Day 6...food, food, food!

Today is our first Service Day!! WOO! Service days are our day off from riding when we help the community we are currently staying in. Today half of our group went to help do some construction on a deck of some sort, while the rest of us went to look for food donations for lunch. The Ithaca Fest started today which was so much to go to and walk around and ask for donations. I got a donation from a local Starbucks as well as a Pizza store for lunch. Other groups members got some wings and burritos donated which made our tummies happy for lunch. I made friends with a vendor in the festival who was selling hot dogs. His name was Sam and he was kind enough to donate some hot dogs to us for dinner. After we ate lunch we decided to go to some beautiful waterfalls nearby. I wore my vibrams (toeshoes) which was the BEST decision of the day. First, we admired the waterfall from the sightseeing deck that was about eye level to the falls. Then, we went down a trail to the bottom where we jumped off the trail and walked beside and sometimes in the water upstream. With the vibrams I did not slip of fall with my new camera, thank goodness! I got some great pictures and some overdue adventure in those few hours. As we were walking back to the van a young man named Mike drove an hour to meet us and give us a $200 donation that he raised himself to support our cause. What a generous and kind man! By the time we got back to the YMCA it was time to look for more food donations for dinner. Me and three other group members went and did not have good luck at first. When 8:30 rolled around all we had were 12 hotdogs, a bag of bagels, and a bag of rolls for 30 hungry bikers. Thankfully we got to the Ithaca Fest right when they were closing down so at least 6 stands gave us their leftover food from the day. WE HAD A FEAST tonight! Ugh food has never tasted better before this trip.