Day 1

Ok this is our route sheet for day one. We rode from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. I don't know why the picture isn't showing up, but you can click on it to see the HILLS and that we climbed. Every day we got a route sheet and I clipped it to my bike so I could look at at while I road. I picked up this tip from the seasoned riders from the training rides. You take a small binder clip and clip the sheet to the break wire tube things right next to the hand breaks.

My super nice parents woke up with Shauna and I at 4 am and drove us to the Cow Palace. It was still dark outside! This is by far the earliest I've waken up all year. Shauna is the girl in the front. Her back pack is made out of all recycled material! Sweeet

These are all the luggage trucks. They are filled with some of the happiest people awake at 4 am, volunteers who helped load our tents and bags every morning, and unload them every evening at camp. Each truck was labeled with a letter. I was letter C.

After we put our gear away, we headed into the main arena where a few people on the stage led us 2,500 riders in mass stretching warm-ups.

Shauna and I

On the way to Santa Cruz! Here is some lovely scenery. The girl on the left is Lisa. She is part of the Cal team too. Lisa, Amelia, and I trained together before AIDS/LifeCycle. The girl on the right is Ashleigh. Shauna and I randomly asked her for a ride to the BART station after Orientation Day and she rode with Amelia, Lisa, and I throughout the week. :D

Lisa and Ashleigh eating lunch on prickly grass. We are trying to stay on top of cardboard, but the prickly weed plants keep pinching us through our spandex. Good food. Lunch was usually sandwiches or wraps along with chips, cookies, power aid, fruit, and sometimes pasta salad. I had a greed wrist band, which is how they knew to give you vegetarian lunch or not. yum hummus.

Amelia and Ashleigh- we are taking a break to look at the view and stretch our legs.Day 1 was crazy. It was 80 miles long. The longest ride I had been on during training was 60 miles. I rode out from the Cow Palace at 7 am. It took an hour to get out of S.F. because of all the traffic lights. I arrived in Santa Cruz at 5 pm.

At camp, I stretched, showered in a truck, ate, and went to sleep. Lights out every night was at 9:30. We rose with the sun and retired with it too.