SPINNING SPOKES, HELPING FOLKS: 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Vancouver! I don't even know her!

At the Canadian border. I got in trouble for taking this photo...

Ride from Surrey, BC to Vancouver!

We finally hit the water as the weather started to clear up.

About a 1/2 mile from the wheel dip...our last ride as a whole team.

Leading the group to the beach!

"singing forever young..."

The leaders and Brendan!

T-Bear love

Superlatives

Celebrating at Fountain Head

Finally made it to Bourbon.

Walking to Granville Market

It seems fitting that it rained on our last ride together into Vancouver because thats exactly how we started this journey 68 days prior. Coincidentally by the time we reached the pacific the clouds parted to blue skies and it turned into a perfect afternoon just like the wheel dip at the Atlantic. It was perfect! We all stripped down and ran into the ocean, dipped our front tires, greeted our friends and family and then enjoyed a great BBQ.

Micheal & Diane headed up superlatives...I got most likely to call someone by, "hey, GIRL! or hey, BOY!." Ha

Vancouver is a beautiful yet very strange place. We are staying in the West End area. Its also the gayborhood. During the day everything seems normal but we went out last night and the feeling quickly changed. I've seen hookers, girls that are cracked out of their mind, and an enormous amount of homelessness. Drug dealers are everywhere. Despite all of this, its impressively clean.

Being here is cool but has made me miss NYC. Tomorrow we leave for the road trip home. We are stopping in Seattle, Portland, the red woods in CA, Moab, Breckenridge, Denver, Indiana, Columbus and then a long stretch onto to Jersey to drop off Kyle, see my parents and the restaurant, Philly to drop off Elvis and the trailer and then back to sweet, sweet NYC.

We are down to almost half of the group now and its getting sad seeing people go home. This has been an amazing journey with 31 incredible people and I am honored to have been able to spend the summer getting to know everyone. What an accomplishment! Bravo!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Chasing down horizons

My friend Gabe climbed this pass a week before I got here with P2S. He buried me a time capsule at the top. It was an epic way to climb a mountain. Love you, Gabe!

At an ice cream shop in Winthrop...P2S was just here a week ago!

Climbing Washington Pass.

The overlook at Washington Pass

Lake Diablo. The reason I wanted to do NUS!

Camp in Rockport was sweet!

Tonight is our last night in America. We pick up our program director in 20 minutes and he will be with us during our last 2 rides and to close our trip in Vancouver.

Washington has many mountains...In the past 5 days we've climbed 6 mountain passes. Flowery trail, Sherman Pass, Wauconda Pass, Loup Loup Pass, Washington Pass, & Rainy Pass. Cycling at 4-6 mph has caused me to laugh uncontrollably, lose my mind, yell at the mountains, etc. Its been insanity! Some of things that have been coming out of our mouths have been ridiculous.

For example, during one of our climbs I was talking about losing my mind during a ride on CWM and how a friend Becca had called me a giddy bitch. Well, I sweat A LOT and I lose a ton of salt...all of my cycling caps have impressive salt stains, so everyone here calls me a salty dog. Kelsey shouts out in delirium, "Fact: Giddy bitches are always salty dogs..."

Another funny moment...Kelsey and I are riding together up to Loup Loup pass. I am in front. Angela K rides up behind Kelsey and asks if she's hungry. Kelsey in confusion repeats the question and AK asks her if she wants and Angela sandwich...

"Do I have a flat?" This is something I have been asking people I ride with every 3 miles. Riding on a flat tire slows you down...It also feels the same when you are climbing mountains at a much slower pace...lets say 4.5 mph. So in reality I never have flats, I just suck at climbing and now its funny every time I ask the question.