Monterey CA

47 miles
Took our time but WE MADE IT TO THE MONTEREY!!! We did it!!

Stopped at a relay for life party. Joined in on Zumba. Amazing bike path along the coast. Met 2 miles out to ride into the beach together. Ran into dip our front tires. Saw seals! Seagulls!! Popped champagne! Ran into the water!

Allison, Julie, Joan, David and my mom were there to welcome me to the coast. Still overall hasn’t hit me that this is coming to an end but there are moments.

Had delicious falafel. Showered at moms hotel. Went for dinner at the host, Slideshow and presentation. sat on the rocks at the beach.

Hollister CA

85 mile ride
Stopped at a bunch of fruit stands. Ate my first Pluot- cross between apricot and plum. Liked ok more than either of those fruits alone. Also had coconut water straight from a chilled coconut and a great mango. Sweep challenge was excessive chalking. Started the day with a moderate long climb. Met a lot of cyclists on the road “we biked here from Florida”. Jokingly Pacelined behind some unsuspecting cyclist jamming out to his own beat in the bike lane of San Jose. Finally made it into the YMCA, identified by my mom dancing and signaling the letters in the street. Mom and dad brought watermelon, ice cream and Popsicles for the team. Showered and went out to dinner for moms birthday. Had some amazing fajitas, guac and chips! It was really know seeing them and having them see how we interact with one another.

Had family meeting where we talked about trip highs, lows, lessons learned and confessions. Mine:

Highs. Prom. Town pool with Liz, Marlee, Katie, Angela, in Oklahoma for the sweep challenge

Low- when riders were getting hurt on the road at the beginning of the trip and I was scared it was foreshadowing.

Lesson learned- question normal. Live in the moment.

My sus teammates each had a different perspective which made me reassess the way I approach situations, my opinions, and my actions.

Let go and enjoy.

After we each said our points we got a bracelet seared onto our wrist. When it falls off we email the group about what we are up to. Claire still had hers on from last summers trip. Then we listened for a minute as we were peppered with compliments. I wish had recorded it. It made me feel really loved and appreciated.

Pleasanton CA

Sweep challenge- eat the most Pb. Gross.

Route meeting revealed that the ride was in fact 60 ish miles instead of 90. Tricky leaders. Shayan got on the bike for the second half if the ride!!!! We all got in to the host (swam, ate, played with Baxter) and then shuttled to the bay to dip shayans wheel. Dad drove me, Charlie, Dillon and Rhys. We thought we made it to the beach first but turns out we were at the wrong location. And—- come to find out they even dipped shayans wheel without us and just repeated it for our benefit. I’m crushed.

We spent the evening by the pool talking about memories from the trip and eventually watching a Slideshow tribute to Shayan.

Shayan Inaugural Worship Ceremony. August 1, 2014. Pleasanton California. Schedule of events: sermon, traditional hymnal (kumbaya Shayan), Peloton’s Creed, Slideshow, sharing of memories, prophet Shayan speech.

Sermon: “I feel honored to share this worship ceremony with you all. It was and still is a great privilege to have learned from the great prophet Shayan. While many of us feel he is being taken from is too early, we must remember the misguided innocents at University of Michigan Medical School who have yet to experience the sheer joy of Shayanatarianism. He has so much more wisdom to share with the world. Who are we but mere mortals to keep him from his awesome work.

We can go forward with the spirit of Shayan, remembering the tenants that Shayan taught us:
1) life is a cyclical process
2) the second tenant has been lost to the ages
3) to be a great warrior you must have both a full heart AND a full stomach.

Please join me now singing Kumbaya Shayan.”

The Peloton’s Creed adapted from the Apostles Creed-

I believe in Shayan, the Prophet almighty, creator of Bike and of Build.

I believe in Red Stripe, his only bike, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of Sumo wrestling, born of the Master Suzuki.

He suffered under reckless driver, was heckled, hit and survived. He descended onto the Utah sand.

On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into the van and is seated at the right hand of the Leader.

He will come again to judge the time we take at second lunch.

I believe in Shayan the Prophet
The power of coax cola and fried chicken
The communion of cyclists
The forgiveness of flats
The resurrection of the beard
And the miles everlasting. Amen (yoohooo).

I slept under the stars in the front yard of the hosts home. Seemed a little silly in a neighborhood but felt great.

Modesto CA

116 miles
100+ degrees

Still smokey from the fire. We saw helicopters carrying water pass above us. Riding out of Yosemite was amazing especially because we couldn’t ride in. We saw deer with antlers in the fields below the mountains. A group of riders even saw a bear cross the street in front of them. I rode this part with Katie, Angela and Liz. The red wood forest changed to rolling golden hills. You could imagine how quickly they would ignite from the smallest spark. The ride was mostly a descent, from about 4000 feet to 90 feet but there were also significant climbs. One of the more rewarding downhills had switchbacks which we were unprepared for. I was riding with Molly, Josiah, Micah and Dillon. At the first switchback our computers were reading 50 mph while coasting and unfortunately Molly went down. Lucky she only suffered road rash and getting the wind knocked out of her. The rest of the ride we took downhills more carefully. We stopped at a random house along the route for water. We had expected there to be a has station, but the mini town was more of a ghost town with all of the 3 shops closed. Turns out the house actually used to be a gas station so it seemed appropriate that he was providing water to cyclists rolling through.

