Charlestown, WV

An abrupt awakening this morning at 5:11 AM by my roommate and team crew chief letting us know that we had overslept by 11 minutes and we needed to hustle to get out of the hotel room put the day into gear, until I let him know that wake up wans’t until 6 AM and that he was not my favorite person in the world right then. After our second wake up we enjoyed two breakfasts this morning both the hotels snacks that were set out as well as the crew chief breakfast who I still hadn’t forgiven at that point in the day.

The ride out of Huntington was hairy and mostly city riding for the first 15 miles until we hit the familiar West Virginia back country road full of dogs, loud trucks, and gorgeous scenery that seemed an eternity away just a few months ago.

A tricky section of road around mile 35 required the pacelines to stack up and double paceline over a bridge about 5 miles from our arrival and friendship visit.

Today was a truly amazing friendship visit with Children's Therapy Clinic of W. VA. The clinic provides speech , occupational, and physical therapies to individual free of charge. They share a facility with the American Red Cross and run solely from private donations. We had a friendship visit with about a dozen of the children who utilize this amazing clinic and couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear as these children are so fun and positive it makes you overwhelmed with joy. I had lunch with Emma (6) who’s sister Elizabeth (8) was in a wheel chair and had been attending the clinic for several years going from depending on the wheel chair to walking with crutches. The facilities for the occupational therapy were very cool including a ball pit and swing for client sensory feel development. After eating entirely too much pizza at lunch the team reluctantly got back on the bikes and completed the remaining 12 miles of the ride including a very large, very steep hill that we climbed for the second time and arrived at the MLK community center in downtown Charleston around 1:30.

Children's Therapy Clinic

Elizabeth and the guys

Once showered we made the usual errands and many members of the team chose to clean our bike after punishment they had received in the rain the past few days. The team headed towards downtown for dinner at the Appalachian Power minor league baseball field. We enjoyed all you eat burgers, hot dogs, and BBQ chicken that we as usual ate too much of.