Friday, August 8: Cannon Beach, Oregon.

This is unreal.

As I pedaled behind thirty of my peers and beside two of my best friends, all that I could think is that this is completely unreal.  Seventy something days ago (I still can't get any of the numbers right), we dipped our tires into the Atlantic Ocean and left the East Coat.  We spent sixty something days chasing the sunsets. We spent eleven days working in the communities we passed through and learning about affordable housing across the country.  We spent three days playing, and laughing, and resting (and skydiving).  And now we had, almost, reached our goal.

This morning, no one had their bin out on time.  The same group that had to sit around, get coffee, and waste time so that we wouldn't beat our loved ones to tire dip on day one on Virginia Beach was pretty much all still asleep when bins out time rolled around.  We took our time getting ready, eating breakfast, and enjoying each other's company.  We turned on music and had an entire team cuddle puddle before breakfast.  Even after our final route meeting, more than half the team spent an hour at a local coffee shop.  This morning could not be long enough, because this afternoon we end our trip.

Eventually I hit the road with Jay, Joyce, and Hannah.  Then I got a flat. Then Hannah got a flat.  Then we were pressed for time.

I met up with Dan at the top of the first real climb and he rode with me through our final climbs.   We watched as our teammates made it to an overlook where we all got our first glimpse of the Pacific. Drew's was by far the most memorable.

1.5 miles from our parents and friends, we gathered in a parking lot for some final moments together.  The five of us said a few words, Natalie made everyone cry, and then we packed up and rode in the largest group ever to the beach.  While we normally ride in groups of 2-6, we now were riding in a giant group of 33.  People passing by and the people we passed cheered for us and looked at us like we were idiots.  Some riders yelled jokingly up to the front "Joey, don't drop me!"  Peter led us with his American flag.  Jay, Dan, and I sat in the back and watched in awe as we realized what we had just done.

A few days ago, in Fossil, a community member asked a simple question after the dinner presentation.  "You have 33 now, did you start with 33? Because some groups don't always finish with everyone."  She didn't intend for this to be an aha moment of any kind. I'm sure she was innocently curious about how hard we had pushed each other and how hard everyone had worked to get there. In that moment, I realized how thankful I was for how smoothly the summer had gone.  I realized what an accomplishment it was to have all 33 of us there.  I realized that few things mattered besides the fact that in a few days, I would be in the ocean with the same 32 people that I met in Virginia Beach.

Today, all that matters is that 32 other people made it to the Pacific.  There were many times on this trip where I felt like a failure. As a leader. As a rider. As a person.  I failed as many times as I succeeded.  As I stood on the beach, I knew that, and it made it hard for me to want to celebrate.  It was also hard to celebrate knowing that this accomplishment also meant that this was where we ended our adventure.  I finally could breathe and I finally could celebrate when a few folks reminded me of the simple fact that all that mattered was the 33 people freezing and soaking wet in Pacific Ocean water and champagne.

I also finally celebrated when we turned on some music and danced.
(Playlist: love on top- beyonce, my body- young the giant, all these things that I have done- the killers).

In the evening, we gathered at a park with visiting family and friends.  We put on a final dinner presentation to our parents. We went to the beach and watched the sunset. And we sat by a fire (I accidentally slept a lot by the fire) and refused to leave until late in the night.
If this summer had been a movie, sitting by the fire would have been the perfect end scene with dramatic music playing in the background while this rag tag group of people who had grown and matured and found something laughed carelessly and leaned on each other as the fire light cast odd shaped shadows on the dunes behind them. But this isn't a movie, it's simply a moment that closed another chapter of this continuing story that began in Virginia Beach.

Carlton to Tilamook

Severely delayed post due to final days business and blues. Apologies.

Today was actually one of my top ten favorite rides of the trip. We split into groups as usual and headed off on what we knew was a climby first half of the day.  Within the first 8 miles, all of the groups had somewhat dissipated into one giant stretch of riders climbing together.  After the majority of the climbing was done, I passed up a few groups until I could see Em's red helmet in the distance and decided that catching her would be my goal.  I rode alongside Natalie for a bit and laughed at her awe of the greenish-grey ocean of trees that surrounded us.

