June 21 - 25

Sorry!  We've been busy and have had a limited access to wifi the past few days...  So here is a blog entry for June 21-25!  Also, writing in 3rd person is a little disorienting...
June 21 - Friday
Joel, John, Eric, and Sherry volunteered to mark the route that we would be taking on Monday.  Either they have really tricky roads and intersections in California or we are bad at following directions...  Anyways, due to John cutting his ankle on the roof bicycle rack we just barely made it to supper at Vanguard University.  Otherwise we spent a good deal of time sorting through our gear and lazing around.
June 22 - Saturday
We began to meet other cyclists during breakfast and lunch, after which Joel and John biked to the beach with 6 other cyclists.  Larry spent most of his day shuttling people from the airport to Vanguard.  Also, in the morning Joel helped stock the kitchen trailer's shelves with food while Eric flattened the boxes.  Both of us were reading labels and getting quite excited!  For supper we had "Asian Something on Rice"...  For not really knowing what it was it was actually quite good!
June 23 - Sunday
Breakfast, Panic Stop Training, Cone Dodging, and lunch!  A good use of a morning but then came the tire dipping!  After a worship service we all (about 100 cyclists) biked down to the beach, dipped our tires (and our feet/legs in the waves), had a prayer and pictures, and then headed back to Vanguard.  As an aside, we missed supper tonight...  But then most people went to bed early in order to have a bright and rested bike ride the next day!

June 24 - Monday, the First Day!!
The Stehouwer family was spread out for this ride.  All in all it was a very enjoyable day!  Biking with people you just met a few days before is great because there is always more to learn about each and every person.  For sure some people discovered their true capabilities and were brought to reality but all the same some did extremely well.  We (the Stehouwers) all made it through the day and were definitely ready for supper!
     9 flats and 2 falls total tour
June 25 - Tuesday - Reality...
Today we all learned the meaning of desert, sore muscles, and uphill...  Along with a great stretch of downhill riding which I would prefer to dwell longer on.  in the first 19 miles we climbed ~1500 ft which we then went joyfully back down until we finished 50 miles later.  My (Joel's) group got into camp around 2:30 (CA time) after fighting extreme heat (114* F) for the last 2 hours.  Sherry, Larry, and John came in an hour or so later with equal difficulty against the heat.  The lasagna supper was most definitely enjoyed fully!
     22 flats and 6 falls total tour.  John had 3 flats and Eric had 1 flat

 A new breed of trees.  Cell Tower Pines!  Fascinating

This is how Sherry, Larry, and John lived through the heat!