1st Day.

So today I just had my first day of riding out of San Francisco to Napa California. It was an amazing ride. We had a 5:30 am wake up and we started biking from University of San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge at about 6:15. We had our kick off at the Golden Gate which was amazing. There were family and friends there from a lot of the riders. We had a good breakfast and a couple speeches from gentlemen who work at the Push America office in Charlotte. Then we started our biking across the bridge. This was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. We continued biking around the bay and on to Napa. It was an extremely tough ride. We rode about 75 miles with a lot of hills. I rode a lot better than I thought I would. We rode through some really beautiful areas. My paceline group was great and we finished strong and rode really well as a team.

Once we arrived in Napa we had just enough time for a shower then headed to Patty Saunders' house for our friendship visit. Patty organized a baseball league for the adults with disabilities a number of years ago and they were wrapping up their season today by having a huge pot luck dinner and handing out trophys. For me, it is amazing how this community of people really thrive off of one another and see the support they show each other. All of the people were cheering each other on as they received their trophys and they were hugging and having a good ol' time. I definitely feel that community is an amazing thing to be apart of whether it is your town, school, or community of friends. Seeing this community today has encouraged me to continue showing greater support and love to the communities that I am apart of.

Tomorrow we have a 6 am wake up and we are heading to Sacramento!

-Joey H.