We woke up at Toutle RV park on our first rest day. With tired bodies we welcomed a day of much needed rest. We went into Castle Rock and met a wonderful lady named Jenny at Vault Coffee who donated coffee to us and let us crowd her cute little coffee shop. We read, journaled, called family, and charged all our devices. I also worked on the vlog of week 1 (Check it out on Facebook)! Next we went to Castle Sandwich shop where we were given sandwiches and met their staff. It was one of the best meals we have had.
While in town a couple girls got facials and we met lots of locals and got to tell them about the crazy adventure we are on and why we are riding. Christina met a man who offered to mail us extra coffee because we shared that caffeine had been a necessity for us.
After our short stay in town we went back to Toutle RV park and packed up our stuff and went to Timberland Inn and Suites where we enjoyed our very spacious rooms generously paid for by the Hanson family’s. We slept, watched The Bachelorette, and played cards.
For dinner we went next door to El Compadre restaurant and got some yummy Mexican food and felt very loved when Mr. Calhoun called and let us know he would be picking up the check. Morale has been good but we are definitely tired. The rest day was desperately needed and we are excited for the rest of our journey!
-Sarah
And Day 4, as told by Christina:
This was my favorite day on the ride so far!!! We woke up around 7am and reluctantly left our donated hotel room around 9am! (Shoutout to The Holiday Inn Express!!) The day before had been long monotonous roads of farmland and for most of us it was mentally exhausting. To say the least we were all hesitant to start cycling, but alas, the show must go on. To our surprise our bodies were not as tired and stiff as we had anticipated! It was exactly the opposite, we felt our legs growing stronger as we climbed hills and enjoyed every second of the downhills! We had 16% grade downhill that literally left us crying tears of happiness! We hit 40mph and briefly thought about putting our bikes in the SAG and riding down again!
Apparently the Pacific coast is having record high temperatures - clearly we brought the heat. For reference one of the mom’s told us that it was hotter here than it was in Dallas, TX today! (Crazy I know) Apart from the heat this day was absolutely incredible! Donna’s Place donated beef tacos and they were easily our best meal on the trip! We are talking deep friend soft taco shells people. After lunch we set out for the Toutle RV Park. Little did we know the last 10 miles were filled with too many hills to count. We quickly powered through them and arrived at camp around 2pm! We pulled into our camp space and to our surprise a train chugged through less than 50 yards from our tent! We all looked at each other and laughed it off and quickly headed for some AC in the RV park main office. We were thrilled to find there was a movie room so we rented 10 Things I Hate About You! We were about 15 minutes into the film when the owner kicked us out of the movie room for watching a PG-13 movie. (Apparently you are only allowed to watch G rated movies in the kids movie room.) Discouraged we went back to the campsite and chilled by the train.
Sarah and Kalindi went to urgent care to get a check up on Sara’s leg and made sure it was healing properly (Good news it is!! She should be back riding in the next two weeks!) The rest of the night was filled with hanging out and getting to know one another! We all were encouraged and reminded one another why we are riding - for the girls. We tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags and passed our ear plugs for the night ahead. (Shout our to Hadley’s mom!! They worked wonders!) Grace told us bedtime stories and we all fell fast asleep!
Thankful for Day 4 and grateful for the opportunity to ride for the girls at The Refuge!
-Christina
