1 Day away

Day 71 - Aug 12, 12:38pm
51 miles. Santa Rosa, CA to San Rafael, CA

Don't quite know how i got off count with my days but figured i might as well correct it.

Am writing this listening to one of my favorite new songs, Shooting Stars(Kris Menace Remix) by Bag Raiders while OVERLOOKING THE BAY! Can't remember the last time i felt like this. Its an intense combination of calm, exhaustion, and appreciation all before what i know will be one of the most unforgettable days of my life tomorrow.

Today was the last real day of riding and i topped it off with Dennis all day(the birthday boy!). What an awesome guy. Imagine the purest mix of energy, sincerity, and goodwill all rolled up into one pirate imitating bundle of bearded goodness. Enjoyed discussing the merits of gas station food and also touched on how for the past two months we're technically physically unlike normal humans. Kinda like having mutant powers! like Wolverine! Except not really. Actually not at all. But its been fun being able to blindly consume 5,000 calories daily while its lasted.

Had lunch at a horse stable today which was really cool since we got to pet them and all. Gosh they're so beautiful. The only problem was this dog Sam who kept raiding our lunch and legit ate one of Anne-Lise's sandwiches while she was turned around. What a cutie though.

Dennis, Larry, and I finished out the day spectacularly riding through some really cool and bicycle friendly towns. It was just the right level of traffic to make for safe yet exhilirating highway. We caught 3 yellow lights on this one circuit highway and for the most amazing 30 seconds had this entire three lane strip to ourselves as we flew by at 30mph. Also, first palm tree sighting! The bay area is wonderful and you can't help but get a great chill vibe from here. Coming up on our first glimpse of the boats docked in the bay was obviously amazing. While riding, it was mindboggling to think that wait, we're actually here, as in we can be at the bridge in an hour if we wanted. Can only imagine how crazy it will be tomorrow.

When we learned the pool was closed, a gracious church member brought us to her very spacious house to use her pool and showers which was so nice. The shower was one of those full glass ones, which we lovingly dubbed "the octagon".

The Presbyterian St. Luke's church here is super kind. They have the most awesome patio overlooking a part of the bay and made the best chicken and pineapple shish kebabs. After dinner we all went around and said our highest high and lowest low of the trip. It was really interesting to see the overlaps and differences between people's comments and how they related to mine. Even more fun though was the singing we did thanks to the accompaniment of the 4 church members playing their guitars! Nothing like a fuzzy sing a long to reflect on how much we love each other.

As if it wasn't getting mushy enough, we all gathered afterwards to distribute commemorative bracelets of the trip. They were made by cutting up our sweep capes into 32 pieces which definitely carries a lot of symbolism of us caring and watching out for each other. Such a great way to literally carry a piece of the trip with us. Am very happy with that choice. It worked by each person picking someone to complement and then giving them a bracelet, then that person would pick someone else, etc. Do that a lot on FOP and i sometimes dislike how it can feel contrived but i was super glad to be able to share some words about Larry, since I've shared a really genuine bond with him more than almost anyone else on this trip.

Fun, Larry and Dennis shaved their beards finally today and its actually scary how unrecognizable they are. I decided to keep mine, as much as im beginning to look like Abraham Lincoln to see how it fits into the real world. Man what i would give for a haircut right now...

So yea, this is it, i look forward to tomorrow being filled with as much laughter, tears, and joy as possible. We deserve it. This is our day our bridge and our time.

Life is really just one connected series of adventures i've realized, (or at least id like it to be) and one exciting part of tomorrow's celebration which i think may be undernoticed is the joy of knowing that with the closing of this great accomplishment, it only means that there is now the potential for many others now open to us.

Welcome to Wine Country

Day 69 - Aug 11, 9:59pm
71 miles. Davis, CA to Santa Rosa, CA

Gotta love sweep. Today i had the honor of bringing the broom with the lovely Anne-Lise Caroline Cosart (watch the pronunciation!) To be totally honest one of my favorite things on the trip is taking breaks for reasons out of my control like road problems, flat tires, etc. Its sorta like oh, there's nothing i can do about this so i might as well just chill out, awesome! Take that as your whole day and you have sweep.

In the morning i decided to check my voicemail while chilling and happened to discover that BRIANNA GOODALE's AWESOMENESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS! aka she just happens to be visiting family in San Fran(yea ok Bri, whatever you say) and will be coming to greet me as we enter the beach. That brings my personal cheering to a grand total of 1! The wonderful Ava Tramer was unable to make it which was a huge bummer so this is a really awesome treat. Not sure when else you'll find me jumping up and down at 6am gleefully yelling in my spandex. I even temporarily forgot about how nasty the oatmeal i was eating was.

