ACE American Fellowship Tour

Appropriately, as we finish the Tour and take some time for relaxation, I found inspiration in Our Lady's message from Medjugorje for July 25:

"Dear children! At this time, do not only think of rest for your body but, little children, seek time also for the soul. In silence may the Holy Spirit speak to you and permit Him to convert and change you. I am with you and before God I intercede for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call."

This is my last chance to give you some insight into the last few weeks of the trip. Photography is not nearly as witty as Nick W's writing, but it tells a great story. If you want ALL 1600 pictures - talk to a rider!

KFFH

Tony!


Leaving from Rob Smith's grandparents' place in Essex Fells, NJ. Thanks, Rob!


Nick 1!


Nathan shows off his diving moves.


Nick Huck stays hydrated in style.


Karl surprises the riders at mile 40 with McDonalds... a true 'Power Breakfast.'


Nathan and Mrs. O'Connor after arriving in NYC.


R&R in Upstate NY.


The Madison girls.


Liz shows off HER moves.


Mary.


Chelsea tries to find her prince.


Nick Huck looking sharp (from Cleveland)!


The Kenney's pond (Toledo).


The Cleveland crew - #1.


The rider girls.


Graduates - at last.


The Cleveland crew - #2.


Arrival at ND.

We've finally made it to New York but let me update you on our week before New York.

After leaving Cleveland with a healthy Nick Huck, we rode to Erie, PA through some horrendous storms. At first we were like little kids, enjoying playing in the rain but when we consistently had to look for roads that weren't flooded and could only see 20 yards ahead of us, we knew it was better not to fight the weather. We stayed with some wonderfully hospitible Notre Dame loving Pennsylvanians.

After Erie we headed into the "land of endless mountains" which has more highs and lows than a high school drama queen. Fortunately PA might have been one of the most beautiful states we rode through with the amazing outlooks into misty valleys and fields of wildflowers. Decisively the most demanding day of the trip, we rode 113 miles to Scranton on Wed. Here we were greeted by the O'Connor and Huck parents who prepared a fantastic dinner with some of the finest PA Dutch Shoo-fly pie.

Thursday we headed to Essex Fells, NJ and stayed with Rob Smith's grandparents. It was exciting seeing Rob Smith since he was there for the onset of our trip in LA and now here at the end. Thanks, Rob Smith, the alpha and omega.

Friday morning we saw Regis' shout-out to ICE, I mean ACE, on his show. Not that we were counting but we were the first applause of the show and received three applauses. Fired up, we began our final ride into NY. After some interesting and community building events that summarized our trip well (you'll have to ask a rider for the real story), we were greeted by the O'Connor clan, Momma Huck, some ACE classmates and other ND bike loving people. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us!

We spent Friday night with at an ACE classmates' house just north of the Big Apple. They have been overly generous to us. We ask to help with dinner and hear, "You just biked across the country. Relax." (Siblings, remember that when we get home.) After a delicious NY strip dinner, we visited a local establishment. Since we only rode 17 miles, our bodies had an extra 60 miles of energy. We promptly lost all this at a dance party at the back of the bar. Tony proceeded to give dance lessons to the locals as song after song bellowed from the juke-box machine. He then broke their hearts when he told them he was headed to the Dominicans.

We'll spend the next few days relaxing at the Madison house before we head our separate ways.

Thanks to everyone who read the blog over the past 2 months. Furthermore, thanks for all your support and prayers. Our trip could not have been as exciting nor as complete without your help.

Our current plan is to bike into the southern end of Manhattan, specifically Battery Park, at 11 am on Friday morning. This will be the culmination of our biking experience. Therefore, we would love to see anyone who is available at Battery Park on Friday in order to help us celebrate the success of our trip!!

More to come...

Dear friends -

I was extremely excited about the possibility of posting numerous pictures for your perusal, but all efforts have failed... I blame the Internet. Picture in your own mind:

1) Eight riders on bikes in front of Notre Dame's Main Building steps!
2) Eight riders in caps, gowns and hoods at commencement!
3) Nathan and Chelsea canoeing in the Kenney's pond while Nick Huck swims!
4) Nick Huck in a hospital gown!
5) All the riders and our host families from Cleveland watching the sunset over Lake Erie!

