Well it's over, I can't believe how quickly the week flew by! Before I go into all of the great details about what an awesome trip this was, I would like to thank all of the people who were at home praying for us. Your prayers were answered and we had a safe and exciting trip. We couldn't have done it without you, so thanks so much!

   

Ok now for the details  

 

Monday Day One- "A day without Kremas..."

    Unfortunately Monday started out on a bit of a sad note, the Kremas could not ride with us for the first day of the trip because they were with their family mourning the loss of their grandmother. Our thoughts and prayers were with them as we set out for Stillman Valley, the starting point of the trip. After a few glitches with the Nolans ( they forgot the key to their bikes and couldn't get them off of their car! But they found a guy who used his blow torch to break the lock) we waved good-bye to our families and were on our way. The ride started out nice and smooth, everyone was excited to be out riding in our pack of 18, but we quickly noticed that the roads were a little different than day one of last year. Since we had driven to Stillman Valley, we were closer to Wisconsin, and therefore closer to the hills! We had hills on our first day, and nobody was thrilled about it! Other than the hills though, things were going well. We stopped for lunch after about 30 miles and we were all ready to eat. The van drivers, Mrs. Chandler and Mrs. Cocalles had asked a nice family if we could sit in their backyard under their trees while we ate and they said that would be fine. ( Mrs. Chandler got very good at asking people if we could sit in their yards, we were very appreciative). After lunch Mr. Sladkey decided it was a good time for a game of ultimate frisbee. After last year you would think that I would have learned that playing frisbee in the middle of a 60 mile bike ride is not a good idea, but apparently I hadn't. Jon, Elizabeth, Kristin, Ashley, Mike, Zander, Mrs. Nolan and I were all roped into one of Mr. Sladkey's games, and it was only afterwards when we were getting back onto our bikes that we realized what a bad idea that had been. Of course Mr. Sladkey had no problem with it cause he is going to be like PJ, still riding his bike for days on end when he is in his 70's.    We got back on our bikes though and finished the ride, about 56 miles for the day. We got to a very large campsite, unpacked the van and went swimming. I then took a nap outside between all of the tents because the weather was gorgeous and I was tired  After my nap we had dinner. Group D made Pasta, and despite the burned garlic bread ( Meredith claimes the flames came up and ate the bread) it was quite tasty. The Kremas drove up just in time to join us for dinner, we were glad to have them back with us. That night we practiced what we would be doing at the church the next night, made marshmallows, and set up for bed. The weather was so nice and there were hardly any mosquitoes so almost everybody decided to sleep outside under the stars, it was an amazing site.

 

Tuesday -Day Two- " Come on Bike"

    Tuesday started out early for me. Liz and I woke up early to help with breakfast because it was one of our jobs for the day. Pancakes were on the menu, so Liz and I headed over to the pavilion where there were sinks and electric stoves ( isn't that your idea of camping?). Mr. and Mrs. Krema were already over there with the supplies set up. Liz and I mixed the batter for the pancakes, Mr. Krema poured it onto the griddles, and then he left ( that was his first big mistake). Liz and I were all set to flip the pancakes when they started to bubble on top, only they didn't want to be flipped. Because we were using an electric stove, only the part of the griddle that was directly on top of the stove was hot. When we flipped the pancakes they were multi-colored, one part was black, one part was brown, and the other part was soup. Fortunately for the rest of the campers Mr. Krema came back and made some very delicious pancakes, because for awhile it looked like everybody would be eating cereal!  After the great pancake disaster we packed up and rode out. There must be something about Tuesdays, because as was the case last year, Tuesday was a very rough day for me. We came across a lot of hills on Tuesday and sometimes it was debatable whether I would make it up them or give into the temptation to walk. In order to psych myself up enough to get up the entire hill I decided to cheer on my bike as we went up. If you were listening you would have heard "come on bike, you can do it, be a good bike, get up the hill, come on." Needless to say there were a few snickers about the weirdo talking to her bike, but I made it up the hills and that's all that counts At lunch Mr. Sladkey tried to get us to play some more games, but I opted for a nap under a nice shady tree instead of kickball. I think I made the right choice. That night we got to the first church we were staying with, the Plymouth Congregational Church in Dodgeville, WI. They fed us, we prayed, played, sang songs, and then headed home with the nice families who took us in for the night. Elizabeth, Ashley, Liz, and I were all together in one house. The man who owned the house is an incredible athlete who designed a bike race called "the horribly hilly hundred," for fun. We took showers, watched Lilo and Stitch with Sarah and Sam (cousins of the girls who lived at the house), had some girl talk, and then hit the pillows hard. It was another great day and I for one was happy to have made it to the end.

