An Early Homecoming

I'm writing this at 7:30am after very little sleep so you'll have to excuse almost everything after this line of text. If you're sitting there thinking I'm irresponsible for not getting enough sleep before a 70 mile day of riding, you might be right. But I'm also in Little Rock, Arkansas and it was worth giving up a couple hours of sleep for the best time I've had this trip thus far.

I can not talk about riding into Little Rock without mentioning a fun little story as we were riding in. As much as I'm sure you all want to read about the party that was waiting for us in Little Rock, right outside the city my family had already started hunting me down. When riding through Conway and Mayflower I was wondering if anyone in my family would actually attempt to try to find our route (which had not been made public and changed THAT MORNING). I wasn't surprised when flying down 365 we were flagged down by my aunt who just had to take pictures. She was pretty proud she actually found us and got to see us before everyone else. Also if you enjoy the most recent pictures of us riding in to Little Rock, those were taken by her and they are AWESOME.

Pulling into my Nana's driveway yesterday after a 60 mile day and the haunting hills of Little Rock never felt better. It was an early homecoming. My dad's family was sitting in the garage waiting for us and as soon as we rode up they were cheering and taking pictures like we were the Miami Heat. After laying down in the driveway due to lack of motivation to make it inside, my Uncle Jason showed up. Also, if you're trying to connect all the branches of my family tree, figure out which uncle is on which side, or anything close to that, give up now. You would have an easier time tap dancing on water. BACK TO THE POINT. As soon as Jason showed up he unloaded a truck full of roughly 100 pounds of shrimp (with the head), coolers, vegetables, a ton of boiling equipment and tables and chairs. We were setting up for quite the front yard party. Trust me, no one parties like this family. No one. We packed out my Nana's front yard in a residential neighborhood with around 40 people. Forget trying to get your car down the street because we had claimed all curbs as ours. For those of you reading this who did not get to experience the other worldly food that my uncle makes, I'm sorry. Really, I sincerely feel bad for you simply because your life is worse for it. These guys went all out, Jason's cooking, burgers from my Uncle Tom, SODA ON SODA ON SODA, cheese cake, fruit, pizza, it just keeps going (I even helped myself to half a package of oreos and a glass of milk before bed...don't judge me).

But after all the food, the chaos of kids running everywhere, the tickle fights with my little cousin, and the confusion over a couple t-shirts, it started to wind down. It all went by fast and I wasn't really able to spend quality time with any specific family member and that kinda sucks, but I can't wait to see most of them back in Georgetown (Some of them I'll even see in Tyler... I'm telling you they are hunting me down). It was a huge blessing to get to have my friends with my family. It was an even bigger blessing to see my family love them the way they love me. You can't feel like a stranger when you're there, it's impossible, no one will ever let that happen. But none of that is even the best part. This was...

Growing up I spent time with my mom's family and then I spent time with my dad's family. Never together. Not once. My best memory of both families was at my oldest brother's wedding three years ago. I hate splitting time and I always feel like one family is getting robbed. So yesterday's biggest blessing was having both crazy and total polar opposite families together in one front yard. Something that I'd like to think my mom would have loved more than I did.

After staying up late with my cousins (because let's be fair, they're my best friends and I was not letting sleep rob me of time with them) I woke up to make my morning cup of coffee and write this blog. Before the first pot was even done channel 7 news was at the door. The poor reporter stayed with us all morning as we ate, got our bikes ready, and patiently awaited Grandpa Evan to get all his stuff ready to leave. Then we were off.

If you want to hear more about the interview and the tv stuff you aren't going to see it here. If you're in Arkansas and got to see it I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, because it was a fun interview on both channel 7 and 11 (who hunted us down on our ride). If video comes online I'll be sure to share it but it's all things you already know and this journey and this organization isn't about the interviews or my time spent in front of a camera so I don't want to make it about that. I love doing it because people get to learn about us and I will do every interview that anyone wants to do and I am SO blessed to have a family that set both of those up for us before we left. You guys are my biggest fans and foam fingers are coming soon. But I want to continue to challenge you and push your focus on the mission, to love and serve people. In our case, these people are specifically impacted by financial struggles that are a result of having cancer. So be encouraged to love and serve them, not to be inspired by a feeling of a kid who lost his mom two years ago. Six more days. We're close.