Ohh the places you'll go!

Greetings yous guys and gals!

   Whew, sorry for no posts for awhile... We have been quite busy, here-there-and everywhere! Without further adu, this is from us cyclists too you!

   The ride into Columbus was pretty cool. It was mostly downhill to downtown which always makes for some good, easy riding. We cruised up to a cafe because we were a bit early on our ETA to my cousins house in Old Town. Cafe Brioso! The manager, JJ was kind enough to give us some free coffee! He made me his favorite drink, maple syrup, honey, and some good espresso with some fine steamed milk! Must I say, it was delicious! He also mentioned how the United States is starting to win world barista championships, Chicago being the big producers of the winners! GO USA! He then told us about some good breweries in Columbus which, of course, we had to stop at at least one of them!

   We left Brioso to hit up a bike shop then Elevator Brewing! The bike shop was cool, it was tiny but the manager seemed like a cool guy. They had some fast looking bikes, that's for sure! The brewery had some great beers! One of their wheat beers just won gold at the world championships in Chicago beating out some Sam Adam's and Goose Islands 312! The bartender was a great guy to chat with while we watched the Olympics... EQUESTRIAN??? We wanted badminton and ping-pong at least! The beers were good, but I wanted to hang out with my cousin, so we made a hasty escape after paying only to get lost for awhile. Fear not, we found our way!

   It was great to see my cousin Kevin and his wife Tina! It was also great to meet my other new cousin, their baby, Sadie! She is adorable, although I'm a stranger to her and she cried when I held her... Which most babies do... Guess I'm just scary to babies. We also met my cousins band mates for his band Pink Reason. They were both pretty cool guys and they are making some good music! If your ever in the Columbus area, check them out! Everyone else we met were also good people. They all seemed to have lived some interesting lives and I wish we could have stayed for more than just one day. We all ended up having a great barbecue of grilled chicken with homemade barbecue sauce, hot dogs, and brats! We love grilling out! After/while eating we started messing around with the badminton and had a blast! 

   Once the barbecue was over we went back to Kevin's place. Stayed up for a bit chatting quietly but sooner rather than later, we took to the sleeping. The morning rolled around and we delicious homemade banana ice cream! Basically just frozen blended bananas, raspberries, and blueberries! YUM YUM YUM! I could eat that deliciousness all the time! But soon enough, as it is in the mornings with us, it was departure time. We said goodbyes and thanks, it was great to see more family on this journey! Then we set off to make our way to Arthritis Camp!

   Along our route to Flying Horse Farms we met two bikers who caught an interest in what we were doing. We chatted them up for a few miles while getting lost on a bike path that wasn't on our route but we took anyways to chat with them. They were both grateful for what we were doing which always makes us feel good. Sometimes a thanks is all you need to make your day. 

   We saw a sign along the road for fresh peaches, blackberries and other produce... Good reason to stop no matter what your mode or means of transportation is. Wow doesn't even say it all! The Lyons were the farm owners and we got to chatting about our story. They gave us a tour of their little farmette and let us try Flat Wonderful Peaches, apples, other peaches, fresh blackberries, and let us feed their chickens. They allowed us to take a bunch of free peaches, apples, blackberries, farm fresh eggs and honey. We started chatting about Mr. Lyon's life as a professor for OSU and his travels/teachings of traveling all across Africa. They showed us some amazing things in their house and just made our faces start to hurt from smiling constantly. To put a cherry on top of what was already wonderful, they ended up donating money to the Arthritis Foundation! Just a whomping thank you!

   A wonderful ride turned into an even better day! I have completely neglected to mention that this day, July 31st, was my 22nd birthday as well! We finally strode into Flying Horse Farms Arthritis and G.I. Camp! We got a grand tour and just smiles from everyone we met. This camp is SOO COOOL! All of the kids were so excited to meet us and talk to us about our journey. This was the perfect way to spend a birthday! The staff was all excited to see us too. Basically everyone was just so thankful for what we were doing and the thanks alone that we got was enough to fuel us the rest of the way to Portland! We basically hung out all day with some of the staff while walking around and meeting all the kids. 

   It turned out that we couldn't stay overnight due to no immunization record or background checks but we did get some free dinner! Camp dinner was just CRAZY! SCREAMING AND SONGS AND BANGING AND ENOUGH ENERGY TO FUEL A COUNTRY! These kids just love being at camps like this, to be able to be around other kids that are experience the same pains. To be able to just feel a normalcy, to not get laughed at for being in pain when you look fine. To be able to be encouraged by your peers to get up and play, but at the same time, know why you can't get up to play. Camps like this change lives, I know because Camp M.A.S.H. has changed my life. Thanks to Flying Horse Farms and to Karla for telling us and letting us come!

