Today we dedicated our ride to Roger, an individual who we conducted a portrait with on day one. He was so willing to to open up to us and share his story – and also let us pet his dog Duke!

We had an awesome, short ride today (23.3 miles). Everyone was zipping down the road with smiles on their face, even when one team got a little bit lost! We had such a short ride because we had an event at an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge. I personally did not know that Hope Lodges existed across the United States, but I learned today that a Hope Lodge is a place where individuals who are receiving cancer treatments and their caretakers can live during treatment. This is awesome because oftentimes to receive the most excellent treatment, people have to travel to bigger cities that might be really far away from where they are from. Staying in a hotel during treatment would be an expense that many could not handle, and a Hope Lodge helps with the financial aspect of housing while also providing emotional support and a sense of community. We had the chance to conduct FOUR Portraits today and hear about these amazing individuals currently staying in the Hope Lodge. It was a very powerful experience and we were so thankful to be there.

We had a little bit of free time after the Hope Lodge, and it was nice to be able to relax a little bit and hang out as a team. We were so thankful to get to eat at Nick Tahou Hots – the home of the famous Rochester Garbage Plate!!!!! You should definitely read about it, they were delicious and we were so thankful for their donation of food to us. We also got a food donation from Joes Brooklyn Pizza! We weren’t exactly eating the most healthy food today, but we figure we will use those calories for good tomorrow during our ride!

Stayover Spotlight: we are so thankful to be staying at the Church of Love Faith Center! This is a church right on the river, and has beautiful views and a lot of space for us to spread out and sleep.

Rider Shoutout: Mike is our other awesome ride leader and we are so thankful to have him on our team! This is his second year in a row doing the cross-country bike ride. He loves biking and sadly his bike has been out of commision for the past couple of days. It was fixed today and he did an awesome job biking and leading the team. He also does an amazing job conducting portraits, encouraging the team, and overall being supportive. He also did some of the team’s laundry today, which we (and everyone who has to be near us) are extra thankful for.