We have arrived in Auburn, AL!

Riders with Auburn University's President

    There’s nothing quite like going home—at least for me.  We started around nine o’clock this morning, and from the beginning, I was overcome with a calm I hadn’t felt in weeks.  The familiarity of the ride, the road, and the scenery all contributed to a peace that stayed with me all day.  As everyone probably knows by now, I’ve spent the last six years in Auburn, and I’ve lived in Phenix City for twenty years so today was a special day.  The best way to describe my mood was calm, anxious, excited, and relieved…silly, huh?  Yeah, I know.

Bill, a Auburn Alum, hiked up the University's sign

   First, I took Kyle to campus to meet and greet with the folks in my department; I’m trying to convince him to apply to graduate school.  We met the secretaries and ran into my advisor, Dr. Chris Rodger.  He was able to give Kyle some good advice, and we carried on.

 Bill enjoying some ice cream with blue and orange sprinkles     

My next stop was Samford Hall where the president of the University has his office.  I did some name-dropping, … mine…  to get him to take a photo with us outside the building.  It’s cool, we had met before, and he remembered me so hold that jealousy in check please.

Thanks Provinos for the amazing food!

        Some of my friends, Sean O’Reilly and Abbi Richt, joined us for lunch at Moe’s where I promptly offended them by not introducing them to my mother.  You’d figure that they would have met her already so they were ones being rude, right?  Everyone met my big brother Scotty as well, but don’t let big confuse you out there—he’s also my younger brother.  Just ask my dad how he likes to introduce us to people.  I’m the “little one.”

Some of the girls went out for a nice afternoon ride through Downtown Auburn

         Everyone did their own thing for a while, and then we watched a film on the Koinonia Farm based in Americus, GA.  For dinner we had some amazing Italian food from Provino’s.  Thanks to John for donating all that wonderful food to us.  Now, a few of my fellow riders were expecting a Chippendale’s show from me when I walked into the church with dinner, but I was sorry to inform them that I’m not that kind of guy.  However, I was kind enough to wear a makeshift bowtie behind my ear for dinner.

       Riding on Auburn's beautiful campus

     My older sister Sonja also made the trip to Auburn to hang out for the evening, and a few of the riders along with some more of my local friends, West Brown and O’Reilly, joined us at the Little Italy pizza parlor.  We had an exquisite time!!

       I’m afraid I’ve already put my foot in mouth enough, so I had better stop here.  I’ll write again later if my fellow riders can bring themselves to let me.

       Thanks to the Auburn United Methodist Church for letting us stay in their lovely church!!!

written by: Michael Tiemeyer

photos by: Esther Hyejin Chung