On Friday, May 1st, the I4K hosted a benefit show at Caffe Paradiso. This was a lot of fun and a few alumni even came out to show. We had a few Portraits on display and I'm currently working on having the Portraits Project as the featured art there for a few weeks. Although everyone was having a good time at the show, riders were a bit worried about the weather for the weekend--our 120 mile camping trip. The weather for Saturday called for 30 MPH headwinds with 50 MPH gusts, along with a thunderstorm. Yikes!Saturday morning we hopped on our bikes for a 90 mile ride out to Indiana and back. There were definitely some headwinds and crosswinds. The weather was comparable to last year's "100 miles, up hill, into the wind" day in the Columbia River Gorge (wind surfing capital of the world). Unfortunately, there were no berries to pick on the side of the road this time! But it was still such a great day. I'm glad the team got to experience some major wind, it's definitely a learning experience. Having bad weather can make you feel all kinds of emotions throughout the day, but your team definitely gets you through it. For example, my group shared our life stories and we were fortunate enough to hear chapter one of Manny's memoir.Staying the night in a tent is always fun! Camping reminds me of my childhood because my family would always go on outdoor adventures. It didn't matter if we were camping somewhere only two hours away or a few states away from home, we just did it to be together and to enjoy the outdoors. Some of the last times my family (including my extended family) went camping together were when my grandpa was finishing up his final rounds of cancer treatment. He loved Door County, Wisconsin, so we always tried to plan weekend camping trips there.On Sunday morning, we woke up at 6AM to pack up the tents, eat breakfast, and start our 30 mile ride back to Champaign. This ride also included some headwinds and crosswinds, but they weren't nearly as bad as the ones we experienced on Saturday. It's funny to see how the team's attitude has changed about the length of each ride. At first, they couldn't imagine riding their bikes for 30 miles. But now, 30 miles is as Michell Eloy once said, "child's play!" My group encountered a ton of loose dogs on Sunday. They were harmless, but it's always makes me a bit nervous that I'll hit one of them or that they will bite my leg off. Once my group got back to Allen, we decided to go to Chipotle for lunch. Myself, Divya, Connor R, Greg B, and Pi learned that Gedion is a Chipotle BOSS. He taught us all his tricks on how to get the most food possible at Chipotle--order a burrito bowl, ask for extra everything (except meat) because it doesn't cost extra money, and ask for a tortilla on the side. If you do those things, you will enjoy your Chipotle experience even more. I don't know what it is about Chipotle, but their food is so good.This weekend also gave me my first practice run of purchasing food for the team. Myself and Sean Laude made a trip to Wal-Mart and bought nutritious, but low-cost, food for the team. Sean donated s'mores to the team, THANK YOU SEANIE! :)Last night we had our final team meeting! WE ARE SO CLOSE TO LEAVING! AHHHH. AHHHHH. The excitement keeps me up at night. I4K is all I think about. Can't wait to get back into the groove of riding bikes. All day. Every day. What a beautiful lifestyle all I4Kers are fortunate enough to experience.Update on my toenails with no nails - All is well. Still need to purchase bigger cycling shoes. This morning I stubbed one of them and it really hurt. Owie.Update on the breaking in of my Brooks - All is well. Still needs some more miles though. Regardless, it feels like heaven. Woop!P.S. - On Saturday I got my first flat on my back tire since Idaho. This flat in Idaho happened on the day of the yellow flowers and I ran over something that made a HUGE gash in my tire. Kevin Swanson gave me this super tough tire patch and it's still hanging in there, so thanks Kev! But I think I will have to cave and purchase new tires before I leave.