SC Ride4Life 2015

Happy Friday, y’all! For the first time in weeks months, I am completely caught up on my Bloglovin feed! Now, if I could just figure out how to stay caught up on my own blog as well, I’d be good. I should be getting back into the swing of things soon, since 95% of the construction on our kitchen is done. Fingers crossed on that one though.

So, I blinked and the SC Ride4Life 2015 is over. Every year, I walk away thinking “this is the best group I’ve ever supported”. Eventually, they are gonna get hard to top, right? Well, this year is definitely one for the books because our group was tested over and over again. We had seven flat tires, which is not normal. One or two, maybe, but seven??? On top of that we had bike issues, a couple wrong turns {by us and the riders} and two crashes. I do believe that our group passed the test though because they took each blow {pun intended} with grace and finished each day with great attitudes. I’m sure we will remember this year as the year of flats but what sticks out most to me is how much of a joy our group was to be around in the midst of two long, hot, exhausting days {the first day we had zero problems}. We went through a lot of chicken salad and Gatorade, a ton of ice, and about 25 jugs of water and after almost 300 miles, our riders made it to Mt. Pleasant all in one piece. For the most part.

The only time you’ll see me this close to someone in a costume is when my husband gets drafted to be the cow. Perks of your father-in-law working at Chick-Fil-A.

By far, my favorite picture of the entire weekend, blurry and all.

Just a few of my best frans.

We finished the first day, trouble free, in Edgefield, SC.

One of the best parts about doing support is always the new people you get meet and the relationships that are formed in a short three-day period. But this year, it went a little further than supporting our guys on just the bike. Cory and I were able to get to know our group on a more personal level and that will always mean more to us than refilling water bottles. 

On the right is Patrick {who’s been in our group for the last three years} with his pastor, John. We had the privilege of taking John to his father’s grave Thursday after dinner and got to tour the most perfect, white steeple church I’ve ever seen. 

We listened to stories about a man we never met and couldn’t help but be touched by the life he lived. This church was very meaningful to John’s father- he was born in Edgefield, accepted Christ as his Savior and received his calling here, and eventually pastored for a time here. so it was only fitting that he came “home” and be buried here.

We were so fortunate to get to hear stories about John as a child at this church and you just couldn’t help but be entertained by his enthusiasm for the words he was sharing.

The church was established in 1789 and had a yard full of children participating in Bible school when we pulled up. It was seriously like something you would see in a movie. 

Isn’t it just picturesque? We were so honored to spend the evening with these guys!

Friday morning came early, especially since we were up late the night before cutting cantaloupe and mixing Gatorade.

After Cory prayed over the riders, they hit the road at 6:30am!

Before our first stop, we had already lost our riders but little did we know the day we were fixing to have.

If I had to just pick one picture to sum up our group, this would be it. On the side of the road, changing a flat tire.

Racing to each city limit sign is a tradition, but I’m not sure it was any race. Patrick got every single one. I think the rest of the group just stopped even trying {if they even ever started}.

Four flat tires later, we are still getting thumbs up.

This church was actually called Cotton Gin Church. Cory was in love.

We may have been the last group in, but we made it to St. George, SC!

After dinner, the preacher of the church that fed us took us to the Indian Fields Methodist Campground. We went last year as well {our route the first two days was the same as last year} but Cory wasn’t going to miss the chance to see it again.

Our final day started, again, early. Wheels were on the ground by 6:20am.

Love this goofy group of ours!

Much like day two, everything went south after this stop with a broken spoke, multiple flat tires {again!} and a wrong turn for for us. But the first 30 miles were smooth sailing riding!

We ended up following our group into the park where we finished the ride so I got absolutely zero pictures of them finishing the ride! Normally, I would have tried to get ahead of them but couldn’t because of the road we were on.

BUT we did, in fact, all make it. I won’t say in one piece because we had a couple crashes over the course of the weekend, but we made it!

#PraiseJesus

Something I wasn’t 100% sure would happen about lunch time on day 2. What could have easily been a very frustrating, “I’m never doing this again” kind of weekend wasn’t. Cory and I still had a great time supporting these guys which speaks as a true testament as to the type of guys we support. I’ve said it before but it takes a special person to ride 300 miles on a bicycle without any other incentive than to save the life of an unborn child. And for that alone, I will support these guys as long as they are willing to ride because one child is too many.

Hopefully, Mom and Dad will be able to join us again next year because they were surely missed! Cory did a wonderful job filling in for mom but it’s just not the same without my family. What a blessing this ride is to us!

You can see past SC Ride4Life’s here and here.