Major props to Subway yet again for pulling through with food for me and Anne Lise. We caught six folks eating an awesome breakfast at a diner a little further and ate our sandwiches there. If you've read anything from this blog at all, you can't help but be familiar with my somewhat irrational calorie needs. Well in case you aren't acquainted with them by now, just know that it took all of 10 seconds between the time that i downed an entire foot long subway sandwich 13 miles into the day, and the time when i began scavenging my teammates plates for leftover pancakes. Unfortunately there was only one remaining.

The day continued smoothly and generally uphill into lunch. Anne-Lise is super cool and really fun to talk and ride with. Get such a good vibe from that girl.

Around mile 59ish the major climb for the day started. It was intense. The topo map on the computer this morning was all sorts of funky colors when depicting the grades. Note to readers, seeing purple, aka 12% grade on any topo map is not, again, not a good sign. We started climbing and aside from losing half our body weight in sweat, were totally loving it. Its just such a rush to be able to conquer something so ridiculous as a hill like that and i can easily see myself enjoying, no, needing to do something insane like that on a weekly basis back in real life. The descent was again treacherous but I was more used to it and found that once i began trusting myself to navigate the breaking and turning i could relax and have fun with it which was great. Fearing for your life is not necessarily the best sensation to have going down a hill.

Overall the whole day was just gorgeous. We were in famous Napa Valley and rode through beautiful vineyard after vineyard with just the right amount of rolling hills. The hill in the second half was in a totally shaded forest that made for the best riding ever, especially when the downhill eased up and let us go comfortably at 20ish mph.

Things are definitely getting a little tense at points with people's peeves getting to a breaking point and with everyone kinda just losing a general sense of responsibility with so few days left. For me on this trip, personally its always been a point to not get myself worked up for too long about anything. there's just so little time here and its not in the least worth it. I like to think that the same goes for life in general. It sometimes boggles my mind how so un-chill people can be about the most ultimately meaningless stuff. Different folks, different strokes i guess.

Final day of riding tomorrow. I realized im gonna miss this so much, especially in the libraries in the middle of winter i assume. it just really hit me today how lucky i've been to basically have this be my job for the past 2 months despite all of the occasional complaining. As much as I'm ready for it to be over, it's pretty nice to be leaving on that note of realization and appreciation.

The Faceoff: P2SF vs SC2S

Day 68 - Aug 10, 1 day late
61 miles. Auburn, CA to Davis, CA

23 miles of bike paths! Finally, an easy day. Rode with Meryl, Julie, and Lara along the most awesome bike paths for just about half the day which was incredible. It felt more like a bike and build reunion rather than a real day. I couldn't help but wonder "why aren't i miserable yet?" The mental break which the path offered was really clutch. Hanging out around tons of our cycling brethren rather than our motorized counterparts was delightful.

Now that i've pretty much mastered the handless cycling i figured it was about time to take it up a notch. I've been itching to try for a while, and today i finally gave in and tried to juggle(I'm pretty experienced) while riding my bike. After a couple of rogue apples flying left and right i held a solid pattern and even switched into a mills mess! which is a crazy arm crossing pattern. The only unfortunate part is mine and Meryl's approximately 6 failed attempts at capturing it on film. I mean its not like i did it just so i could have people know about it...

Came to this decent retro style commercial strip and had some Greek Fries at the Spud Shack, which had a pretty cool concept of having just dishes of french fries with different countries as themes.

Immediately got a good vibe from Davis, especially since we're staying right next to the college. Its one of the bike friendliest cities in the country and even has bike symbols on the trash cans! Almost everyone had a bike and there was so much good infrastructure. You could tell how engrained it was in people's way of life there. Davis and other cities like it are testaments to how effective and practical cycling can be in every day life. Its really possible. Especially in NYC and other cities there tends to be such a hostile attitude between bikers and motorists. Sure there are assholes on both sides who perpetuate a negative cycle but i truly feel that its the poor bike infrastructure which keeps pitting the two groups against each other. Hmm, the gov't splitting its citizens into two seemingly different camps and having them bicker. I'm sure glad that doesn't sound familiar... Fortunately there are many strides being made by advocacy groups and govt to make biking more mainstream and part of every day life as it should be and already is in places like Europe for example.

