Mackenzie dedicated the ride today per request of his uncle to his Aunt Irene Arciszewiski, who died of melanoma.

Mount Shasta to Redding California. Today was something else lemme tell ya. Although we knew ahead of time that the temperatures would be above 100 degrees, per team vote last night, we elected to keep wake up at a normal 5:45 instead of 4:45 this morning to beat the heat. I regretted being on the 5:45 team at right around 11:00 AM.

Around mile 10 we had to be shuttled two miles because a semi truck had flipped over. It was chilling to pass by the overturned van and see the 40 foot vehicle on its side.  After that two of my group members, Logan and Neeca, had to be picked up by the van because both of their tires got annihilated by an unknown thing. We had lunch at a McDonald’s, where we were all prepared with the downloaded McDonalds app for deals. After that the last 8 miles of the day were brutal. Even on the last downhill of the day, the heat hitting our faces felt like, in the words of Zach, “a hairdryer”, instead of a cool breeze. We pretty much ran inside the United Methodist Church for the air conditioning when we arrived. Overall Interstate 5 was terrible and I think I’ll have nightmares about it.

UMC has been a stayover for our team for the past five years, and for good reason. While eating the potluck dinner of enchiladas, beans, watermelon salad, and other luxuries, we were able to speak with some exceedingly friendly and interesting church members. One person in particular that stood out to me was Mabel, the kind of 82 woman who everyone in the community knows. With dyed red hair that “makes everyone remember her” Maybel is a former Korean War marine veteran that was quick to make a joke, offer us advice like “I have a lot of friends, everyone I like I call my friend, even if they don’t like me back”, or poke fun at the other church members like referring to Peggy, the Director of Ministry, as the “the caption”.  She was very entertaining and made us wish that we could have the same level of pizzazz as her when were that age.

From the dinner conversation I also learned that Northern California and lower Oregon have a movement to succeed and form the state of Jefferson. It doesn’t seem like the proposed new state will actually come into existence, but it is quite interesting if you are curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_(proposed_Pacific_state)

Yet another day that started out comically hard and ended with a feeling of fulfillment.

Eyes on the prize.

MB