A very special day today, and a very special day deserves a 5 am wake up. Riders lazily woke up this morning, packed their gear, and attempted to do the worm dance move (Tracey's Mosher). We had a deadline today because we had to get to the church by 5 pm for a dinner they had set up for us. Also, the presentation of the Portraits project was scheduled for tonight at 7 pm. To top off everything our destination Florence is right next to the coast! The ride itself was a relatively painless 88 miles from Corvallis to Florence. However it seems that dogs in Oregon hate us. Big ones, small ones, fluffy ones, you name it. Unfortunately today a small black and white border collie-australian shepherd-blue heeler fluffy mix lost whatever thought process it had and bolted from the left side of the street, through a gate, in front of a truck and in front of Kyle Lindsay's front wheel. Kyle going 16 miles per hour versus 25 pound dog. Dog wins. Kyle gets hurt but not seriously injured thankfully. As fast as the accident happened the dog was gone. The owner of the dog helped us by providing a first aid kit.We got into Florence relatively early. Some of us chose to ride 4 miles to the coast just to see it an celebrate. The rest of us layed around and took some much needed naps before our delicious dinner at 5pm. We even got cupcakes for dessert that were made by the pre-schooler kids from the church! Very cute and yummy.At 7pm we did our first showing of the work we've been doing on our Portraits Project presentation. Some people from the town came to watch the powerpoint and share some stories of their own. We got to hear adiabout a group called the Friends of Florence and also the Van Fans. Apparently the hospital in Florence does not have the means to administer radiation or chemo therapy treatments and the people who live here have to travel to a hospital in Eugene to get their treatments done. For those without cars or the ability to drive this becomes a serious problem. So, the Friends of Florence come together to provide a van and a ride over to Eugene for those who need it. The van goes every single day and has for the last 25 years. They are fueled and supported by volunteer members of the community that help drive and do fundraisers. The whole organization is very inspiring.The Illini 4000 would like to reach out to the members of Bike and Build, a fellow cross country bike group that tragically lost a rider named Paige Hicks last week in an accident on the road. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the team in this difficult time.