San Francisco – 0 Miles
June 10, 2010
I was asked to write the official team journal, and ran out of time to write my own entry. Instead I’ll just post what I wrote for that.
Today was day two in San Francisco. We started our day with a practice pack where we loaded all of our luggage onto the vans to see how long it would take to get it all on there. It took longer than we hoped, but it was mainly because we didn’t know exactly who should put what where. Now that we know the procedure, tomorrow should go much faster! After unloading it all again, we headed out to some long but much needed meetings about safety and emergency procedures. It made us all think hard about the possible dangers that we could meet on the road this summer, but more importantly, how to avoid them by being careful and looking out for each other.
After a break for lunch, we had our first friendship visit at the Janet Pomeroy Center, whose mission is to provide recreation and vocational opportunities for people with disabilities that encourage self-expression, promote personal achievement, and lead to greater independence. Friendship visits are what make up the heart of the Journey of Hope, and it’s what most of us will tell you about if you ask us about our ride. Our contact here was Cindy Blackstone, and she made us feel welcome from the minute we walked in the door. To start our visit, we had a basketball game where teams of us played against the JPC wildcats. Seeing as the wildcats play often, we were an easy defeat for them. After our loss, we got the party started with a little dancing complete with conga line. This was the first friendship visit for many from our team, so it took a while for some of us to come out of our shells. By the end of the visit, we were all dancing, singing, and interacting with the people we are out here to help.
After our exhausting afternoon, we stuck around and had dinner provided by some alumni of the Gamma chapter of Pi Kappa Phi, and former team members of the Journey of Hope (known by us as Pi Alphas) Mike Barnes, and Carlos (who’s last name escapes me right now). Being former team members, they know how hungry this group can get, and supplied us with more than enough pizzas so that no one went away hungry. Over all, today was a great start of our journey of a lifetime. We are all excited to get on the road soon to spread our message all across America.
The official photos for day one are up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pushamerica/sets/72157624125112897/show/
