Greetings everyone! I am Bill Kuhl, a freshman in Aerospace Engineering.
We started out the day with some amazing breakfast made by Erin's parents and aunts. We were all a little worried about who was going to have to drive the first day, but thankfully Erin's parents and awesome Aunt Laura, offered to drive for us today so we could all bike!
Our journey begins at the Lincoln Memorial, where we dipped our front tires in the reflecting pool (apparently its' a tradition for cross country cyclists), and began our long journey to San Francisco. The weather was a little overcast, with a little bit of rain, which felt really great on our faces as we got comfortable pedaling along for hours.
In the afternoon the skies cleared up and we got some blue skies as we biked along the W&OD westward. We met up with Erin's family again for lunch, and were able to get some great tips about drafting (riding behind someone to reduce wind resistance) from Laura we tried out later in the day.
The ride after lunch went great, we all biked together. Along the way we decided our bikes need names. Here is what we came up with:
Bill - Burt (the first movie I thought of dealing with road trips was smokey and the bandit)
Maile - Makani (wind in Hawaiian, she wants to go fast)
Leah - Terrance (She said didn't want to name her bike. Then she said this, sooo)
Devin - Doug (Its a great name to say in anger)
Caralyn - Jules (Joules) Vern (after the guy who wrote around the world in 80 days, and unit of measurement)
Erin - Cynthia (Your favorite drama-free PTA mom)
Edgardo - Tammy (Our hosts really liked this name)
At the end of the day we pulled into our host, Mike's house. We made dinner, and got used to sleeping outside in the heat. It is the beginning of a great journey, and I can't wait for tomorrow.