I planned on blogging every week, I really did. I didn't expect how much I wouldn't want to blog once the ride started, though! Most of the nights we didn't even have any wifi, and the nights that we did have wifi I decided to sleep instead. Here we are, though, in California. We rode through the desert and the mountains to get here, and finally have a rest day in San Francisco tomorrow.
The Texas 4000 Sierra route has planned mail drops so that our friends and family can send us letters and packages along the way. I didn't make that big of a stink about it before we left, because I didn't realize just how much I would want to receive mail until the first few drops when I didn't receive anything. I started to miss my friends and family, so I sent out an email to my immediate family telling them just how much I missed them and how much I wanted them to send me something. My sister, Anna, had already packaged and sent me the sweetest letter, James had begun sending me regular letters to our mail drops, and my parents sent me perhaps the most surprising and exciting package of them all.
I opened a small package from my Mom and Dad and smarties and blowpops fell out. I didn't even bother to read the note inside for a few minutes, because I was too busy basking in my new-found bounty. However, once I read the note, I realized why my mom had seemed so excited about it. They're going to visit me in Vancouver in just a few weeks! I got so so so excited, called them immediately, and let them know just how utterly and completely pumped I am about seeing them. Now I have something to look for all the time! In just over a week, James is visiting me in Redwood National Park. A couple of weeks later I'm going to see my Aunt and Uncle in Seattle. Just after that I'll see my parents in Vancouver, and then it's just a couple more weeks until the end of the ride! This summer is going to fly right on by, and I'm so excited about trying to savor every minute.
