Sunday, June 15, 2008

Highland Park, Rhubarb Pie and Ice Cream.

Hello! We are currently in Highland Park, Illinois spending the night at Highland Park High School. We woke up this morning and departed the dorms at UIC at about 7:15am after a quick breakfast on the sidewalk outside of Marie Robinson Hall. Shortly after departing the dorm the weather took a turn for the worse and by the time we reached Michigan Avenue the skies had darkened and we could see storms approaching. I was ridding at the back of the pack and as the rain and lightning began we quickly sought shelter heading down into one of the parking garages where we entertained ourselves with silly hand games and waited. After awhile we met up with the other half of the team and moved to the sidewalk to wait under the store awnings until the storms let up.

Today was the ride along from Millennium Park to Highland Park. When the storms let up we all headed over to the Bean to meet up with family members, fans and other guests. From the Bean we rode about 18 miles to Evanston where we all met up at Northwestern University Medical Center. While we were waiting at Northwestern Medical Center John K's mom approached me about my blog and scared me a bit when she said that I needed to be careful what I wrote it in. I quickly tried to recall what I may have written wrong, only to hear her say that she had read my blog from the night before and had a strawberry Rhubarb pie with her! (To fill people in my father grows Rhubarb in his garden and mom makes strawberry rhubarb pies in May and June when the rhubarb is fresh. I have been joking with my mom since I left that I wanted her to send me a pie however she doesn't think that it would keep in the mail.) That said I was completely shocked when John's mom pulled out a strawberry rhubarb pie, something that was totally unexpected but ever so appreciated! Thank You for making my day, I will be sure to share it with my teammates to enjoy!

Once in Evanston we ate lunch and got on a bike path that took us to Highland Park. We had three I4K alum ride with us today as Sean, Keith and Anish all rode with us at least part of the way. Nick and Jon Schlesinger's families provided us with snacks when we rolled into Highland Park and helped to arrange dinner donated by a local Italian restaurant. Once we had unloaded our gear a group of us went swimming in the ever so cold waters of Lake Michigan before dinner. It was extremely cold but felt refreshing. After dinner they had ice cream with all the works for us. I will post pictures of my ice cream creation when I get internet access. We finished the night by watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off while eating popcorn. Tomorrow it is on to Wisconsin!

Happy Fathers Day and Happy Birthday Dad!

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