Day 68 – Favorite Day Ever

Boy was today a great day! Here are some pictures:

 

I dedicated today to Avis Halberstadt. If you have a sharp memory, you’ll remember that I dedicated a day to her a few weeks ago while she was still fighting cancer. Sadly, she recently passed away and today I rode in her memory.

I didn’t take many pictures on the ride today because it was so short! Only 48 miles! I rode with Taylor, Allison, and Kirsten. We completed the ride pretty quickly so we had as much time in Huntington Beach as possible. Here is the GPS route and data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/559786516

The ride started out a little chilly, and at the first water stop, we encountered a farmers market that happens every Thursday! We got a bag of pluots donated and also some popcorn! In case you’re like me and have no idea what pluots are, they are plums mixed with apricots! They’re really tasty! The popcorn was awesome! They had many different flavors, and the lady selling it let us try all of the flavors! There was caramel, kettle corn, cheddar jalepeno, and their specialty flavor. I’m not sure what exact flavor specialty is, but it was delicious! She was nice as can be and really brightened my day!

We then rode through cute little beach towns full of active people, restaurants, and surfers! Towards the end of the ride, we encountered another rider named John. I started talking to him and telling him what we are doing, and before I could finish, he told me he already knew who we were! He is a 5 year cancer survivor and heard about 4k through the Livestrong foundation. He’s been following our rides online this summer and knew that it must be us as soon as he saw the Ulman jerseys we were wearing. He rode up to us and we talked for a few miles since we were heading the same direction! Yet another day brightener!

We finally arrived at our host, the Carter family in Huntington Beach, CA. Taylor and I went to college with their daughter Hallie. Since Hallie now lives in Maryland, we had fun sending her pictures of herself and her dog Magic:

 

There was lunch waiting for us at the pool when we arrived and a whole cooler full of beer!

We all hung out and were enjoying the weather when I had to leave on important business. Quite a while ago, I got into longboarding (long skateboards). I have two of my own boards and heard of a company called Hamboards. It is owned by the Hamborg family and they make SUPER long longboards. Like 7 foot tall ones. They are meant to feel like surfboards and I’ve been following them on Facebook for a while now. They’re a really small business at the moment, but they’re on the up and up! They were even on the TV show Shark Tank and got one of the people to invest in their company! Since they are based out of Huntington Beach, I HAD to go visit them. Their store/shop was only 2 miles away, so I decided I was going to bike there. Allison decided to join me and when we got there we met TJ! We told him what we were doing and he let me take a ride on a bunch of boards they had in the back! We got to see the shop and hang out with him for a few hours! I was in Tyler heaven!

 

I had a blast riding these things around and even convinced Allison to hop on one! I kinda really want one, but I’m going to have to wait a little bit for that to happen. They’re quality products and cost a quite a bit of money. But on the bright side, since I rode pretty much all of them, I know exactly which one I want! We also saw a goodyear blimp.

We talked to TJ and he had a really inspirational story about his life that he shared with us! He grew up in Indiana and one day dropped everything and drove to California! He made it through some tough times until he met the Hamborg family who pretty much adopted him! We talked about SO many things while we were there and it was great to just hang out with a new face! He was super chill and even donated $50 of his own money to the 4k! This was my third day brightener! I was just elated and on cloud nine at this point. Definitely one of my high points on the 4k! Once we got too hungry to chat, we biked back to our host for dinner.

When we arrived, we had sausages, and pesto pasta waiting for us along with salad! We all ate together with some neighbors and had a good time! Later, when it got dark, we had s’mores around the fire and Kirsten read to us her spotlights! She had written a spotlight for each person on the team and has been waiting for a while to share them with us! They were absolutely amazing, hilarious, and sometimes a little too honest! Also, during this, Bri walked straight into a screen door and we all made fun of her while trying to breathe between laughs!

All in all today was absolutely incredible. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Actually… I still haven’t made it to the beach. Or seen a sunset on the beach. I did see a lot of beaches and surfers today on the ride, but my feet haven’t touched sand or water! Hopefully I can change that tomorrow.

Remember to comment on all the awesome stuff that happened today. Also, enjoy this picture of Jackie