Written by: Brianna Kelly, Orange Ride
“It was never about the miles anyway.” This was one of my closing statements in my last blog. Ironically, this philosophy has been put to the test. 10 days ago, I crashed my bike as we were biking to Peoria, Illinois. I got a concussion, 6 stitches, some nasty bruises and some road rash too. Everything has healed up very well. The only problem is that my dizziness, and sometimes vertigo, just won’t go away! So, I’ve been riding in the van.
This morning we woke up and were on the road by around 8:00 am. We passed the state line into Ohio today and I dressed up in my biking gear because I wanted to bike across the state line. When we got to the sign I took my bike off the bike rack and pedaled across to Ohio whereupon I took a victory picture. I then resumed my duty of cheerleader in the front seat of the van. I love to ring the cowbell at people and I even got a really loud airhorn just to mix things up.
It looked like a beautiful ride to me. There were many times where I just wanted to jump out of the vehicle because it looked so beautiful and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. However I contented myself with being a cheerleader and with pestering people at rest stops. At the second rest stop, a lady came over and offered to buy us all something from the gas station we were at! It was so sweet. I wasn’t really hungry, but there came to mind a certain individual who was having a rough day (and had already left the rest stop), and so I got something for them in an attempt to cheer them up. I mean, really, who can resist smiling at the sight of peanut M&Ms? Mmm mmm good!
Our hosts were so fantastic to us as we came into the church. They had set up lunch and they also took us to showers, fed us dinner, and then proceeded to take us out to an awesome farm/ice cream place/putt putt golf course. We all got free ice cream and most of us played some mini golf too! I went to go see the animals instead of playing golf. They had goats and cows. The goats were super fat because they are always being fed. There was so much extra food on the ground I didn’t even pay for any, I just picked it up off the ground.
Today was absolutely amazing but the highlight of my day was better than everything else that happened today combined! ANNE FREY RETURNED!!!! Anne rode with us from Seattle to Cheyenne, and we all thought she was done. She surprised us all with a casual reappearance, as if she had never left. Apparently she biked three days self-supported to get here. I was so happy to find out that she was going to stay all the way to DC!
So, even though I haven’t been able to ride, I’m still having some good times. I am so thankful for my FCBA family, and even though I may be jealous of my fellow bike riders, I still maintain that it’s not about the miles. I’ll walk into DC if I have to. I’m not giving up that easy.
