Day 36, Miranda CA

The alarm goes off sharply at 7am, I rise up like always, half startled but my mind racing and filling up with things that need to be accomplished. I need to brush teeth, get dressed, stretch, clean the water bottles, and wake up the rest of the team. We slept in a bed last night, a luxury we no longer take for granted. Its sure cold outside, the dew is over everything and the town of Fort Brag is cool with the ocean air, locals call it the Air Conditioned Coast. I was pleased to have a warm breakfast, eggs and buttered toast, and a local tea called Mendo Tea, stronger then coffee some might say. Me, Kyle, and Andi sat with the pastor and talked for 2 hours of politics and current events, all the while I kept calling up Alyson and Nathan on my cellphone hoping they would answer, they never did. It was 9:30am when we left the house (Kyle talked a lot and knew a lot, I think he should be a professor someday) we drove down to Nathan and Alyson's home for the night and found them still sleeping!!!

Ingrained in me is a yearning desire to make the most of my days, to be on time, and to get things done. One of my pet peeves is being late (that might be the military training talking). It's the hardest thing getting the team up in the morning. I've tried everything, playing loud noises, pulling the blankets off their bodies, yanking the pillow from underneath them, and deflating the air mattresses, I've also tried kinder approaches, such as waking them up individually and nudging them quietly to get up or letting them sleep for an extra 5 min if they promise they will get up (they don't). I'm usually up and ready to go out the door in 10 min it takes the rest of the team an hour. You can imagine my frustration when we arrived at Nathan and Alyson's home for the day and finding them sleeping at 10am.

Now I try to be patient and that is one thing this trip has taught me is patience. So instead of getting mad and pointing fingers I sat softly in the van and listened to music keeping my mouth shut. You can't cry over spilled milk or take back time. It was too late to argue and i've learned to let things go. So because of this we were in late running for our 80 mile day.

It turned out that the roads were fairly easy going and we started to make good time,we said goodbye to the ocean (for now) and said hello to Redwood National Park.


The roads are a lot hillier and the curbs jump right at you. The smell of fresh cut wood is prevalent in the air and the sun cast plenty of shadows through the trees. It kind of looks like Planet Endor from Starwars, you know that planet with those little fuzzy creatures that live in the giant trees...you know the ones that look like giant teddy bears (again sorry for making Starwars comparisons)....but again....It's a new kind of beautiful. Nathan has especially been enjoying this part of the trip. He has definitely lost weight, I guess biking all the time will do that to you.

However our day was stunted when Alyson started to feel sick. Luckily we believe its nothing serious probably the bug that is being passed down from the rest of the group members, Andi had it, Kyle had it, I had it, now we think Alyson has it. It all has to do with the constant change in ecosystems and our bodies not being able to catch up properly. Alyson sat out and we had to add her load onto ourselves.

We worked the best we could and were able to make it to our 35th stop, Miranda.

Right now Alyson is in a hotel for the night (we take care of her) while me, Andi, Kyle, and Nathan are sleeping in a tent located in Giant Redwoods RV park. The night is cooling down rapidly so we will be cuddling up...in the most manly way possible. Were all hoping Alyson will be feeling better. Andi is back on a bike after his great fall and Kyle is still holding off from straining his leg further (he should be better in a week). Until tomorrow, good day.