Day 41: Leaving Harrisburg

Today I finally get to meet the Cheshire family! I've really been looking forward to this moment. Camden Cheshire was born with a congenital heart defect very close to mine and today I'll be meeting him and his older brother Colin.

First, I get to ride with his dad, Devon. Devon and Patty Cheshire left the Philadelphia area at a crazy hour in the morning to get a 7am start with me in Harrisburg.

Denise and I meet Devon and Patty at Holmes Cycling. They are great!

Devon and I head out. It's going to be another warm day.

Riding with Devon is fun. He is keeping a great pace and when he is struggling his dialogue makes me laugh out loud.

We ride about 90 miles today and reach the Wayne Art Center. Patty, Camden, and Colin are waiting for us there.

We go to the Cheshire house. When we get there the boys want to take us up to their tree house and show us something. Camden and Colin have made the tree house into a jungle theme. The whole floor is covered with grass. Denise and I go up into the tree house and find that the boys have gifts for us. They are Cheshire chests. As I understand, the Cheshire chests are given out one time a year. This year they are given to Denise and I. We are honored.

It's time for the meet and greet. I'm extremely excited because this is going to be our biggest meet and greet.

At the meet and greet are many great people. Among those great people, there are four individuals who would like to sign my bike. These four individuals are Matt, Lily, Andrew, and Aaron. Aaron has Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome. He will have surgery in August. If you would like to follow his progress this is his care page. Lily was born with Transposition of the Greater Arteries. Lily's mom has a blog that you can follow. The meet and greet is refreshing. I'm glad to meet everyone.

Here is news footage from the meet and greet.


We end the night with Camden singing "You'll Be in My Heart". I'm amazed that he know all the words to this song. He learned the song so he could sing it for little Lily.