WE MADE IT! We all arrived, safe and sound. What an exhilarating trip. From Joyce’s gourmet breakfast to our interviews with a national program for PBS, to the heroes’ welcome at Gallaudet, it’s definitely a day I will never forget.

We started the day with lots of coffee and animated conversation with Joyce and Dave over a breakfast of eggs benedict, asparagus and hollandaise sauce (I had seconds). Jess and Hannah soon arrived and gradually we made our way over to the Café 107, where we met with some local high school students on their lunch break. After hugs and pictures, Joyce took off in her Chevy Volt and we got back on the bikes.
It was an easy ride down to the tow path, and for the next four hours or so we rode along and enjoyed the scenery. I was particularly delighted when, just around the stunning Great Falls of the Potomac, my old friend from high school Bill Luecke showed up. Bill is a materials engineer with the National Bureau of Standards and something of a biking fanatic. We caught up on each others’ lives (after probably 25 years) while riding along with the crew – oh, and the blue herons, turtles, vultures and lots of gnats that accompanied our ride.

In between riding and talking with Bill, I was also on the phone, trying to arrange our meet up with the camera crew from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, a PBS production. They were doing a piece on Sally Bingham, the founder of Interfaith Power & Light, and got wind of our tour. Much to our delight (and the camera crew’s dismay), the cherry blossoms were in full, glorious bloom. This meant that traffic was snarled, and (after a few missteps) we finally found one another at the Jefferson memorial.


Jon
(Andy, Dave, Hannah, Jess, and Ray)