Whew! It’s getting harder and harder to blog every day. I think I’ve been doing relatively good though! Luckily, there’s only a couple of blogs left before this highlight reel ends, and I return to my normal non-blog worthy life! I’m not too sure why I’m so happy about that except that I won’t feel the pressure to blog every night. Anyway, after I blogged yesterday, we went out and walked around Santa Monica. Here are some pictures:
Aaron, Danny, and I explored the pier before getting hungry and meeting the rest of the team at Hooters! Draft beer was $4 for 24 ounces, and there was an all you can eat wing special but we were only able to eat 25 wings before the kitchen closed for the night. Then we went to bed and I didn’t blog.
The next morning, we woke up and went to USC’s Cancer Center for our service day! We met the executives there and they talked about their Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer program.
This program was founded with help from Doug Ulman! After chatting for a while about what they do and sharing our stories, we all split into groups to meet cancer patients and talk to them! My group was Taylor, Allison, Haley, and Michelle. We met a woman who was diagnosed with lung cancer, but has gotten it under control and was preparing for a vacation to Maui! She said that her diagnosis caused her to completely reevaluate her life and that she is ironically thankful that it happened. She quit her job as an animator for Disney drawing princesses and fairies and is now focusing on her own artwork. Her story was inspiring to me and we had a great time talking about the ride!
When we got back to our host, we had lunch and then a few of us went to a bike shop to get some stuff. While we were there, Allison’s family walked right in to the bike shop to surprise her! She knew that they would be in San Diego, but had no idea that they were coming to see her early. Then, some of us walked around the 3rd street promenade. We encountered some awesome dudes playing music, a guy shouting profanities at people, and a dude filming himself dancing around while balancing a water bottle on his head.
People do what they want here. It’s kinda really cool. Anyway, Kirk and I went in a bunch of stores and ended up in O’Neill’s (a surf shop) and met Malia Manuel, a professional surfer competing in the US Open!
She was really nice and we got to talk to her for a while! We then walked back to the host for dinner where we met our host’s home stays. There were three girls, one from France and two from Belgium who were visiting LA for a couple of weeks! It was cool talking to them! After dinner, we biked to Venice Beach. It was getting dark and was a little sketchy. Lisa decided to get a tattoo late at night, on the Venice Beach boardwalk, in a sketchy tattoo shop.
She got a small 4k logo on her wrist. It took about 2 minutes to do the tattoo and it came out really well! We then biked back to the host where I fixed my broken spoke nipple, organized my duffel/life, and went to sleep.
Remember to comment and look out for my next post coming shortly!
Tyler Stocksdale's 4K Ride 
Hi Tyler! “Blog fatigue” sets in after awhile —- but you have been amazing at fighting it and sticking with it, along with many of your buddies! Thank you to you and all of you for sharing the ups and downs and joys and pains of your awesome journey. Can’t wait to see all of you soon!!!!!!!! Congrats !
Ernie
Thank you Tyler for dedicating another portion of you r bike ride to my friend Avis. She fought so long and so hard, but her body just couldn’t fight it any linger.
Venice beach was icky and sketchy when we were there during the day. Talya and I were anxious to leave. Can’t imagine how it is at night. Glad all went well with the tatoo!
I agree.