[Written from home Sun, 6/1, pm]
Not a regular day. No packing bags and carrying to truck. No 80 + mile ride. No hills - all downhill to sea level. Everyone excited and sad that we wouldn't be with 30 good friends after the day was over. I was happy that this adventure was coming to a close and that I'd be going home to family. I was also very pleased with how well I did and that I'd met objectives of: 1) Making it safely across, 2) Having fun, 3) Making new friends and 4) Riding almost every mile.
We got underway at 7:05 am. I pedaled hard and stayed with the lead group of about 8 people as we rode through neighborhoods and boroughs of Boston. In no time at all we stopped at mile 13.5 at a library to wait for all riders to gather to finish the ride together. At this point we assembled in a line, 2 by 2 with a lead van and a tail van and rode the remaining miles to the beach. Pretty emotional. Hard to describe but I was excited and thrilled and found it hard to believe that we'd a started in Los Angeles - this seemed like another lifetime ago. As we approached the beach we stopped for a few minutes to allow time for families to gather at the road going down to the beach. Then we proceeded and there was cheering as we rode into view. It was just hard to believe that this moment had arrived.
Stopped at pavilion on road by the beach. Everyone dismounted, took off bike shoes and carried their bike down to the beach and dipped the front wheel into the ocean. After pictures a group of us had decided beforehand that we'd dive into the ocean and that is what we did. I took my bike flag with me. A joyful and satisfying moment.
celebratory charge into the ocean
2 comments:
Welcome back Gil. And again congratulations on such accomplishment.
What a fun experience reading the blog!
Thank you all so much. Waiting to read more stories.
Adeel
Gil, what an accomplishment! And such fun checking the blog to see where you were and what you saw and did when you weren't riding.
Congratulations to all of you!
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