Des Moines, IA (Day Off)

Today was our day off, but with all the programming, is sure didn’t feel like it.
We woke up at 7:30, showered up, and left for the continental breakfast down in the lobby. 7:30 sounds early, but I’m so conditioned to waking up at 5 or 5:30, getting 8 hours of sleep seems like too much. The continental breakfast was awesome. The Marriot we are staying at was exceptionally nice. The team was broken up in the three hotels on the strip, the Marriot, the Springfield, and the Fairfield. The Marriot was by far the nicest, and the continental breakfast proved it. We had a quick bite at the hotel’s steak house.
We then went to a camp for the disabled youth, called Camp Sunnyside. One of the cyclist’s, Jeff, wife works there, so she gave a tour of the facilities after a second breakfast. The place seemed nice, a little too nice. The staff seemed a little too perky, a little on the creepy side, but nothing overboard.
After the tour, we hopped in our vans, and went to lunch. We headed to Jason’s Deli, where we were sponsored by a former Pi Alpha. The lunch was really nice, and pretty healthy, a nice alternative to the usual fast food we’ve been having.
We left for a tour of Camp Dodge, a military facility in operation since the 1920’s. One of the Sergeants gave us the tour, which was a pretty neat history lesson. It was interesting to learn about Iowa’s role in many of the US wars. There was also a tour of the Camp's facilities, including a shooting range. They had a museum which included a few artifacts from different time eras, including used helicopters and Jeeps.
We left the tour exhausted and tired, and went back to the hotel where most of us napped for an hour. Honestly, I’ve never felt more tired since the trip started, and today’s the day off…ironic. After the nap, we headed to dinner. Dinner was sponsored by another Pi Alpha who also sponsored a few meals in Griswold, Iowa. His house was pretty nice, and the home cooked meal was delicious. He brought out a few albums and it was interesting to see pictures from his Journey of Hope trips. It was weird to see the same lodging we stayed at, except 10 years ago.
After dinner, we basically had the rest of the night off. I had a few errands to run, including laundry, cleaning my bike, and a quick workout. My bike was absolutely disgustingly dirty from trek the past couple days, and it was screaming for a bath.
After a long and surprisingly tiring day off, we went to sleep in our nice comfy hotel beds.