The entire ride was spent reminiscing about the past. The closer we got, the more excited we got, until we reached Freeburg, five miles away. Then we were silent. I'm not sure what Alex was thinking, but I slipped into a deep relection on my college years, what I've done since, and all the miles I've ridden to get to this point. Susquehanna is a small liberal arts college, in the small town of Selinsgrove, in the middle of nowhere. The college has one of the most beautiful campuses I've ever seen and the town rests along the Susquehanna river, nestled between the rolling mountains in the distance. At first glimpse, the area might seem to lack stimulation, but the thriving academic community, the picturesque surroundings, and the seemingly endless amounts of activity on campus, made my four years at Susquehanna, four of the best years of my life. Riding into Selinsgrove, then up the hill to Susquehanna, I felt blissfully nostalgic. Nothing had changed, but everything was different.

When we first got to campus, we parked our bikes by the student union, then walked around some of the buildings. Almost immediately, we headed to the new field house and the swimming pool where Alex and I both competed. We stood in the window overlooking the pool and made jokes about how "this is where it all happened." It still was the same, but the giant record board hanging from the rear of the natorium, no longer beared my name. My backstroke times had recently been replaced, however Alex never stopped reminding me that his name and his relay record still remained.

After the gym, we walked around some of the classroom buildings to visit our old professors. I ran into my old public speaking teacher, Kate Hastings, who was surprised to see me, to say the least. She then went on to tell me that she always remembers me for giving the worst speech she has ever heard. When I took her class, I had to give an informative speech using visual aides. Being of the mindset that I had in college, I decided to choose the topic "the five stages of intoxication." For my visual aides, I drew stick figures in ball point pen on little pieces of notebook paper. I viewed this as a creative outlet for my artistic abilities, she apparently viewed it as a lack of perparation and difficult to see from the back of the room. But in the end, I believe my approach was successful. It's nine years later, and she still remembers and talks about my speech.

From the communications building, Alex and I went to the Alumni office to have our pictures taken. Apparently many alumni come back to visit Susquehanna, but I'm the first to ride my bike there from Oregon. So we posed for the camera with our bikes in front of Siebert Hall, hopefully to be mentioned in the alumni newspaper. After taking pictures, we stopped by our old swim coaches office to say hello. Again, we were the first swimmers to ride our bikes back to Susquehanna to see him. Much to my enjoyment, in his office, in front of his desk, he had a picture of Lenny and me from our senior year. We had grown our hair long all season, so that when we shaved our heads for the conference championships, we each sported mohawks several inches high. We made the paper. Again, I was successful, nine years later and I'm still remembered.

After spending a few hours with our coach, it was time to go up to our old fraternity house. When we rode up to the house, one of the brothers was starting up the grill for a bar-b-que. We introduced ourselves and was then taken inside to be given a tour of the house. Terri, our cook, was still there, so it was great to see a familiar face. We chatted for a while, then went back outside where a group of brothers was gathering to find out who the alumni were who'd ridden there bikes across country. We sat around the grill, drank beers (it is a fraternity house after all) and told stories about days of old as well as heard about what's going on now. An hour later, Alex and I needed to get back on the road to ride to Bloomsburg. His parents were supposed to meet us for dinner. A few of the brothers offered to throw our bikes into the back of their pickup trucks and drive us where ever we wanted to go in the morning. It was tempting, very tempting, but we decided to keep moving.

As we were leaving, Alex wanted to get a picture by the front gates of the school. Fortunately, there was a woman standing there, so we asked her to be our photographer. Apparently, she was waiting for her husband and son, who were taking one last drive around the campus. Their son was a prospective student, so when they found out we were alumni, they wanted to ask us a few questions.

"When did you graduate?" the father asked from the driver's seat.

"'94," I said.

"'93," said Alex.

"What were your majors?" the man asked.

"I was political science, Dave was public relations," Alex responded.

"Did you ever use your majors?"

"No, I first went into advertising, then started working for an internet company," Alex said.

"I went back to school for Internet design and technology," I said.

"What do you do now?"

"Nothing, we're both unemployed," I cheerfully said.

"What are you going to do when you're done riding?"

"Haven't the slightest clue," Alex said.

"Did you like Susquehanna?"

"We loved it. It was awesome," I said. "If it weren't for Susquehanna, neither one of us would be here today. Susquehanna made this all possible." The woman then got in the car as it drove off before she could finish shutting her door.