I hope you enjoyed that to the same degree that I am frustrated!

After arriving in NYC on Friday, we will travel to the Madison residence upstate on Saturday for relaxation and celebration. Some have asked for the address there. It is:

The Cool Kids
135 W. State St.
Dolgeville, NY 13329

Somewhere in the middle of PA, I remain,
KFFH

Well, friends, thank you for your prayers - Huckles is going to be just fine. He was discharged from the hospital today, and the doctors said that while some parts of his heart are larger than normal, he was labeled "healthy" and given no restrictions, which means he will resume biking on Sunday or Monday. The doctors didn't really have a great explanation as to why they admitted Nick and then less than 24 hours later said he was fine, only saying that there's nothing wrong with him, even though his heart might be misshapen.

We have done a lot of worrying and praying here in Cleveland (where we've been in a holding pattern of sorts), and when I got up this morning I called Huck to see how he was doing. He told me he was doing so well that he was in the process of being discharged, which left me feeling like I was Kenickie yelling at Rizzo on the Ferris wheel at the end of Grease and being told in response, "It was a false alarm!"

By the way, if you're one of the 30 people in America who haven't seen Grease and therefore don't understand the reference - do yourself a favor and rent the thing TONIGHT. It's one of the only musicals I'll watch, and it's pretty stellar. If you're under the age of 18, please ask your parents first or I might get in trouble.

So we had an extra day in Cleveland, and we used this time for various things. Tony and I did pretty much nothing all day while Karl, Chelsea, and Nate went to Mass and then did a 40-mile bike ride. Mary and Liz went on a ride later in the day, too, but only after they'd had plenty of time to sit around and be lazy first. Huck spent most of his day at the hospital as you already know, but what's remarkable is what he did afterwards. He spent the rest of today ordering people around. A sample from a cell phone conversation...
Huck (incensed and yelling): "Karl - make me a plate of food NOW!"
Karl (confused): "Nick, I'm on a bike ride right now. I can't."
Huck (much calmer): "Karl, I have a serious medical condition, and can't be expected to be making my own food-plates. Now get over here because my tummy is growling."

Tomorrow we will be back on the road, headed for Erie. Once we get there we will update with pictures and a couple more in-depth stories about the Pippins and Pillaris, to whom we are indebted for life (they've put up with us for almost 3 days!). For now, I want to thank them via the blog for their warm and spontaneous generosity. They have been incredibly giving of their homes and of themselves at a time when we really needed it.

Thanks for the comments today, the phone calls of concern about Huckles, and, as always, all of your prayers. Expect to hear from us again soon!

Friends, thank you all for your continued prayers. Lately, we have received a lot of sad news involving motor vehicle accidents. My sister's friend from Aurora, Illinois was killed in a car accident, and Tony Hollowell's boxing friend from Notre Dame, Shawn Newburg, died as a result of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident last week. We on the Tour ask that you also keep their families and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

It's incredibly humbling to think of how God has blessed our bike trip, in light of those horrible tragedies, because we haven't suffered any major injuries.
Tonight, however, I wanted to update you all on the condition of Nick Huck. Starting Wednesday afternoon, for about 24 hours, Nick experienced some severe chest pains and this afternoon went to a Cleveland hospital to get it checked out. The doctors there took tests and x-rays, and eventually noticed that his heart was abnormally large.
Thankfully, that's the only bad news for now, although I'm sure you could very fittingly include a bad joke about how "I've always known Nick Huck had a big heart!". That would be true, and we all love that goofy dude for his generosity and kindness.

