So today was the longest short day of all time, maybe ever. We had 50 miles into Grand Island Nebraska which we heard stories of teams in the past holding a 21 MPH pace the whole time so we tried to do things as well. The directions out of lodging got lost in translation between multiple people and the large number of rights and lefts which lead to some confusion. We were all super pumped because Grand Island is one of the largest if not the largest friendship visits we have and we even had a police escort. Due to the police escort we had a hard rack time of 11 but unfortunately due to a few pace lines getting lost and some other hiccups not all of us made it on time. This is an awesome group of guys and we are all very dedicated to riding every mile so naturally a few guys were bummed about getting racked. Luckily, as I was saying earlier about us being awesome, the guys who were bummed were awesome at the visit! Everyone got the energy back and some guys did some great interviews. Later that enthusiasm rolled into an awesome dance party. At first I really struggled about communicating with people with disabilities but I really feel like I am hitting my strides and making actual friendships at these visits. Overall I am really proud of how this team overcame some tough obstacles and put our troubles aside to ease the troubles of others and try our best to make their day. In the end us trying to make their day definitely made all of ours.
– Joe Knue, Purdue University (Omega Chapter)