Today was another great lesson on the male competitive spirit and how it can motivate people to go above and beyond what they may think their body is capable of. Prime example (and really the example for this entire trip) is Frank. Frank is putting in more work than anybody else on this trip. He bikes just as much (usually more) than anybody else all day and instead of retiring to bed after dinner he stays up to deal with the administrative business of the trip. He’s usually up until about one or two AM every night and gets minimal sleep before heading out to “run it hot” or “get all psyched up” (as mentioned in previous blogs) all day long. Today he rode 120 miles through so pretty good hills in order to do twice his age in miles (he turns 60 at midnight tonight…happy birthday Frank the Tank). Anyway, this trip has shown me how incredible this male competitive force can be and how the man having more fun while doing it will always succeed far beyond his counterpart (this may be justification for me never lettings get to me, but hopefully my theory plays out to be true in the end).
Learned today that in West Virginia you can’t run for public office if you’ve ever participated in a duel at some point in your life. Kyle, Jay and I are looking for more obscure rules for each state we hit…mainly because it’ll be fun to say we’ve broken them may have to face the consequences someday.
Kyle and I are sitting in the Business Center of our hotel room right now. He’s playing music videos while we write our blogs. The song of the trip (playing right now) is “Catch my Disease” by Ben Lee. This has easily become Frank’s favorite song since we introduced it to him on Day 1. He sings it while he rides, and we tend to open all the doors in the van and blast the song next to him while he rides. Great song, I highly recommend you put it on right now if you have the means…
So as we were having our nightly shot, beer and Bailey’s combo at the local pub across the street from our hotel (props to Judie who kept the bar open and extra half hour for us!) with Jesse (word to Jesse for joining us tonight!) we talked a lot about how every little things we’ve done in our life has somehow brought us to where we are. It may have been a different story if the actions of our being had brought us to a dive hotel in West Virginia, but it is a completely different story when that West Virginian town is just a stop on your bike ride across the United States with an incredible mix of people. The message here may be a little to deep to go into during a blog, and too deep for a Sunday night after a number of drinks, but it’s fun to think about. It’s mainly fun because it lets you think about all the people that have been/are in your life that have played a part in your happiness thus far.
Change of pace. I think social stipulations are very outdated and can be extremely trite given the circumstances. Example, most dinner rules are disliked by everybody who abides by them, however they are strictly followed in order to not offend anyone or to be seen as a rude person. The problem is that everybody complains about them, and it’s is the person at the table that loosens everybody up that will ultimately prevail. Sounds confusing and weird, but true. People need some escape every now and then. I feel like Jay, Kyle and I have been the escape for mostly everybody on this trip thus far, and hopefully we’ve helped make it more enjoyable for everyone!
So insane that we are 4 days from the finish. So insane that we will be at Bucknell soon. That I will become a full-time working member of society, and that we’ve pretty much completely planned out entire rest of the year without having money, or possibly time, to do so. However, everything will work out; it seems to always be that way…
Frank and Walt referred to us as “like sons” to them today. Meant a whole lot to the three of us and just goes to show how powerful Bucknell ties can be, especially given the fact that we’ve know these guys (in person) for just two weeks! It has also been weird to be having such a jovial time with a trustee of our university. While in school, trustees are perceived as these higher figures that spend money and make rules for students to follow. We’ve found out that this is barely the case. Frank and his fellow trustees seem to really care about the students well being (this includes their social life). The problem has been that they don’t get as much person interaction with students as they would like, and that is needed to increase relations. We’ve voiced many concerns of students to Frank on this trip, which has helped him a lot. At the same time he has showed us/reminded us that the trustees are the people that cared the most about Bucknell while going there and have the student’s best interest as their top priority. I would have never thought I’d see a trustee barreling up a hill on his bike while belting out the lyrics to a song he had just found out about two weeks ago!
Anyway, time for us to go explore/hang out with Jake and Jesse for a bit. Hope everybody had a great weekend. Kyle has the worst farmer’s tan I’ve ever seen/could have ever imagined! Check it out when we get back, you’ll be impressed. We also passed two sweet towns in Ohio today, one called Guysville and the other called Coolville. Cheers!
