We woke up at 8 AM and packed all our stuff up and put it in the vans. It was the latest wake up we have had yet. We had breakfast served by our sponsors. It was pretty much a feast from blueberry French toast to chocolate fudge brownies. It was also nice to actually eat a heavy breakfast since we didn’t have to ride after it.
After breakfast, we drove the vans to our lodging for the night, roughly 30 miles away in Milwaukee. After we unloaded all our bags, we headed to a hockey rink where we were scheduled to play wheelchair hockey.
Now, I heard of most of these friendship visits and events during orientation, and I’ve been most excited about this one ever since. We got to the rink, and we put ourselves in the wheelchairs. I was a little confused on how this would work, because I thought it would be sled hockey, but it turned out great. We went on the ice and messed around on the wheelchairs. It brought me back to Denver when we played quad rugby. We finally got a puck and started the game. I took the starting faceoff and won it, no surprise there. Overall, it was a ton of fun. It was tough to move and stickhandle at the same time (pretty much impossible). Thus, the key was passing. I did make a couple toe drags and absolutely embarrassed people but it didn’t happen too often, because when I would get the puck, I would have to stop moving the wheelchair and pretty much come to a halt. It was nice to score a goal, but it wasn’t too pretty.
After wheelchair hockey, we were donated lunch by Q-Doba, so we had soft tacos and chips, along with a giant cookie. After the filling lunch, we headed to the Harley-Davidson Museum. Harley Davidson goes back since the turn of the century, so there’s a lot of history in the museum. It was neat to see the company’s involvement in both of the World Wars and its influence on pop culture. There was an exhibit showing the life of Evel Knievel, which neat to see where he came from and his impact on society. It’s amazing to see his crashes and how on earth he survived them.
After the museum tour, we headed to a local movie theatre. The theatre was the venue for a event held by Independence First. The event basically promoted bicycle riding for people with physical disabilities, and gave out 16 disabled-friendly bikes for different families. I got to try a hand-cycle bike, which basically works by cycling with your hands instead of your legs. Maneuvering was insanely tough because to move, you shifted the weight of your body, as opposed to a regular bike, where you just move your arms. They served some pizza and fruit for dinner, which was pretty good.
After dinner, we headed to Comedy Sportz, a comedy improve club. I think today’s act was also sponsored by Independence First as there was people with physical and intellectual disabilities in the show as well as in the audience. It was basically a scratchy version of “Whose Line is it Anyways.” Some of the jokes were pretty funny, but I can’t really say that about all of them. Regardless, it was a pretty neat experience especially since I’ve been to the Comedy Sportz club in Chicago.We headed across the street to the headquarters of Independence First. We took a quick tour, but it was rushed because of time.
After a long day, we headed back to lodging, which was at a day camp facility. We were in a lodge-like room, and we could tell the mosquitoes were not going to treat us kindly tonight. Regardless, we called it a night especially after the exhausting but fun day.
No comments:
Post a Comment