Miles:  56.44

Riding Time:  4:11:38

Average Speed:  13.4

Cum. Miles:  3395.85

This morning somehow we all slept through one alarm but was awakened by the second.  This morning was the last packing of the tent as well as breakfast out of the truck.  Breakfast this morning had Starbuck's coffee too, which was awesome.  Right before breakfast was open, Ben and I helped Helyn change her flat tire.  Of course, since I was hungry, her tire put up a fight with us and took a little time to get on.  We then ate breakfast and were ready to hit the road.  It started out rather cold as we were leaving the campground, but it soon warmed up.  We had to be at the first waterstop by 9:30, and we were in plenty of time.  I had time to drink 2 cups of Starbuck's coffee there too that Kathy was nice enough to provide us with.  A couple former big rider's meet up with us at the stop too, I guess they road the rest of the way in with some of us riders.

For just about the whole trip today we passed tons of cyclists on the roads flying by us.  We are so use to just seeing us on the road, it was almost a little weird to pass so many more cyclists all decked out in their uniforms too.  We also passed some rediculous sized mansions as we approached D.C., that looked nothing like anything we have passed the entire trip.  We made our way onto this bike/jogging/walking path that took us all the way into D.C.  The path was covered with joggers, walkers and other cyclists going both ways.  I was in the front navigating through the crowds and I would of loved to see from a walkers perspective what it looked like for 5 kids in matching biking uniforms weaving in and out of everyone.  This path basically opened up to the Potomac river and then the Lincoln memorial.   As we were going around the Lincoln memorial towards breakfast, I spotted my family waiting up on the side of the road.  It was cool to see them even though it wasn't the finish line yet, but it was weird to just say hi and bye to go eat lunch.  Ane also had a surprise run in with her mom and brother.

On our way into lunch we got stopped at a red light.  Then about 5 or so cars back we saw some random guy stand up in his sunroof and yell something like " Hey Big Riders! Welcome to D.C."  For some reason that felt so good to hear a random guy yell that, and thats kind of when the whole end of the ride feeling started coming to me.  Lunch was free and hosted to us by a former big rider in the old post office building at the Greek Taverna.  After eating we had our last group photo and then it was time to head out to cross the finish line in groups of 2 or 3.  Ane and Liz finished right in front of Ben, Michael Yee and I.  It was crazy to see all the people lined up on both sides of the sidewalk yelling and cheering at us as we came in.

Then it came to the point where it was time to walk around and say goodbye to the 45ish riders and support staff who we have spent our entire summer with.  That was a weird feeling to just go up to all of them and basically say goodbye, knowing that I probably wont see a good majority of them ever again.  We all then wondered our way up to the gear truck for the final unloading of it.  After unloading, I said a few final goodbyes and then I was in the car with my family on the way home.  All of a sudden, my entire surreal summer, not living in the real world or worrying about  anything, was just over.   I went home, had a cook out with some family and friends and then feel asleep quite fast on my own bed.

Special thanks to all the people who came out to D.C. to welcome me home.
-Mom, Dad, Jessica, Danny, Chelsea, the Hartranft's, Uncle Andy, Matt Ng and family, Andrew, Praveen, Erik and Katie

PICTURES FOR THE DAY! 

There are no comments to this entry.