Can you feel the love tonight?

Fredericksburg, VA - This ride was initially supposed to be about 50 miles, but it was decided that 20 miles would be tacked on for a safer, more scenic route. With two days left, it was hard to argue the logic. The day went relatively smoothly, with the exception of a randomly-placed mega hill where my chain opted to fall off at the least opportune moment! In another particularly random occurrence, midway through the ride we came across an “Elon Baptist Church,” which Robby and I felt a duty to take a photo by.

After settling into the familiar high school gym setup, we found ourselves en route to our final friendship visit. A weird feeling to say the least, but we were determined to make it one of the best. From the onset, I found myself talking with a guy named Donnie. He was there with his mother (a board member of the local ARC organization), and was dressed nicely with a tie featuring musical notes. He spoke with me about his love of singing and a statewide award he won for his craft in high school. Donnie entertained the crowd with three songs (including the Elton John song that's the title of this post) that night and was met with a standing O. He set the stage well for our last hurrah in the crazy dance party department. It was a perfect friendship visit to go out on, and (for once) I felt a ping of sadness when I heard Jeremy instruct us to “make sure this place is spotless” before we left.

That night we began a final bonding activity in which we sat in a circle and had a chance to speak about everyone in the group and offer up compliments mixed in with a bit of roasting. Based on the spinning of the water bottle, I was actually first up. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out to be really touching to hear what everyone had to say. You get a chance to hear how you were truly perceived by your team and I got the impression that they saw me as a funny, confident guy who had grown both on and off the bike during the summer. It was an important activity for us but, by the time our eyes were struggling to stay open, we decided to postpone the remainder for the following night.

Manassas, VA – This was basically considered our last official team ride for the summer, as the procession to D.C. was sure to be anything but ordinary. We decided to really mix it up and switch who we rode with at every crew stop. I was all about the idea and enjoyed the chance to have nearly every cyclist alongside me at one point or another. Some last minute challenges were unsurprisingly involved also, with McDonald’s double cheeseburgers making an appearance as we all kicked back at a way-too-long crew stop at a grassy area outside of Manassas. As we rolled into lodging at an enormous aquatics center, it was an unusual feeling because it was evident that our next lodging would be at a hotel in D.C.

That evening we met up with all of the Push teams at a D.C. area church to have dinner/debrief on the eve of our arrival. It was great to once again see the North boys and even to give them a little grief about the staggering 9-mile ride they had to look forward to in the morning (we were still 35 miles outside of D.C.). That night, after applying our much-anticipated and absurdly awesome red, white and blue team handlebar tape, we finished up the previous night’s activity outside on the lawn with some cigars in tow. We got to bed much later than usual, which was quite alright by us as we assembled a man-love circle of air mattresses. I didn’t think it would be possible to sleep, but somehow I managed.