June 30th, Beech Grove, KY - McDaniels, KY
Day 35
Today was a real breath of fresh air. We left the Paulsen’s house after a wonderful donut breakfast and started another beautiful day of riding in wonderful weather. We rode the first 38 miles and then were met by Norma Henry. Norma is one of our groupies and has been following our progress as we go cross country. She told of us of her story of overcoming Cancer through God’s grace and the never say die attitude. She was truly inspiring for us and seemed to be also inspired by us. She rode the next 30 miles with us and we really enjoyed having her company. She got to experience our singing on the bike and we all got to exchange stories of adventures on the bike.
We were also met by some other groupies mid ride. I saw a car that looked like Mitch’s as we were going up a hill and then suddenly a man screamed, “Yeah go FIJIs!!!” I thought it was a fellow fraternity brother but I then realized it was Mitch’s dad, uncle, and sister. They met us at one of our stops and Barry also bought us lunch at the Fiddler’s Restaurant.
At lunch we were able to here about all the great adventures of Norma Henry. She had ridden across Iowa in the Ragbri and had done marathons and triathlons. She had experienced some very high accomplishments and some times of severe struggle with her cancer battle. But, she always kept hope in God and never admitted defeat even when a doctor told her she only had 6 months to live. An amazing woman that God placed in our path at the perfect time. She even collected some 1980’s clothing from Nat’s Sports since Justin and I had lost our stuff. We all enjoyed the crazy design tanktops and sweat shorts and will be making good use of them haha.
But, we ride into Etown tomorrow and will be welcomed by our friends and family. We are so blessed to have made it this far and thank God for getting us this far.
In His Adventure,
Chaz Vittitow
