Blake's Journey: Day 36: She's a Cutie

Course: Des Moines, IA to Marshalltown, IA
Distance: 50 miles
Terrain: Rolling hills
Conditions: Some wind - varying directions
Average Speed: 19 mph
Max Speed: 34.7 mph

At circle up we were told that we had to make 55 miles by 10:30. We began by being racked to the start location, which was about 15 miles. We didn't get on the road until about 7:45 - 8. Little did we know that we drove 15 miles and that that was factored into the "65" that we were supposed to do for the day. I rode with Michael Walton and Stephen Blythe. Michael decided to do the "Whole Banana" challenge and at a whole banana before the ride - peel and all. We had also planned to make it a "Red Bull Rage Day" since it was a shorter mileage. So once we hit the first crew stop we waited for a few pace lines to meet us and then we all chugged a Red Bull together before the ride. I didn't experience any tangible effects, but the banana peel didn't sit too well with Michael. After the Red Bull chug, we realized that we had to move insanely fast to make our rack point, so I started pulling us at about 23 mph - up and down hills. That sort of set the tone for the day with Stephan and Michael, so we worked super hard and averaged 19 mph to finish the day as the first pace line.

Everyone finished the ride relatively close together since it was a shorter distance, and our finish line was at a local water park. The place was awesome! It had two-person tube slides, a lazy river, diving boards, and even half of a slide that dropped you about 10 feet after you slid for a couple of seconds. It was doubled as a friendship visit, but really only one kid came. His name was Oscar and he had just learned to swim in the Spring. His guardian told us that after he learned to swim just months earlier, he went on to win districts and state in swimming for his age group's Special Olympics. He was the happiest guy in that pool - he loved the water.

After swimming we all went to our lodging (hotel this time - heck yeah!) to shower and nap. We then headed out to a nearby bowling alley for a bigger friendship visit with the Arc of Marshalltown. We got to bowl with a lot of clients and they played music as if it were a dance, so there was a lot of intermittent dancing in between bowls. Upon entry I was immediately pulled over to a lane by a man named John. He was psyched to be at the bowling alley. I jumped in on a game with him and a few other girls, and one guy named Jeffrey. Jeffrey was in a wheelchair and didn't have use of his legs. I'm not exactly sure what his disability was, but he shook a lot and repeated himself multiple times. However, Jeffrey and I absolutely clicked. He wasn't bowling at first, so I asked him why and he said that it was because his name wasn't on the board. I wasn't about to let that fly so I went to the front desk and got the bumpers put up, pulled over a bowling ramp and got the guy going. He was pretty pumped to be playing with us.

Jeffrey pulled over his girlfriend, and introduced me. They kept calling each other "cutie" and flirting with each other. Jeffrey would pull me in close and whisper in my ear, "She's a real cutie isn't she, Blake?" and I'd give him props for picking a good one. They'd even dance together when they weren't bowling. His girlfriend would ask me if Jeffrey called her cute, and if I said yes she would blush and bury her face in my shoulder. They were hilariously awesome together. Best of all, after every bowl - hit or miss - Jeffrey would tell me good job and give me a high five. He was quite the guy and I'm going to remember him for a very long time. He really taught me a lot. He might have been in a wheelchair, but man was he in high spirits. It was an honor just to talk to the guy.