Day 11

It's been a little while since my last post, but a lot has happened in the past 6 days. On day 6, or day 2 of cycling, we had our hardest day. 120+ mikes up and around 2 mountain passes (Cayuse and White Pass) and a total of 13 hours on the saddle. It was one of the, if not the most challenging day of exercise I have ever done in my life. Between hills that never ended, freezing winds, being over-heated, physical and mental exhaustion, and the total milage, I pushed myself to my breaking point. I arrived at lodging barley conscious, but was greeted with hugs, high fives, and the cutest little boy cheering us in. Although the ride was tough and intense it also had breathtaking views. Giant archaic trees, massive lakes, rivers, and waterfalls all surrounded us as we rode. This was a day I will never forget.

After conquering day 2 the other days were no comparison; that's not to say they weren't challenging or easy. The hardest aspect we had to adapt to is the constant cycling. It's not the one 100 mile day that kills the team, it's the fatigue yon the legs after three 60 mile days. After week one it was obvious the team felt the fatigue, I know I felt it.

Other than adjusting to the long cycling days the journey is lots of fun! The friendship visits are the best part of the trip so far! A typical friendship visit involves the entire team going to a local non-profit organization that supports people with disabilities in some way. They always feed us and then meet the team. Essentially, we eat, meet and then play with the members of the non-profit. If this is what the summer is going to be like for the rest of the journey then I'm in for an amazing time!

I'm still working on a way to upload pictures. If I can't figure it out on .the iPad soon enough I'll just borrow someones laptop and do it. Thanks for the patience!

Location:Spokane, WA

Day 5

First day on the road! After 4 days of orientation which consisted of going over safety procedures, practice rides, and daily routines we started the journey. Seattle was beautiful city to see. Despite what people say about the weather, I loved it. Overcast and misty in the morning and then sunny and amazing in the afternoon. This is somewhere I can see my self living one day!

We had our kickoff breakfast this morning with friends and family at a park. The breakfast was huge: bagels, sausage, omelet casserole, cooked potatoes, fruit, and coffee. Coffee might be the one thing that I'm going to crave the most during this trip. I think I'm already going through withdrawal due to all of the irregular twitching.

Riding through Seattle was a little scary at times due to the heavy traffic and wet roads, but once we got out of the city we saw the gorgeous country side. Overall, I felt confident riding today. I didn't have any issues with fatigue or bike maintenance. Tomorrow is going to be a much tougher day though since we are riding 125 miles around AND UP a mountain.

Enmuclaw is a nice little town just outside Seattle. As soon as we rode into the town we were greeted with a scenic view of mountains and forest. Now it's time to hit the showers and go to our second friendship visit.

I'm trying to find a good app to post my pictures onto, but until then bare with the lack of pictures. Another issue is the amount of Internet service I'll have access to,but I'll make it work. I'm keeping all of you in my heart and thanks again for sending me on this amazing journey!

Signing off.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Enmuclaw

Journey of Hope blog

Hey everyone, after many months of hard work I finally made it to Seattle to finally start the Journey of Hope! To recap for those who may not know on what the Journey of hope is. I and 26 other pi kappa phi brothers will be cycling from Seattle to Washington DC to raise funds and awareness for people with disabilities. While we cycle from city to city we will be visiting local organizations that support people with disabilities. During these events we will be participating in empathy dinners, preforming puppet shows, and getting to know the people we meet. I'll be posting pictures and posts when I can throughout the trip in an effort to share this event with everyone. A special thanks to all of my sponsors and supporters for getting me to Seattle; I couldn't have had made it here without you!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Introduction to AJcraft

Let me introduce myself to the internet a little before I spawn another blog onto the internet: I am about to turn 22, I'm a senior in college, I love gaming, internet humor (the oatmeal, cracked, adultswim, random stupid videos on YouTube), traveling, and my family and friends.

 

The purpose of this blog is for me to write about my thoughts, opinions, and updates in my life. I call it AJcraft for my love of Starcraft 2 and since I craft the blog. The blog will have some basic things like my breakdown of the week or day, an image I found, and a random thought. I might add more, but I think this will be the core of the blog for now. I'll also be trying to plug in the charity event that I'll be doing this summer. Speaking of which...

I am going to be riding my bike across America next summer for people with disabilities. My fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, specifically Push America, has an annual charity event called journey of hope where fraternity brothers ride across the states spreading awareness and fund raising for people with disabilities. My goal is to raise 7,000$, I need at least 5,500 to participate in the event. You can donate and view my horrible profile picture here:

http://support.pushamerica.org/site/TR?px=1023045&fr_id=1100&pg=personal

11/22/11, Monday:

Synopsis of my week:

The dreaded week is finally here. The week where I have to get three final projects done in about one weeks time. I have to admit that I am procrastinating by writing this blog, but hey at least it's somewhat productive since I finally created something instead of mindlessly scrolling through Lolcats. The entire week I'll be at my parents place trying to force myself to do my school work instead of, well, blogging and surfing the internet. So more than likely I'll be posting to this and make myself cram the work until the end of the week.

Image of the day:

I got photoshop today so I did what any other internet user would do. Put a good friend next to Hitler.

Random thought of the day:

Dragons are awesome, my mother and I have always loved dragons. Ever since I started to play Skyrim like a fiend I've been thinking more and more about dragons. Specifically, what kind of dragon I would want and how they would function in our society if they existed. Ever watch that movie How to Train Your Dragon? I stumbled my old roommate watching it I couldn't help but join him. Great movie, but what I think made the movie for me was it showed how dragons should act in real life rather than some of the other theories on dragons. For instance, in the movie dragons are depicted as wild reptiles that can be tamed and since they're wild beasts there's none of that telepathically linking up with humans bullshit. Also the fact that they come in many different sizes and races could conceivably make sense, almost like a Galápagos island of dragons. 

 awsum.

However, if we did live in a world with dragons it would be pretty terrifying since they're giant flying fire breathing lizards who would eat us. So I guess there are downsides, but I would risk living in a world full of dragons if it meant there was a possibility of taming them. Think of the possibilities! No more dealing with traffic since you can now fly which means no more going to the airport or dealing with TSA. Just the fact that you would have a 30 foot lizard to play with is pretty amazing as well. And yes lizards can be tamed checkout this dude who is best friends with a crocodile. So if you ask me it's totally worth the risk.