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I Biked Across The Country Today

That’s right, we did it.  All 31 riders of CUS 2010 ran frantically into the icy Pacific Ocean upon our arrival in Cannon Beach as a group.  We danced, screamed, cheered, did the hakka, and popped champagne in the ocean with so much adrenaline we couldn’t even feel how cold the water was.  After this, we hugged our parents and I am super glad that my Mom and Aunt Becky (and Sonya and Olivia) were able to come see me complete this journey.  And we concluded this celebration with the ceremonial wheel dip into the ocean.  My rear wheel went in the Atlantic 2.5 months ago, and I literally rode my Kazane into the water today.  I’m going to talk about the (uneventful) ride here, and go back to talk about the past three days if I have time.

Riding into the ocean!!

Mom and I

Bike and buuuiiiiilllllldddd!!

The ride here was again relatively uneventful, as we inched toward our goal.  We set out with different strategies on how to ride today, as I was super eager to complete the journey and arrive at the Pacific but others wanted to savor this last ride for every second.  We were going to ride into town and into the ocean as a group though, so those of us readier to get to Cannon Beach had to wait for the others who chose to take a two hour coffee break in the morning and ride real slow, which was some of the toughest waiting, but we all got there.  It was something like a 65 mile ride today, which could have been done by 10AM any other day but we didn’t arrive at the beach until 4:30PM.  After two months of working hard toward completing this one goal, I’m not sure I can say fully what it means, because it hasn’t really sank in yet entirely.  I rode Kazane clear across the country, coast to coast, mile for mile.

Tonight, after we got back and showered (warmed up) we had a picnic with other family and friends who had come to witness loved ones finish.  I was super hungry, about 8 hours after my 10AM lunch, and we had cold cut sandwhiches and tons of desserts, and good beer.  I wasn’t so much a fan of the Inversion IPA, but would definitely recommend Alaskan Amber, of which I saved a bottle cap for my bike.  We got to meet other rider’s family which was great, our leaders spoke, and then we had a fire down by the water.  My Mom and Aunt left after awhile, and I spent some more last minutes with the CUS family over beer and these really cool mini-hot-air-ballon wish things before hopping in the van to come back to church for the night.  Everyone is asleep by this point I’m sure, and I’ll be saying goodbyes tomorrow at Noah’s house in Portland…