Day 60: High Point, NC

Rode 80 miles through beautiful eastern Appalachia today. Chad Coltrane, the CEO of Push America, joined us on our ride. I highly recommend chatting with the guy; he's truly an awesome person. Upon arriving into High Point, we had a fun, short friendship visit with the Arc of High Point to get ourselves acquainted for our dinner with them. After the short social, we headed to lodging to clean up, and for me, the bike shop to fix a back tire that was a bit wobbly. The FV/dinner was at the High Point Museum, and included a very fun scavenger hunt.

I am very excited for Chapel Hill tomorrow, and we arrive in DC exactly one week from today!

Day 59: Charlotte, NC

Solid day off here in Charlotte! The day started with a sponsored meal at Bojangles, a chicken and biscuit Mecca, followed by a morning on Lake Wylie, where I took a nap on the dock and swam around enjoying the warm water and overcast weather. As our time at the lake ended, a torrential downpour began to consume Charlotte. Unfortunately, this prevented us from being able to get to our friendship visit early this afternoon. There was hardly any visibility. Once the downpour slowed, we took a tour of the headquarters of Pi Kappa Phi and Push America. It was very interesting to see the offices of the people who run our fraternity and it's great philanthropy. They had a museum that included fraternity memorabilia from our history. They even had a room that had a school mug for every active Pi Kapp chapter in it. Inside the mugs, notes were left from past visitors of that mug's chapter who had visited headquarters. I read all of the notes in the TCU mug, and left a piece of my own. After our tour, we had a sponsored BBQ dinner at an alumnus' house, where there were many workers for Push America and the National Fraternity.

High Point, NC tomorrow! Here's a couple pics of the mugs and our fraternity's Articles of Incorporation from 1905.

Day 58: Charlotte, NC

The team cruised the 90 miles to Charlotte, the home of Pi Kappa Phi and Push America. We were greeted with a delicious chimichanga lunch on the road and a police escort to our arrival at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte. The arrival was a blast: lots of people, news cameras, and a lot of Push America staff, including CEO Chad Coltrane. He's a cool guy.

After the arrival, the Hall of Fame gave us free passes to tour around. It was a blast, they had all sorts of memorabilia, including plenty of stock cars. They also had a very fun driving simulator and a pit stop simulator, where you and two friends jacked the car, replaced a tire, and filled the car with gas. My team set the record at 9.67 seconds!

After the NASCAR fun, we headed to the Hilton in downtown Charlotte. We are being treated like royalty here. Dinner was at a local Pi Alpha's house. I had a great time playing with their golden retriever. After dinner, we had a friendship visit/dance party with the Circle of Friends here in Charlotte. It was awesome! There was a band and tons of energy surrounded the room. Afterwards, I was exhausted. Looking forward to the day off tomorrow! Here's a few photos of the border, NASCAR, and my buddy David from the FV.

Day 57: Spartanburg, SC

Hilly 85 miles today through the beautiful green terrain here in South Carolina. Upon entering Spartanburg, we had a lovely friendship visit at the Charles Lea Center. We all exchanged laughs and good conversation for a couple of hours until we had to head to Wofford College, where we set up for lodging. Later this afternoon, we had another FV with the Carolina Miracle League. We had a ball! Playing baseball with those kids never gets old. Afterwards, we had a Carolina style barbecue with the players and families. We have an early wakeup tomorrow and a very big day ahead! We stroll into Charlotte, the headquarters of Push America, and cross into North Carolina as well.

Day 56: Clemson, SC

Wonderful day today as we rode into South Carolina! We enjoyed a delicious continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn before hitting the road, and enjoyed our last miles in Georgia. At the state line was a massive lake, so naturally the team jumped in together to cool off in the 100 degree heat. We are also officially heading north now.

Lodging is at Camp Hope, a part of Clemson University. The camp serves as a summer camp haven for people with cognitive disabilities of all ages. When we arrived, we played in the lake on the water trampoline; I felt just like a camper. Also, Push America has done a great deal for this camp. Pi Kappa Phi brothers have built accessible ramps, amphitheaters, docks, and even a bell tower here at the camp while doing Push Projects. All in all, in the past 20 years, Camp Hope has benefitting from this construction plus $100,000 in grants! It's a beautiful thing to see our fundraising money at use!

Here's a couple pics a water slide Pi Kapps built here, a quote I found on camp that I love, and even some random sidewalk chalking (I promise I didn't write it).

Day 55: Athens, GA

The team had its last full day in Georgia today; and a great day it was. The 90 miles to Athens was bisected by a friendship visit at Camp Twin Lakes. I can honestly say that FV was the most fun I've had all summer. The camp itself is like any other summer; it has a pool, lake, archery, nature walk, tennis courts, arts, etc. It's also a place where kids with disabilities can come and be themselves and have a blast for a week: somewhere they don't have to explain why they may be a little bit different. Counselors toured us around the camp, and then we had lunch in the dining hall where we got to play with some of the campers and goof around and do camp things such as sing and dance and be goofy. I would love being a counselor there. No one wanted to leave when it came time to head to Athens. Forty miles later, we arrived at the Holiday Inn (we've been very fortunate to have such sensors) and cleaned up for dinner at the UGA Pi Kapp house with a special guest, Darius. If you are unfamiliar with Darius, I suggest you view the movie "Darius Goes West," or check out my post from Portales, NM. He's an absolute stud.

After dinner, some of the of-age guys went out, but a few friends and myself went to a local legendary hot dog joint called The Varsity. It wasn't too shabby. South Carolina tomorrow! Here's a couple pics of the camp.

Day 54: Atlanta, GA

Today was a busy day but I had a blast! The day started off with a team church service at a very special church called the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter. The church itself only has about 100 members, but around 70% of its members are diagnosed with some sort of disability. A lot of these people have no community outside of the church, making the church itself an incredibly tight community. It's a very special place. After the service and a lunch with the congregation, we headed to the Basement Theatre, a local improv comedy club, for a friendship visit with a local autism group. I have never been to an improv show before, but those guys were hilarious. We all laughed our butts off and had a great time, whilst making great friends. Later, we had a dinner and friendship visit at a bowling alley with the North Metro Miracle League, a local baseball league for kids with disabilities. I had a ton of fun; we bowled a couple of games, ate some pizza, and laughed around for a couple of hours. No one wanted to leave when it was time to head back. Overall it was a great day, but I'm ready to get back on the bike and head to Athens tomorrow!