Day 67 Bethesda, MD to WASHINGTON DC!!!!!!!!

So today is the day or rather was the day.  We woke up at 6:15 today and got everything packed and cleaned up and then went outside for our last breakfast.  It was a standard crew chief breakfast but it was the last one that we were going to have as a team.

We just hung around till about 8amish and then we all headed out. It was a short and slow ride to our stage up. It was only about 9 miles and there were an incredible amount of stop signs and lights. We rode separately for a little while and then pelicaned for a bit and then split up again and rode to stage up.

We got to stageup about 930ish and hung out with the guys from the other routes and the BAM guys as well. We had about an hour to kill before we headed out. Most of the guys just relaxed and what not and at like 1030 we all lined up to head out.  We didnt have a police escort so our arrival was very slow stopping at every light. Not fun when you have 70+ cyclists stopping and starting lol.

We started riding closer to the Capitol lawn and it started getting real.  We then dismounted and walked our bikes up and off to the side. While I was walking my bike closer to the building and between the cheering crowd I definitely cried a little. It was pretty surreal to think that I had just ridden my bicycle from one end of the country to the other. It was an amazing journey and an amazing feeling to be here.

We had many many speeches by the project managers and Chad and everyone else. After all the speeches we did a bunch of pictures as a whole and as each route/team. Then we were dismissed to get pictures and head back and check into the hotel.  I got into the hotel and showered and changed and then went out to lunch with my mother and father at the Corner Bakery.  It was good food and then I went back to the hotel to nap a little and just relax.

I got dressed and headed down to the celebration and we watched as more people gave speeches and all the awards were given out.  Michael Walton won the Bruce Rogers award and we were all very happy he did.  We then did our dance and headed out.

That night I went out to dinner at a place called Vendetta with my parents and played some bocci and later that night went out for a drink at the Dubliner and said goodbye to most of the guys. It was a great summer I dont think I have ever had any summer that has or would ever compare to this summer

I hope you have enjoyed the blog this summer and sorry that the videos stopped early. I just ran out of time and they got harder and harder to do.

It will be weird now going back to reality and thinking for myself again

Peace, Love, and Unendings,
White "DJ" Doug

Day 66 Hagerstown, MD to Bethesda, MD Last real day of cycling

So today we woke up at 6am I believe and we got ready to leave our lodging. It was our last real day of cycling as tomorrow we are only riding 10 miles. I rode with Kyle Marpe today and we had a great time. We took it pretty slow as we only averaged about 13 miles per hour but it wasnt bad at all. We had so many stop lights and stop signs to slow us down.

For the first part of the ride we had hills here and there and Marpe got a flat tire after hitting a piece of glass.  We changed it and moved on.  We stopped at a garage sale since we wanted something fun to do. We didnt really pelican today and we made it to lodging about 130ish.  We got into the Landon school in Bethesda. We were treated to Subway subs for lunch and we had some time to relax before we headed out for our all team dinner.

About 4pm we rode off to Virginia to meet up with Trans, South and BAM for our all team dinner and we had chicken and beef and what not. It was a great dinner and after dinner we practiced our poses and line up for the pictures we will be taking in DC

We then headed back to the Lodging where we all washed our bikes and packed and prepared for the next day.  We had one last team meeting and that took us into the wee hours of the morning again and I got to bed about 2am

Good night all

Peace, Love, and Wrestlings
White "DJ" Doug

Day 65 Cumberland, MD to Hagerstown, MD Last friendship visit:(

So today we woke up at 5:30am and headed out after our breakfast. It was pretty cold and really foggy outside. We headed out and well we had some issues with fog right away. Was really hard to see but after a bit we got through it and started to speed up a little.  We more or less started to all get closer together and our pacelines ended up merging into one long peleton or pelican as we called it.

We rode for about 50 miles like that and dealt with a bunch of flat tires and various things. I was riding with Derek and Beau today but once the pelican started we all moved around in one large 22 man pace line. A little while after we all got together Jack "two chains" Johnson's chain broke so he had to rack which was sad but we all kept on going.

We rode and got to this really nice bike path and rode on that for about 10 miles and it was a lot of fun. We got to lunch and were told that the pelican had to end so we rode the remaining 10 miles in our original pace lines and made it to our loging in Hagerstown.  We were at a place for people with disabilities and we had a lot of work to do to get ready for the end. We cleaned the vans and did other housekeeping things and then we hung out with the clients and had dinner

After dinner we had a little free time where I tried to help Blake get the music video working but to no avail.  After that we had a team event that took us into the wee hours of the morning

Well its 2 something in the morning and time for bed

Peace, Love, and Endings
White "DJ" Doug

Live stream for our Arrival in Washington D.C.