 

Wednesday- Day Three- " It's raining it's pouring..."

    I woke up early again on Wednesday ( a bad habit I picked up for the week). Fortunately the smells that were coming from upstairs were appetizing, and the shuffling of feet overhead was inviting. I woke Liz, Elizabeth, and Ashley up to go have breakfast with the family we were staying with. There was all kinds of food and it was a great way to start the day. After breakfast we said our goodbye's, took some pictures, and headed back to the church to get out our bikes. By this point everybody was a little sore (even the Kremas who had one less day of riding) and the bike seats were not something we looked forward to. However, with the prospect of a rather flat day on the trails in front of us we took off for our longest day yet; a daunting 70 miles with a nursing home and a church thrown in along the way. One nice thing about this day was that the trails were flat, the rest of it wasn't quite so nice. From the start Kristin, Michelle, Ashley, Ali, and I started our little pack that was centered mostly around Ali (she had the radio). We rode at a nice steady pace and sang along to the songs on the radio, every so often when the tape would end Ali would break out with a nice rendition of "shout" to keep us all going. We stopped at lunch time at the nursing home. While we were there we got a chance to talk with the residents as well as perform a modified version of the service that we did at the churches. I spoke with one woman who had broken her leg two years ago and was trying to get it healed so that she could go live at home again. Her husband is still living in their house but he visits her every day. She told me that she invited him to come for the service and right before the service started he came in and sat next to her. Mr. Sladkey thought that we did a great job with the service so he suggested that we stop for ice cream. We rode the mile to the ice cream shop and were getting ready to leave again when all of the sudden the sky turned black and it started pouring. A lot of us got soaked in the effort to move our bikes under a roof, but the ones who got it the worst were the people who had opted not to have ice cream (the Nolans, Meredith, Kristin, and PJ). They were out on the trails already. When the rain let up we were off on our bikes again, but the trails were muddy so the majority of the riders had a nice stripe of mud up their backs. As we were riding the trail we saw Andrew stopped up ahead of us holding his shirt up to his face. He got a bloody nose and was using his shirt to stop the bleeding. His shirt was a bloody mess by the time that he was done. When we arrived at the church in Brodhead, WI we were definitely* an interesting sight. It had started to rain again in the last few miles so everybody was wet and muddy. The church welcomed us with open arms and made us feel right at home, we were up on the altar barefoot. After the service we were fed more delicious food (we eat well while riding ) and then we were off again to stay with the families who volunteered to take us. This time I got to go stay with Ali at the house of a  woman named Kristine. As we were driving towards her house she hit the brakes and there was a terrible squealing noise. Then Kristine yelled "TABITHA." Ali and I kind of made funny faces and then Ali asked "Is that your car." I thought it was hilarious because I had been talking to my bike all week, and now this woman was talking to her car ( I never named my bike, I just called it "bike") We had some laughs on the way to her house and then we took showers and got ready for bed. We were watching "Runaway Bride" and I started to fall asleep, only as I was sleeping I was dreaming that I was still on my bike and that I was running into things. Kristine told me the next morning that she would look over at me and all of the sudden I would throw my hands our in front of my face as though I was shielding it from something. Oh well

 

Thursday-day four- "Break out the Candy Bars"

