Matt's Thoughts

I’ll try not to go on for too long, but I have a lot to say once again, so here goes!!  I was planning to journal every night on the trip before I went to bed, but I never really ended up doing that--oh well.  Luckily, I was smarter this year and I started packing the afternoon before instead of the night before, but it’s all good.  I found that my duffel bag could hold quite a bit more than I thought possible.  I went to bed way too late for the night before the trip, even though it was still earlier than what I’m used to.  I had to wake up around 6, but I didn’t get out of bed till about quarter after.  My dad had to work, my brother had to work...so it was just me and my mom that morning.  Well, everyone was pretty excited when we met at Central, however, a lot of us were still tired, especially the red-headed lad.  Aaron made some awesome baby blue t-shirts that matched the color of the bands on my braces perfectly.  I planned it that way, of course.  We loaded all of our stuff into the budget van, then we took some time to pray before the first day of biking.  It was nice to be sitting in a car right before the trip.  We drove to Chicago and had a little fun with the walkie talkies on the way.  Aaron slept, PJ told a story, and I found my verse for my devotional.  Once we arrived in Chicago, most of us went to the bathroom at the museum across the way from Soldier Field.  The security was a little tight, but they let us through after awhile.  We took off after that, and it felt so good to finally get going.  We rode along the lake for quite a while, one of my favorite parts of the ride.  It was cool to see a long line of baby blue shirts flying down the trails.  I think we made some heads turn, no doubt.  It was interesting going through those areas just outside of Chicago where they had some amazing houses.  We stopped at a park in the middle of a neighborhood to play some soccer, and we met up with a few of the same kids from last year.  Most of them could speak Spanish pretty well.  I watched them play with the horn on my bike; it was quite entertaining.  We also caught a glimpse of Northwestern on the way.  When we arrived at our campsite in Zion, we set up our tents and soon went for a swim in the icy lake.  I only went in a few inches past my knees, otherwise, I could have created a new Sierra Mist commercial.  Yeah, it’s kinda like that.  Dinner that night was really good.  I had 2 huge plates of pasta and like a loaf of garlic bread.  We had a good time singing around the campfire, and we also came up with some songs to sing at the nursing home.  I took a walk with PJ and Mr. Sladkey down the road and we got to talk for a little while.  Even though I wanted to sleep outside for the night, no one else was up to it.  So I made my way into the tent, only to find that Brian and Aaron were gone.  I checked with the girls, but they weren’t there either.  So I just sat outside for awhile, took some time to reflect, then went to sleep.
 I was one of the first guys to wake up in the morning, unlike any other morning on the trip.  We had some breakfast, and the girls came up with the theme “Any Dream Will Do” to write on the back of their “A-shirts”.  Shawn had some nice quotes for us to think about before we took off.  We left the campsite pretty early, with a long, hilly day ahead of us.  I don’t remember too much about the day.  I just remember that we went down one hill and up another.  It was good to be challenged, though, and I could totally feel the burn in my quads.  It was pretty sweet to have Ali’s radio to listen to while we were riding.  I got to know David a lot better by the end of the day.  We arrived at the nursing home by mid-afternoon, and all of the patients were glad to have us.  They all seemed to be very welcoming, even though the lady who took care of them explained to me that a lot of them weren’t very vocal.  I talked to James, who could only respond back with one or two word answers.  Many of the Alzheimer’s patients were hard to connect with because of their condition, but it was still a rewarding experience to be able to talk to them.  Brian even had the same kind of shoes as one of the patients!!  Once we started riding again, it was only another 15 or 20 miles to our campsite in Mukwanago, Wisconsin.  A few miles before the campsite, we came to the junction of Territorial and Territorial.  When we arrived, we found that our campsite was the closest out of any to an outdoor pool, a convenience store, and clean bathrooms.  After we got situated, we played some ultimate frisbee in the pool.  Then we showered and had another great dinner.  I would have turkey dogs over jumbo dogs any day.  PJ told us all the Herbie story later that night, even though I missed a big chunk of it.  We all gathered in the girls’ tent to practice the worship songs, which was a really fun time.  A bit later, all of the kids went for a walk around the little loop that surrounded the camp sites.  Most of us went to bed after that, but Brian, Ali, Shawn, and I walked all the way to the beginning of the road where we came in.  It was a really peaceful night, and it was fun to spend some time together.  I took a good picture of the animals in the little barn on the side of the path, even though I may have blinded them with my flashlight.  After our walk, we all said good night, and I found myself in the tent and asleep in no time.