   Sadly, like I said before, we could not stay the night at camp... However, during the day we called up Deb who we met at the JA Conference and lived about 15 miles away. We cruised off from camp at around 8 at night and got to our destination around 9:30. Once there Deb greeted us warmly! She had a bunch of food out and Nate ended up making lots of it for 2nd dinner. It was delicious! She was there with her friend and they were working on a super awesome patent/design! I would tell you about it, but I'm keeping it secret... It's amazing though! We watched some Olympics and had some beers for my birthday, but when a bit after midnight rolled around, it was time for bed!

   We awoke in the morning and had a wonderful breakfast of some Special K with strawberries and orange juice! It was a slow morning due to our late night, but none the less we trucked off a bit after 8 am. Before we left Deb told us about how thankful she was for what we were doing and made a donation to the foundation to us! Everyday on this journey I am amazed at the people in this world.

   So yesterday we strode off from Debs house and made our way to Jim's house. We met him also at the JA Conference in St. Louis! His daughter, Maggie, has juvenile arthritis and was diagnosed three years ago. When we arrived in Oberlin, Ohio, we made our way directly to Jim's Pizza place called Magpie! He made us some of the best pizza we have ever had! It was soooooooo soooooo good! After the pizza Jim showed us around and we took our bikes to Swerve, the local bike shop. Chris the owner, and Chris the bike mechanic were both extremely kind and let us clean our bikes and give them a bit of a free tune up. We then left our bikes at the shop so we could get them tomorrow (which is today). We made our way then to Jim's place where we met the rest of his family. His wife, Rachel, we met at the conference and his daughter Maggie, but we met his son Mason (who is 11 and is almost 6 ft!). It's always great to meet these families, to meet the people we are riding for! It lifts our spirits and inspires me especially to continue to push myself at what I am doing! Without meeting these families, this ride would be way different. Not saying I wouldn't love it, I'm just saying this way, I love it even more. 

   We then went back and had some more pizza! You can never have enough pizza! I thought the two pizzas we had were the best barbecue pizza and best buffalo chicken pizza I have ever had! MAGPIE PIZZA ALL THE WAY! After pizza we had some of the best ice cream ever at Cowhaus Cremery! They gave us free ice cream and super cool t-shirts! Big thanks to Cowhaus Cremery! We then went back to Jim's and watched the Olympics... Just a great past time.

   By the way we found out that Jim saved Debbies Sons life at the JA conference. And it just turns out that we stayed at Debbie's and then Jim's the next night. He saved her son's life because he hit his head and then fell into the pool and jim dove in and pulled him out of the pool. 

   So to start this morning we had some delicous spinach and feta  omletes made by Rachel and Nate. Then we went into Oberlin and got our bikes tuned up. Thanks Joe for making our bikes run smooth again. Nate then went to the post office to get his passport while me (Matt) and Joey watched olympics. Yea we just watch olymlpics all the time. Then we biked to the bike co op and found out that it was closed. Boo. Later we came back to Magpies for some sandwiches. Great. Everything there is great. We then biked back to Jim's house and waited for him to get done with work. Once he got back we went back to Magpies for the 3 hundreth time, not complaining, and had some pizza with his family. Pizza was great again and I don't think I can get sick of pizza. Well its been fun in Oberlin but tomorrow we head out on the road again and set our sights on Niagara Falls. Thank you Jim for everything and wwe have had too much fun her in Oberlin. 

   Like always remember to tell your friends and family to keep up with our blog and tell all your rich friends to donate to the Arthritis Foundation.

Jim Strader's (Oberlin Ohio) Pizzeria: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Magpie-Pizza/149597168388891 Check it out on Facebook and like their page!

Cowhaus Cremery (Oberlin Ohio): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cowhaus-Creamery/168833176498995 and http://www.cowhauscreamery.com/

Swerve Bike shop (Oberlin Ohio): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swerve-Bike-Shop/281943428491842 

Check out all these facebook pages!

DONATE HERE!

http://jointsinmotion2012.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1002344&lis=1&kntae1002344=0B993C31CDBE4A18A7AED38F99449256&supId=355267381

 Sadie,  Joey's Cousin

 Kevin, Sadie and Tina with the Raincyclists in Columbus

 CHICKENS!!!!

chicken bro

 Millions of Peaches

 Flat Wonderful Peaches

 Apples please

 Nate with his best friend Happy the Dog

 Monkey Brains

 Peaches for Me

 MORE PEACHES!!!!

 The pond with William

 Big Bird

 Woof

 Our camp hostsessese

 SCIENCE JUICE

 JOEY'S BIKE JUICE, UNRIDEABLE

 Tribute to Raggio

 Pro archers

 Bedazzled Gator, Girls just wanna have fun, GRLZ RLE

 Flying Horse Farms Buildings

 Our dedicated servers

 Blue Beard, R

 Blue Lip and soul patch

 I don't even know

 Thanks for the shirts!

 A gentleman and a scholar

 Artists and Canvas

Cowhaus Creamery with Jim the Hero