Vancouver, BC, CA - Wheel Dip

Somehow Dan didn't get the message that we only had 12 miles of riding, so we all woke up at the planned 8am wake-up time to "The Final Countdown." It was the song we woke up to on our first day of riding, only appropriate to hear it on our last day.

We still had three hours before we needed to leave, so some went back to sleep, some worked on their bikes and some ate a leisurely, leisurely breakfast. I headed over to Starbucks riding with Kate and Kathy and meeting up with Kevin, Bobby and Dae who walked there. Since it was our last day, we reminisced about the trip talking about our best and worst days of the summer.

Returning back to the church, the standard clean-up process moved rather slowly, but we were in no rush and this was our last time we'd be going through it all. There was a definite excitement floating around, but it was still hard grasp that today was our last group ride, reaching our final destination, and moving on and past Bike and Build.

Music blared from the van while we were getting ready and Christopher, supported by all the guys, did a rap asking Kathy to be sweep with him on the ride. It was a circus.

Again, a short ride from Richmond to Vancouver, mostly on the Cypress Trail bike path. I was amazed at the amoung of bike paths that criss crosssed in, out and through Vancouver; it's extremely bike friendly. We crossed the Arthur Laing bridge which had a dedicated bike lane/path, but was basically a spacious shoulder on a major highway. It was easy and felt safe, something like that wouldn't happen in the states, I mean, bikes are illegal to ride on major highways.

After lots of residential and back roads, we moved closer to the waterfront and met up at the Sylvia Hotel on Beach Avenue, not more than half a mile from our final destination. Once all 30 of us arrived, we moved en masse to finish the last bit of riding and jump into the Pacific.

Once we reached the beach, everyone went straight for the water and we celebrated. This was our moment. It was great to see the parents, friends, and family that had come to celebrate with us. Champagne bottles opened, bikes thrown into the water (well, just Sean's) and pictures taken. Lindsey's parents provided some food for lunch and we had our own spread too and a cake appeared as well. Isaiah had a water cooler dumped on him and Kathy had a cooler filled with red gatorade dumped on her.

And that was that. Formally, our cross-country biking trip to raise money and awareness for affordable housing that started on the complete opposite side of the country in Portsmouth, NH on June 21st ended.

From the beach, we rode over to a community center to take showers. Then we rode to the Harbor Light Salvation Army that we'd be staying at for our stay in Vancouver.

That caps the last ride for us. More posts with thoughts and pictures will be up soon. Stay tuned.