Hi everyone! Welcome to day 25 out our journey. Day 25 turned out to be a loooong day with many twists, turns, flats, and friendships made along the way.

The morning started out with a “who can hold a plank the longest” competition. Cal won followed very closely by Rose, followed not closely at all by any of the rest of us.

Afterwards, the riding began. We had almost 90 miles of riding and about almost all of them were on a biking trail. The trail went through a path that used to be a railroad, so we got to see a lot of nice scenery and even went through three tunnels. The tunnel was fun the first time, interesting the second, and third made some of our riders go just a little bit insane. There is just something about walking in complete darkness with just the sound of water drops to keep you company…

Aside from the tunnels, the day seemed to last for a whole eternity. We all moved very slowly, took our time at the rest stops, and got lots of flats along the route, including Cal getting two of them in one day. The trail was not paved which slowed us down considerably but gave us plenty of opportunities for conversations on the bike.

At the end, we had to go through some water crossings due to recent flooding and wet our shoos, but nothing any of us couldn’t handle.

We were rewarded at the end of the day by a fabulous stayover in an actual hotel and a dinner of Olive Garden provided by Mercedes and her parents. It was the absolute best end for a very long and exhausting day. Sleeping in a real bed and having a hot shower that you have to share with only a couple more people seemed like a luxury of the lifetime to all of us, and we certainly took advantage of it to the fullest.

-Valerie