So I will be posting a link to a live Ustream of our Arrival in Washington DC on saturday at about 10:30am feel free to check back at that time.

Day 64 Uniontown, PA to Cumberland, MD big hill day.

So today we got up at 6am and got out of our lodging and headed out for our tough ride today.  Today I started out riding with Reggie and we didnt get far before we had a third added to us.

About two miles down the road we (as sweeps) ran into some of the other cyclists and one of them had their chain break. So we waited for Jack to get his chain patched up and then he joined our pace line. So for the rest of the day Jack rode with us.  It was a very long and tough day. My body is starting to show its age and it was a tough day. We had about 7000 feet of climbing and it was about 66 miles of riding.  While riding we also had two flat tires by Reggie and we powered through those and kept moving on.

We took a little while to get there but we finally arrived at our destination which was the YMCA of Cumberland. We showered, changed and I went for a quick swim and then got settled a little and then took a 15 min nap before we got ready for dinner. We had to move our stuff as we were not staying on the soccer field like we thought so we moved our stuff and then headed out for dinner.

We arrived at a park in Cumberland that was the site for our sponsored dinner by the folks of the Rotary club of Cumberland.  They had a great dinner of chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. They also had fried ice cream and it was a great dinner.

Afterward we headed back to do a team event and then I headed to bed


Sleep well



Peace, Love, and flats
White "DJ" Doug

Day 63 Pittsburgh, PA to Uniontown, PA we got to go white water rafting.

So today we woke up at 5:30 and went downstairs to get all of our stuff ready to go. We had to rack our bikes a little ways out of the city and we racked to breakfast which was a Chick Fil A We had some chicken sangwiches for breakfast and they were amazing.

We then rode about 5 more miles to Elizabethtown where we started our ride today.  We rode about 35 miles and did about 2,600ft of climbing and there were some pretty tough hills but we made it.

We got to our destination which was a YMCA and we parked our bikes at one of our sponsor's Garages. We then had our lunch which was chicken and spicy sausage.  After that we changed, hopped in our vans and headed out to do some white water rafting.  It was sponsored and guided by Andy a Pi Alpha from last year.

We had 7 boats and I rode with the Georgia Tech guys and Sanjeev.  We beasted our way through the rapids and I only fell out once yay. We didnt flip our boat going past Dimple rock which apparently flips many many boats.

We were rafting for about 3.5 hours and once we got to the end and walked our boat up this wonderful gravel hill barefoot (people looked at me weird for being about to get in the boat with shoes on so I took them off) Worst mistake ever. We then were bussed to our vans and we headed off to our sponsored dinner.

We were sponsored by the Knights of Columbus of Uniontown. We had pasta and meatballs along with brownies, salad and watermelon.  It was a wonderful meal and after dinner the guys played volleyball, bags, and horseshoes.

We then went to pick up our bikes and move them to the Y and then we setup our beds and its time to sleep.

Sleep well


Peace, Love, and Rapids
White "DJ" Doug

Day 62 11th Day off but last day off:(

So today we woke up at 7:30 and headed down for breakfast where we were sponsored by Pi Alpha's and brothers at the University of Pittsburgh.  It was a great breakfast with lots of different Juices, eggs, cereals, bagels, and all sorts of other stuff.

After breakfast we actually had some free time so I caught up a little more on videos. I currently am only like 4 days behind but I will get them caught up soon.

We then had a friendship visit/lunch with the UCP/Class of Pittsburgh. We hung out with the clients I hung out with a guy named Sergei and we talked about movies and video games and had some really good like bbq ham and perogeis(SP?). After we headed out for a picture and then headed back to the rooms for a few hours of free time. I worked more on videos and helped Blake with the music video.

We then went out to hang out with The Woodlands which is a camp for children with disabilities. We met up with the Build America guys and had our dinner which was sausage and chicken. We did some leadership talks for the kids and then after we headed back to lodging.

I went out with a few of the guys to get sushi as I havent had sushi in forever and then headed back to go to bed.

Have a good night


Peace, Love, and Sushis
White "DJ" Doug

Day 61 Niles, Oh to Pittsburgh, PA back on the bike again:)

So today was a 5:30 wake up and we packed up from the gym we were staying at and had our breakfast that was sponsored by Fairhaven which was a great breakfast of pizza, bagels and fruit.

