26-Jul-17

July 26, 2017 – Birmingham, AL – 0 miles

 
Hello to all!
 
Everybody was very happy to get the chance to sleep in and relax on our off day. We started the morning with breakfast at Chick-fil-a sponsored by the University of Alabama Birmingham chapter. Not a single person was upset about having Chick-fil-a for the second meal in a row! It was fun to get to meet the brothers and learn more about their chapter. They also had very many questions for us about our favorite experiences on the ride and how we handled the heat! 
 
We took our team picture and headed off to CampUs to volunteer. CampUs is a day camp for children with disabilities and is organized by graduate students from Samford University. Getting to play and interact with the kids was a blast. I also found it very interesting to learn about why the grad students chose their field of study and what their future plans were.
 
Our final friendship visit was with Easter Seals which was a pediatric therapy organization. The team was super excited to triple down and enjoy Chick-fil-a for another meal! We went on a tour of the building and learned about Easter Seals’ platform. Even though we weren’t able to interact with any clients, it was still awesome to see the top notch organizations that are available to people with disabilities. 
 
I had the luxury of being able to visit my two cousins and uncle while in Birmingham. My cousin Katie is student at Samford University so she took me on a tour. I enjoyed getting to see campus and the sports facilities. I even had to stop by the bookstore and grab some Samford gear.
 
For dinner we went to Cahaba Brewing which is owned by a Pi Alpha from UAB. The brewery was in an old abandoned steel processing factory and was very cool! We ate dinner and then went on a tour to see how the operation actually worked. We all headed back home to catch up on rest and prepare ourselves for then 120 mile day ahead of us.
 
Thanks to all and Boiler Up!
Alex Mills – Purdue University (Omega)