WOOO. So the first day was a success. We had a blast riding out of NYC in the I4Kaboose and over the bridge into Jersey. Today's 65 mile ride was filled with turns and hills, a challanging and exciting day all in one.One part of the day stands out to me amongst the rest: As Mary, Michell, Syzmon and I rode through some of the smaller towns in NJ late morning, we came upon a fruit stand. Mutually deciding to buy some apples we pulled over and began to chat it up. After buying .25cent apples, one of the women also buying fruit at the fruit stand was questioning us and upon telling her what we were doing, she whipped out her beautifully manicured nails. To our surprise, each nail was airbrushed with a breast cancer ribbon. She could not have given us a better blessing and it really made me realize how big of a plague cancer is. The fruit stand man ended up giving us 3 apples and an orange each, so we stuffed our back pockets and met up with the rest of the group to share our snacks and our amazing story.Miles and miles later, we arrived at the Thakkar house, home of the founder of the Illini 4000. Mr. and Mrs. Thakkar instantly greeted us with kindness, food, and beverages... all of which were greatly appreciated. The Thakkar's opened their house to us so graciously, providing us with a DELICIOUS dinner (and an I4Kake), as well as showers (yesssss), and a place to sleep. Thank you so much to the Thakkar's for your kindness... and most especially for your inspiring words!Tomorrow brings us into the beginning of our Pennsylvania stretch... it's suppose to be 93 and sunny. My favorite weather!!... for laying out in, yea we'll see how biking in it goes.In other news, Eamon and I are friends again. <3