When we got to lunch, there was a pretty nice creek or river or something that we could climb down to.  Eventually, the majority of the team had jumped in and then found a sunny rock to sit on.  It seemed that everyone was going to stay at lunch forever and just lay silently in each other's presence.  There was an unspoken agreement that we wouldn't mention that this is our last lunch together, and that we wouldn't mention that this was our last full day of just us together, and that we would just sit in awe of the beauty that we were experiencing right then and that we had experienced all summer.  Apologies for the run-on sentence, but it was a run-on moment.

Eventually we left the waterside and I continued riding with Drew, Dan, and Aaron.  A few miles in, we stopped to join Sam while he changed his tire. Sam's tire had blown hours ago, however no one except for Dan and sweep carries an extra tire, so Sam had been stuck there all day waiting.  He might have been slightly aggravated, but at least he got to use a cool American themed tire... By the time he finished changing his tire, we had also added Natalie to the group.  We continued on toward the host until we saw directions to some cool falls and decided to head that way.  Then Dan had some issues with his chain.  Then I got a flat.  Finally, Sam had had enough so Dan, Sam, and I gave up on the falls and went onward to the host.

In the evening, we gathered to read our final snaps and to give out paper plate awards.  Each of us drew a random teammates name to create their paper plate award.  I had chosen Aaron's name and decided to give him the "Type A-Aron award" in honor of his networking skillz, his numerous detail oriented questions, and as a ironic note of his completely opposite of Type A organizational skills.  Many times throughout the trip, Aaron would try to bust it to get to host early so that he could meet with some random contact in that city.  I spent a lot of the afternoon trying to find a set of lost keys that he carried with him in order to tape it to the paper plate in honor of a long and drawn out prank that some teammates had played on him.  In Jackson, Aaron had ridden up early and then rented a car for some exploring.  Later, Jay found some keys on the side of the road and hid them in Aaron's bag to convince him that he had forgotten to turn them into the rental company.  Later, Aaron was determined to find the owner of the keys.  He even passed them around town hall.  He never found the owner. He never learned it was Jay. Unless he's reading this now. Hi Aaron.

Joey had drawn my name.  He turned on "Love on Top" while he presented the award for Beyonce's biggest fan.  I'm a pretty big fan of bumpin to some Beyonce in the mornings, and I guess this was a noteable characteristic.  Woot!

Had our last meeting as a full leadership team to discuss the logistics of getting to our final destination (eek).  Went to get groceries with Jay and Natalie.  Went with the majority of the team to some random bar to play cards against humanity.  All in all, a wonderful last night together as just CUS.  Days like today will be sorely missed.

Portland to Carlton

The ride to Carlton is only 40ish miles, so everyone spent most of the morning exploring Portland. My group rode excitedly into downtown yelling and such in excitement as we're so close and as we're in such a cool city. We went to Voodoo Donuts, where the entire team eventually ended up, and then went to explore Powell's books. 'Twas a fun time, but after 2 days off the bike I was really anxious to just ride. Eventually, Jay, Blythe, and Soko were ready to ride out of town. 

There were tons of rolling, deep hills and even more traffic. The change of scenery from riding on sleepy country roads to riding alongside tons of cars was refreshing. About a mile before lunch, I got a flat, but pumped it just enough to get to lunch before changing the tube out. Hung around at lunch for a while as Dan was lacking a phone and we were trying to figure out how to pick up Natalie from Portland to join us for the last few days. Then continued on to finish the ride and then kept going a bit. While I was riding back into Carlton from the opposite direction, I ran into my parents who were on their way to Cannon Beach for a few days before we arrive. They had told me they weren't coming through the same way as us, so it was a nice surprise to see them. They met some of the team and hung out for about a half an hour before heading on. 