When we got the news, the rest of us were at dinner with the Pillari and Pippin families (whom we have gotten to know as a result of our two days in Cleveland - more on them in tomorrow's post), and we all had the same reaction:
"What?! That's terrible, and very sad.... Hang on, what exactly does it mean to have an enlarged heart?"
That's about as far as we've gotten in terms of medical updates; we still don't know WHY he has an oversized heart. The hospital is keeping Nick overnight, and he's feeling better at the moment. We hope to get a complete diagnosis tomorrow.

After dinner, the entire group of us visited Nick (and Liz, who was with Nick throughout the day - go figure). As soon as we arrived, Tony and I had an hour-long consult with the medical staff. As a result of our repeated viewings of the hit TV drama, House, M.D., we felt especially qualified to offer some differential diagnoses. Once the staff assured us that they would do an hourly room-sweep for werewolves and vampires (Tony's request) and that they didn't need to use "those electric paddle thingies" (my suggestion), we felt pretty safe leaving our beloved Huckles in their care.

After that, we played Scategories in Nick's hospital room for about 2 hours. It got a little out of hand, especially because Karl is fairly authoritarian when it comes to the rules. He was holding Chelsea against the wall by her neck, screaming that "Bunnies" is not an acceptable answer for "Things you'd find in a car" when some workers threatened to kick us out. Thanks to some smart thinking by Mike Pippin (a 2006 grad of Marquette and a real smooth operator), we bribed the entire floor of nurses and orderlies with ice cream and they let us stay a little later than usual.

We will most certainly post again tomorrow and update about Nick's condition, but for now, we're going to sit tight in Cleveland. Our plan is to stay one more full day here. Some of us may do some riding around the city (and I'd like to check out the Rock & Roll HOF tomorrow), but nothing major. God willing, we will embark for Erie a day later than we'd planned and we won't even be off-track in terms of our overall ending date of July 28th.
Also tomorrow, we will try to post some pictures, and I will tell you about a great day we had in Cleveland (before Nick's hospital visit) to a couple area schools and an IN-DEPTH interview with a local newspaper.

Please pray for Nick Huck, and all of our friends and family who are dealing with tragedies right now. And as always, thanks for checking in on us!

- Nick 1

Let me tell you something - if you have never approached the steps of the Main Building on Notre Dame's campus, with more than a hundred friends and fans cheering you on, then you better put it on your "To-do" list immediately.
Seriously, a week ago, we eight riders lived out one of the greatest personal highlights of our lives when we did just that. To everyone who ventured out on that miserably rainy day, THANK YOU. You made us feel SO special, and the entire trip was worth that one moment. We riders remind ourselves quite often that we're riding for ACE schools and to promote our program and so on, but let's be honest - a little personal glory for what we're doing is pretty hot. I mean, if people like William Hung and Richard Simmons can become famous for being singing, dancing idiots, a cheering section for our ride onto campus is definitely warranted.

Since the last post, we enjoyed our ACE graduation with an eventful five days of no riding. This crazy week included such moments as Tony Hollowell making famous the title of Nick Huck's favorite movie of all-time, Bring It On (that's what you were going for, wasn't it, Tone?), Chelsea Madison starring as the Most-Attractive-ACE-Graduation-Mass-Cantor in the program's history, and the eight of us somehow emerging from the frenzied weekend's festivities with a cool Master's degree. In the midst of all that, we had a wonderful time with our friends and family, got our bikes tuned up, and sweated more at the Backer and the Library than we did on any day of Tour riding so far.
There are many specific "Thank You's" that we would like to dole out, so we will wait for another post for that. Our first three days back on the bikes have beenjam-packed with happenings, so I thought I would give a summary. Here goes....

