Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Our original promo video for the CCC

I never put this on the blog, but here's the video we created to raise money for the CCC...

It has clips from Christiana's last year of life :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The long-awaited videos

So I did a lot of video on the tour... and I compiled them into little videos (which basically needed to be separated by day because uploading would take very long and watching a 50-minute video in one sitting could get boring).

Here they are...

Day 0


Day 1


Day 2


Day 3 (Part 1)


Day 3 (Part 2)


Day 4


Day 5


Day 6


Day 7


Day 8

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Day 8: The End

Hello everyone... (this is Evelyn) sorry we left you hanging for a couple days after we finished the race. It's been crazy busy with moving me in back to school, catching up with school and getting everything finalized for Hoops for Hope.

Anyway

Day 8: I fell a couple times today... just didn't clip out off the bike in time. I think I was a little too anxious to get there. Plus I wanted to have some wounds when I got to the finish line. We were on Highway 1 and passed through Malibu for half the ride (it was exciting to see that Los Angeles was less than 50 miles away!!).

Day 8 was very flat. I loved it. Just some rolling hills only 200 ft high (nothing like the 1500 ft climb we'd mastered on some other days). As we approached our destination, we stopped off at a seafood restaurant that was tradition (I actually forget the name at the moment) and just ordered drinks and a few appetizers. We wanted to make it quick because we were 8 miles away and I had some school friends waiting for me at the finish line.

When we continued, we rode along the Santa Monica pier (the path was literally paved on the beach with sand on both sides) and we followed Jerry to a different path than the guide so we could skip the final hill. Little did we know skipping this hill would also skip the lovely fans waiting for us at the finish line. We came to the finish line from the opposite direction and started looking earnestly for the friends who were supposed to be there. Suddenly they came running out of nowhere saying they had been lined up the other side of the street where "everyone else had come." Oops.

I was blessed to have about 12 friends from UCLA come and see me at the finish line, and we enjoyed food and the closing ceremony and got medals! Now that I'm at school, I'm putting my bike back in the garage. I think I've biked enough to last me the rest of the year.

Here are some pictures... more will be sent out soon! :)

Day 1: San Francisco



Day 2: Monterey



Day 3: Big Sur



Day 4: Sea lions


Day 6: Cherry Pie


Day 7: Santa Barbara


Day 8: LOS ANGELES!!!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Day Seven - The Well Deserved Massage!

Today we rode from Solvang to Ventura. It was a total of 82 miles and 2800 ft. of climbing. It was one of the longer days but an easy ride. The view of the countryside was amazing. We rode on Hwy 101 for about 20 miles. They actually had a bike lane. We rode by Santa Barbara and the choppy ocean as the sun was starting to go down. It was beautiful. It got a little windy when we were putting up our tent. In fact, our tent almost blew away. Another biking team noticed our team and decided that they wanted to interview us and hear Christiana’s story. It can be viewed soon at www.c62007.blogspot.com. They have a recording of our interview. When we arrived into Ventura, we ended our day with a wonderful massage

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Day Six - Can you say, "Farms"?

We rode 66 miles today averaging 16 miles/hour. While Evelyn was “drafting” today, she fell and got a little bruised. Not too bad though. She did get back up and ride again. Today’s ride was more agricultural, not too coastal. We went through strawberry, cabbage, broccoli, cilantro, rosemary and parsley farms. It smelled real good. The pace was a little slower. We went through a town called Guadalupe (population 200) and stopped in a coffee shop for Chocolate Chai. Doesn’t that sound good? For lunch we went to a countryside store in the middle of nowhere and got some grilled corn (Mmmmm)! They wouldn’t let us use the bathroom at the store though so we had to bike a mile to use one of the porta potties some workers were using. We had to tackle a hill called “the wall”. It shoots straight up and was a mile long. Evelyn beat Dwight on the first hill and Dwight beat Evelyn on the second one. Dr. Balboni rode the whole way today despite her back problems. Dr. Hsu was “drafting” Dwight without even know it. When we finally approached Solvang, we were able to do our laundry. Yes!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Day Five - Hot Springs!