At the host i took a sweet nap listening to my chillout music which i haven't done in a while. Unfortunately i woke up a little off when people were being loud and when i went to eat pasta(what i had been looking forward to all day literally) i found that all the cheese was gone. Dono why but i was actually ready to punch someone. We spend so much money on stupid snacks and chips and we can't even have a single can of cheese to eat a real pasta meal like civilized humans. Thats at least what i thought at the time and i couldn't believe, nor control unfortunately, how catastrophically it destroyed my mood. Some food and good music later i managed too blow it off but its still kinda scary how much it just takes over me like that sometimes.

Then came the time of judgement. It turns out that the South Carolina to Santa Cruz route was staying in our city tonight and we were meeting up for some festivities. The first of these was an epic relay race consisting of eight activities representing a day in the life of bike and build ranging from packing up your sleeping bag to downing breakfast to hammering nails. Dan M gave us an initial lead and yours truly took over for the tire pumping. Please imagine kneeling down and having 64 sweaty insane bikers huddling around you and screaming their lungs out. Easily the most disorienting 20 seconds of my life. I've been to calmer rock concerts. Of course that tire didn't stand a chance against my up and down thrashing. Average roadmorph pumping time: 2 minutes. George's time: 20 seconds. Yea, i thought so.

It was a frantic stretch but team P2SF pulled out a stunning victory by a mile. It was honestly such a silly and ridiculous event but it felt awesome to win. Of course crazy screaming, jumping and psyching out ensued. Glorious.

But that was only the day's activities. At night we rejoined in camraderie for the Bike and Build wedding where saw Hillary leave our nest to join up with Meghan from their group in gender neutral matrimony. Yes, tears were shed but the ceremony was nothing short of beautiful with our very own kilted Colin Hood leading it. Of course the result of such an event was 64 outlandishly and probably inappropriately dressed kids all in the same place each trying to garner more attention than the next. Yea, fun is an understatement. Steven as the best man sure had a mouthful to say and show for Hillary.

While it was definitely awkward to interact with them as expected we chilled in smaller groups at night and had some fun conversations. Highlight was Sean trying to casually draw out of them how many mountain passes they had climbed and at what elevation. Hearing about the few 9,000 footers they had done compared to our several 11,000 ones probably completed Sean's life right then and there. In general, 'm always skeptical of inter-organizational groups mixing like that because the awkward dynamic is just inevitable. I think overall though the in-group, out-group differentiation ultimately makes each group bond with itself more which i guess is valuable in the end. Either way, who doesn't love awkward interactions?

But more importantly, guess who's sweeping tomorrow!

13'%, 7,000 feet, 22 miles, 60 degrees!

Day 67 - Aug 9, 10:44pm
87 miles. South Lake Tahoe, CA to Auburn, CA

Only 5 more days is what i thought this morning. Better make each one count. Today's numbers definitely made it a hard one to forget.

The day's rest definitely showed itself in my legs. However its too bad i couldn't even feel them given that it was all of 40 DEGREES! leaving Tahoe. Seriously, someone may as well have stuffed ice down my shorts this morning and it still would have been warmer. The day started off with a slight incline to get to the last peak of the Sierra Nevadas. Us being our crazy selves, we happened to locate an old road that ran parallel to the highway that was closed to cars and a mile shorter. Of course the only catch was that it was also a whopping 11% grade. About a third of the group including me ended up taking the detour and the attitude was pretty much "Why Not?" I mean we've done such crazy biking by now that nothing can stand in our way anymore and to be honest we totally beasted up that entire hill without stopping and man it got steep at points. The top was just glorious. Ironically, we all felt a million times better than when we were at the bottom. We finished it and were pretty much like "ok whats next." Man, i can't wait to burn out the cycling team back at school.

Oh yea, and guess who's bag with 5 rips at the corners has finally called it quits. Yea, this guy's. Super thanks to Kelly's mom for the new duffel bag im borrowning and for making me feel just a little bit less vagabondish than i really am.

We climbed a little more to the peak at 7,000 and change before THE DESCENT. This was not a typical dowhnill but our final approach towards sea level. What i mean by that is 22 miles of continuous downhill, descending 4,000 feet at about 6%, never dipping below 25mph with the most gorgeous mountain views around us. Shoulder was pretty much non existent and drivers here are noticeably less generous here so that sucked but it was still awesome. Definitely got into my superhero "i feel like im flying" mode. I got so excited to draft behind our van when it passed that i shifted super hard into third gear and ended up pushing my entire chain off the gears which was not so fun, or fast. The whole unbelievable 22 miles down i kept thinking of every damn miserable uphill we've ever had to climb on this trip and who its all been leading to this epic descent. Jenny's odometer we later found out reveals that cumulatively we've climbed about 150,000 feet of elevation on this trip. Can you even believe that?

