As we finally reached Illinois yesterday, an overwhelmingly comfortable feeling came over the team. Excited and so happy to finally reach Illinois, we rode into Champaign-Urbana, after a short promotional detour at Mooney Chevrolet in Chrisman, Illinois.
As we pushed through the wind, struggled over potholes, gravel roads, and washed out streets, we made it to our amazing alumni event. With speakers from American Cancer Society, Camp Kesem, Dr. Long (a University of Illinois cancer research professor that receieves funding from ACS, and cancer survior stories our fundraising and goals that sometimes seem to be trivial, where positively reinforced by enthusiam and support from the Champaign-Urbana community.
After the event, Jon and Nick jumped into the fountain, as they did last year. With a hard days ride and so much excitement, Sandy, Dana, Andrew, Matt and I all jumped in too! As we shivered our way home to dry clothes and to meet up with friends in the area, team bonding and the spirit of what we are trying to do across America became reinforced within my mind.
Reconnecting with my roommates and friends in the area I learned that it isn't the inital level of expertise or excitement that makes a trip such as this successful, rather the passion and effort day by day to get us one step closer to our goal!
Today from Champaign to Homewood, we had the wind at our back and a great, fairly easy ride. Reaching speeds in the upper 20s we cruised into Homewood, being welcomed by the Schlesinger family. Having fun on the road today, from racing one another on our highest gears to just cruising and enjoying the scenery, we learn to not take life for granted.
Laugh a lot, learn something new each day, talk with someone you never thought would understand you, listen to your heart, never take something for granted, and continually challenge your own world!
Sweet home Chicago in 2 days!