After the parental a left, Dan showed up with Natalie. Much anticipated. Excited she's back with us. 

We went to the park to eat dinner and have our final townhall.  During townhall we were entertained by a nearby aqua aerobics class. Woot. 

Returned to host for warm clothes. Walked around/hung out in town. Layed in the host parking lot a bit chatting. End. 

Maupin to Portland

Woke up super early to the best host breakfast a gal could ever ask for (all the fixins for breakfast burritos). 'Twas my final van day, and it was bound to be a doozy, but ended up being a really good day. The entire first 50 miles was mostly climbing, so I set up first lunch and waited, and waited, and waited.  It was a really nice morning and we were set up right next to a campsite, so it was the ideal place to read and drink coffee as we're so close to the end of the trip that I had very little actual work that I could be doing.  I finished the book I had been reading for most of the trip, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, which Natalie had recommended.  Things I don't recommend: finishing the book at the same time as finishing a cross country bicycling trip.  There are words. There are feelings.

When people started showing up to lunch, I got a call from sweep and learned that neither of them carried a pump with them (and had gotten a flat), so I drove back to mile 17 blasting some music and watched the riders look scared and confused as I passed them in the other direction.  Eventually, I made it back to lunch where many of the riders had befriended a guy hiking the PCT.  They continued to leave their trash everywhere and continue on their ride, but I had plenty of time to clean before sweep got in, and then we spent lots of time chillin.

Eventually, sweep moved on and so did I. Set up second lunch, and hardly any of the riders stopped there.  I thought I would be in and out until sweep arrived and ate an entire bag of marshmallow mateys.  We, again, hung out and not quite chilled in the shade until a late hour.  Then we continued on into Portland.  Explored town while picking up loads of donated burritos from Chipotle.  Went back to host for dinner.  Explored town with some folks. When I returned to the host late in the night, I finally saw the magic bus that Dan had been talking about all night.  Our contact for the build day had lent us a bus for shuttling to the build site, but it was painted and the seats had been taken out and cozy chairs had replaced them. Naturally, I fell asleep in the magic bus. It was a great.

The next morning, we had a build with Rebuilding Together.  Unfortunately, leader responsibilities got in the way of being fully present there, but on the bright side - Jay and I got to go on an adventure.  We sped off to Carlton (the city where we will ride tomorrow) to acquire a host site.  Luckily, we found one super early in the morning, but had to spend some time acquiring a shower site.  We made it back in time to shuttle back to host and run the remaining errands of the day (groceries, mail drop, etc).

That evening, our RT contact, Luis, had us over to his office to hang out. It was a really cool space and we really enjoyed getting to hang out with him and hear about what he does.  I would go into it, but it really makes no sense how he can juggle all of the things he does and be as optimistic about life as he is.  Twas refreshing to hear.

Walked to the river. Walked back to host. Played on the playground. Went to bed.

Fossil to Maupin

Rose with Em. Sang bad country songs. Thought I was going to die. Climbed a mountain. 

But on the real:

We started out with a long climb, and about an hour later we had finally made it to the top where Em and I met up with Blake and Albrecht. After a giant uphill there is, of course, a giant downhill. The van was passing just as we decided to start riding, so obviously Blake tried to draft the van. It wasn't long before the turns were too sharp and I started slowing down, but then we turned a corner to see a cluster of our friends on the side of the road. It was kind of scary as one of our stronger riders took a bit of a spill around the turn. We stopped, checked out her road rash, double/triple checked for concussion, hugged, checked her bike, hugged again, and headed on down the hill knowing it would be a long day and knowing Jay had everything under control. Jay waited for the rest of the team to make that turn before leaving because cell reception was spotty and everyone was flying down the hill. 

About halfway down the hill a ton of folks ended up in the same stretch, and when we started climbing again the road was windy enough that you could see everyone from a long way away. Just little tiny safety triangles in the distance. Em and I had some fun screaming random things out to everyone. 

