Day 28 July 15, 2001

McKinleyville, CA - Rest Day

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           Not many people will allow 5 strangers to stay in their house. Even less will allow it on 16 hours notice. And the number decreases even further when those 5 strangers are clad in skin-tight lycra and smell like a junior high P.E. uniform that has gone unwashed for an entire semester. We were on our third consecutive day without having done laundry when we rolled into the Nicholls' driveway yesterday evening, but we were still welcomed with an open house and soft beds. For those of you not in on this Mormon connection thing, it's worth checking out. You have family everywhere you go.

           John and Cheryl have been our surrogate parents for this weekend, putting out cold cereal for us to eat in the morning (they were already at church meetings when we woke up), giving us the keys to the suburban to drive to church, introducing us to the members of the McKinleyville ward, and fixing an enormous meal of bowtie pasta, chicken, broccoli, bread, salad, and cake & ice cream which we devoured like the Neanderthals that we have become. The children of the ward were adorable and outright hilarious, the teachers were excellent, and the stake public affairs representative interviewed us following the meetings. This trip has us all wishing that "Everyday [was] like Sunday," but unfortunately they are not and translated that means that we have to get back on our bikes tomorrow. We've been following Le Tour de France (you have to say that like a real Frenchman) and currently Lance the Great is over a half hour behind the leader. We figure that if he can regain the lead by climbing the grueling Alps and Pyrrenees in the next few days, then we can cover the 300 or so miles to San Francisco by Thursday afternoon. Time will tell.