"When you accomplish a goal don't look at it as the finish line; look at it as being the starting point for your next achievement." - anonymous but via Sarah's Aunt Jill Rosen
When we woke up everyone was full of emotions, excitement, happiness, eagerness, sadness, and worrisome were just a few of the many we felt. We were in the Hollister YMCA and it was time to pack up for our final ride. We had slept in quite late, 6:00, as the ride was going to be short and we felt we could enjoy the luxury of sleep, especially after we knew people were going to be up dance partying the night before. The YMCA opened at 8:00 though so we made sure to have all of our stuff packed and outside as well as the host cleaned up before we had breakfast, also outside.
We then enjoyed a breakfast of assorted foods, really just anything in the bins that we felt like eating, and began our route meeting. In the meeting we covered the route, a nice 42 mile ride with about 1000 ft up and just over 1,000 ft down, Natalie said some words for our last day, we covered sweepstakes, Lisa's news update of the day from her dad included the city of Monterey welcoming 29 rides to the Pacific, Sarah shared her Aunt Jill's quote of the day (see above), and we had our morning chant. The chant was a collaboration of all of our best chants from the summer (video to come at a late date). Then the group was mounting up.
The plan was that everyone was to meet up with the trailer 4 miles out and wait so we could ride the last leg of the trip as one big group. Margaret and I were sweeping for the day so we watched everyone head out and then since today was no rush we decided to grab a warm breakfast before our final ride. We went down to a diner had a meal that I though would definitely slow us down a bit and then saddled up.
The ride out of Hollister was nice. We rode along some farms for a bit and then up and over our final climb. The hill was windy and partially shaded with some great views and no cars but also with a fairly rough road. It was worth it though because when we reached the summit and looked left there it was. We had the Pacific in sight. We road on down the hill cruising and loving the wind as it blew by.
The road continued with head winds most of the way regardless of the fact that we turned multiple times but we road on into Hollister making just one last stop to use the restrooms and grab an American flag at Walmart. The ride took us past some more farm fields, through town, and to a bike path that went along the shore. We were less than a quarter mile from the Pacific and just riding parallel for quite a bit. The view was amazing and a great chance to reflect before we were all together. A quick photo in two spot and then we were pulling up to everyone.
When we arrived at the lunch stop I rigged the flag up with the help of some tape and sticks (it made it about a mile before I tore the thing off and decided to just pull it out at the beach. We road along the path that became pretty busy as we came closer to the section of beach where our friends and family had assembled. We were in a single 30 person line of people which made for a bit of a traffic jam so as we passed through most crowds we of us were just saying sorry excuse us we bikes here from Florida. As a result we also got a decent bit of cheering from some people we passed.
Finally we rounded the last turn and were welcomed by everyone who had come out to see us. We put our bikes down and greeted them, we hugged each other, and just were so excited to have done it, including Steph who rode the whole day even after her bad spill a few days ago. Sally had come out all the way from Dallas with her mom, daughter, and grandson. They had bought a lot of champagne for us which we all proceeded to shake and spray until it wasn't spraying anymore, only then did we drink what was left in the bottle. It was an incredible experience.
Once we had all settled down a bit as a group we did the same chant as from that morning and headed down to the ocean to jump in together. The water was not nearly as cold as some people had expected it would be so we swam around for awhile splashing with joy. Then we grabbed our bikes did the dipped out wheels and took a LOT of photos.
Finally we went back to the picnic area to eat and drink the wonderful picnic our parents had provided. We had so much food, including cute bike shaped cookies from Emily's parents. It was great to just enjoy this accomplishment together and with those who had supported us for so much of the journey. When we were ready we collected our bikes, each grabbed a bike and build decorated frisbee (made to look like the B&B logo), I think provided by Sally and headed off to the host.
For the next 2 hours or so people went off in groups to use the hotel rooms and showers as our host didn't have any. It was nice to clean off and I was quite appreciative of the clean suitcase of clothes my mom had brought me. Once clean we returned to the host and hung around a bit before heading to our riders only bone fire celebration on the beach.
Benji's mom had been a huge help by reserving one of the three fire pit on the beach for us. She had been there though since the picnic ended. Therefore while a few of us, who weren't going to be around to in the morning, disassembled and boxed our bikes, others went and relived her from the beach. We then shuttled on over and had a great time.
We had DMed free chipotle, had some beer and liquor provided by friends and family, as well as a large fire wood pile from my mom (thanks mom), and an awesome cake from Sarah's Aunts. We sat around the fire, reminisced over our trip, jokes, told stories, discussed how bad B&B withdrawal was going to be, and listened as Ben played a few songs on his ukulele. It was a sad and emotional evening that eventually took us back to the host around 10:00/10:30. There some people stayed up continuing with more of the same while others slowly went off to bed, tired from the long day.
Eventually I turned in myself once only a few people were still awake. I decided to grab my stuff though and went off to my moms hotel as I had made a crazy stupid or crazy fun, still not sure, decision to run the San Francisco Half Marathon the next morning. I left so as to not wake people when I had to head out early in the morning. I did though say good-bye to Margaret, Lauren, Noah, and Lisa as they were all leaving before I would get back.
It was a bittersweet day as we completed our adventure, but bike and build isn't over for us. We fundraised over $160,000, bikes over 4,100 miles, volunteered for 15 days, saw incredible sites, met people all across the country, enjoyed the amazing hospitality of complete strangers, and turned 30 complete strangers into what will be life long friends. We may have reached the Pacific Ocean but we are not done. We will be friends forever, we have already begun to plan reunions, we have already signed up for other half marathons together, discussed different local rides to do together near where we live, and many of us and done much to plan for adventures to come. As Sarah's Aunt Jill quote said "[this is] the starting point for your next achievement." What will be the first next achievement I can't say quite yet, but we have at least 50 in the works already. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my last truly free summer or group of people to spend it with. I can wait to see what we all do next.