Looks like we made it – By Ivan Cunningham

We made it to the Big Easy (twice, for myself and Aaron)!

We ended up leaving the Aldergate United Methodist volunteer housing late this morning, deciding to wait for some pretty fierce-looking weather to pass before heading out; as it was only a 40-mile day, we weren’t too concerned about getting an early start. Once we set out, the ride was pretty smooth sailing, especially with two of us already knowing most of the route, though Colleen did get a flat early on and Chris went a couple miles in wrong direction (sorry, Chris). The team came back together at the first rest stop of the day, as per usual, and then Aaron and I announced that we were going to make another stop a few miles down the road at a Vietnamese cafe, that we’d stopped at the day before with Brett, to get some delicious boba smoothies. About half of us opted to stop for smoothies, while the rest continued on to the Mennonite Disaster Services volunteer housing where Tamara Danel had jambalaya waiting for us.

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As the smoothie group got farther into the city, we missed a turn with no street sign and we ended up going several blocks past where we were supposed to turn before stopping to ask for directions. Once we got a couple landmarks from a local, we were good to go and had no problems finding our host site. All of us were incredibly excited to find that we would have beds to sleep in for the weekend! Beds for four days in a row?! We must’ve done something right along the way…

I went on the first 10 days of last year’s FCBA and knew that I had to come back this year for the whole thing. It’s hard to believe that we started in Niagara Falls just seven weeks ago, that we’ve ridden 2,500 miles to arrive here in NOLA, and that the trip is almost at an end. The entire journey has been an amazing experience–all the people we’ve met, lives we’ve touched, connections we’ve made and seeds we’ve planted–and it has, without a doubt, been an Adventure. Preparing to leave my fellow riders, my newfound brothers and sisters, in just a few days is certainly bittersweet: while I’m excited to be going home (to my friends, pets, bed and roommate) to start a new semester and get more involved with my campus Habitat chapter and local Fuller Center Covenant Partner, I’m also going to miss all those who I’ve had the honor of riding and sharing my life with this summer. (Though I’m sure I’ll see them all again, it won’t be soon enough).

We’re trying hard to reach our $250,000 goal–can you donate $10, $100 or any amount of money?