove me to his hometown, Houston, about a half hour away. His house was nicely tucked away in the foothills. I was lucky enough to been at Jason’s house before, a couple years ago when the frat when to Pittsburg to volunteer for a weekend. I met his parents and we all just hung out in their patio. It was nice to just relax. Jason prepared some appetizers, fried okra and green tomatoes. He picked up a couple recipes during his internship in Mississippi from the past summer. Ever since I started Journey of Hope, I started to hang out with a few guys from the south, so I knew how good fried okra is, but Jason’s appetizers were scrumptious, a good sign for dinner. For dinner, his parents prepared a traditional Pittsburgh home-cooked meal, with chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables and a Polish dish called kielbasa. I found out a little later that there is a very large Polish population in Pittsburgh, which is very influential on Pittsburgh’s cuisine. After dinner, we had some mocha cake courtesy of Shawn, and some icecream. The cake was so good down to last bite. The entire meal was perfect and just what I needed to get through the last week of the trip. It was also very nice for the Banish family to wait for me to arrive to have dinner. After dinner, Jason and I caught up a little before it was time to start heading back. The whole dinner was great, and I felt like I was at home during my stay at the Banish’s.

Before we headed back to the hotel, Banish gave me a quick tour of downtown Pittsburgh. We stopped off at Washington Street, where you could see the entire skyline of Pittsburgh reflecting above the river. Breathtaking. We then went past the pro stadiums including the new hockey arena for the Penguins. Pittsburg surprisingly reminded me of Indianapolis due to its big city skyscrapers but with it’s small town feel.

Once I got back to lodging, it was already close to curfew so I went straight to bed. All though I get to sleep in, I would still have to wake up by 8:30.