Maybe you can, but you definitely won't believe Max finding legit the largest pine cone I've ever seen in my life!

The riding continued smoothly and into Ryan Ellis' hometown(which is kinda odd but cool) where we walked around the arts fair that was happening. I could hardly hide how much i enjoyed basking in the intrigued looks and stares from the people around me. Man its hard not to think of how cool we look rolling in somewhere together. And honestly, while power suits and tuxes are pretty empowering, its hard to beat the confidence boosting of fitting into a good pair of cycling spandex and strutting around with your bike.

By the middle of the day, we had crossed a full 60 degrees of temp into the triple digits. Literally went from freezing to baking in just hours as It got absurdly hot way too abruptly. Thankfully the heat still doesn't affect me too bad the way it does other riders but what was truly horrible was today's downhills in the second half of the day, all of which couldn't be steeper and curvier if they tried.

Apparently they might've done just that when we found the 13% downhill sign. WHAT!? In biker language, the words "thirteen percent downhill" really translates into "Squeeze your brakes and pray for your life". The acceleration on something like that is just terrifying. If you coast for even 3 seconds you'll easily be at 40mph about to hit a tight curve. Not where you want to be. By the time we got to the bottom the place literally reeked of burning rubber from our brake pads. Some chammies may or may not have also been a little moist. The end result of such descents was that by second lunch we were at 750 feet, a full 7,000 feet below where we started this morning!

Highlight was finding a fun yard sale today which we haven't done since pennsylvania, aka where there are regularly intervaled cities, which was a treat. Yes, i did find a women's leather jacket with leopard interior that fit, and yes i put it back against my better judgement.

Had our last town hall today and finalized our grant allocations, which im pretty happy with. We're gonna end up giving 24,000 to about 9 organizations and i was generally pretty impressed with our 32 annoying selves' ability to come to a decent consensus. But the highlight was really the by now tradition of my leading a post town hall activity. This being the last one i of course had to break out the big guns. After teaching "The Self Worth Song" to much acclaim we had a massive game of Birdie on a Wire, where Ryan Farr and Larry emerged victorious. All of these silly activities are a big part of my orientation program FOP, and really special to me. It's been so awesome to be able to share them with another group that is also very dear to me and to have them totally embrace it as our own.

Just remembered, forgot to stretch after riding today. Ugh. So much stuff to do all the time. Its odd when something so personal and important like that becomes just another chore on a trip like this that can get so easily neglected in the bustle of it all. But did do pushups! 100 straight may yet be within reach if Carlie can pester me enough to keep me on track.

Having Miranda back with us riding in the van is great and she's in such a great mood which is superbly contagious. Words cannot express the joy at being a full group again. Am already starting to think of my closing post for this journal which is kind of odd, but relevant i guess since now's as good of a time as any to start reflecting. Jeez, i can only hope it wont be too mushy...

Overall today had a ridiculous amount of climbs at steep grades that all felt like just another. Never in my life have i been more certain that i can literally do whatever I want. And the more i think about it, the more i realize that it doesn't have to be any different even when this trip finally comes to an end.

Shh... "Secret Beach"

Day 66 - Aug 8, 11:41pm
Day Off. South Lake Tahoe, CA

So you know something's off in your life when sleeping in and taking it easy means waking up at 10am. The past two day's off have been epic in their enjoyment and today was no different. It started with the prettiest morning sunshine greeting us as we stepped outside. Walked over to the softball field and watched a few innings to start the day. Man that was awesome. Nothing like seeing a bunch of adults get overexcited about sports.

A crew headed over to this local organic food joint to grab breakfast where i was assured that my breakfast burrito was prepared with only free range eggs. Yes, i could taste the cageless quality and tender loving care afforded these chickens, probably by a happily married overall wearing farmer named Henry MacIntyre, but ordering five of them was not too conducive to the price. As in having 3 extra eggs cost 4.50 when the entire burrito costs 7 was a little bit disconcerting.