After 2nd lunch Josiah and I had flats from goat heads. We paused under a eucalyptus tree near vineyards to fix them. We ended up seeing a white owl flying out from the tree. Dan K rode with is for a while.

Mile 104 had an amazing fruit stand with Smoothies!!!!!

We all went to bed early.

The next day we built with the
local habitat for humanity. We worked on 4 houses- pouring cement for fence posts, putting up siding, weeding, putting in windows. In the evening the church of the brethren hosted a potluck and we had a presentation. My dad was in San Francisco for work so he stopped by to join us! It was great seeing him after so long and sharing my experience this summer. I’m glad he got to see how we normally are together.

Yosemite CA

Change of plans.
Forest fire causing road closings in Yosemite. The road we need to get to our host in the valley is closed so instead of biking in we are going to hike. We are shuttling to the trailhead and then hiking 10 miles down into the valley. The positives- we don’t have to climb up Tioga Pass on our bikes and we get to hike into Yosemite!

The hike was pretty smokey, blocking some of the amazing views but we did get to swim in the deep pools of bridal veil waterfall.

While the hike was BEAUTIFUL 10 miles descending was killer on our legs. The van made it the long way around with all of our bikes and bags crammed into the trailer. One trip=magic packing skills. Once we made it to the valley we hung out at the grocery snacking on dinner and sharing stories.

The next day was a day off. While I would have liked to have hiked all over the park, my sore sore legs forbade it. Instead of climbing half dome (only one of the 27 originally interested could muster up the strength at 3am for the hike) I rode the free shuttle around the park to see the sites and hung out at Curry Village (unlimited free refills on iced coffee!)

some highlights from Yosemite:
The redwoods
Ansel Adams gallery
Swimming in the pools of the waterfall
Sleeping in!!!

Lee Vining CA

Finally out of the desert! Spent the day climbing into the mountains. 2200 down 4900 feet up. We started the day in Bishop at an elevation of 4200. We rolled on some hills and passed a sign for 4000ft. I expected the next sign to read 5000 but guess what… It read 6000!!! And then 7000 at dead mans summit and finally we even passed 8000 feet. Climbing out of the desert we were surrounded by pine trees with HUgE pine cones Then we got to descend some to end in Lee Vining.

We saw seagulls!

We had our last family meeting.

Bishop CA

Another easy short flat ride. Mountains flank us on both sides reminding us that we are only a day away from starting our ascent. Stopped at a hot spring about 7 miles out from our host to swim. Went to an Indian buffet for 2nd lunch. Really enjoyed the blend of spices with veggies I haven’t had in a while like cauliflower.

We stayed the night at the fairgrounds. One of the other buildings was hosting a quinceanera. We threw the frisbee around a bit.

Slept outside under the stars.

Lone Pine CA

Camping!! 73 miles with a huge TAILWIND for the last third. We averaged like 100 mph. The next couple days will be a lot of climbing to get us up the Sierra Nevadas to Yosemite. Liz and Hannah have put out Craigslist adds to hitch a ride up.

Ridgecrest CA

Ride was rough. High of 106. 100 miles. Still in the Mojave desert. Had to pay for ice today.

We had Prom- wedding theme. We all dressed up as people or things you would find at a wedding. Megan was an engagement ring by wearing a gold sparkly dress and silver aluminum bow headband. We had two flower girls- Gaurang and Connor. We had two brides- Colleen and Morgan who were married to become Collorgan. Ashley was the burned ex girlfriend. Shayan was of course the Shanatarian priest who conducted the ceremony.
Dusty was my date. I proposed to him a couple nights before by hiding an aluminum ring in his drink at dinner, but alas the wedding was called off.

For our build say we cleaned up the local fairgrounds. This wasn’t a typical build day and although we worked with Habitat for Humanity it didn’t seem to fit with our mission.

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Barstow/Calico CA

It’s so hot.
Shorter day at 57 miles. We are staying in the Bunk Cabins of the Ghost Town- an old silver mining town. It has been turned into a tourist destination with 300,000 people visiting each year. The ghost town is a strip of old western looking shops including restaurants, western bars, ice cream shops, gold panning, mine tours etc.

Our host, Janet, owns the pottery shop in the ghost town. She set us up with lunch burritos, an amazing pasta dinner, swimming in the lake, and free activities like gold panning.

I went gold hunting with Charlie. A running joke has been that gold has to be hunted. Those silly amateurs at Ghost Town are panning it… All wrong. I’m pretty sure the “gold” left at the bottom of our pan was actually fools gold. But they swear it’s not…. Looks metallic to me.

Stayed in the rest of the night to prep for our century ride tomorrow. Today was the first day riding that I actually felt bored. I think it was because of sweeping yesterday. It was exhausting being in the sun so long. Less than two weeks left in the trip though so have to make the most of it all.