August 13th,

    Day 67 of the Journey was a day that the entire team had been looking forward to since we arrived in San Francisco, CA. In the last few weeks and days before we arrived at the capitol the team had discussed the day and its events in detail. For that reason I felt as if I should have known what to expect, but I had no idea all at the same time. 
 
    As we grabbed our bikes and lined up to take off with the TransAmerica and South teams, I looked back at my crew members, around at the North cyclists and to my chapter brother next to me and took in the fact that this would be the last time we'd all be on the bike together. Tomorrow morning we'll all be getting up, packing our bags and heading out just like we would any other day, but it won't be together. We won't be having another Crew Chief breakfast, sponsored team dinner or friendship visit to sit around and continue to bond. The end of the trip of a lifetime had finally come. 
 
    Riding through DC up to the capitol lawn with my brothers who I had just spent over two months with was incredible, but seeing the crowd of cheering families and friends who had traveled from all over to see us was a moment I'll never forget! It was crazy to think that a huge group of people that I had never seen or met before could be so proud of something that I had done because they know their son, brother, grandson, boyfriend had done the same thing!
 
    I think what finally pulled everything together for me was at the awards reception when the emcee read the "My Fraternity" Pi Alpha poem. It was the perfect reflection back on the summer. To think about those early mornings on the bike, walking through public in spandex without thinking twice and most importantly the smiling faces of the people with disabilities we had worked with throughout the summer. 
 
    I'm proud to be a Pi Kappa Phi and can now say that I'm proud to be a Pi Alpha.
 
PS. Babies can swim.

-Joey Denoncourt
 

August 12th,
 

    Today was Day 66 on the Journey of Hope North route. It was weird knowing that today is our last real ride considering that we only have ten miles to stage up in the morning. As we left the Potomac Center in Hagerstown it was a little chilly, and heading down hill for the first 6 or 7 miles was a little cold. Then we ran into very steep hills/mountains, and depending upon where you are from and to me they seemed like mountains. The ride was so beautiful and some of the neighborhoods we rode through were incredibly nice with massive manor houses.  We arrived at the Landon Alumni Athletic Center at the Landon High School and it is beautiful.
 

    We all packed up our Thules for the last time as they are headed to Washington and the hotel tonight. This summer I was used to living out of two bags this summer and now I am down to one, kind of scary. It is a weird feeling that tomorrow is our last day. It hasn’t quite hit me that this Journey will end tomorrow and Sunday morning I head back to reality and the real world. It is bitter sweet because I never want this summer to end, but at the same time I miss home and am ready to get back. This has been the summer of a lifetime and it has changed me in so many ways it is hard to describe or even understand at this point in my life. I just cannot thank all of my friends, family, sponsors, friends we made along the way and of course my team mates for the best summer I will ever had. It makes me proud to say every day that I am a Pi Kappa Phi.

-Grant Walton
 

August 11th,

    Getting to DC will not be easy when you still have the heart of the Appalachians awaiting you. Today would be a seventy mile day with seven mountain peaks with roughly 10,000 ft of net elevation gain. It almost feels like the Appalachians are acting as a fortress, doing all that they can to prevent us from making it to DC. The climbs were very difficult and the down hills were steep and fast. The team was racked at about 45 miles because we had to attend a friendship visit at the Potomac Center.

    Later that day, we went swimming with a few people at the Potomac Center. We shot around a basketball in the pool for a while before we cleaned up and headed in for dinner. That dinner would be the most challenging friendship visit of the entire trip.

Most of the people that joined us were non verbal and really did not communicate. Most people also had to be spoon feed a pudding like substance and a few of us helped to facilitate with this. It broke my heart to see people in this state and I think most of us had doubts if they had any idea of what was going on around them. But then I sat next to Ruth, she was non verbal and was not responsive to anything that we did until she saw my shiny dog tags. As I handed them over to her you could see the wheels in her head begin to turn as she inspected each and every tag in its entirety. She noticed and began to focus on the ridges and engravings on the tag, the linking portion on the chain and how they were different from the rest of the piece. It was then that I was assured that there was still a person there and I think most of us grew as people that night.

    Shortly after the dinner, I joined a few people and watched the preseason Ravens game against the Eagles and saw the NFL debut of former Hokie and current Raven, Tyrod Taylor. It was not the game that caught my eye, but an individual that the security personnel (unfortunately a Steelers fan) brought over to me. His name was Emmanuel from the inner city of Baltimore who was a huge Ravens fan. We watched the game and talked a little bit of trash to the security officer who gladly dished it back. I can say that Emmanuel made my night.

    To conclude a busy day, we had a ritual for the Pi Alpha Society. A Pi Alpha is a person who has completed one of the marque Push America events and it bonded the team together. Obviously I cannot go into details about the ritual, but it was something special for the team as a whole

-Chris Anger
 

August 10th,

    Today we rode from Uniontown, Pennsylvania to Cumberland, Maryland.  It was a difficult ride with a lot of tough climbs, but came with rewarding scenery and fast descents. The longest climb we had was up a summit of 3,000 feet where we stopped to take pictures and fill up with some energy to finish the ride.  The whole day we were riding close to another group of cyclists who were on their own cross country journey starting from Seattle.  The day ended with a long downhill to the Best Western that we were sponsored to stay in for the night. 

    For lunch the team trekked across the street to the Burger King to finally attempt our project managers eating challenge of the “Octowhopper.”  The Octowhopper is a special BK whopper with eight patties.  People ate them quickly and most people felt pretty full afterwards.
 

    Dinner was sponsored by the Rotary club who once again outdid themselves with the meal.  We had a lake side meal at a park where we were served grilled chicken and sweet ham.  The food was great and the people all had their own stories to share with us.  They were very interested in hearing all about our trip since we were this close to D.C.  We introduced ourselves and recapped how we came up with the money for the trip with the consensus being that most people bugged everyone they had ever met.  Tomorrow we are heading to Hagerstown for our second to last day of riding before our arrival into Washington D.C.

-Mike Figari 

August 9th,
 

    We had a police escort for the first 20 miles of our ride today which made almost half of our days ride seem to go quite fast. We arrived to the YMCA in Uniontown, PA and had a great crew chief lunch.

    After lunch we headed to the local mall to buy gag gifts for a person on our team that we drew out of a hat. We had a nice relaxing dinner provided by the local Knights of Columbus. We played some games and enjoyed some pasta which would benefit us on one of the most strenuous rides of the trip the following day.

-Drew Dashner