 When we woke up in the morning, Brian said he was getting dripped on while the rest of us were just getting misted on.  We had some pancakes for breakfast...mmm, blueberry.  Aaron did his devotional and before long we were back to biking.  The first part of the day was the hardest; there were lots of hills to start out with.  We were all kinda scared when Meredith had an asthma attack going up one of the hills, but luckily she was doing all right after awhile.  It was so nice to be biking on the flat, straight path that we rode on for the majority of the day.  As soon as we got to the bike trail, Karl, Brian, and I went flying ahead of all the girls.  We started saying random things to bikers going the opposite direction.  Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo!!  Meanwhile, Kristin started the song “99 bottles of milk on the wall” a ways behind us.  David and Aaron eventually caught up to us even though we were going super fast.  We all tipped our helmets to a random stranger who gave us a really weird look.  It was quite funny.  After a while of biking, we came to a park where we stopped for lunch.  We met a few guys around our age headed back towards Milwaukee on their bikes.  We had a pretty sweet game of ultimate frisbee there.  The girls also did their little hand motions to go along with the song “Dive”.  I got a pretty sweet picture of Karl in the air on his bike going off a jump as we left the park.  As we neared Deerfield, we stopped to take some pictures on a bridge.  When we arrived in Deerfield, Wisconsin, we all rode into the park, and I took a fall off my bike as they were applauding.  We got together with people from the church and all of the families introduced themselves.  There was one particularly sexy family.  I thought I might be staying with Aaron and David for the night, so I hung out with them for awhile.  Then, I got introduced to my family and found out I would be the only biker staying with them.  The family I stayed with was Colin, who would be a freshman in high school, Valerie, who would be a junior, and their father Gordy.  They also had a dog named Bella and a cat named Buster.  After we ate at the park, we went back to their house so I could shower.  I didn’t actually get in the shower till after 7:00, because I had no clue when the service started and we were thinking 7:30.  Fortunately, the service ended up not starting right at 7 and I was there on time to sing.  Our worship songs were Shout to the Lord, All in All, and In the Secret.  We never got to Pour out my Heart.  Even though I didn’t know In the Secret too well, I still had a good time singing.  I hit a few pretty high notes, and I could hear people giggling in the first couple of rows in response to the intensity of my singing.  It was nice when I knew the songs because I was able to put a lot more enthusiasm into it, and I was also able to encourage people to sing more.  Ali and Aaron gave some really good speeches, especially for just having prepared them.  Everyone helped contribute to the service, and it flowed really well.  We hung out over at the Deerfield center afterwards, where we got to mingle with the people from the church a little bit more.  When I got back to my host family’s house, Gordy showed me a pretty sweet bike of his that had a carbon fiber frame.  Colin, Valerie, and I watched Dumb and Dumber till around 11.  Then, we played some ping pong and stayed up talking till after 1 a.m.  I wrote my family a thank you card before I went to bed and put it under a ping pong paddle.  Then I remembered I didn’t have a picture of the kids, so I went upstairs to get their picture.  Luckily, they were still awake and Valerie also gave me some pictures of herself and of her cat.  I probably shouldn’t have stayed up as late as I did, but I’m glad I got to know the whole family and it was definitely worth it.  When I finally got to bed, it was after 2, but I was so glad to be in a real bed for the only time on the trip.
