Cleveland and our first rest day

Greetings from Westlake, Ohio! We are just west of Cleveland.

We had an awesome time in Perry with Jared's family. Some of his friends rallied on a street close to his house and cheered for us as we went by rolling into Perry. Except I think they thought we were all coming in one group because they were chanting "Jared, Jared, Jared!".... Jared wasn't in our riding group. Hopefully they figured it out by the third or fourth group. Jared's family and lots of friends cooked us an amazing dinner and breakfast the next morning, and we got to enjoy Jared's hot tub.

The team at Jared's house, with Zach holding our amazing ice cream cake!

Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived in Jared's house, we were all so excited to be in a home-y location that we just threw our stuff everywhere. It was like a tornado went through his house. We all had stuff scattered all around the downstairs, upstairs, and backyard, and at 6 in the morning when we we realized we actually had to leave, we were wandering around like zombies trying to gather missing water bottles, socks, bike wheels, sunglasses...you name it. Several things ended up being forgotten, but luckily his aunt and uncle are going to meet us in Columbus and can bring the left behind items! As Jared always says... I'm not mad about it.

Our day getting into Westlake from Perry was a wet one. In order to avoid the sketchiness of East Cleveland, we shuttled riders from Jared's house to a northern point in Cleveland and had us ride a sort of circular route around the border of the city and up to the northwest to Westlake. The idea was to stay on a bike path that was within the beautiful Cleveland Metropolitan Park nearly the entire way. Unfortunately our cue sheet was slightly confusing and one road changed names about 50 different times and there was a lot of getting lost. The rain also threw us off the groove we had had the past few days, as riders were going slower to be cautious. Luckily, though, we were in the park for most of the day which meant a bike path most of the way, and very courteous drivers when we were on roads.

Flatchat. This occurred at 9:15 am and after we had already gotten lost for 6 miles

No one enjoys biking the rain, and it made for a frustrating and yucky day. In addition, the vans were delayed in getting food because they had to make a trip back to Jared's to pick up everyone's bags. This made for a "hangry" bunch of riders. Hangry is what we use to describe our teammates when they are hungry and angry. Example: "Food van where are you? We are hangry." The food van now knows they'd better come quick.

Chris's dirt lines

These are not tan lines... they are dirt lines. Me & Chelsea

Unfortunately we didn't get in as early as we'd planned, which was a problem because we had a Hope Lodge visit set up. The Hope Lodge is a place that provides cancer patients and their families lodging and food for a couple days at a time when patients have to travel long distances to get their treatment. There are many Hope Lodges throughout the country and we will be volunteering at several throughout the trip. We will be cooking and serving dinner, as well as providing musical entertainment! Anyway, only one riding group arrived in time to make it to our Hope Lodge volunteering. It worked out fine because we will only take around 10 people to each visit, so the first riding group were the ones to go this time. I was disappointed I didn't get to go, but will look forward to next time. Also, I'll be in the musical performance and Chelsea, Tom and I have to find some cool violin trios between now and then!

After arriving in Westlake, we took some much-needed showers at the Westlake Rec Center and headed over to Dan's parents' house for an amazing dinner. They made us some unique and very delicious foods. We also had our first mail drop, which means we got some nice letters and care packages. I got S'mores materials from my mom and Ferrero Rocher chocolates, and a note from my grandparents. I also got Tom's giant flip flops because he left them at my house. Woo!! Some of Dan's friends from school joined us as well, and everyone got to hang out and play games in their awesome basement until people got tired (an embarrassingly early hour that I will not name) and it was time to go.

Hanging out at Dan's house. (His sister Allison doesn't actually have cat ears)

Today brought an amazing thing: our first rest day. After being able to sleep in until the glorious hour of 9 am this morning, we had a great breakfast cooked for us by Dan's parents and a couple of our own riders who helped. We then set about taking care of things that have fallen by the wayside for the past week due to our busy days. First was Bike Bathtime.

Baths were much needed after all the rain and dirt we've had to ride through. We all hosed down our bikes, scrubbed them, and lubed our chains.

