Day 77: So Long And Thanks For All the Fish

Carson City, NV to Lake Tahoe, CA: 47 miles, 3,900 ft elevation gain

Dearest Wix Readers,

This is my last blog (don't worry Sophia, Robert, and Mariela are still cooking up some good stuff for you)!

Okay first let me tell you about the ride today, and then we can get to all the sentimental stuff later.

Today was the third time we rode with one of our hosts! Tod, our host in Carson City, joined us for the ride to Lake Tahoe (and then turned around and did the whole ride back). It was a lovely ride. We took US Route 50 most of the way, which has quickly turned from the "loneliest road" that we knew and loved in Nevada, to a bustling highway in California.

Lake Tahoe was kinda stunning? Who knew!? Someone should think about turning it into a tourist destination, I think it could do really well. We were camping in Emerald Bay, which was this stunning campground that had water on BOTH sides of us. So pretty. Here's a pic.

The rest of the day was a classic day. Eat lunch that Sophia and Franklin made (rice, beans, chicken salad). Go swimming in the lake. Realize we left Mariela's shoes at Tod's place, so drive an hour back to Carson City to get them. Eat Thai food for dinner. Classic stuff.

Okay so on the circumstance of this being my last ever blog post, I want to spend some time telling you about all the things I've lost on this trip. I am notoriously the person most likely to misplace my things, and misplace them I did.

Things I have lost on this trip:

• Glasses

• Blundstones (shoes)

• Headphones (which were then found, and subsequently lost again)

• Headphones again (which were found for a second time)

• My toiletries bag

• Sunglasses

• Many a sock

• Chargers galore

• 2 water bottles (both of which fell off my bike unnoticed)

• *** My Towel ***

Things of mine Franklin has lost on this trip:

• My sleeping bag

• Bike shorts, my sister gave me

• My headphones (except I accidentally put them in his backpack and forgot I put them there so shared responsibility)

*** My Towel *** : For those of you who have read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you might have let out a little gasp when you read that I lost my towel. A towel, in the HGttG universe, is the most important item a Hitchhiker can carry. It is functional (for warmth, protection, as a weapon, as a sail, etc. etc. And I in fact have used my towel as a blanket on this trip). And your towel also has emotional value.

So losing my towel barely two days before the end of the trip came as a real blow. However, all is not lost because there are several things I have gained on this trip which may just make up for the loss of my ever practical light blue towel.

Things I have gained on this trip:

• A very big stick (from a Bristlecone Pine Tree, and which I found on the ground which we were going mountain biking in Bryce Canyon. It is currently packed in my luggage, and I am very much hoping airport security is chill about my stick.)

• A cute pair of shorts (purchased while visiting a friend in Boulder, CO)

• A red t-shirt and another cute pair of shorts (purchased at Goodwill after I decided I was tired of all the clothes I bought on this trip, injuries courtesy of my deer friend)

• $7 pants from the Boys section of REI (you may be sensing a pattern here, I really enjoy buying clothes)

• A few cool scars (thank you gravel downhills, deers with a death wish, and me being a clumsy biker)

• New friends across the mid section of the country (Thank you, thank you, thank you hosts across the country. It is very special knowing I have people to visit if I’m ever in Abingdon, VA, Great Bend, KS, Springfield, MO, Wayland, KY, and so many more places.)

• The clout of a cross country cyclist! (No longer will I feel inferior to those guys on their bikes who whiz past me on the streets of Boston. I’ll just yell after them “I’m a cross country cyclist!!!”)

• Stickers from every national park we visited (which now proudly live on my bike)

• Leg muscles!!

• The experience of going to In-N-Out for the first time (excellent)

• Incorporation of the term “OP,” which means “overpowered,” into my vernacular

• A pressed flower, from Vien in Black Hawk, CO

• Lots of Strava “Kudos” (The version of “Likes” on Strava, the app where I record all my bike rides.)

• Sick tan lines (see attached pic)

• A deep appreciation for Helados (and more generally an ever deeper appreciation for ice cream)

• So many pictures of cool plants (which have been sent to the group chat from my plant biology class)

• The skills and knowledge of how to drive on the highway, how to pump gas, and how to wash a car (I was a very new driver at the start of this trip)

• A little bit of deer fur that is still stuck to my bike

• Many bike selfies

• 5 very sweet friends who are so good at biking and cooking and electronics and piano and drawing and picking music to play in the car and frisbee and finishing leftovers and making silly noises and getting 8 hours of sleep and not waking up if its raining outside and making me feel so happy and loved and comfortable. Mwah mwah mwah.

Love,

Sim1