 We were invited to a nice breakfast at the church in the morning.  Colin and I walked there together, because Valerie decided to sleep in and their dad had to leave early for work.  Colin couldn’t stay for too long, so I just ate with the bikers.  Before we left the church, we all had one last group prayer, and I got to hold Pastor Sexe’s hand.  It was going just fine until someone thanked God for Pastor Sexe and the Deerfield Lutheran Church.  I snickered quite loudly, and to my dismay, I realized the pastor was standing right next to me.  Hopefully he wasn’t offended too much, though.  Once we were outside the church, we put some sunscreen on and got prepared to leave.  We took a nice group picture with all the bikers and the girls from Deerfield.  When we were about ready to leave, Karl pointed out that I wasn’t wearing the shoes I needed for my clipless pedals.  So, Mr. Sladkey and I waited behind for the Chandlers to come back with my shoes.  As we were riding away from the church, I honked to Pastor Sexe with my sumo horn.  It took us a while to catch up to everyone, but PJ was the first one we encountered. I stayed riding with him while Mr. Sladkey rode ahead.  PJ told me about his strictly platonic friendship with a girl he had known for quite some time.  We stopped for lunch at a really good sandwich place, and we played a fun game of ultimate after we ate.  We took pictures of Aaron leaning against a big giraffe statue, grabbing it in inappropriate places.  Until that day, I never thought bikes could grow on trees, but it’s hard to say now.  We took off again after some down time, and we were in Lake Geneva in no time.  We had a while to relax and shower before dinner.  Some people went swimming, but I wasn’t up to it.  Soon, we all crammed into the van and drove into downtown for dinner.  It was nice to go out for a night and see the city.  We got ice cream afterwards--chocolate chip cookie dough and blue moon for me.  When we were walking around town, Liz and David bumped into each other, triggering Aaron’s mad elbow motions which he later demonstrated.  Back at the campsite, Karl and I went for a little walk.  I went to the bathroom later on and was surprised when PJ was in the next stall.  So we talked for a bit, then he went back to our campsite.  A few minutes later, when I was sitting down to go to the bathroom, the lights turned off completely and I was left in the pitch black bathroom.  It was a little scary, but the lights turned back on when I opened the door.  Once I was back by the tents, I gave my devotional on prayer (Matthew 6:5-8).  I hope I opened a lot of people’s hearts with my words.  When I was ready for bed, I started out sleeping outside, but decided to go in the tent after a bit because I wanted to stay up and talk with the guys.  When I got inside the tent, I decreased our total space for each person to only 20%, even though David had a whole lot more.  Aaron said it would only be fair if David scrunched up in a little ball and took up only 5%, leaving the rest of us with a whopping 23.75%.  Aaron solved the dispute by going to sleep outside with Shawn and the Kremas, so Brian, Karl, David, and I each got 25% of the tent.  Aaron kept the girls up for a while, but I somehow managed to get to sleep through all the chatter outside.
