Saturday, August 1st, 2015

Start/End: Kelseyville/Petaluma, CA
Mileage: 70.8+
Weather: Beautiful. Highs in the mid 70s, sunny.

Ok. So I have to admit that I spoke too soon when I titled yesterday’s blog, because today we had over 5,000 feet of climbing today. But don’t worry, it was, well, it was. We are so thankful for the Grace Community Church in Kelseyville for hosting us. We were so thankful for the wonderful breakfast they provided for us this morning. They brought in grape and orange juice, strawberries, watermelon, donuts, muffins and other pastries. This was a great start to the day.

We started off our day in Kelseyville very thankful that the wind had cleared any smoke from the nearby wildfire out of the area we were in. Today our ride was dedicated to a rider’s friend’s father, Bill Dove. During the earlier part of the ride, we learned that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer and was given a very small outlook. So today, we are riding for Bill and his fight.

Our ride started with a lot of uphill, which is an interesting way to warm up our muscles, especially after all of the climbing yesterday. Before too long, though, we entered this beautiful, green forest which had trees that draped over roadway. This is not something that we have experienced much during this trip at all, surprisingly. It was just so pretty! And it was great to climb hills when you aren’t sweating.

It took a while of going uphill, but we finally got some decent downhill to relax and take a break from pedaling. We had some great downhills that were steep and slightly windy, which was a lot of fun. We were all able to go at our own paces. Before lunch, we had a beautiful downhill that took us down into Napa Valley. We saw some beautiful vineyards and even went past the Old Faithful Geyser of California. Apparently there are 3 Old Faithful Geysers in the world, so it was pretty cool to see another.

After lunch we had another hill that just seemed to last forever. It overlooked the valley and was pretty to look at, though the hill was just not very fun. After our final rest stop, though, it was mostly downhill from there. We went through Santa Rosa on our way the Petaluma. We are so thankful to be back in the area of bike lanes and beautiful roads. It sure is nice! As we got near to the stayover, as usual, we had one last hill (well a few, but one that had a 21% grade,mor something truly ridiculous). Some battled their way up the hill, which is super impressive.

After arriving, we were so thankful that our wonderful hosts provided a great dinner of sandwiches and chicken, with sunny D to drink. It was amazing. Additionally we got to meet an amazing Illinois student, Lindsey Coleman who lives in the area. She will be a senior next year at U of I and has made some connections with I4K. She very generously brought us some water buffalo gelato! It was amazing and was such a great treat and we are thankful that she came out and hung out with us!

Well, it is our last night together so we are busy getting all loose ends tied up, from packing our bag to signing each other’s journals and reminiscing on memories from the trip…

Well. That is all from me now. Will try to write a blog for tomorrow, but it may be a little delayed,mom watch out on our social media for news of our arrival! Thanks for following this summer- I am so glad that we were able to share our amazing experience with everyone!
-LAH