With an easy mileage day, prom, and soon end of the ride, we chose to take it slow and make one of the last days of the ride memorable with shenanigans. We spent a long time at our first rest stop of the day, doing numerous things including trying different foods, coffees, thrifting, and exploring the local area. After dealing with some hazards on the road to get to our final stayover of the ride, the team got to spend the last night writing heartfelt messages to one another and dancing to some classics to celebrate the last night of the ride.
quote of the day
“Today felt like a lemons lemons lemons lemons lemons day”
ride overview
Mileage: 51.7 Miles
Elevation: 1,155 ft.
Points of Interest: Healdsburg, Downtown Bakery & Creamery, Flying Goat Cafe, Healdsburg Plaza, Wendy’s
Ride Dedication: Karen Scott
tales of the trail
The team’s goal for today was to take it slow. With the ride ending soon, it was a mutual agreement to make the day last by spending a longer time at rest stops to explore and make some final memories. The first rest stop of the day was in the city of Healdsburg. We spent a generous amount of time here getting coffee, bagels, and exploring the town. Many members of the team got bagels at Downtown Bakery & Creamery, and it was by far some of the best bagels we’ve had on this entire ride. Their combos on a bagel really hit the spot. Soon after, we tackled the Flying Goat Cafe next door to get some of the best coffee our team has had on this trip. Long story short, Healdsburg, CA is the place to be for breakfast. After enjoying our meals, there was a surprise! Alex had members of the team each write one letter on their chests to spell out the word “Prom?”, and Alex proposed to William at the Healdsburg Plaza! A late, but very welcome and creative proposal. Throughout the day, the team also took many selfies with one another as a challenge, and as a way to remember one another along these tiny moments on the ride. Before heading out of Healdsburg, the team decided to go thrifting for their promposal outfits to match the theme of “clown rodeo”. We spent hours trying to get the right fits for prom later tonight. It was fun being able to try on different accessories and seeing what people came up with.
After spending most of the day in Healdsburg, the team finally left to continue the rest of the day. On the way to Petaluma, groups got tack attacked! Despite the roads not looking super bad, in one section, there were a bunch of scattered tacks, and one group got the worst of it! One group had three of the four members get a flat due to a tack! The group was efficient in fixing all three of their flats in no time, and it was a spectacle to see that many members in one group working on their bikes at the same time. Soon after, another group got a flat from one of the tacks! Not to fret, they also got it fixed in no time. After dealing with the tacky road, the team pushed onto the final stretch, facing some heavy headwinds and crosswinds. A nice, tough final stretch to end the day.
Upon arriving at our stayover for the night, the team got ready for prom! People got into their outfits and got ready for the night. But before we could do that, we had to grab dinner! The team decided to get Wendy’s for the night, as it was quick and easy since we didn’t have a kitchen to make our traditional spaghetti and lentils. The Wendy’s was donated by one of our riders, Nicole! After we ate, it was time to get our prom on. Most of the night was spent signing each other's jerseys, journals, postcards, etc., writing heartfelt messages and professional signatures to have items to remember one another by. In addition to this, there was dancing and music, and we got to spend our last memorable nights together as a team, having fun.
Thank you to the United Church of Christ for being the final stayover location for our team! Thank you for being so communicative with the group and for being so willing to host us this year!
cyclist’s corner
Today’s Riders: William Xu, Eli Kujawa, and Dev Dassani