Dec 6th - But wait, there's more (there usually is)

December 6th was the last day we spent all together. A morning of recouping, sorting, and packing quickly lead to an afternoon of departures. First Adam to the airport, then
Miah, Jenna, David, Lissa in the first car. Sean, Abigail, Courtney, Meagan, & Travis headed north to HB and Emily Fox's wedding. Alexis' dad came to pick her up later in the afternoon. That left Danny, Ashley, Libby, Morgan, Julie, Jacob, and Becky with the very last, almost forgotten task of the Bike Trip... The Encinitas Holiday Parade.

We can still remember when Courtney asked us if we were interested. "How do people feel about being in a parade at the end of the trip?" Enthusiastic hands shot into the air, "I WILL NOT BE THERE TO HELP" he insisted, "I am so excited" "This is going to be awesome" was all that came back. None of us really remembered that conversation this day as we teased him "Thanks for signing us up for this, Courtney." I had spent the morning with Travis at the DAV (frequented Oceanside resale shop) looking for used holiday decorations. His keen eye scored a wreath, some tinsel, lights, and bobbles for under $20. I picked up some sweet new jeans for $4. With a few choice items borrowed from the Langens we had a rough enough idea to get rolling for the decorations.

People were electric when we returned, chomping at the bit to get started... Okay, not true, people had just ridden their bikes for three weeks straight and were tired. The outlook was grim. We'd been tossing around the idea of not even participating. There were a lot of factors against us. First of all most people wanted to or already planned on departing on the 6th. We thought there would only be 5 of us, I was kind of gutted. For awhile we were not going to be able to have the bus... Five people on bikes, whooo hooo Happy Holidays kiddos. Then there was a packet of information we were suppose to bring to the parade... that was sent to the island a couple of days before.

Fear not, things turned around; we logistically worked out a way for the bus to stay in Carlsbad, Julie Libby and Morgan decided to stay back, Travis' brother's school was also in the parade and could give us most of the info on start times, etc... but the ball really started rolling once Ashley saw the tutu. Travis and I were picking through old dress up clothes for people to wear, at this point Libby was considering riding on the top of the bus in a leotard and needed a skirt. We picked out a couple of options and then Travvy pulled out the tutu - a no brainer. I was showing Libby what we had picked out back at the Beach House, and Ashley's eyes perked up. "It really was the tutu that sold me." White with a red sequin trim and just about 4 inches of skirt, she slid that tutu around her waist and it was business time. Before long people started showing up and my anxiety washed away like an outgoing tide. Julie and Libby took on antler making, Morgan - lights, Jacob - directions and bobbles. Before long our little short bus was a delight of holiday making. Quickly we slipped into red and green bike gear, (thanks again, Voler!) stuck our cardboard antlers into our helmets, and we were off for Encinitas.

We pulled into the "staging" parking lot where all the other floats were putting together final touches. The floats that surrounded us were pretty impressive. You could tell they weren't whipped together in an afternoon and that lots of time and money had been put into them. Humbled, we watched as tiny boyscouts zoomed past on bikes and scooters with hand sewen antlers in their helmets wrapped in battery charged christmas lights. We still had to hang lights, bobbles, and our sign made out of outdated Seafood Watch Cards and we were late. Everyone that was riding went to go find our spot in the lineup since the directions were confusing. We sat in our alloted space "Red 66" and waited. We about busted with pride as our little bus turned the corner. Fully light up with christmas lights powered by our solar panel Ashley rocked up to our spot sporting the only brand new item we bought of all of the decorations - the Santa hat on her head.

We were buzzing as we turned off the main route that finished the parade. "That might have been the best thing we have EVER done" said Ashley. To the good people of Encinitas that were so incredibly supportive of our float and of our ride - THANK YOU. "Look at that bus!" "I love biking" "That float's my favorite!" and "San Francisco to Mexico? That's a long way" were just some of the comments were heard coming from the crowd. We also heard "You're almost to Mexico! Keep going!" but we didn't need to correct anyone, it was so rewarding to hear so many people excited about what we'd done. When the announcer explained that we were riding in celebration of 700 miles, the crowd exploded in applause. "My face hurt because I was grinning so much" said Ashley. Our only regret was that the rest of the riders didn't get to be there with us.


December 7th - finally no plans. We dropped Morgan off early in the morning, and Julie was picked up in the early evening. It was 11ish before we were coaxed out of the house by Jacob speaking of ride-able beginner's waves.

Tomorrow a small crew of us head back to the island - and finally we will all be underway with our winter plans, not to regroup until mid-February. Good luck to all of our friends reading this from home and abroad, we could not have asked for a better trip.

Happy Holidays, and enjoy doing things other than cycling all day every day for a bit... we did.