The Adventure Begins
Simply said…the adventure begins. There was laughter, nerves, celebration and plenty of tears as our “boys of summer” began their cross country adventure. As a crowd of family, friends, supporters and on lookers experienced, the team departed from the famous Maritime Museum and the Star of India (historic 3-masted war schooner) with a traditional “dunk” of the rear tires with a bucket of Pacific Ocean water, drawn and dunked by the newest team member, Chris Major who is the driver and team support captain.
Adventure is the key word as the team learned 2 invaluable lessons within 8 miles of the departure. #1, don’t trust completely the on-board GPS system as sometimes human intervention (and brains) are needed to accomplish what many assume “computers” can….the pictures that follow demonstrate the ride teams frustration with Team Support Captain Chris as they needlessly did a 800+ foot climb at a better than 45 degree to find out they where going the “wrong way”. Lesson #2 is that you never; EVER lean a very expensive, custom made bicycle against the exhaust of a 34 foot support vehicle. The heat was so intense that our hero’s lost their first bike 2,992 miles short of the finish. The entire gear system was lost to the “fumes” (as well as the medal melting heat). The teams hope is that a repair can be made at one of the major stopovers.
Day 1 from a ride perspective was the 3rd most challenging day from a climb perspective (8,600 feet), the lowest from a mileage perspective (68). The team did extremely well, the weather held and although at times it seemed like there was no top to “Hilltop – a town on the climb up”, they did prevail to reach camp at an Indian Reservation and Casino (Golden Acorn) in Live Oak Springs
Along the way the team did have opportunities to share with some youth / children in the town of Hilltop the value of healthy lifestyles and the pictures will show some of our youngest and newest members of HAT05 sporting their new “Shifting Gears to Better Health” bracelets.
In the personal notes compartment, we have discovered that Robert David Cochrane could easily compete with the famed Lance as the other riders often only caught a glimpse of his “behind” hills away. Chris did an amazing job of learning how to navigate a very complex GPS system commingled with over 45 twists, turns and road changes as the team left San Diego for their first nights destination.
Looking strong, but scared to death...
The team concluded the evening with many pictures and video, documenting their hi and low’s of the day, their personal thoughts as well as the daily presentation of the “Lance Award” which is a daily presentation that you will need to ask them about….as it’s beginning and content is highly personal and at this point, confidential.
The team misses its family and friends and is grateful for the love, prayer and support if has been shown.