Evelyn learned how to “draft”, riding efficiently behind someone, for 30 miles or so at 20 miles/hour. Total mileage today was 63 miles today at an average of 14.1 miles/hr. It was a pretty easy ride. We stopped at a bakery called Lili’s Coffee and they had the best cherry pie ever! We went to downtown San Luis Obispo and visited bubble gum alley. Gum goes all along the wall and down the alley. One of our riders went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the 80’s and it existed then. We even saw a whale by Cayucos. At mile 55 miles we went swimming at a regular pool then jumped into the hot springs. It was 104 degrees of natural heat. Now we are at Pismo Beach. What a beautiful relaxing day (believe it or not).

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Day Four - Hundreds of Sea Lions

Today was clearer than all the other days and hotter. The day started with a 1.7 mile climb from Big Sur. It wasn’t too bad. After 40 miles we approached Twin Peaks which had a 3.7 mile climb. It was followed by a 2 mile down hill then a 2 mile uphill again. The rolling hills and the flat land followed. It was beautiful. After every turn there was a photo opportunity. We came across a beach with hundreds of sea lions lying on top of each other. Today wasn’t as hard as the first day but it was the most climbing, 4600 feet total. We rode a total of 64.2 miles.

We came across a couple on vacations driving a car with the license plate HELVSME The husband asked us what we thought it said. One of us said “hell vs. me”. The husband said, that's how he read it. The wife said it was supposed to be “he loves me”. So, how did you read it?

Anyway, tonight we are camping out by a beach in San Simeon. We can hear the ocean. Time to snooze and get ready for Pismo Beach tomorrow. Supposedly, hot springs await our arrival!

Monday, October 1, 2007

Day Three - In The Moment

Today was another beautiful day. Mostly clear until we got closer to Big Sur then it got foggy and cool. The Daily Route Guide had us scheduled to ride 37 miles but we did 43. We started in Monterey and detoured through 17 Mile Drive (a scenic route). We saw the most beautiful beach with one big sand dune which went up almost 15 feet high. We passed by Pebble Beach too. The deer and houses looked like a fairy tale. We then went to Carmel. fifteen of us found a coffee shop and took a well deserved break. We mostly rode along the coast. Lots of pictures were taken. There was one long climb and getting to the top made it all worth it. The view of the Pacific Ocean was crystal clear. Then on the way down, the wind was blowing 55 miles/hour on our faces. Today was quite easy and relaxed. Tomorrow, however, is supposed to be one of the hardest days. One guy approached Dwight and thanked him for being so open about Christiana because he lost his daughter 12 years ago and has had a hard time talking about her. Please pray for us.

We wanted to take a moment to share what Dwight and Dr. Balboni talked about at the opening ceremonies on Friday evening. Dr. Balboni gave a brief description of the medical side of things. She explained when Christiana was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and when she was diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis. She then mentioned how she had to call us in the middle of the night to tell us that we had to bring her to the hospital immediately. Dwight then talked about how Christiana felt the last time she was able to go outside. After weeks of not being able to go outside due to her time in ICU and overall medical instability, we were finally given the okay to wheel her outside. We wrapped her up in warm blankets and went on our way to the third floor outdoor patio. As we walked out, Christiana commented on how good it smelled. Someone was baking cookies. When we got outside, she closed her eyes and said, “Listen to that!” We couldn’t hear what she heard until a few seconds later and noticed an airplane approaching at a distance. She then said, “Do you see that?” We looked in the distance and saw traffic lights and thought that was what she was talking about. But it wasn’t. She was pointing to Christmas lights in the distance and was just fascinated by them. Shortly after that she said, “Do you feel that?” She closed her eyes and felt the cold breeze brushing up against her cheeks. Our time at the patio was the most incredible ten minutes and without realizing it, Christiana talked about most of her senses. It just shows you how we take life for granted and we must stop to enjoy the moment. Dwight mentioned to the bikers that as they drive from SF to LA, they should take the time to be “in the moment” and appreciate all their surroundings.