First rest day! This morning Arturo was able to arrange a visit with Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Cleveland due to their oncology specialty. We met with a woman whose family donated the funds for a special terrace rooftop area where children could spend time outdoors with their families and a horticulture therapy room where horticulture specialists ran special programming for the child patients.
Rainbow Hospital was such a special place because of the specially designed architecture that was geared towards the children that would inhabit it, complete with animal statues and colorful building design. An oncology doctor gave us a brief presentation and I was surprised to learn that there were cases of older patients being diagnosed with cancers that were more common in children, and because of this they would be placed in children’s hospitals based on their cancers rather than their age.
After the hospital visit the team broke up into different groups to explore the city. My group was able to briefly visit the free Art Museum and take a look at the exhibits there. I enjoyed looking at American pastoral room and seeing the 18th and 19th century artists’ rendition of the scenery that we ourselves would see on the ride. After this, a couple teammates and I took a satisfying nap on the museum lawn and then explored the little Italy section of town. We chatted over gelato and coffee and appreciated the down time that we had.
In the evening some of the team members took advantage of being in Cleveland and went to an Indians game while others chilled out in the church we are staying at. We have been on a lucky streak recently and have been provided with food by the kind people of the church community at many of the stayovers. Hopefully we can beat the previous team’s record of only eating pasta and lentils for 8 days during the entire trip! So far we have only eaten it once.
Although I thought I would be more than happy to have the day off, today I have actually been missing the feeling of being on the bike and being able to enjoy the scenery. I am excited to continue our journey tomorrow.
Sunny days and sleepy ways.
MB