One smoothie and several conversations with the locals later, Larry, Meryl, Kelly, Julie and I were on our way to Shhh.... "Secret Beach" which was coincidentally located on San Francisco St. Though don't tell anyone i told you that. It was super nice and sandy. Does anyone else love the feeling of grabbing a fistful of sand and having grains flow through slowly? Because its easily a several hours long activity for me whenever i beach it up. Just wanted to do a normality check. Hopefully i passed. Anyway, the water was a great temp and super shallow. You could walk in for half a mile and still not be over your head.

When i say that i did nothing today, i mean it in absolutely the best way. If you had rolled around in the sand for oh say six hours you might begin to understand the glory that was this afternoon. We brought down a New York Times to bask our worldly minds in and were later joined by Jenny, Noah, Kate, Marissa, Paige, and Ryan Farr which only added to the fun. Read an interesting article about how troubled the Post Office is at being expected to turn profit like a private business while still having the ridiculous constraints of a bureaucracy. Did you know... there are 2,000 out of 34,000 total post offices that serve less than 100 people each! (And im pretty sure that about half of those have been along our route)

Larry, Doug and I grabbed monstrous burgers at the Bear Beach Cafe, where the manager was kind enough to make one burger free of charge. The service was very hospitable and sincere and they definitely deserve the business of anyone visiting Tahoe in the future. Also, you once again know something's up when a half pound burger and fries fails to fill you up, let alone leaves you hungry.

We topped off the night with some milkshakes from a local joint served by an interesting girl. Guess what her name was. No really try. You wont even believe. You sure? Well it was "Honey". No joke. The two ids she showed us definitely confirmed it. And yes i do take pride in having resisted the temptation to make a lame joke about her name in front of her. She was very adamant in thinking that we wouldn't believe it which was kind of amusing. Though I'm still trying to understand my inordinate happiness at having simply met someone named "Honey".

Noah had made a big point of using tonight's calm to really allow us to reflect properly on what we've accomplished so far, and what we are seeking to get out of these last few days. The whole group walked out to Secret Beach, the last part of which was down with our eyes closed and our hands on our shoulders. As if we weren't cultish enough already.Yea, it gets mushy here. We laid down in a gorgeous field staring at the starry sky in silence and it was nice to have that moment to breathe in which everything was so still and the pressures of constant peddling were not upon us. Dan M, Lara, Coop and I each shared a short story or poem to the group that we found to be relevant to this journey which everyone unanimously enjoyed. The calm stillness was soothing, though i think that understanding the magnitude of what we've accomplished will for each of us take far longer than an hour in a field.

And SURPRISE! Guess who's back! None other than our marvelous Miranda. I had just stumbled outside in the morning when a car pulled up and she began walking towards us from it. It was one of the best feelings of shock on this whole trip and we all had a huge hug session which was great. She looked awesome and had the prettiest green dress on(oh to have a new wardrobe...). Her spirits were of course through the roof and she was her normal super cheery self. She only needs to wear her shoulder sling occasionally and otherwise looks totally normal. Even better news is that she'll be staying with us until San Francisco. She's been so strong to have gone these two weeks alone and its such a pleasure to be a whole group again and not have to keep saying "32, eh, 31 riders"

Lake Tahoe was gorgeous, but seeing Miranda walk towards us was by far the prettiest sight all day.

Milk and Honey

Day 65 - Aug 7, 1 day late
60 miles. Reno, NV to South Lake Tahoe, CA!

Definitely an epic day. Right up there with Trail Ridge and Stumpy Lane. Still can't believe we're actually in California. All the other states have been sorta understandable but to have actually made it into our 18th state is just incredible.

The day started out fittingly enough with a group pic in front of Steve's custom built flame spewing tractor. Who is this guy seriously? While giving me some fishing line yesterday he casually opens a random tool drawer and pulls out these sharp crescents. Yea, they were bald eagle talons. Just happened to be in some corner of his toolshed. For real. Oh and did i mention he routinely rides his motorcycle while standing on the seat? Yea, who else votes for making Steve a new adjective in the English language as in "Dude, that's so totally Steve!"

Within the first 5 pedal strokes today i knew it was going to be a great day. The build day was just what my sore butt and legs needed and i was feeling great back on the bike as Doug, Hillary, and I flew through our first 30 miles to lunch. Though the Hot August Nights car show was a little too appealing for our testosterone filled selves to turn down. We promised to just loop through and head out, but that obviously failed miserably. The cars were just so unbelievably cool, especially this crazy orange 41 Chevy converted ambulance that the dude Henry apparently drives his kids to school in. Talk about incentivizing your kids... The highlight was finding a beautiful electric yellow '72 Corvette Stingray, aka the coolest car in the world, on sale for only 29K. It was reassuring to know that i can possibly afford one AND still have money left over to feed and clothe myself.