It took forever to organize ourselves into groups because everyone wanted to do different things with their rest day. Eventually we split up and some people went to Target while others went to a post office, and everyone went to some bike shop or another. A lot of people bought little things for their bikes that they have realized they want. We also got a huge supply of brake pads, because the Appalachians completely shot all our brake pads and it's already almost time to replace them.

Then, most of us went to the Cleveland Zoo while a few went to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. I think we were the only group at the zoo that wasn't a kindergarten field trip or Amish people. It was fun anyway. Unfortunately, we're still looking for some hosts in a couple of cities, so Dave, Chelsea and I spent most of the time looking stuff up on our phones and calling people. I was able to finally find us a place to stay in Rochester, Indiana, even though this place had already said no to us, by saying that a pastor in another First Baptist Church had referred me. Sometimes you just need to drop a name and then suddenly people will listen to you! Connections are everything. 

Chelsea and I at the zoo. We found a Terrapin!

Rochester was our most urgent concern (that's coming up in a week and a day), so it was a relief to have that taken care of. Mendota, IL is coming up on the 23rd, and have had absolutely no luck after calling every church and school in the area. We're working on coming up with some more creative ideas but I think I'll try some of the churches again and just try to emphasize that we are desperate. Being leg leader is actually a big responsibility because you've agreed to making sure 25 people have a roof over their heads at night. Mendota is still a part of Leg 1, but I am helping the Leg 1 leaders fill in this last gap.

It was strange to be a real person again today and have goals other than eating food and getting from point A to point B. I think I forgot how to be a real person. As we were walking around I actually had to stop myself from calling out things like "slowing" and "stopping" and pointing out road obstacles.

After our afternoon activities, we headed to Ohio City to a place called Garden Market for dinner. There, we met up with a bunch of Pan Ohio Hope Ride riders who sponsored our dinner. The Pan Ohio Hope Ride is an annual 4-day ride from Cleveland to Cincinnati that raises money for the American Cancer Society. Jared has done the ride multiple times before and was able to arrange this for us. We obviously share goals and interests with them, and it was great getting to meet some of their riders.

Sweet bike rack in Cleveland!!

Cool art on the side of a building in Cleveland.

Part of the team then headed to an ice cream shop about a mile away. It was nice outside so we decided to walk. Unfortunately, after about 5 minutes of walking, we found ourselves in a slightly shady neighborhood. We weren't too concerned until we heard police sirens behind us. At first we thought we were getting in trouble for something, until we looked and saw a car getting pulled over right next to us and heard the officer say "everyone in the car put your hands over heads." Terrified looks washed over all of us and we started walking quickly. Just then the 4K van drove up with a few people who were driving to the ice cream shop. The van was an extremely welcome sight at that point and we all immediately flocked to the van and tumbled in as fast as we could, then quickly drove away. That was seriously scary!!! On the plus side, our ice cream was delicious. 

All in all, our rest day was much needed, and our legs were very happy to get a break. Tomorrow we head to Sandusky with what looks to be a very easy 41 miles: a straight shot along the lake. It looks like we will be racing a nasty storm, though. This storm is supposedly bring hail and high winds, so we're going to leave a little earlier tomorrow and hopefully beat it into Sandusky. The ride should be a quick one at only 41 miles. The worst of the storm is expected tomorrow night, and we are hoping it clears up before our long-awaited trip to Cedar Point on Thursday!! 

Westlake to Sandusky route tomorrow. Should be pretty!

Ruh roh :(

Some of you may have noticed Bill's comment on my last blog post. Bill is the pedal pal of our ride director, Dan. Some of our riders have pedal pals, who are cancer patients that they will be corresponding with throughout the ride (and beyond, I'm sure). Bill has terminal cancer and is an avid cyclist and said he enjoys reading my blog. I knew that my fundraising would make a difference, and that our volunteer efforts would make a difference, but I honestly had no idea that my blog could as well. I am so glad Bill commented, because it reminds me why I am doing this ride, and that if your efforts can make even one person happy, it's worth it. One of our sayings on the 4K is: "Cancer changes lives; so do we." And that is our goal.

P.S. Gavin is still napping.