We headed outside to get ready to leave. Today I rode with Luke and Alberto. We went off on our ride and it was long but a lot of fun. We got to do some climbing today as we really havent had much climbing lately.  We need to get a little more acclimated to the hills as we have a pretty climbing intensive day coming up in two days.

We arrived at our lunch and had some Chipotle and then got ready for our arrival. We rode on this long bike path from lunch to our arrival and we arrived at the Three Rivers Association and after we shook everyones hand we went upstairs to try out some rowing machines. It was kinda neat.  We were only there for a short time but afterwards we headed to our lodging which for tonight and tomorrow night we are staying at a hotel in Pittsburgh.  We showered and changed and then headed off to do a team event/dinner at a bowling ally.  We bowled and ate and just relaxed and then afterward headed back to lodging.

I just relaxed tonight and did laundry.

I am off to bed


Peace, Love, and Rowings
White "DJ" Doug

Day 60 Josh and I switched today. I drove the Van

So today we woke up at like 6am but I woke up a little earlier as I was going to be a crew member today.  Jesus, Josh, and Benny wanted to ride today so Matt Do, Austin, and Myself did their crew positions. I drove van 3 today and it was kinda fun.

I started out by filling up the water jug and then after we had our reroute figured out for the morning I went off in my van to mark the second turn.  I had to find a place for the van as there was no place to put it for the turn. I found an officer that said I could park it down the street for a bit so I parked it and then went and marked the turn.  It was about 40 mins till the pacelines were sent and passed my turn.

We had 3 other ride alongs today. We had the guy that planned the first team JOH in 1988 and a couple of other Pi Alphas. That made things a little interesting.  So after everyone passed my turn I packed up and drove to my next turn marking. It took me a while to get there since I had to navigate to the turn but I got there and setup my turn. I had a long time to wait for people there and I spent about 2 hours there waiting for people to all get through my stop.

So after that I packed up and headed to switch with Spencer who was marking a turn almost to the end of the ride.  He had to go make a few runs somewhere so I sat there and waited for the last 3 pacelines to pass.  I sat there for about 40 mins while I waited for everyone. I had time to clean out Van 3 as it was pretty dirty.

After that I drove to lodging and had some lunch. There was fried chicken for lunch as well as potatoes and cole slaw. I had some food and then we had a dance with the clients of the Fairhaven Foundation.  it was a lot of fun but definitely drained the rest of the energy out of me and I was pretty tired during dinner.

We went out to a sponsored dinner at Olive Garden and then we cleaned the vans and then went to the Mall to do some shopping.

After the mall we went back to lodging but since noone with a key was back yet we went on a hunt for McDonalds to get a snack.

Then back to lodging to get ready for bed.

Today was a fun day being crew but its time to sleep

Peace, Love, and Fettuccines
White "DJ" Doug

Day 59 10th day off. The melt Challange

So today we woke up at 6am and headed out for our breakfast and friendship visit at the Cleveland Childrens Hospital.  We were served sausage, bacon, and eggs and all other types of stuff. We then watched a video about the Cleveland Clinic and the childrens hospital and then split up into small groups.

We went with Amy and she took us all around the facility.  We saw the basketball court, some of the classrooms, the pool, the dialysis room and much more.  After that we opened our mail and then we did our introductions.

We then went out into the courtyard and had our lunch, It was a hotdog or hamburger lunch and the food was really good.  We then hung out with the kids and played some knockout and then headed over to watch the "Kids on the Block" puppet show which was our last one.

After that we said our goodbyes and headed back to lodging. I did some organization worked on some videos and then I took a nap and then went out to hang out with my friend Susan from my days working at Cedar Point. We went to this really cool old toy store and then went to get some frozen yogurt.

I then headed back to lodging and shaved and then we hopped in the vans and headed to this place called Melt Bar and Grilled.  It was basically a place that did grilled cheese sammiches with whatever you want on them. They were amazing sandwiches and two of our crew guys Josh and Jesus decided to do the challange which was a 5lb plate of food.  They tried and both were unsuccessful but they got close and Jesus was really close.

We then headed back to lodging again and I worked with Josh and got him on my bike as he is riding tomorrow. I worked a lot on my videos and have a lot of them done and hopefully will get most of them uploaded in pittsburgh in two days.

Have a good night



Peace, Love, and Grilleds
White "DJ" Doug