    Thursday was another early day. I woke up around 5:30, but I stayed in bed and listened to Ali breathe until 6:30. We got dressed had breakfast and were on our way back to the church with Tabitha and Kristine. As we were looking at our still wet gym shoes Ali and I were contemplating riding in our flip flops, but decided that that would be worse than wearing wet gym shoes. When we got back to the church and were packing our stuff into the van I noticed the red cooler, the red cooler that held dozens of delicious candy bars. Up until this point I had done been doing well, I hadn't eaten any candy bars, but I was hungry and there is nothing better than candy bars for breakfast so I caved.(but that snickers bar was worth it) We set out that day in a very good mood, we only had forty miles to ride and when we were done riding we were going to Magic Waters (a water park in Rockford). For the most part it was a nice easy ride and it went by much faster than any of us expected and we ended up at the Rock Cut State Park right on schedule. The Rider Truck and my mom were both there waiting for us. We unpacked and ate lunch and then we loaded up the two vans ( we rented a fifteen passenger van and my mom drove our conversion van). We headed to Magic Waters and spent the next four hours relaxing and having a great time. Given that the weather was not quite as warm as I like it to be when I go swimming, I opted to lay out and catch a few Z's since I had been waking up early all week. Andrew and Mike opted for naps as well, but everybody else was off splashing around and having a good time. Around 4 we got a huge volleyball game going, 9 people on each team. Unfortunately my team lost 3 times, but that's just because we were playing against Mr. S and his team ALWAYS wins, I don't know how he does it. After volleyball the girls all hit the showers and got ready for dinner, the guys just sat around waiting on us. When we were all ready we piled into the one van, and headed to Old Country Buffet where we got more than our moneys worth. Mr. S, Mrs. Hilger, Mrs. Chandler, PJ, Mike, Ashley, Kristin, and I were all at one table. I don't know how we got onto the topic but at some point our delightful dinner conversation turned into interesting bathroom stories and Mike was completely disgusted. Even PJ had some interesting stories to tell about his grandchildren camping in the woods. After dinner we shuttled back to the campground in two groups. The first group, Liz, Elizabeth, Brian, Mike F, Mike R, and I went for a walk through the campground when we got back. Then everybody else got back and Brian and Mike played some music on their guitars for us. Mike made up an interesting song something about kissing Jon, Michelle being a really cool girl, and kicking around Shawn Whall like a soccer ball. A couple of guys who were staying at the campground came over because they heard our music so we chatted with them for a bit and then headed to bed. It was the first and only night that all of the girls slept in the tent together, and we did a good job making room for everybody. There were a few complaints about talking (Ali says that I woke up at 4 and said good morning to everybody, and she told me to go back to bed it wasn't morning), but we all slept pretty well.

 

Friday- Day Five- "Let's get to PJ's"

    Friday we set out with one goal in mind, PJ's cottage! We did our typical morning stuff, packing the tents, breakfast, loading the truck, and heading out on our bikes. We were all riding along great for awhile when Mr. Krema told us that there was a group behind us and something was wrong with someone's bike. It turned out that Mike's pedals had fallen off of his bike and he was no longer able to ride it. Mike later told us that Mr. Sladkey suggested throwing it out cause it would never ride again. Andrew volunteered to ride in the truck for awhile so Mike took Andrew's bike and kept riding. The Nolans were leading us for most of the day and we stopped at a fire station and asked for directions, the firemen were very helpful and we set off again. As we were riding all of the sudden there was this voice over an intercom saying "you have to turn back there." It took a minute for us to figure out who was talking, but the fire truck had followed us and the guys were on the intercom giving us directions. We followed the directions and we were back on the right roads in no time. We stopped outside of a nice church for lunch and had a great soccer game. Soccer isn't really my sport so I stayed back and attempted to play defense. I decided that soccer really isn't my sport, but it was fun game anyway. When we got back on our bikes, Andrew took his bike back and Mike got a ride in the truck. Mrs. Hilger and Mrs. Chandler found a bike shop called "Wally's" where they took Mike's bike to get fixed, it sounds like Wally was an interesting guy. We finished our ride and were pretty excited when we arrived at PJ's. We were all pretty tired from the day so we were just sitting inside talking while we were waiting for the truck to get there with our stuff. For some reason my non-existent up until now allergies decided to act up and they made my eyes cry and my nose run. Everybody thought that I was just really happy to be at PJ's. A few other people had some allergies that were acting up as well, Brian and Mike R. for example. Mr. Sladkey asked Mike R. how he was feeling and he came up with another of his famous one-liners "like crap", that sent the whole room into laughter. Finally the truck got back with our stuff and most everybody headed out to the lake for a swim. I decided to be the first in line for a shower since there were 23 of us and only one bathroom. PJ had warned us about the smaller water heater so I knew I had to be quick, but I am certain I set a record for the quickest shower because Jason was standing outside the door asking "are you done yet?" Apparently Ali had suggested that he ask if he could use the bathroom while I was in the shower, and since I wasn't going for that I just showered really fast so that Jason could use the bathroom. That night we had hot dogs and hamburgers for the third time that week, but it was the first time that turkey dogs were on the menu so Meredith and I could eat something besides salad. We played a great game of the "circle of truth" in which we all shoved each other and broke a few of PJ's lawn chairs. Zander wanted to dig up part of PJ's lawn to make a fire pit and PJ was all for it, but we convinced him that we were not going to have a fire (the lawn was too nice to dig up) even though PJ was more than willing, he said "if I can't have a fire in my own yard then what's the point of having it." After the games we headed down to the beach to set up for bed, it was another beautiful night and we were fortunate that there was some kind of festival going on on the other side of town so the cops were not patrolling the beach again. Ali came over and played on the swings with me for awhile and then we set up for bed. At one point Ali got up to use the port-a-potty and Jon and Meredith followed her over there. They started to tip over the port-a-potty and we all heard a terrible scream. We all thought it was Ali, but it really was Meredith screaming louder than Ali. Things settled down and we started to sleep until great big, loud fireworks went off right over our heads. I think I jumped about 100 feet they scared me so much. It took awhile but then I fell asleep again.