Lunch's wonderful leftovers from the night before, the first non-pbj meal in about 300 miles, only confirmed the day's awesomeness. Now for some reason as we went to do our 2,000 foot climb into Lake Tahoe, Noah, Doug, Larry, Noah and I found ourselves wearing adult diapers over our chammies for the rest of the ride. To be totally honest, it's still unclear why, but everything seems rational in the moment, right?...

Oh and the top of the mountain was called "Spooner Summit". Could you ask for a better photo-op?

The climb was a decent 10ish miles, which doesn't even register since its basically our job by now. The descent down was fabulous and totally exhilirating. Having that massive, and i mean ginormous, lake come into view out of nowhere was one of those total "Whoa, how the hell did this get here!" moments. It was just pure, stunning, glistening liquid beauty.

As we saw more and more casinos clumped we could tell the nevada border was ending and then in the middle of a packed main street we saw the tiniest sign about 20 feet up proclaiming entrance to California. Basically, the most anticlimactic sign of the whole trip. Well, since we were going too fast to take a picture, we made sure to let the whole neighborhood know that we were entering. I don't think there was a single person in that packed downtown area who didn't turn their head when me and everyone else started letting out our yelps of euphoria at having crossed the border. It was just so intense and one of those "i clearly can't do anything BUT pump my fist in the air" moments. Glorious is perhaps the only word that fits. And that reminds me, I have yet to ingest any milk and honey since being here.

We're staying across the street from the school's baseball field, and at night i went over with Max and Larry to watch a co-ed softball community league play while eating dinner. It was pretty spectacular to just chill out like that see a fun casual game. Really brought me back to my fun days of little league. Totally affirmed my burning desire to be one of those cheery, wise, story-filled 70 year old little league umpires one day. Talk about thinking ahead...

Tomorrow's a day off, meaning sleep in, and can't think of a prettier place to do it. THey've been intensely awesome so far and i think this is what we need to get us through our last 5 awesome days of riding.

San Francisco, the new Ithaka?

Day 64 - Aug 6, 6:08pm
Build Day. Reno, NV

Working at a habitat site today for our very last build day. The houses were pretty much done and we were mostly doing things like painting and landscaping. Its interesting to think of how in contrast, our very first build day involved working on the foundation of the house. On par with this crazy desert weather it was in the 60s today and was basically fall. It was so crazy since it had been 100+ here all last week. It only reiterated how much i love the concept of change, and how im looking forward to the fall(but only the first two weeks, not the unnecessary cold after that).

While today was very laid back you can't help but be a little disappointed when there aren't enough jobs for everyone, especially when the only work is vaccumming and sweeping. Its kind of like did i really bike across the country to vacuum a carpet? But thats sorta just a side thought and it was cool to see the entire block of habitat houses next to each other. They were really nice actually. Waht i really liked was the front lawns made with different types of gravel which was really aesthetically pleasing while obviously saving on silly water bills.

Another side note, riding in a car on the highway to the build site after yesterday's biking was almost freaky. Its literally been two months since i've gone on an actual car ride and its crazy how such simple things like that are so weird after a trip like this.

Reno is interesting. It is currently hosting Hot August Nights, which is a huge car show, so seeing all the cool hot rods on the road these few days has been real fun. Its basically like a mini Vegas or Atlantic City. Its just so weird the way so much of the downtown life here is focused on flashy lights, liquor, and gambling. Kinda made me wonder of the ridiculousness of casinos and places like Vegas in general. Its cool that its our first metropolis since 400 miles ago but totally didn't vibe with me.

Thanks so much to mom and dad to an awesome mail drop. More protein bars than my liver can handle but not really, thats a complete joke. They sent an awesome poem by Constantine Cavafy about Odysseus' journey to Ithaka after Troy and the importance of enjoying your travels, etc. It really spoke to me, and I actually think with one week left its the perfect time to have received it. Really looking forward to reading it to the group tomorrow. Might try and permanently attach it to my bike or something.

And speaking of crazy journeys, check out this video i randomly came across: http://vimeo.com/4636202

We've got a pretty intense climb tomorrow, like Colorado status, and then a day off! LIfe is good right now, my sore butt not so much, but oh well, the ride continues.