As many of you are aware the start to our adventure was more eventful than many of us anticipated. To fill you in our set train ride was changed to a bus ride to Toledo due to tree branches on the tracks. We needed to disassemble our bikes, all 23 of them to go into the van. From Toledo we hopped a train to New York City and after a short 18 hours we arrived. Shell-shocked by the bright lights and honking horns we knew we were not in Champaign anymore and we were within hours of the adventure that at one point seemed so far away!I first would like to thank our host in NYC Bippin for being great and letting us crash his newly renovated house and for making us amazing food. We also were able to meet one of our beneficiaries in NYC, Damon Runyon! It was so interesting to meet the researchers and get a better idea of what Damon Runyon does and how our fundraising efforts are helping support cancer research. Also to Carly from B + who saw us depart from central park and shared an inspiring story of a family that Illini 4000 has directly helped. This was an inspiring way to start our ride and a great motivation for the day!Fast-forward to today. We rode 63.2 miles from central park to Beacon, New York. Hills Hills and more Hills!!! The weather decided to continue to throw curve balls our way by raining the whole day. Riding today felt surreal after months of preparation we were finally able to say we are riding across the country. Riding around the city was extremely challenging as it was nothing like our prior training rides. Today Sam lost a wheel, and Helen got three flats in an hour! If every day is like today I have a feeling this summer will be full of adventure and one of the best experiences of my life!MandyDaily Flat count: 5Song of the day: Ain’t no mountain high enoughMemorable moment: Maggie thinking every part of greenery in New York was central parkhttps://www.damonrunyon.org/https://bepositive.org/