08.21 San Francisco, CA

Congrats SUS 07!!!

Sorry for the delay finish, but the past few days have been kind of crazy. So I left off in Napa.

08.15: We rode about 50 miles to Camp Taylor near Point Reyes. I rode with Team Tardy and it was a great day. We had lots of '&' stops, including a goat farm and best of all, a cheese factory where we bought bread, cheese and wine and had a little party on a bridge about .5 mile from our campsite. We also stopped earlier in the day at Starbucks and a drugstore to buy flair for our surprise. Our afternoon was spent decorating a pillowcase cape for each SUS07 rider. We put nicknames on them for everyone and then piled on the flair (stickers, ribbons, etc.) Team Tardy-style. We hid them in our tent because we wanted to give them out at the bridge the next day. That night we all had chores to do...I cleaned/bleaches the coolers which was oh so much fun. We had a campfire, sausages and s'mores that night and all sat around and reminisced about the summer.

08.16 I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. I could not believe that in a few short hours I would be DONE and be with Evan and my family. The ride was short - only 25 miles and it went by really fast. I rode with Team Tardy again and we were singing and Matthew was telling everyone we passed that we had ridden all the way from Florida. My first view of the bay took my breath away and riding into the Golden Gate vista point to meet everyone blowing my party horn with Team Tardy was beyond words. We stopped and sang the first part of a Shania Twain song,

Looks like we made it
Look how far we've come my baby
We mighta took the long way
We knew we'd get there someday

They said, "I bet they'll never make it"
But just look at us holding on
We're still together still going strong

Then we gave out the capes one by one and it was picture time etc. At that moment, all the bad parts of the summer were gone and I was just amazed by this awesome group of people who just biked across the country. All the tourists were so funny because they had no idea what was going on. After a little while, we lined up and biked across the bridge wearing our capes. It was pretty spectacular. The bridge is HUGE and we went right into a fog. There were about 50 people awaiting us on the other side with signs and cheers. I was shaking. My mom, dad, Lexi and Evan greeted me with flowers and hugs. We made our way over to the beach where the riders dipped their front wheels into the water and then most of us jumped in. After rounds bike over head photos, we had a great lunch provided by Molly's parents and champagne and toasts (my dad added a corny poem to the toast of course). The Providence to San Francisco Bike and Build trip arrived about an hour after us (we beat them! hehe) and some people went over to say hi. I left with my parents and Evan to drop my bike off at Evan's apartment and then drive to the hotel. We enjoyed the hot tub for a while and I relished the hot shower (and comfy beds). We drove back to the city to Don Ramon's for the Bike and Build dinner. Good food, good talk, presentations, awards, etc.

And now it's OVER. And I'm so happy. It was a great experience...that I will never do again. haha. A new chapter is opening for me. Time for apartment hunting and city exploring. Welcome to San Francisco. :)