Today was a relatively easy day. We woke up at 5:30, got breakfast (half bagel, half banana, and cup of cereal), and packed up. We were supposed to be packed up and ready by 6:00, but we were late by about 10 minutes, so tomorrow, we get to wake up at 5:00 =(. We immediately started to bike towards Sacramento, CA. At first, we were cruising at like 18 mph. Then we hit the first medium sized mountain, followed by a larger sized mountain. Like most people, I was struggling, especially by my lack of hill terrrian preparation (c’mon, there’s no mountains in the Midwest), but managed to climb ‘em at the pace of 5 mph. One of the kids in my place line was struggling and giving up after ever 10 minutes or so. Luckily, we helped motivate him enough to get over the hill. After the climb, we had a pretty steep downhill. Looking at my bike computer, I was reaching speeds of up to 35 mph, the fastest I have ever gone on a road bike. After we past the hilly terrain, we had good a good three and a half hours of flat land. We were a little behind pace, but we manage to cruise again at 18 mph. We finally made it to Sacramento where we were greeted at a park by a former member of a Journey of Hope team, who donated lunch to us, consisting of a Subway footlong sandwich, Sacramento Root Beer, and a couple cookies…the perfect lunch for a group of hungry cyclists.
After lunch, we rode to the state capital building of Sacramento, where we were greeted by participants of the Southland Facility Center. I must say, the capital building is by far the nicest I have ever seen for a state…tis tis Govenator.
We finished our journey by riding to lodging, where today, we stayed at a local middle school’s gymnasium. The school was alright, but the locker rooms could have been a little less gross. Hint to California: less money in the state capital building, more money to the school system. After we showered up, we went to the Southland Facility Center. All the participated greeted us with giant smiles and were awesome. After meeting a few of them, you could tell they were the happiest group of people in Sacramento. They had their inside jokes, and their disappointment in the Sacramento Kings. One of the cool ideas behind the center is their idea of to form a band. I guess they got a bunch of instruments donated (electric guitar, drums, keyboard, etc) and they had all the participants play each instrument. After a great pizza dinner, they gave us a little taste of their music. Wow, it was incredible. Everyone would play a different instrument for each song. They played songs that everybody knew like “girls” by the beastie boys. And you could tell they have been practicing a ton, before they were in sync and sounded great. It was cool to see that they sell CD’s and also artwork and sculptures that they make. Some of the lamp tables made out of stained glass were absolutely gorgeous. And the really neat part, was that whatever they make, they get to keep all of the profits. Overall, I really think what they are doing here is truly amazing and I’m glad that they expanded to 120 other “chapters” across the nation, because music can really bring out the best in people. After the successful friendship visit, we went back to the middle school gym for a good night’s rest.
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