We woke up around 5 AM, but it did not feel like a normal day, to me at least. I was surprised that it was our last day. In a few hours we would be riding into Tallahassee and our trip will be over. I started to think about our trip and that whole morning all I could think about is how I was going to miss the people I meet on this journey. When it was time to ride I was excited but also tired, I guess two weeks of cycling will do that to you. We rode that morning to Tallahassee along our way we stopped for a sponsored lunch provided to us by the previous of our fraternity and current board member of the Ability Experience, Jeff Wahlen. Besides the friendship visits my favorite part of the trip was sponsored meals, I enjoyed getting to know our sponsors and the people who supported us, the food was a huge bonus. When we got to Tallahassee the heat was in the upper 90’s and I think for me the hardest part of the whole trip was the mental game that the heat forced you to play. But my incredible teammates helped me through the day and our crew kept me hydrated. We arrived at the stage up point and it all felt so exciting, we had a police escort and a “massive” climb. We had five miles left. Once we came around a bend I caught sight of the capital and the last hill we had to climb. The hill was tough, I think more because we were tired not as much as its size. but , we all powered through and finished together. Crossing the finish line was the greatest feeling of my life. We had done it, we biked 865 miles across Florida in support of people with disabilities. I was proud of what we had done and what we will all continue to do when we went our separate ways. Later that night we had a banquet and we were given awards and some other stuff. When I looked in the packet I was given and I saw the Pi Alpha pin I was speechless, a few minutes later we were sworn in as Pi Alpha’s to join an incredibly small group of people within Pi Kappa Phi that are Pi Alpha’s. I was so proud of the team for our accomplishments and as I thought back about this trip with the long days, the heat, the highs and lows, and the people we had meet and for all of that I would not trade the experience I had for anything. I hope one day our team will get to ride together again, but we will always be able to hold our heads high on fond memories of how the team stayed as one and never wavered on the mission at hand which was to represent the Ability Experience, understand the abilities of all people, and to do this crazy journey together.
