Day 54-58 Cincinnati, OH - Charleston, WV

Day 54 August 3 Cincinnati, OH – Lexington, KY

Today was a long day filled with lots of city riding and lots of rolling hills at the beginning. Around mile 18, I noticed there was some wobble in my right cleat. I thought my clips might be loose and that I would tighten them at the next crew stop. When I got to the van I looked at my bike and noticed that my whole crank was not right and that one of my arm pedals was extremely loose. I also lost a part in the process and had to rack my bike for the rest of the day and hope that I could fix it in Lexington. We all arrived at our lodging on the University of Kentucky campus around 4:30 and had to take quick showers before heading to our dinner and friendship visit at a local organization. It was a good visit but kind of overwhelming because there were so many people. Once again it was burgers, baked beans, potato salad and chips. That night, I went out with some of the guys to a Mexican restaurant to grab some chips and salsa and other Mexican dishes. It was a good fix.

Day 55 August 4 Lexington, KY – Day Off

This morning we didn’t have a sponsored breakfast so we were free until 11:45a.m. I slept in until 9:15 and rolled to IHOP with the guys who I ride with everyday in van 3. We’re the best van in case you didn’t know. It was great to sleep in and go enjoy a meal that wasn’t required. We came back to lodging and headed to our sponsored lunch at a local insurance company where a former Gear Up Florida rider, Ryan Huff, catered sub sandwiches and had some of his co-workers join us. After lunch, my van went over to a local organization called Latitude. There we were doing a mock arrival for the media and spending some time with the organization. It was really fun and one of the most unique organizations we’ve been too. It’s a place where people with disabilities can come several times a week to do their artwork. Several of the participants have traveled to New York to show off their work and even selling some of it for thousands of dollars. It was a really neat facility and a great concept. We headed back to lodging for a little bit before heading to our dinner at a local coffee shop. The man who owned Latitude cooked

us burgers and hot dogs and hooked us up with some coffee from the shop. When we got back to lodging, I went to a local place to watch the finale of American Gladiator. One of my brother’s co-workers, Tim Oliphant, was one of the contestants in the final battle and ended up winning it. He walked away with $100,000 and a Toyota Sequoia. It was really cool knowing somebody who’s pretty much famous now. After that it was off to bed.

Day 56 August 5 Lexington, KY – Morehead, KY

Before we left for Morehead, the parent’s of a former rider showed up at our lodging to cook us a warm breakfast. We set sail for an 80-mile day to Morehead and ended up getting re-routed along the way due to mowing along the road we were on. We finally got close to Morehead and hit a huge rainstorm. It was actually fun riding in the rain until we saw lightning and thunder 10 miles out and had to take the vans the rest of the way. We arrived at Morehead State University and were greeted by some school officials and Morehead brothers of Pi Kappa Phi. We ate a low-key lunch and headed to our rooms in one of the dorms. After doing some laundry and taking a short nap, it was off to a park for a friendship visit and dinner with the Morehead chapter. For the night I just stayed in and made some phone calls and caught up on journals.

Day 57 August 6 Morehead, KY – Huntington, WV

Today was an 80-mile day with lots of rolling hills but nice scenery. We took a lot of backcountry roads, which led us by lots of interesting homesteads, and lots of dogs that weren’t chained or fenced in. We coined this day The Kentucky Derby because we were constantly running from dogs. We decided to delay our roadside lunch so we could grab whatever we wanted in town. We arrived at our lodging at the Holiday Inn in downtown Huntington. It was the nicest Holiday Inn I’ve been to. I put my stuff in the room and headed straight to Five Guys; a burger and fry joint a block from our hotel. After a big juicy burger and a short nap afterwards, we loaded up the vans and headed to a local park for our friendship visit with the Mountain State Center for Independent Living. They catered Famous Daves for us. It was so good! I got to interact with several of the supervisors of the organization and pick their brain about what they do. It’s always interesting to hear all of the awesome things these organizations are doing for people with disabilities. After the visit, my teammate Matt Sartin and I explored part of the downtown mall they had and grabbed some ice cream at Cold Stone. After that it was some rest and relaxation in the hotel room before crashing for the night.

Day 58 August 7 Huntington, WV – Charleston, WV

Today was an enjoyable ride of 55 miles. It was a nice cool day with beautiful scenery. There were lots of big green trees and rolling hills/mountains. Towards the end of the ride, we had to be escorted by the vans over big bridge that goes over the Ohio River. We also had to make a huge climb up a steep hill that went for about a half mile. It was intense. We staged up and left shortly after for our arrival at a Children’s Therapy Clinic.
We took a tour of the facility and had a pizza lunch with some of the staff and families of the clinic. It was neat to see everything that they do with Children to help them with simple skills and other things to help them be independent. After the visit, we headed to our lodging at the Martin Luther King Rec Center. We took showers and most of us hit the sleeping bags for a couple hours of sleep. After waking from our slumber, we loaded up the vans and headed to the West Virginia Power game. The West Virginia Power is the 1-A minor league team for the Milwaukee Brewers. We had some hamburgers and hotdogs at the park and enjoyed the game that was sponsored by a 1994 JOH rider. Towards the end of the game, a teammate and I participated in an on field promotion. We had to box each other with gigantic boxing gloves. When he spun around for a roundhouse, I popped him in the back of the head and knocked him down to the ground. That helped me seal the deal on the victory. I won a West Virginia Power shirt and a Neal McCoy CD. It was a good time. Then it was back to the Rec for bed.