We made it!!!! Finally, after 113 miles into a steadily increasing headwind, we have arrived in Valentine, Nebraska. Today's ride was the longest distance ever accomplished by an Illini 4000 team in one day! Fortunately, the solstice was two days ago and tomorrow we cross time zones, so the sunset was at 9:25 today. We needed every minute of daylight we could get!From the top, though... we ate cereal for breakfast. Then we dedicated the ride to Anne's cancer-fighting cousin who encouraged her to do the ride. At our 20-mile rest stop, we happened to encounter Andy, who is the father of Jack Hoffman. Jack is now 8 years old and is a survivor of brain cancer! For those of you who don't remember, he became famous, scoring a touchdown last year with the Nebraska football team. Watch the VIDEO; you'll be automatically inspired. Andy told us his story for the Portraits Project. He is such a motivated father and is adamant that the best way to handle childhood cancer is for the parents to advocate for research funding where there is very little! That's why he started Team Jack, a foundation raising money for pediatric cancer research. Then he led us to his house where we got to meet the whole family! It was a wonderful coincidence that we were in the town of Atkinson at the same time as Andy was on his way to work. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have met them!Also in Atkinson, a reporter from a newspaper called The Graphic asked about our organization and interviewed and photographed some members of our team! We also told her about our meeting with Team Jack. Today another article was published about the team: the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune, as mentioned in the blog for day 25. Here's a LINK to the wonderfully written article!After 7-9 hours rolling time in the saddle (also known as arrival up to 14 hours after leaving),we made it to the United Methodist Church where we were provided a delicious meal of lasagna, oodles of fruit, and a world-famous banana cake. We got in so late that most of us headed straight for bed rather than bothering with a shower, although they were available outside of town at a park. Camping tomorrow!