I will never forget the first 30 miles of the ride to Modesto. We left Yosemite early, as we usually do, but this time was different. I remember waking up to the music and staring at the ceiling, thinking about how I would do anything for just another hour of sleep. I remember this being the most difficult day for me when trying to get up and get the day going. My whole body was in pain from all of the hiking we had done two days previous and walking was a huge accomplishment in itself, let alone the 110 miles I had to bike that day. Everyone was clearly feeling the same way once I had gotten up and looked around at everyone. It looked like we had all been kicked in the calves repeatedly. Eventually we all got on our way and were ready to roll out. At first, no one was super excited to be biking again, especially after getting a full day off in one of the best national parks ever (my opinion, of course) but when we realized that we get to bike out and down from Yosemite, we changed our minds fairly quickly! The first 30 miles of that ride were 100% all down hill! I did not have to pedal once all the way to mile 30. It was such a fast and winding downhill too that it was really fun (and a little dangerous). Most groups split up during this so that we could all ride our own pace and take the hill as safely as possible. It was also kind of cool to pass through one section of the descent where you could feel the heat coming out of the park from the forest fire that was occurring during our stay. It got really smokey and really hot on that part of the road, even though we weren't even that close to the actual fire. After the 30 miles were over, the day took a dramatic turn and we were greeted with a massive hill and hill for the rest of the day. For me, it was an especially tiring day and I think it was because of being worn out after everything in Yosemite. In order for me to remember everything that happened that day, I even had to go back into my GPS watch maps and see what the road had looked like. The day into Modesto was so long and kind of bizarre that it feels like it was a bunch of different days when I think back to it. There were three different scenery and landscape changes, making it even more difficult for me to remember exactly what happened. We went from the mountains of Yosemite to the smaller mountains where there were still trees, right outside of Yosemite to the foothills where it seemed like there was just a lot of dirt and emptiness in the surroundings. And then finally, we made it to civilization in Modesto. This was also the day that Molly had gotten into her wreck with Micah. Some how Micah came out completely unscathed but Molly taught the road a lesson. There was just a massive hill and a 90 degree turn at the bottom of it and when you aren't expecting it, it can really take you by surprise and throw you off the bike. After making it out of the part of the foothills where there was still trees, we had to try to get through the plain, barren and deserted part of California. This was when the vineyards started to pop up but there were only a few every once in a while. I remember thinking about how cool it looked and how I had never seen a landscape like it before but as the day wore on, I was getting sick of it and really just wanted to see a tree again. For lunch, we stopped on the side of the road next to a vineyard and stole a couple of the grapes off the vine to try. They were actually pretty good and a fun experience! Once we finally made it into the host, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that they were giving us a potluck and had more food than we could imagine eating! It was also the last night that we were going to be giving our host an affordable housing presentation. As soon as the song in the video came on, it hit us all pretty hard - it was the first last of the trip. I know that I cried through the song and several others of us did too. It kind of put the ride into perspective and reminded me that even when it's unbearable, I love what I was doing and I wouldn't quit for anything. That night, a couple of us walked to the grocery store and bough big tubs of ice cream for the night. It was perfect :) The next day was our last build.. the second last of the trip..
The last build of the trip seemed to be one of the more enjoyable ones. Everyone was having fun and goofing off with each other, enjoying the day. Claire and I were put on the window committee and were rocking out putting the windows up for one of the houses. We kept making window jokes throughout the day and were trying to negotiate with the supervisor to give us a raise because of how good of a team we were. I also made it my personal goal to see how many of the goat heads I could get to stick to the bottom of my shoe by walking through the weeds. Eventually the whole thing was covered and I can still pull out little thorns to this day. That night, we all just laid around enjoying each other's company and talking about how excited we were to get to Pleasanton where we would get to take Shayan to his wheel dip since he had to leave early.
No comments:
Post a Comment