 

Saturday- Day 6- "Going Home"

    I was up early again on Saturday (don't ask what is wrong with me) so I headed back to the cottage to help with breakfast. PJ and Mr. Krema had the pancakes under control so I made orange juice and sausage. We had another great breakfast and I had two more candy bars, and then we packed up and headed out for the last time. It was raining off and on as we were riding and Mike quickly discovered that Wally was not such a great guy. His bike made a terrible sound the whole way home and there were pieces rubbing against each other making it more difficult to ride. Mr. Sladkey was nice and volunteered to take it for awhile but he finally got tired of it and told Mike he had to ride it. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for our break and all of the blizzards looked really good but luckily my money was tucked safely away in the truck. We stopped for lunch at a park in St. Charles where all of our families were there waiting for us. They had set up a nice lunch and we sat around and talked about all of our favorite things on the trip. Mrs. Benfield (Elizabeth's mom) told us how she had called channel 7 news to check out the weather for us and she ended up talking to Tracy Butler the anchor woman and telling her about our trip, we all thought that was cool. After lunch we said our goodbye's and set off for the last leg of the trip. We got back to Mr. Sladkeys right before it started pouring, and when I say "we" I mean everybody except for the Sladkey's. Mr. Sladkey was fortunate enough to have his wife and daughter riding with him, as well as PJ, so they kept just a little bit of a slower pace than us. The only drawback was that they got soaked for the last five miles of their trip, while we were all waiting inside of his garage. We took pictures, got our stuff, and then because my ride was leaving me, I said goodbye to everyone. That was it, the bike trip was over.

    

Wow- I certainly wrote way too much, sorry about that, but I hope you enjoyed reading about the trip. If you were there than you will remember all this stuff, if you were not than must certainly feel like you were by now give then detail that I went into. This has certainly been the highlight of my summer and I can't believe what an incredible experience it was.

Just a few thank you's before I am done,

    Thank you to all of the truck drivers, Mrs. Cocalles, Mrs. Chandler, and Mrs. Hilger, you guys were awesome and we couldn't have done it without you.

    Thank you especially to Mrs. Chandler for the allergy medicine, it was very helpful and made my eyes stop crying.

    Thank you to the families who welcomed us and took us in, you were an essential part of our trip.

    Thank you to the churches who welcomed us with open arms and allowed us to fulfill our mission.

    Thanks again to all of the people who prayed for us, that was imperative.

    Thank you to Mr. Krema and the Nolans for being our adult Chaperones.

    Thank you for PJ you are amazing and I feel blessed to have spent so much time with you.    

    Thank you to my Mom for driving us to the water park, we really appreciated it.

   and finally Thank you to Mr. Sladkey, we couldn't have done this without you, nor would we have wanted to. You have been a great leader and a great example to us all. We appreciate everything that you do for us and FCA would not be the same without you.

   If there is anyone I forgot I'm very sorry, and I have one other apology, to Kristin and Elizabeth I don't know why I decided to switch your names, but I'll fix it someday

 

Thanks so much to everyone for reading this and God Bless!!