Today, our ride was dedicated to Cari’s uncle Chris. Chris is currently fighting a very tough battle with pancreatic cancer. We kept him, his fight, and his family in our minds today as we rode our last full day in New York.Today’s ride was 59.4 miles long! The forecast called for rain and potential storms, but we only got rained on one time, the rest of the day was full of beautiful sunshine (a lot of us have the sunburn to prove it). Along the way today, we ran into two individuals who are walking across the country to raise awareness to their own cause, bullying. It was so awesome to interact with them and share some snacks and stories with fellow travelers.The team took a couple extra long rest stops today to explore Lake Erie! During our lunch break, a lot of the team decided to jump into the lake in our biking shorts. We gathered a lot of attention from the people in the area, and had the chance to share our mission with them. Some were so impressed with our biking and our jumping into the frigid water that they even donated to our cause! Our team is working hard to continue to raise money during the ride so that we can donate even more to our amazing beneficiaries, and every little bit counts as we saw today.Can you believe that it has already been a whole week since we left Central Park?? It is honestly unreal to me and the rest of the team. We are enjoying our time together and are excited to explore even more of the country!Tonight we are staying at the United Methodist Church, where we are fortunate to have a pizza dinner provided for us as well as fresh fruits and veggies! As you can imagine, it is very hard for us to store fresh produce in our van during the day, so any time we see some fresh produce we get very excited.Rider Shoutout: Erin is a superstar on our team. Today especially, she was calling out obstacles like a professional. We call out anything from potholes, sticks, cars, or anything that might be in our way on or off of the road. Erin does a fantastic job calling out these obstacles and therefore making sure that her group is safe. Erin is also very positive and reliable - which are things that make up a perfect team member. We are thankful to have her on our team!
(PS, there are many more, much higher quality photos on our Facebook and Instagram page if you would like to check them out!)