Day 69

Happy first day of August! We can't believe we've made it this far and summer is coming to a close! Eric dedicated the ride to Alex, a 5-year-old boy who won a four year fight against leukemia. We met him and his mom at Crater Lake National Park while making peanut butter and jelly, and both have become strongly involved with cancer support and research locally during their own battle with cancer.We are on the home stretch! Today is our last almost-century. But not a century; only 95 miles, with 4,400 feet of climbing. Around mile 75, we realized we were 100 miles away from San Francisco. We had some fun today, stopping at every rest stop for the full "fast food crawl" experience. This included Jack in the Box, a new restaurant for many of us. The ride was also through wine country, and we rode by many vineyards and wineries. Instead of grass, California has cacti and blackberry bushes, both of which are not too nice to bike tires. Today was long and extraordinarily hot, peaking at 104 degrees. Remember when we were freezing this morning and had to wear warmers?Tonight we got in late to Healdsburg, at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, which has a very steep uphill driveway. Then Connor's parents bought the team pizza: half of a Little Caesars pizza per rider!