It was a beautiful morning Ann Arbor when we were given an awesome breakfast by the Rampton family that got us ready for the ride into Toledo. I had a great paceline with me, full of conversation with good times and a few laughs along the way. Having a good line can really make a ride just that much better. 65 miles can really just feel like 35. We had some great scenary along the way with a beautiful bike path coming into the arrival we had at Sunshin Homes, which we would soon learn to be one of the best friendship visits we have. We had a great crowd for an arrival into their facility, greeted by 30-40 friendly faces excited for our visit every year. From there we had a much needed meal that hit the spot with some quality sandwiches and cookies to die for. But after the meal is where the real fun was.
We got to spend time with the participants at Sunshine with some karaoke! I was fortunate enough to sing “Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious (or however you spell it).” Which, if you have never had the pleasure of singing this song, know that it is probably the most difficult song to sing… which just made it that much more fun to sing with my partner, Christine. The whole crowd was joining along the whole way, making it a great time.
After that was over, we were shown the nature walk bridge that Sunshine was redoing. Many Pi Kapps have helped build it over the years and it is an incredibly neat thing to see this strucutre that allows the participants at Sunshine the ability to go on a nature walk that they normally would not be able to go on for the ones in wheel chairs. We were honored to be able to screw in a piece of one of the boards used to build it so we can forever be a part of the project.
For dinner, we were treated to an AMAZING steak, chicken, mashed potatoe, and corn dinner by a past Pi Alpha’s family which without a doubt is in the running for the best meal that we have had on the trip. We had a great time sharing stories and playing cornhole with the Welsch Family and cannot thank them enough! It was a great day on the trip, one that I will for sure remember going into the future.
Ben Black
Cyclist
Alpha Epsilon, Florida (GO GATORS)