Day 1- When my mom and I pulled up to Central I didn't know what to expect, I was excited, a little nervous, and slightly concerned as to whether or not I would make 350 miles on my bike. The send off from the parents was great, there was a lot of support and good luck wishes, there were a few worried mom's too (not mine of course, but there were some). The first day of riding was  exciting, kind of tiring, but it left me feeling as though i would be able to make the rest of the trip. When we got to the camp ground I was very excited, I hadn't camped since fourth grade Girl Scouts, and that had been kind of disastrous. After the tents had been set up (thanks for the help Brian) we all went to go swim in Lake Michigan. After stepping into the water for less than two seconds I decided that was enough, but then Mr. Sladkey jumped in, and being the group that we were, we managed to pressure everybody to get in at least once. After dinner Brian and David brought out their guitars and they amazed us all with their talent, they played really well. After the singing, Michelle and I went in search of sticks to roast marshmallows on, because I just couldn't pass up an opportunity for s'mores, even if it meant using a tree branch as the roasting fork. Then everybody started getting ready for bed, but I was still a little pumped about the day, so I wasn't ready for bed quite yet, Brian, Aaron and I headed out for a walk on the beach. The entire scene was gorgeous, the water and the moon, and just being outside, we ended up just sitting and watching for over an hour. Then we headed back to our tents and went to sleep.
 
Day 2- I woke up to the sound of the Krema sister's singing "Rise and Shine and Give God your Glory" which was followed by a group sing-along of "Any Dream Will Do" which became the girls theme of the day. Before we left it was my turn to give the devotion of the morning, and I tried to leave the group with a few words of inspiration for the day, some of which were very challenging to live up to on this particular day, because the hills were a true challenge to our mission. Before we left Mr. Sladkey started coming with some of the monkey rules regarding the monkey Matt had attached to his water pack, and then we took off singing along with Ali's radio. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me, leaving the campground in a long line of riders all singing and smiling and ready to take on the day. Unfortunately our bike riding abilities were brought to a test when we had to take on the hills of Wisconsin. Ali and Liz were a true inspiration going up the hills, they were both cheering and congratulating everybody as we got up to the top of hill after hill. We couldn't help but laugh when we tried to see us through Karl's eyes, because we knew the hills we called mountains were probably just a bump in the road for him, but he was nice about it.  We stopped at a nursing home and did a short service with the people there and we all got a lot out of it, it was a new experience and it really had an impact on us all. Everybody was more than happy to reach the campground that night, we all jumped into the pool and had a great game of ultimate frisbee. That night all 15 of us piled into the girls tent to prep for the church service that we did the next day. Being that close made me a little claustrophobic, but for the most part it was fun! That night it poured and all of the girls were happy to be in Brian's tent, because the guys got "misted" on.
 
Day 3- I had a candy bar for breakfast which made PJ laugh, and then I had some delicious blueberry pancakes that Mrs. Hilger, Mr. Sladkey, Mr. Krema, and PJ had made for us. Before we left I was told that I didn't have enough air in my tires and that I had been doing extra work because of it (not something I really enjoyed hearing). We had some long stretches between breaks, so the girls grouped together and we sang and sang and sang. We did theme songs to television shows, then we sang "Old Lady Leary" for a mile and half so we started singing "99 bottles of milk on the wall" we made it all the way to zero (my first time ever). When we finally reached the church in Deerfield (after hearing an amusing story about Mr. Sladkey putting a snail up his nose) we were all very touched by the group that was waiting for us there. We got to meet people who were generous and kind and wiling to take strangers into their homes for a night. Kristin and I stayed with a very nice family (I'm sorry I breathed so loudly) and we were very refreshed to start the next day.
Day 4- Surprisingly to us all, day 4 flew by, we were sent off with a wonderful breakfast by the people in Deerfield, and we were all singing "Sink or Swim I'm diving In." That was incredible, this was the first day the Chandler's drove the van, and I quickly figured out that I should keep smiling, because they were always taking pictures!! We didn't stop for lunch for a full 40 miles and we were starving by the time we stopped, because by then we were used to eating every hour. Ali and I bought a 3 foot loaf of bread and we had a nice tug of war trying to break it apart. Some people started to play frisbee, but I decided a nice nap under a tree would be more refreshing, and it was, until Brian poured water on my head to wake me up. That night we stayed in Lake Geneva and we headed downtown for dinner. We got out the crayon's and we all made beautiful works of art on our place mats, I'm putting them in my scrapbook. After dinner we started walking around and someone started singing "I'm bouncing of the walls again" but that was the only line we knew, so we sang it over and over again. Then Meredith started singing "I'm bouncing off the Whall again" and bounced off of me, that was one of the many Whall jokes that we had. That night Ali wanted to sleep outside, so I decided to too, we could hear the guys in their tent complaining how little space they each had so I let them know there were only 3 girls in the eleven man tent, I don't think that helped them much. Michelle and Aaron ended up joining us outside, and we all slept peacefully under the stars.
 
Day 5- We all knew that this day would be a short biking day, so we were pretty excited about that. When we got to the place where we were going canoeing, Aaron and I decided to canoe together, I asked him if he wanted the front or the back and he said the back, so I climbed in front (he didn't tell me he had never canoed before). We ended up having a very adventurous time, we ran into some trees, some rocks, some mud, and we tipped once. We stopped a little while after lunch to swing on a "Tarzan Rope" I decided to be adventurous and try something new, but it didn't turn out quite so well. I slipped from the rope and landed on some rocks (don't worry I'm fine) and kind of ruined the fun for everybody though. After that there were some cows in the river that scared me, I really didn't like being that close to them, but they were nice cows and they moved. The last leg of the trip was a little slower because Meredith and Ali attached their canoe to ours, and we atteached ours to Mr. Krema and PJ's and they attached theirs to Mr. Sladkey and Matt's, so Mr. Sladkey and Matt had some extra cargo to carry. When we got to PJ's that night we were all excited to see our families, we did miss them. We slept out on the beach that night it was sooooo much fun. Unfortunately Aaron and Brian discovered one of my few weaknesses and they tickled me mercilessly. I eventually fell asleep, and I am told that I made weird noises in my sleep that scared Meredith, sorry about that.
 
Day 6- We woke up with PJ standing over us telling us how envious he was of us all for sleeping out on the beach like that. Another man told us the same thing as we were walking back to the house, it really made me realize how lucky we were to be given all of the opportunities that we had during the trip. The ride home was interesting, we had more accidents and flat tires than we had had the entire trip. We stopped at Funway for lunch and we went in the go-carts, that was awesome, I couldn't get around Michelle. We rode home with a sense of  excitement but sadness too, I had such a great time that I didn't want it to end. We finished the trip together, and then we said our goodbye's.
 
I just wanted to thank everybody, It was an awesome experience, and if you have read this far than you deserve a thank you as well, I tried to shorten this up a little, but I wanted everybody to know how much everything meant to me, so I couldn't cut anything out. Mrs. Hilger and the Chandler's were excellent driver's and we all appreciate their willingness to help out, Mr. Sladkey you were a great leader and we value the time you spent with us all, PJ I am not going anywhere near my bike when I am your age, thanks for the stories, thank you to all of the people who prayed for us, the people in Deerfield, and to all of the people who said "hello" to us along the way, thanks. I can't wait until next year!!!
 
****Shawn****