We made it to lunch in a town of about 50 people where a small cafe had been opened only 3 days ago. I talked with the owner for a really long time and it was great to hear her talk about how excited she was for the cafe's future and how proud she was of it. Seldom am I super pumped about the fact that I studied entrepreneurship, but listening to her talk about her brand new project I felt a small bond with her that I wouldn't have appreciated if I didn't understand all that goes into starting a new business and the pride that goes with following through on a plan. Whatever. Thoughts. Feelings. 

We still had one more major climb after lunch, but when we finished I was skeptical that it was over because we had expected it to be much longer and harder.  

Dan joined us at te top of the climb and finished out the rest of the ride with us. Toward the end of the ride there was a super curvy downhill that lasted about 3 miles. It was awesome, but there was a lot of gravel. At one point I realized Dan wasn't behind us anymore and got a tad freaked out. Luckily, a motorcyclist rode past and told us that Dan was fixing a flat, so we were clear to bomb down the rest of the hill with no worries. 

Met at the bottom, climbed one final hill to host. Host had root beer floats and te best pasta dinner yet. Then cobbler. The pastor wore a cutoff shirt and cowboy hat. 'twas glorious. 

After dinner, we looked at and talked about all the grants. It was cool to hear/participate in a conversation with our whole team being super invested in what happens with our grant money. And, we pretty much finished in one night (to be finalized in Carlton). 

Hung out/stayed up pretty late. Went to sleep. Portland tomorrow. 

Dayville to Fossil

Today's ride was possibly my favorite ride of the entire summer. I started out with just Joyce, but when Mike, Em, Hannah, and Dan passed us, we decided to join them instead. For the first 38 miles it felt like we were flying with a tiny bit of downhill in our favor and beautiful canyons and mountains surrounding to distract us. Regrettably, I have no pictures as we never stopped, but trust me - 'twas beautiful. 

After lunch, we lost Mike and Em, but we continued flying until mile 50, where we began an 11 mile climb I had been anticipating all day. I set a goal at the bottom to be done in an hour and fifteen minutes. When I met Dan, Hannah, and Joyce at the top one hour and fourteen minutes had passed. Though it absolutely sucked, this was my best climb since my calf decided to stop working in Bloomington. After the climb, 'twas mostly downhill the rest of the way to Fossil, which was a welcomed rest as my leg immediately resented me for pushing too hard and I failed to regret these actions. 

When we arrived to the host, some ladies at the church had provided some chips and salsa as well as watermelon and cookies that hit the spot. I chugged two bottles of water. Then, we went to take a hose shower, but decided to make it more fun by laying down a tarp for a slip and slide. It ended up being the longest I've taken yet to shower because I kept slipping and sliding and it was a blast. 

Visited town. Read a book. Had dinner in a church member's yard. Started the looking at grants process. Snuck into town to use wifi to finish some evals and such. 

All in all, a good day. We'll see if I still have legs tomorrow. 

John Day to Dayville

Today's route was a joke, but a funny joke that you tell to your friends at parties because you can't really believe that it existed in reality. Bins out was not until 10:30. Many of us were awoken by habit much earlier and enjoyed breakfast at a local breakfast place in town before preparing for bins out. I even had time to organize my bin and clean my bike before leaving. Many folks were feeling quite sleepy from a late night of promming, so I quickly learned about the morning routines of each of the chore groups as I had been up for a while and had plenty of coffee. 

Around 11:30 we finally had route meeting and picked "random" groups from a hat to ride with. I was listed as both van and sweep (for the 5th time), so I convinced a 2-timer to pick up my sweep day and considered them my rando-ride group for the day. They didn't end up leaving host until 12:30. Crazy. 

At no point were all 32 riders riding as many stopped at mile 7 for a break (I'm tellin ya, prom really takes it out of you), while another group had made it the full 33 miles in an hour and a half, arriving at the same time as the van. 

I roamed around the tiny town of Dayville with the early arrivers, ate the best burger oft life, found milkshakes for sweep, and returned to the church in time to do some songwriting. 

