Wow. This is actually happening.
Well today's ride was short, a whopping 15 miles. I think it is safe to say that we all would have done about another 70 more just to keep the final ride from ending. We started the morning by watching a 45 minute slide show of pictures from the entire summer. It was so cool to recap and see all the places we have been and how far we have come. It was certainly emotional just to even watch.
We then had a wonderfully drawn out route meeting turned dance party turned photo shoot. We danced ourselves clean one last time, war painted up, and were on our way. We did encounter some hills but the 30 of us stuck together for the whole ride. It was such an awesome rush and the best feeling ever.
Final pump up for Silver Fox (because of course, he had a slow leak...cool)
As we caught our first glimpse of the city, and later our first glimpse of the bridge, you could just hear shrieks of excitement 30 deep. I will never forget that moment! We all reconvened just before the bridge so that we could cross together, as a team. It was kind of a stressful ride, as you can imagine the Golden Gate bridge is quite trafficky and there were tons of cyclists as well. Our first sighting of parents occurred just as we were turning onto the bike lane.
Look what we found!
Connor's family was there with signs, posters and chalk. It was so exciting to see them! We then crossed the bridge, down the bike lane and into Chrissy Field, where we spastically tried to find our friends and family. My mom, nanny and Mara, all made the trip out to watch us roll in - Thanks you guys! (My mom has the pics, I'll upload them soon!) Once we were all down, we took our bikes to the Pacific for the final ceremony of the summer: the wheel dip. Just 69 days prior we had done the same thing, but we were strangers in Providence. This wheel dip, as you can imagine carried a bit more weight.
We miss you Sarah! You are with us in spirit (and have been all summer!) Love you girlie!
Shortly thereafter, 30 of us dropped our bikes and rushed into the Pacific ocean where we had a few (brisk) moments of hugging, splashing, singing. It was surreal. It was so great. It was a bit overwhelming that this was it, and everyone's friends and families being there kind of sent that home. Haha - it sounds kind of weird, but it was the first time all summer we had to share each other with others.
Almost immediately after, some of our teammates had to leave us for their respective travel plans. It just felt so unnatural that something so significant and regular could end so abruptly. Later that night we had a cookout with friends and family in a park in Oakland and then we all headed out to a local bar as kind of a last hoorah. It was a great night, just really overwhelming!
