It has been 11 days since we left Baltimore and the three most important life lessons I have learned so far (in order of importance) are – 1) people are awesome 2) food tastes better everyday 3) doing coordinated dances on a bike is harder than it looks!
Today rode from Elkhart to Michigan City, which, quite confusingly, is in Indiana but is so named as it borders Lake Michigan. We left relatively early in the morning and got to our host (a beautiful Episcopal church) by 2 pm. Since our lunch had been donated by McDonalds, Amy and I (the two herbivores on the trip) dragged our starving selves to a restaurant across the street. The hostess, Megan, was nice enough to let us into her upscale restaurant even though we clearly did not belong there in our smelly spandex. While we waited for our food she told us about one of her close friends who is suffering from cancer and has undergone various experimental treatments with painful side effects. Another proof of the omnipresence of this disease.
After lunch, and 40 hilarious minutes of watching half the team play a loud game of samurai outside the church, we got back on our bikes (yes, I whined about it) for a 2 mile ride by the lake shore. It was part of an event organized by the Michigan City School System and supported by the Mayor of Michigan City. As if it weren't enough that the Mayor had taken the time and effort to personally address us and praise our cause, he also declared 4th June, 2008 the Official Hopkins 4K for Cancer Appreciation Day. Not helping our ever-inflating egos!
The organizers of the bike ride had a raffle ticket drawing to give out prizes like a skateboard and a shiny new red bike to the participants. We were all hoping that the bike would go to this one boy who had come out to ride with us on a bike borrowed from his neighbor (which happened to be purple and had a big basket with flowers on it...needless to say, totally unsuitable for a cool kid like him). Although he did not actually win, the participant who won willingly handed it over to him. It was amazing. It was like one of those perfect stories out of a Chicken Soup for the Soul book and is definitely up there on my list of favorite 4K moments.
All this happiness had left us starving (which seems to be a constant part of you when you are riding a bike for 7 hours a day). Thank God for Jean, a wonderful lady who cooked us a great dinner (complete with ice cream sundaes). I learned the next morning that Jean had lost her daughter to cancer, which made me appreciate her generosity even more and reinforced life lesson #1.
We decided that our day in Michigan City would be incomplete without a swim in Lake Michigan. The entire team made their way over to the shore where we had biked earlier, hung out on the beach and watched the gorgeous sunset. It felt really strange to think that most of us have known each other less than two weeks and yet it is hard to remember how life was pre-4K. Once it got a little darker, Jess, Ondrej, Chris and Dan brought out the fireworks (legal in Indiana) that Ondrej and my team (Team “Super Fun, Number One”, just for the record) had picked up on the way into the city. Our soiree was cut short by really loud sirens which we confused for police sirens. We were convinced we were going to get arrested on Hopkins 4K for Cancer Appreciation Day. Thankfully, it turned out that it was just a false tornado warning.
Another day on the 4K, another set of crazy adventures!
-Yogeeta Manglani
Today rode from Elkhart to Michigan City, which, quite confusingly, is in Indiana but is so named as it borders Lake Michigan. We left relatively early in the morning and got to our host (a beautiful Episcopal church) by 2 pm. Since our lunch had been donated by McDonalds, Amy and I (the two herbivores on the trip) dragged our starving selves to a restaurant across the street. The hostess, Megan, was nice enough to let us into her upscale restaurant even though we clearly did not belong there in our smelly spandex. While we waited for our food she told us about one of her close friends who is suffering from cancer and has undergone various experimental treatments with painful side effects. Another proof of the omnipresence of this disease.
After lunch, and 40 hilarious minutes of watching half the team play a loud game of samurai outside the church, we got back on our bikes (yes, I whined about it) for a 2 mile ride by the lake shore. It was part of an event organized by the Michigan City School System and supported by the Mayor of Michigan City. As if it weren't enough that the Mayor had taken the time and effort to personally address us and praise our cause, he also declared 4th June, 2008 the Official Hopkins 4K for Cancer Appreciation Day. Not helping our ever-inflating egos!
The organizers of the bike ride had a raffle ticket drawing to give out prizes like a skateboard and a shiny new red bike to the participants. We were all hoping that the bike would go to this one boy who had come out to ride with us on a bike borrowed from his neighbor (which happened to be purple and had a big basket with flowers on it...needless to say, totally unsuitable for a cool kid like him). Although he did not actually win, the participant who won willingly handed it over to him. It was amazing. It was like one of those perfect stories out of a Chicken Soup for the Soul book and is definitely up there on my list of favorite 4K moments.
All this happiness had left us starving (which seems to be a constant part of you when you are riding a bike for 7 hours a day). Thank God for Jean, a wonderful lady who cooked us a great dinner (complete with ice cream sundaes). I learned the next morning that Jean had lost her daughter to cancer, which made me appreciate her generosity even more and reinforced life lesson #1.
We decided that our day in Michigan City would be incomplete without a swim in Lake Michigan. The entire team made their way over to the shore where we had biked earlier, hung out on the beach and watched the gorgeous sunset. It felt really strange to think that most of us have known each other less than two weeks and yet it is hard to remember how life was pre-4K. Once it got a little darker, Jess, Ondrej, Chris and Dan brought out the fireworks (legal in Indiana) that Ondrej and my team (Team “Super Fun, Number One”, just for the record) had picked up on the way into the city. Our soiree was cut short by really loud sirens which we confused for police sirens. We were convinced we were going to get arrested on Hopkins 4K for Cancer Appreciation Day. Thankfully, it turned out that it was just a false tornado warning.
Another day on the 4K, another set of crazy adventures!
-Yogeeta Manglani
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