We bunked at Moreau Seminary the night after our graduation (thanks to the IEI and especially Jared "The Diesel" Dees for setting that up), and left the next morning. Mary was lucky enough to have her parents and friends see her off that morning. She must have still been reeling from the emotion of that encounter (or something else), because she managed to get lost in the first hour of our ride. Friends, when I say lost, I mean horribly lost. After 11 phone calls and a quick search party by the Elkhart Police Department, we located her and were back on our way. The ride that day was fairly easy, and we coasted into an area near Angola, IN, for the night. Chelsea, all the while, had fallen victim to yet another illness - this one food poisoning from Sunday night dinner at the Olive Garden. (Insert "That's-what-you-get-for-being-a-weird-vegetarian" joke here) . She is still getting over it, but she was thankfully able to ride both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Speaking of Tuesday, we rode all the way to Toledo, Ohio. Who's in Toledo? Only the Reed and Kenney families! These are wonderful, big families with whom we had LOTS of fun. A couple of finer points to mention about these people:
1) Bridget Reed = FANTASTIC diver. I mean, this girl is GOOD. I see Olympics in her future, as long as the IOC finds a place for the "Watermelon" and Lemon Drop" dives, which are probably my favorites.
2) Both families rolled out some amazing food, and we pigged out everywhere we went.
3) The Kenneys have a giant frog with a cape and a crown in their yard. I never got the story on that, but it was terribly intriguing and I wanted to share. Why didn't I get to ask about the frog? I was too busy because...
4) Mary Kenney is a great soccer player, but is also a devious trickster. While she and I were passing a ball around her yard, she managed to place a ball near the edge of the Kenneys' pond. Running, trying to retrieve the ball, I slipped and soiled my clothes in the pond and surrounding mud, leading to a lengthy ordeal of getting new clothes and showering. In the meantime, the rest of the riders had a ball jumping into the pond and horsing around, although some were less-willing participants than others....
5) The Reedlings are amazing kids (A-Dog, Pat, and Alex are my boys), and they gave Tony Hollowell a chance to show once again that he is really just a demented six year-old at heart. I have already sent the Dominicans a letter, suggesting that they give him a very thorough psychological evaluation before admitting him into the novitiate, or at least buy a swingset and sandbox for the backyard of the seminary.

On to the most ridiculous and saddest occurrance of the past few days, which I recount as second-hand information because I didn't witness it myself. Tuesday was my driving day and I was not near the riders when this happened:
Taking a break at one point, most of the riders gathered on a wide highway shoulder across the street from a big Indiana farmhouse. A few minutes into their stop, a cat wandered away from the farm property towards the riders. In the process, it attempted to cross the road, where it was promptly hit by a passing car. It flopped and spun around a few times before being hit a SECOND time by another car. At this point the cat, whose slim chances of survival from the initial impact were dashed by the second car, breathed its last and fell into a series of bodily twitches, as dying cats are apt to do.

A woman now came stomping from the house out to the street. She picked up the now-dead kitty and identified it positively as her own, to nobody in particular. She turned to go back inside with the cat when she was overcome with the emotion of the event. Yelling at someone inside the house, she loudly proclaimed, "This was my favorite cat, and the only reason it's dead is because those bikers were across the street and the cat wanted to see 'em."
From a specifically biological standpoint, there is only limited scientific evidence of a cat's inherent curiosity as a genetic trait*. Regardless, this woman clearly pinned the blame for the death of her cat on the shoulders of the ACE riders. The riders were able to continue on with their ride, but the debate continues to rage in rural northeastern Indiana - "Did curiosity really kill this poor kitten, or was it the cruel scheming of some bored and slap-happy ACE bike riders?"

*See Pascagoula, Mississippi's Resurrection High School for more information. The 2006 school-wide Science Fair included a fascinating and convincing research project entitled "Are Cats Curious?" by one of Tony Hollowell's students. Ask Tony for more details.

Finally, today we rode an insane 120 miles from Toledo to Cleveland. It's the longest day we've had all summer but I'm happy to report that everyone rode the entire way with very little crying or whining. (Ok, that last part's not true). All told, Nate Patla has ridden over 250 miles in the past two days (that IS true).
We're in Cleveland for two nights because tomorrow, instead of riding, we will be visiting some Catholic schools in the area and meeting with some of their administrators and teachers. We're also not riding tomorrow because I threatened to kick Tony in the throat if I had to so much as LOOK at my bike tomorrow. More on Cleveland to come, as well as some more great stories.

Thanks for checking in on us, and please keep us in your prayers!