Orientation

On June 5th 2013 I left from LaGuardia airport to Oakland California for the 2013 north route orientation for the Journey of Hope. I flew with my good friend and brother Sanjeev and we were greater at Oakland by my good friend Benny and the crew member Kyle Roth. I arrived at the hotel and got settled in and relaxed for a while before we started our meetings. I got to know some of my teammates very well and they are hysterical and just all around amazing. Each one not us has something to bring to the table and it just really makes us a strong group all together.

The second day we went over more information and got ourselves settled in. We practiced getting our stuff together and packing up in the morning. Mark, one of the crew members is the "team mom" and provided us with some really good breakfast.  After all that we headed over to the Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center. We had played a basketball game against the wildcats and it was unreal. I wasn't very good but I had a blast and really connected with the participants there. One player, number 33, was insanely good and was sinking 3 point shots like it was nothing. Another older man, number 47, was constantly stealing the ball and making 2 point shots. We got a tour afterwards and the place was beautiful and had such character to it, Push America had actually built a play unit here in the late 1900s and it was really nice to see a price of Push's history.  .

Day three was skills assessment. We actually went to the area where mythbusters is filmed but we had to leave due to an error with permits. Yet it was still very cool to see. I ended up doing second worst in the balance test but I know I'll improve in time. Afterwards we had a lovely lunch and headed over to  the golden gate bridge to take our team photo. It was really windy but I got an awesome photo of my chapter brother Reggie and I highfiving in front of the bridge. We then went to cliff bar headquarters to meet one of our corporate sponsorships. It was really cool inside and their work atmosphere is absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed meeting the people who make sure we have good energy bars on the road. They work with all organic material so i know I'm putting good stuff inside of me.

On day four we set off for our practice ride of 27 miles in a very hilly area of California. We climbed a total of 1600 feet which is a quarter of what we will do at kick off. The whole team finished in a timely matter and we know we'll have to work hard to tighten up our lines and cycle a bit faster. We had a very awesome friend of push america, Dean, help us fix our forms and learn to ride in a pace line. He also made sure all our bikes were good enough to get across the country in one piece. Afterwards at night we had our kick off dinner and so much family came out to support us. It was a great sight to see.

Tomorrow I wake up at 5:15 to start our kick off at the golden great bridge in San Francisco in California. We will cycle 70 miles tomorrow. I am a little nervous and excited to kick off and ride so many miles in a one day. I know this journey will be tough but it will be all worth it. Please make sure to read our team journal at pushamerica.org as I will be writing very soon!

To my friends and family thank you so much for your support and encouraging me to push further in life and it means so much to me that you all do. To my better half, thank you for believing in me and giving me the strength to push on.

(Sorry if this is very hard to read, typing on a phone is not easy!)