Distance: Whatever involves the least amount of physical exertion
Terrain: Lots of pedestrians and buses
Conditions: Occasional flights of steps
7am wakeup? All over it. We met in the lobby of the hotel and headed out to KRG Capital's office building for a nice breakfast. While eating, KRG showed a video about what private equity is and it really sparked my interest. It's pretty cool to see how they run things. Bruce Rogers showed us his office, and it was remarkable - sort of like JOH shrine. There were pictures of past teams, the 25th anniversary team, the very first team, and even pictures of his past friendship visits. If there were a JOH museum, it would be Bruce's office.
Breakfast finished and we were free until the evening. A handful of us decided to go see "World War Z" in theaters. Let's just say I don't recommend seeing more than the previews. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and got ready for our friendship visit. We were to go to a local park to participate and help out with the Pedal for Pennies charity event. Riders with disabilities rode around a giant pond (lake?) and for every lap they finished, donors would pledge a certain amount of money. There were people with all kinds of disabilities there. Some of them rode faster than I can, and I'm not even kidding about that. After the ride was over, we got to talk to the riders and eat with them. This was the first friendship visit that I really connected with the people there. I got a lot of time to talk with Chad and Emily. I just started talking to Chad in line for food, and we progressed from talking about movies to Chad asking me for advice on what he can talk about to the two girls that he's afraid to talk to. Chad was at least double my age, but for some reason my heart sank when he asked me for help.
A little before dinner, one of my chapter brothers (and chapter president) Taylor West, a Pi Alpha from JOH North in '12, came to visit. He introduced me to someone he remembered from last year named Emily. Emily was extremely functional and I'm not sure what her disability was, but she was extremely smart. She remembered everyone's name and was so nice. She loved to joke around and poke fun at us. We knew we had a dance after dinner, so we started debating about who was the better dancer. One thing led to another and before we knew it Emily had challenged me to a dance-off. We hit the dance floor and she kicked my butt. I've never been much of a dancer anyways. I guess there comes a point when the sprinkler, lawnmower, and shopping cart moves don't cut it anymore. Our route performed the dance that we all know to "Every Time We Touch" by Cascada and once again the crowd loved it. We love performing it!
It was tough to leave the dance since I had made some really great friends. We headed back to the hotel knowing that our easy streak had come to an end. The next stretch wouldn't be a cake walk.
1) Some of the riders during the event
2) (Left to right): Taylor West, Derek, Emily, Michael, and me
3) Emily and I
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