June 10th 2009

Let the shaving BEGIN!

Today was our first real day of the Journey of Hope training! Joe Borghoff and I made our way from the hotel back to the airport in order to be picked up by the Journey of Hope (JOH) crew team. We arrived at the University of San Francisco dorms around 10:30 am and immediately began the check in process. We received our RoadTrip IDs which are similar to military dog tags. The metal tags contain valuable information to identify and track us. In addition we received our Journey of Hope Emergency Information card to be carried on us at all times. Once we had picked up both of these important items we next picked up our Journey of Hope shorts and cycling jerseys! After, we made our way up to our dorm rooms where we would be staying until Sunday. Our rooms had a spectacular view of the USF Baseball field and city. After setting up our rooms we unpackaged our bikes and put them back together. The process took about 30 minutes and with the help of some other more experienced riders I was able to successfully complete the setup process.

At this point in the day everyone was getting pretty hungry so some of the JOH riders and I wandered the area to grab some lunch. We ended up grabbing pizza on Haight street. For those of you who have never been to San Fran, Haight and Ashbury street are the center of the hippie movement. As such, we had the opportunity to meet a plethora of diverse people on our trip to lunch. On the way back we stopped at the Academy of Science Building and another museum (forgot the name) with an amazing observation deck. Afterwards, we returned back to our rooms to relax. During this time Joe Borhoff, Ray Feuga (Cornell), and I began the wonderful task of shaving our legs (Pictured Below - For your enjoyment!). I have to say that it was slightly challenging and utterly hilarious.

At 5:00 pm we had our first meeting with Josh Sheffler to discuss the logistics of the Journey of Hope. We went over some rules and regulations as well as a brief overview of Push America. We concluded the meeting with some pizza and a presentation of a $750 grant to a local non-profit organization which helps people with disabilities. We wrapped up the evening by having our first North Route Team group ritual which left me humbled and excited for the upcoming Journey.

Tomorrow........Training Routines!