Day 15: 10,000 miles

Waking up this morning, the atmosphere in camp was different, jubilant. We'd all made it to the last day of an incredibly difficult ride! The hardest part is that this 1000 mile ride is relentless. Our route took us up and down hundreds - maybe thousands or even millions - of hills (one's perception can definitely be influenced by time spent in the saddle). And there wasn't one day that the ENTIRE day's ride was easy. However, I loved it, even the hard parts. That's especially true because the hills are behind me now.

I had great hopes that the New Bike Fairy would come visit me today, and I let everyone who rode with me know about the New Bike Fairy, and that I was going to be visited VERY SOON. You know about the New Bike Fairy, right? That's who brings new bikes, of course! And I thought, because my odometer only has 5 number slots, after my bike turns 9999.9, it would go back to zero (which would be just like a new bike). Instead, the computer just drops the decimal point. That's cool and everything, but it DOES mean that I have to go another 99,970 miles before the NBF notices and magically brings me a new bike. Marie took a picture of what a cyclist looks like after 10,000 miles (spread out over 4 seasons!).

There was a lot of standing around and picking our collective nose after our SHORT 36 mile ride from Olema to San Francisco; some of it was spent watching the bridge (it didn’t go anywhere, except into the fog). We had to wait until we were all gathered on one side of the bridge so that we could be staged - that's so that family & friends could be waiting for us at the finish line.

Then, we crossed to the other side! The Golden Gate Bridge was fun...lots of bike traffic today. A few of us got lost getting to the finish line, despite being so carefully staged, but we eventually made it. At the end, there was very little ceremony – David handed out our certificates and we were released to the wind...sort of. The ALA still held our luggage hostage until we arrived at the Comfort Inn by the Bay, where it was all loaded. THAT was fun - fortunately, the group that I was in had a Real Native San Franciscan, so we were guided to the hotel. I know that everyone made it back to the truck because all the bags were gone shortly after the luggage had been offloaded.

Charlie & I are staying with Steve’s family (Steve rode the BR 06 with us). After I’d dropped my stuff, I nearly immediately turned around and went back into town to meet with the gang for dinner. I got an extra 12 or so miles in. Glad I went!

**Note: I *did* take pictures. However, there are some technical difficulties which are obstructing the completion of the entries from yesterday, today, and any future dates. Until I can figure out how to transfer my pictures from my camera to my computer, you'll have to imagine all the super-awesome-wicked-cool things I saw.