Victorville, CA

6.21.2010

Today‘s ride was one of my biggest accomplishments. It made sense that today was the longest day of the year, because it definitely felt like the longest day of my life. It was a trip of 95 miles from Santa Clarita to Victorville. To reach Victorville, however, we first had to pass through the San Bernadino mountains, over a ski resort known as Mount High. We climbed over a mile vertically along the mountain’s switchbacks. The uphill portion was a total of 12 miles long, and it took some serious willpower to reach the top. Every time we went around a corner, the paceline would hope that this was the final curve before we hit the summit. These hopes were in vain most of the time. After much swearing, we finally reached the downhill section and descended into the desert on the opposite side of the mountains. To climb the uphill section took the better part of 3 hours. Going down took the better part of 15 minutes.

It doesn't look so bad ... right?

Once we were off the mountain it was a short (and flat!) 15 mile ride to lodging through the salt flats. We’re starting to run low on cliff bars until our next shipment comes in, but fortunately we had a sponsored breakfast, lunch and dinner so I was well fed the whole day.

Once we got to lodging we got showered up and headed out to our friendship visit. I met two adorable girls named Ci-Ci and Shelby over dinner who were absolutely full of energy. Today’s visit was to a recreational center called the V.I.P. center. This organization specializes in weekend care and recreational activities for people with disabilities. Ci-Ci and Shelby were there with their parents, who had prepared a potluck dinner for the team with ham, turkey, fruit salad, chips and dip, and an awesome strawberry punch. After dinner, there was a hula hoop contest, a game with ping pong balls and tissue boxes, and plenty of music and dancing. We boogied down with the kids to the YMCA, the Macarena, the Cha Cha Slide, the Cupid Shuffle and Cotton Eye Joe. Ci-Ci was pretty flirty for a 15 year old girl, but we still had fun dancing. The littlest ones kept wanting us to pick them up in the air, but Todd Stacy our Project Manager wasn’t too happy that we were doing so. When it was finally time to leave, we were all very full and very tired. Time to rest up for another ride tomorrow.

This was the happiest moment of the whole trip so far. When I looked up and didn't see mountain in front of me anymore.