 In the morning, we had some cereal and packed our lunches for later on.  PJ gave a devotional which sort of connected with mine from the night before.  We only had to ride around 15 miles to where we would start canoeing.  Mr. and Mrs. Chandler took care of all our biking gear so that it would be there for us when we got done canoeing.  It turned out that Mr. Sladkey and I were partners.  Brian was with Karl, David with Liz, Ali with Meredith, Michelle with Kristin, Aaron with Shawn, and PJ with Mr. Krema.  Brian and Karl swamped their canoe 2 or 3 times on the way to lunch.  On one occasion, Brian had a hard time standing up after he fell into the river.  At lunch, we all walked to the bathrooms together.  You could talk to the person on the other side.  Michelle was one of the last to go, and Aaron pulled a little trick on her by opening the door while she was still in the bathroom.  After lunch, we all stayed with the same partners.  We came to a rope swing a little ways down the river, and a few of us went swinging on it.  Shawn cut up her knee a little bit, but she’s okay!!  Not long after, we canoed right alongside some cows that were standing in the water.  Near the end of our time canoeing, we decided to make a “canoe-train” if you will.  We tied one canoe after another to each other, leaving Mr. Sladkey and I with the most paddling to do.  We were in front, PJ and Mr. K. were right behind us, Shawn and Aaron were next in line, and Ali and Meredith were at the very back taking it easy.  I stopped to take a picture because it was such a good opportunity.  We paddled the rest of the way with our canoes linked together, and eventually got to our landing site.  I peed on the same bushes as Kyle did last year!!  It was only another 15 miles or so to PJ’s cottage, and after we got our bikes ready, we were on our way.  We were greeted by our families when we arrived, even though mine wasn’t there yet.  We got our suits on and went swimming right away.  We had a fun time playing king of the raft for a while, but we had to stop after Karl hurt his foot.  The water felt so refreshing, and it was a whole lot warmer than Lake Michigan.  I got to see my family after I got out of the water.  Eric and my dad would be riding with us for the final day.  It was so weird to think that they had been working all week while I had been having a good time on the bike trip.  I got to talk with my bro and everyone while we were having dinner.  I tried Vanilla Coke for the first time!!  After dinner, all the bikers shared their favorite moments of the trip.  We prayed afterwards, and someone had their devotional on Psalm 23--haha, Jenny!!  We had a little tooth brushing session following the prayer.  All of the kids ended up sleeping on the beach that night.  We stayed low whenever we saw a car, but luckily there were no cops around.  I got two Krema massages that night, but I never got one from Ali.  It’s hard to compare the two, but maybe Ali would have blown them both away.  Aaron went around sitting on people and giving them massages.  Once again, Aaron kept all of us up talking for a long time, but once I fell asleep, I slept like a baby.
 When we woke up in the morning, Aaron was in Meredith’s sleeping bag.  I wasn’t even awake to see it though; I was still sound asleep when everyone else was getting up.  We all said goodbye to PJ and Grandma Lo, and before I knew it, we were starting our last day of biking.  We had no flats or injuries up until this day, but that changed pretty quickly.  My dad got a flat, Mr. DeCaluwe took a pretty bad fall, and Michelle ran into a “fa la la la”.  What a day!!  We had lunch at Funway, and we did some go-karting afterwards.  It was all right even though I had the slowest car.  We took a funny picture of all the girls crossing their legs.  It was nice to be on a flat trail for pretty much the whole day.  Meredith ate her first candy bar of the trip on one of our last breaks.  I swiped Kyle’s monkey back so he could ride happily on my camelbak for the very last part of the trip.  We rode through a lot of Naperville before we were home, and right as we reached my house, I fell off my bike for one last time.  Wow, 327 miles on my odometer!!  I was so excited to be back home even though I was missing the trip already.  I used my last little 15-exposure camera to take pictures of each biker individually.  Of course I also had to get a picture of all the Kremas and all the Chandlers.  Mr. Sladkey got a bit wet when someone tried to dump the cooler of water on him, but the plan kinda backfired.  Everyone was sad that the trip was over and we all had to go our separate ways.
 All in all, it was another amazing trip.  I’m glad so many people who weren’t on it last year were able to experience it this year.  It was awesome to be able to spread God’s word while growing closer to one another.  I’d pee on any one of you if I had to, that is, if you were ever stung by a jellyfish!!  Thank you to everyone who prayed for me while I was gone--you know who you are.  I am so stoked about next year’s bike trip.  I still remember this trip like it was yesterday, and I will never forget all the great times we had together.  So here I go, I'm diving in, I'm going deep, in over my head I want to be, caught in the rush, lost in the flow, in over my head I want to go, the river's deep, the river's wide, the river's water is alive, so, sink or swim I'm diving in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!