MONTEREY! The Final Day.

Monterey.. The day we were all counting down to and waiting for but also wishing it would never come. Even now, 4 months after arriving at the beach, it's hard for me to think about because of how much I miss it and how I would give anything to go back to such an amazing day.

It's crazy to think that I can officially pinpoint and name the all-time best day of my life.

The day started off cold. It was freezing when we woke up. We were all buzzing with excitement and high energy but we knew how the end was coming. We got ready as we always did and met outside for route meeting. The final route meeting...Josiah, Emma, Rhys, and DK had made a surprise for us and wrote a rap that summed up the whole trip. It was really fun and so creative and perfect for the last route meeting. We are very much a fun crew that loves to mess around so I think it was perfect for summing up the summer. After meeting and delaying the biking as long as we could (longest route meeting ever), Natalie talked to us about what we had done this summer and put everything into perspective for us. She said so many amazing things and really gave us a sense of what we had accomplished. By the end of her talk, she had half of us in tears. After a prolonged and delayed start, we finally started biking, Colleen and I finishing out the last ride together. We didn't make it very far before we found a grocery store where we stayed and gathered as many team members as we could so that we could continue to stall the ride. We hung out there for about 2 hours, just eating, drinking coffee and talking and then actually started biking. The leaders were sweep that day so Colleen and I rode with them for a little while before some of the boys came and kicked us out of the leader group. After that, the ride dragged on. We couldn't wait to finally get to the beach. We were able to start smelling the ocean, which only tortured us further. When we were riding next to route one, we would see little glimpses of the water and get really excited and start to cry a little bit. Finally we made it to the van, where Natalie had parked it two miles from our final destination. We anxiously awaited sweep to get there and then all headed out as a massive group of 32, together to the water. We rode the last two miles on a bike trail, which had its downfalls due to tourists but when we finally got there and saw the water, we forgot all about that and freaked out.

The second I saw that ocean, I lost it. I immediately started crying, harder than I've ever cried. So hard that I had to get off my bike because I could no longer see the ground in front of me. I picked up my bike as high as I could and ran down the stairs to the water as fast as I could. What made it even worse was when I looked up behind me and saw my mom and dad smiling and waving at me and I lost it even more. At this point, I was sobbing from being so happy. I ran to the water and got in line with the rest of my team, tires ready to be dipped. Claire yelled "1, 2, 3!!!" and on 3 we all dipped the front wheel of our bikes into the ocean. The feeling I had at that moment was unreal. Words cannot be used to describe the amount of joy, bliss, and euphoria I felt. I had made it. I rode my bike across the entire damn country. 4,220 miles of pedaling, 18 days of houses being built and one tired tired body. I was finally there and everything hit me at once. I accomplished what seemed impossible. Colleen and I grabbed each other, hugging and crying uncontrollably. We all got our bikes to move them and do our last celebration but I threw mine down into the sand, ran to my parents and got the best hug of my life. Finally after 81 days of being away from my parents, they were back. Even though I was 4000 miles away from Charlotte and my house, I was finally home. Being in my mom and dad's arms was the absolute best feeling of my life. After I got to see them for a quick minute, the team all got together in a huddle in front of the ocean and we put "turn down for what" on the speaker. As soon as the bass dropped and the music went crazy, we all ran into the water, jumping and splashing, screaming and laughing, and just celebrating how happy we were and what a great feeling it was to be done. We didn't even realize how freezing the water was or how much the rocks were cutting our feet. We were just happy to be done, together, and safe.

The excitement and joy took a very very long time to wear off and we stayed out on the beach taking pictures, telling stories and meeting each other's families. I got to talk to my parents face to face for the first time in almost three months. Everything in the world was good on this day. There was not one single thing that I would have wanted to change or would change, even in hindsight. They say hindsight is 20/20 and that you could think of lots to change when looking back. Not on August 3rd, 2014. That was a perfect day. 110% the best day of my life. Even now when I'm writing this 4 months later, there isn't a single detail that I need to search through my pictures to try to recall. Every second of that day is crystal clear. Like it happened yesterday. I would do anything to do Bike & Build again. Even when I realized how lucky I was for the experience during the summer, I didn't realize how much it would affect me and how much I would think about it afterwards. It really was the best summer ever.