Bike the Us for MS Northern Tier 2015

How can I say this in a way that is fitting to the people I have called friends and role models for about 8 weeks now? I think I'll use different words that we have heard or used ourselves to describe the team, because it seemed to be a good blog format.
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Crazy. Indeed, we are. I have teammates like Emily Huber who has biked with BTUSFMS 4 years in a row with 1 year being the very difficult Bike the UK. Jack Shi left his job to come do this with us, but this lifestyle is attractive to some. It's attractive to my team. We are people who want to see the country we live in and it's beauty. You may think we are crazy and we might agree at times, but my teammates and I know that nothing this rewarding can come from a task deemed "tame".
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Inspiring. From my own experience, I know I've met the most inspiring people of my life while on this trip. Don Fraser and Cassie Wertz are prime examples of this inspiration. Don is the founder and the most chill guy ever. He is actually from Wrightsville Beach and reminds me of the surfers from Wilmington. A few years ago, he decided to ride self supported with some friends across the country. He wanted to do this to help raise money and awareness for the disease his mother has. Look at what that turned into. This man has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few years to pay for research and treatment of MS. He has touched the lives of everyone on this trip and has had the privilege of hiring a past rider named Cassie Wertz. Cassie is the only other full time employee working for this organization. If you've ever emailed BTUSFMS, Cassie is probably the one who responded to that in a matter of minutes. She works hard behind the scenes, but deserves an immense amount of credit. Seeing Cassie and Don gives me a strong motivation. Whatever those two are going to do, I would follow them to do it without question or doubt.
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Tame. We just had Phrom (Prom with a F sound) yesterday. What this means is we bought crazy outfits from all over the country and all wore them one night to go out for a bar crawl. Leo Lopez and I wore SDSU kids jerseys and the matching blue short shorts to accompany it. Others included a burning man hippie, denim diva, and soccer mom. We looked ridiculous out in public, but had so much fun. We might not be like past trips where we drink every night after the day is over, but we have fun on our rest days. Comparably, I can't say we aren't tame, but that doesn't make us straight edge folks. The non-biking stories I'll have from this trip will definitely make you disagree with the word tame.
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Athletic. False. Well... Maybe it's not completely false. Joe Letchford and Will Luck are two people who I wish I could be more like. They'll bike 90 miles and then workout on a jungle gym. Alex Webb and Brian Oliver are a different type of unreal. When they finish a day of bike riding, they often go out running. When I say running, I feel I undersell what they do. They'll go out for like 5 to 10 miles and run them at a pace that I would need to sprint to keep up with. I've heard of them running as fast as 5:40 miles. However, we have had many people who weren't cyclists before this trip. We are now fit, if we were not before. We are now cyclists, if we were not before. We are churning, bike pedaling machines.
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This trip has changed my life, but it's not the bike riding. The people are the true life changers. As always, thanks for reading this. However, I'm going to end this blog with a call to action. I've seen how much people can change lives or just motivate others to do good. Go out of your way to help others this week. It really feels good to help someone carry their groceries to their car or go out of your way to show someone else kindness. It's contagious. Until next time.