August 4th:
We woke up to a delicious breakfast served by our host family, Bob & Elva. We got to sleep in until about 8:00am and then meet up with the rest of the team at the church, where we would then bike 10 miles to the beach at Cape Meares. It was a strange feeling having to bike on our designated “rest day,” but since Jessie and I didn’t get to ride the day before, we were alright with it. We had to pack along our shower stuff and a change of clothes for after the ceremony and before dinner, so we made fun of Patrick for his excessive load:
Somehow, it was decided that we would ride out in a pack of 29 all the way to the beach. This was the worst decision made yet on the trip. It was nearly impossible for cars to pass, and even though we were on a road with very little traffic, it was evident that the few drivers that did pass by were irritated. The ride was beautiful, though. It took us to a more secluded area that had only a couple streets of beach houses. We were directed by Pastor Jerry, the most welcoming host we’ve had on our trip, to a community center, where we were fed a huge feast that was probably not deserved after just 10 miles.
They had a keg of beer from a local Tillamook brewery ready for us to tap into. BEST HOST EVER!
After we feasted, we headed down to the beach for the ceremony! Many of the photos I’m sharing with you come from one of the community members, Don, who has a fancy-shmancy camera and so generously took photos for our team.
The first order of business was to bury our ride directors, Zack & Kendra, in the sand. It’s my understanding that this is some sort of 4K tradition.
Then we lined up with our bikes and headed down to the water to dip our front tire in the Pacific Ocean!!!
We then got in a huddle and did our morning cheer on the beach…
…and afterward, we sprinted into the FREEZING COLD Pacific Ocean and celebrated with cheers, hugs, and laughter!
We took many photos to commemorate this epic day. It was so awesome to celebrate with the team and it helped me forget about how left out I’d felt the day before. Jessie agreed that it made up for our terrible host van day. Everything about this moment was so happy!
The beach itself was beautiful and it was the perfect spot for our celebration.
After things settled down, some people left, but I chose to remain on the beach, basking in the sun in the company of my teammates. A couple of hours later, those of us that were still there left in a pack of about 10 to head back to the church where the community was serving us another huge and delicious meal.
At the end of it all, Jessie, Hannah, and I rode back to our home stay house. Elva & Bob, our host mom and dad (or maybe it’s more appropriate to refer to them as our host grandparents), picked us up and drove us back to their home for one more night of sleep in comfortable beds.
As happy as I was to know that we weren’t quite finished with our journey, it was sort of a strange feeling to make it to the Pacific Ocean and still have a few more ride days before we got to Portland… which was now technically EAST of us. Anyway, I wasn’t complaining. I was grateful to spend more time with my 4K family!
Baltimore to Portland with 4K for Cancer 