The First Few Days of JOH, or, The Two Faces of Washington

Location: Spokane, WA

Hey everyone! So this is the first post from the road. There's actually a ton of stuff I could write, but I don't know how much patience you have, or how much battery Ryan Dixon's laptop has (he's letting me borrow it for a little while). It's really weird being without a computer attached to my fingertips...

Anyway, I want to start of and saying that I love this state. I mean, I'm a born-and-raised Washingtonian, and I'm still amazed at how beautiful everything is. I mean, granted we had clouds and cold and wet on the west side of Stevens Pass, it was sunny and eighty-five degrees on the other side. And yes we rode on both sides in the same day. Talk about odd -- I had to take off almost all of the cycling gear I had put on in the morning so I wouldn't overheat as we reached the other side.

But I digress. Back to Washington and its amazing-ness. Almost all the guys have been awestruck at the natural beauty of the WA countryside all along our route (mostly Highway 2). Every once in a while in a pace line, I'll hear the guy in front of me say, "God, look at that!" And I'll admit, even Eastern Washington has a particular terrain that is spectacular in its own right: undulating farmland and sporadic canyons. Not to mention a significant reduction in the amount of rain that fell on us...

Changing gears: the trip has far exceeded my expectations already. Yes, we're sleeping on a lot of floors, but I haven't had trouble sleeping at all. (The air mattress helps. So does the 100 miles I rode earlier that day.) I'm actually eating VERY well (especially for summertime; the past couple years I've lived on my own at the fraternity). The people sponsoring our meals and activities are so generous and wonderful. The guys are all great (and I think I've got almost all their names down now!); I've been laughing so much and having a blast. The teamwork and unity are what I enjoy about the fraternity life -- and here on the road it's so much stronger. I guess JOH just attracts a certain type of gentleman to which I can relate very well.

We've had a couple friendship visits, and they've been fun. Today we visited with a group started by a mother with a kid with muscular dystrophy. Her son was there; his name is Matthew and he's ten years old. I spent a good amount of time talking with him. He is surprisingly intelligent and mature for his age. And the visit was especially exciting because we had lots of activities and our first Kids on the Block puppet show. KOB is a show we do where we get to tell kids (and parents!) a little bit more about some common disabilities and how people who have them just go about things a little differently. Our three skits involve Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and blindness. They're informative, but hilarous too because, well, it's us behind the puppets doing things like making girls' voices and accents and screwing up our lines and coming up with things on the spot. Hopefully we get to do that a lot.

Just a few miscellaneous things...

I've been keeping a journal for myself. I've never done that before, and hopefully I stick with it so have something to look back on. I regret not bringing a camera, so hopefully the journal will suffice. (I really don't like taking "Cheese!" pictures anyway, and besides the other guys are taking tons of pictures for me. And I didn't want to bring/bust my super-nice and expensive DSLR.)

I finished "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. Like my dad, it got teary-eyed at the end; what a beautiful book. But it only took a handful of days to go through, so I'm starting "A Clockwork Orange" now.

Speaking of my dad, I feel bad that I'm out here on the road and can't do much more than call (which I did). I hope he knows how much I love him and appreciate everything he's done for me, as costly or pain-in-the-ass-ly my endeavors may be. I am seriously lucky to have such an amazing father, and I only hope that what I'm doing here on the Journey of Hope, in college, or whatever, makes him proud. And I think it does, and that means a lot. Happy Father's Day, pop!