Today I had my first normal day of summer. I woke up late, wandered downstairs, and made myself a plate of scrambled eggs. I lay in the sun, jumped in the cold water, and ran out, shivering, to my towel. I read my book, took a shower, and thought to myself, “for the rest of the summer, I have a rest day EVERY day!” But then I realized, rest days aren’t that cool when I’m not on the bike trip. When I can’t wake up to Ellen’s funny sleep-noises, or spend the day doing piles and piles of laundry. Just like anything, rest days aren’t fun when they are a daily occurrence, when not followed by a day of one hundred uphill miles. I often got laughed at as “the complainer”, and I’ll admit, I am one of the most skilled whiners I have ever known. But when it comes down to it, I enjoyed the last two months more than most anything I have ever done.
I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone that was involved in the trip.
To all of the parents- who have worked tirelessly with us since October to get us going, and dedicated their summers to being the backbone of our trip. You are all awesome- every week was a treat and it was great getting to know all of you.
To Mark Richardson- who led us fearlessly for seven weeks, and became a great friend to each of us in the process.
To the Parkhurst family- who opened up their home to us, and our family and friends, so that we could have a perfect finale to our epic journey. Thank you so much for letting us into your beautiful home and being such generous hosts.
To Tish Lynn, my wonderful aunt- who worked diligently to get in touch with all of the newspapers along the way and generated a lot of great press for us, making it possible for us to reach (and exceed) our goal of $100,000.
To everyone who we met along the way- thank you so much. I have never seen such generosity as I did in the past two months. Thank you, also, for sharing your sad, touching, and often uplifting stories with us about cancer. After meeting countless people affected by cancer, it is so clear to me that we fundraised for the right cause.
And finally to the cyclists- you guys rock. I have incredible admiration for each of you, and cherish your friendships. I can’t wait to see you all (not Sarah… but you BETTER come visit!!) back at school. By the way, I wore a bathingsuit in public yesterday, tan lines revealed for the first time, and all I could think was how I wished you had all been there so I would have felt a little less awkward. Or at least we could have all felt awkward together.
It’s been four days since we dipped our tires, and our entire bodies, into the icy, salty Atlantic Ocean in Prout’s Neck. I have spent these few days “recovering”, or basically just being lazy. I sleepily move from meal to meal, lounge on the couch, or graze through the kitchen of my aunt’s house in Maine, where I am staying for a few days. I dragged myself out of my stupor today to go for a run, and it literally drained every ounce of energy out of me.
As you can see, I am not having the same restlessness problems that Gwen is apparently having. I was more than happy to climb into bed that first night on July 24th, and even happier to sleep past six o’clock the next morning. But when I crawl into bed at night, I find myself wishing I could turn around to find Sarah and Ellen in the bed opposite mine. When I eat a good meal, all I can think of is Renzo and Parker’s ongoing competition: who had the biggest appetite. I can hear Gwen’s voice in my head: trying to rap or singing some really bad Destiny’s Child song (say my name, say my name… when no one is arouuund). Or Brendon trying to find Renzo’s secret tickle spot, which he elatedly finally found on our last night in Raymond, Maine. It’s not the biking that I miss, as fun as it was, as much as the people. I can bike anywhere; the area around my house proved to be some of the most challenging and exhausting of the whole trip. But what I can’t find back in Stowe are the cyclists. I miss you all so much. Each of you guys made the trip for me: it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun or successful as it was if any one of you had not been there.
Well, I think I’ve gone on long enough. A big thanks to you all. Sorry that this was so long, props to you if you read the whole thing. I guess we Dukes just have a lot to say…
Cyclists, I await your phone calls. You know I’m always up for a good chat. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment