Day 9/10: Santa Barbara, CA

These last two days have been a blast. Santa Barbara is truly a beautiful place. Our ride in started with a 6:30 am departure from Santa Maria. The ride started off with miles of strawberry fields. The smell of the fresh berries taunted us for nearly half an hour until we cruised into a valley filled with vineyards. It was like a miniature tour of the wine country for 20 miles; it was beautiful, with very limited traffic as well. We even snuck up on a few deer early on the ride, which was a lot of fun. Soon enough we began climbing hills that got exponentially larger. I was completely unaware we were going right over the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was a beautiful, but difficult climb over lush, green steep hills. After a few hours of climbing we reached the peak of our ride over the mountains and were forced to rack the bikes on the vans due to fog and traffic on the other side of the pass. It was a huge bummer! Once over the pass, we rode two by two through Santa Barbara to complete the 70 mile ride. Our friendship visit was at a very unique place called the Jodi House. It was started years ago as a support group/family for adults who have survived brain injuries in honor of a woman named Jodi who suffered a brain injury when she was 19, and whose family struggled to find a place for her. Her mother, Donna, began organizing events for families and people like Jodi and eventually it grew into the program it is today. Jodi passed away in 1991. We all had the privilege to sing "The Rose",our fraternity's sweetheart song, to Donna, it was an amazing experience. The Jodi House now has many members and programs and also also has a fantastic art program the Push America helps fund. It really was a touching thing to see where the money we fundraised goes. The people there really appreciate it.