BIORIDE2008

Wednesday, October 15th, 6:30 am

Wednesday morning finds Team BioRide in Las Vegas. As anticipated, but not hoped for, the last five days have been a whirlwind of events. After a great deal of effort from the team, especially Doogie, we made it to San Francisco! After San Francisco, we shot down to Labec, California followed by Lakeside, San Merino, and we currently find ourselves in Las Vegas. Without a doubt, there has been much traveling. Our butts overused, and bodies generally exhausted, this ‘adventure’ has not disappointed.

We arrived in San Francisco just after midnight on Friday night/Saturday morning and the city by the bay treated us quite well. As one of the goals of this adventure was to “crash on the couches of family, friends, and supporters,” we did not disappoint. We arrived just after midnight, and our hosts, Jesse and Brian, provided us food, a place to sleep, a beautiful view of the city, warm showers, beer, and countless laughs. Sleep came easily after our long day.

We abruptly woke to a freshly cooked breakfast burrito being shoved in our mouths. Jesse, pretending to be upset by the multitude of guests, seemingly took some joy from stirring us from our slumber. From that point on, the day passed quickly. We headed over to Mills College, where Brian connected us with the Executive Chef. Mills College had saved over 40 gallons of filtered rice oil for us and we received our first lesson in the filtration process of oils. The rice oil that they used had been filtered and refiltered and used for over 600 meals. Even though it was used, it still looked remarkably better than the ‘poison’ we had filled up with from Jack in the Box. Eagerly filling our barrels to the limit, we subtly celebrated our first large fuel accumulation.

Once again, we started to run off of veggie oil since the ‘incident’ a day earlier. Team BioRide and friends were offered a meal in the cafeteria, which we humbly accepted. If we can’t turn down one thing, it is free food. We shared a last meal and a great deal more laughs with our San Francisco hosts, and it was time to mosey on down the dusty trail. Good-byes are especially hard when you are leaving a beautiful area of the country with great friends. However, we did not begin the road trip in Seattle to end in San Francisco. We were only a fraction of the way around the country. As we pulled away from our friends, Mills College, San Francisco, and the bay area our heads were swimming with what the next part of our journey would bring us…