After dinner, we finished our last Affordable Housing presentations. These had to be finished before we could look at the grant applications that we get to go through and choose which ones to fund with the money we had fundraised. It's really exciting to have reached this point, because it's what we've been riding for this whole time. Woot. I then played guitar on the front porch watching a lightning storm with many others until I fell asleep on accident. Woke in the middle of the night to go inside where it was burning hot. Apparently this church hosts cyclists all the time though, so it was really cool to hear all the stories about this very warm building. 

Unity to John Day

Today we set out for a shorter mileage day expecting a fairly hefty climb. Anticipating the activities of the evening, we rode with our Prom dates for the night. Earlier on our route (somewhere in Kansas) we all drew 2 names at random to ask them to "prom" or basically just a fun night that we all spend together. I drew Aaron and Albrecht. Asked Aaron through a t-shirt I hid in his laundry, and we asked Albrecht through smoke bombs and changing the words to our daily cheer. 

Back to the more recent: we climbed for 10 miles. Descended for a few. Climbed a few more. And then raced a storm down a mountain. Along the race we found a wagon that we couldn't not stop to take pictures of...because we're on the Oregon Trail y'all. 

We made it to lunch and I napped through the storm in a local coffee shop. After lunch, it took us a whopping 28 minutes to get into town (all downhill). We stopped at a thrift store to prepare for prom (our theme was hunters). We then had time to nap, snack, and prepare before heading over to another church to share dinner with the Portland 4k for Cancer team (in costume). We looked ridiculous as we had folks dressed as powderpuff girls, bandits, rednecks, and some fellas in dresses and as Princess Leia. 

We then headed into town to a local brewery and participated in all things prom. 

Bins out isn't until 10:30 tomorrow. 

Ontario to Unity

Pancakes for breakfast. Singalong in the kitchen. Rode with Julia. Gravely roads are all of our energy and felt like we were riding in molasses. Dan joined us after lunch. Climbs were hard, but easier than before - healing. 

After lunch we were counting down the miles to the next town for more water, but Ironside had absolutely nothing for us. Luckily, Jay passed us just as I complete lost energy and we all started looking for shade. We ended up in a dried up creek bed under a bridge with Blake and Alex for a 30 minute nap. We soon woke to another group warning of an oncoming thunder storm, so we finally got moving...and found ourselves on another climb. 

We eventually made it to host, where we camped on the lawn of the Unity Community Center. Hung out at the local market. Ate some delicious chilli. Then Christine, Dan, Jay and I left for a laundry adventure. The closest laundromat was not close, so the four of us gave laundry crew the night off and knocked it out. We saw an amazing sunset on our drive, met some folks who were less than happy we were using so many machines, and made it back to bed a bit before 1. 

Tomorrow we'll ride all along the route we took to laundry. Woot. 

Boise ID to Ontario OR

We left this morning en route to cross our final state line into Oregon.  I started off my day with KK and Borch swinging by the post office (I only have to send 8 more post cards before end of trip). We then continued through some city streets on out of town. There was a lot of random stuff in the shoulder that we kept having to avoid which made me feel like I was playing Mario Kart. When we briefly stopped at a gas station, Big Bear's group passed, which was fun to watch as he had fashioned a giant American flag to the back of his bike. When we reched lunch, we saw a video of Big Bear and his flag completely eating it after slipping while riding through a fountain in downtown Boise. 

I rode the second half of the day with Dan as we had made a deal to ride the last state line together (as I've promised our friendship shall end after Oregon because I'm bad at goodbyes). 

Lunch was super late, so we hit the state line in about 30 minutes and spent 2 hours hanging out, eating Popsicles, spraying sparkling cider bottles, and waiting for sweep so that we could celebrate the state line together. We had a freakin blast. 

Finished last 3 miles. Chili and hotdogs for dinner. Town hall. Watched a cool video. Guitar. Meeting. Late night with the boys. Little sleep.