Last van duty & Beautiful Bend

Along with being legally allowed to drink alcohol, my 21st birthday brought another important milestone... I also graduated from Van Passenger to Van Driver! Woo hoo!

The 4K's insurance policy allows only 21-and-overs to drive the vans. Since we had fewer over-21s than under-21s, the 21-year olds picked up the slack on the team and ended up having to do van duty a lot more than the "kids." So after my birthday, the 21-year olds were NOT mad about welcoming me to the drivers club, and it was my turn to do my duty as a driver for my 6th and final Van Duty Day. 

I was afraid I would've forgotten how to drive after 2 months of not being behind the wheel of a car, so I insisted on practicing in the parking lot the night before, but it turned out that really wasn't the case at all. Then I realized that's probably because biking is really in a sense driving -- you still have to steer, be constantly aware, be anticipating others' movements, and obeying traffic laws. Only thing that's different is the speed! :P

That day we were riding from Mitchell to Bend: a sunny Saturday with very mild weather and 84 miles on the agenda. I chose to drive the water van because the food van is a gigantic tank (15-passenger van) and I made no guarantees about my ability to drive that large vehicle. No one argued ;)

With Tom as my passenger....

Hi Tom :)

...we left Mitchell around 7 am. The elevation profile for the day was basically: flat until mile 12, huge climb up a mountain until mile 17, descent off the mountain, and then a steady gradual downhill for the entire rest of the day. That being said, mile 17 was the ideal place for a water stop, as we usually are in need of a water refill at the top of climbs.

We headed to the top of the mountain, chalking the turns on the way. Since I was the driver now, not having to get out of the car and run like a maniac to chalk in the middle of the road was exciting ;)

On flat ground, groups would've made it to mile 17 in an hour, but given that it was a big climb, we expected it to take even the fastest group close to two hours. So we had a lot of time to kill on top of the mountain. 

We had Ashley with us, because with her hand still healing, she wasn't able to do the climb. We killed the better part of an hour driving down other side of the mountain and then back up again, so she could scout it out and see if she could do that part of the ride. She needed to check out how steep it was and how tight any turns were. Luckily it wasn't too steep or windy, so she decided it was a yes. We returned to the top and took naps until we saw the first rider (Chris, of course) crest the hill.

Early morning nap...

Water stop at the top of the mountain

The rest of the day we set up two more water stops -- one at the beginning of civilization, the first place we'd had cell service in about 24 hours, and people celebrated because there was a Starbucks next to the water stop -- and one as a combined lunch/water stop with the food van, 18 miles out from the host. 

Riders grazing on food set out at the lunch stop

Kiera and Gina at the lunch stop!

Groups were very spread out because we had a super fast group that day, who we never caught up to for the third stop, but it was okay because they agreed to go unsupported.

After water stops were done, the food van agreed to chalk for us, so we were able to stop at a grocery store to get stuff for a certain team member's birthday :) as well as donations for the next day, since it was a rest day. We got a $25 gift card and used that to buy a ton of eggs and cheese for breakfast the next morning. We've gotten pretty good at feeding our entire hungry team with a $25 gift card ;)

When we arrived in Bend, we got settled at the AWESOME Vacation-Rental-By-Owner (VRBO) house we had set up for us!! We got this house using a team budget that we had saved for the last few days-- and the owners gave us a discount too because of our good cause.

Awesome view of the Cascades from the back porch of the house

Immediately after arriving, we went back out to search for dinner with Julie and Porter, the food van drivers. We had some trouble because it was a Saturday evening and a lot of managers weren't in. But we ended up getting some burgers, chicken sandwiches, some clam chowder, and 4 pies.... an interesting combination to say the least, but enough to feed the team a 4K OK dinner.

We brought back our winnings and the team happily devoured the food. We then relaxed for the night and played games including star tipping. We also celebrated Gavin's birthday...

19 or 12?? We only had a 1 and a 2 candle. 4K OK.

The next day we woke up to a beautiful day in Bend, and it was our LAST REST DAY!!! We couldn't believe we were already on our last day off together!

A few chefs made a great breakfast of eggs and pancakes for us. It was the first time we'd cooked our own breakfast!

Chef Julie making pancakes

We ran out of glasses so Porter used this dish for his cranberry juice. 4K Ok.

The team then split up to do various activities. I was among the crowd who went to Bend in the morning to do some shopping at REI, then went whitewater rafting on the Deshutes River! It was a blast!

We had two rafts, and this is the raft I wasn't in. Check out Julie's face. We love this photo.

Here's my raft going through some rapids! Tom, Sarah, Jen, Joanna, Zach, me, and Rowen.

Rafting was less than an hour but it was still really fun. The river was just GORGEOUS. Teal water against deep green pine trees everywhere. 

Here's us going down a rapid and the other raft waiting for us. Check out the beautiful color of that water!!

And that darn pine smell again. The water was coooold but we all ended up in it.... Not because the water was that rough but because we pushed each other in. We love each other :)

One of the main causes of falling in was when we were on still water and our guide had us play a game involving trust falls and our paddles. I'm sure you can already tell that was bad news. Basically two people stood on each side of the raft and held out their paddles, You hook the handles together and then hold on to your paddle and slooowly lean back. The idea is to see how far you both can lean before you fall in. I refused to do it with anyone in my raft except for Zach. And then we were doing pretty well... until Jen knocked us in -____- 

Regardless, everyone got soaked from the rapids AND thrown into the water at some point, and it was a ton of fun!!

After rafting we went back to the house, showered up, relaxed in the hot tub for a bit, and then went back out to Bend to get some dinner. We went to the Deschutes Brewery and this is the delicious dinner I got:

Paying for food was strange.. .but totally worth it. Look at that pizza!!!! I also ordered a drink (1st time at a restaurant) and was upset because they didn't even card me!! Booo!!!

After dinner we ventured out to walk around the adorable town of Bend. 

Becky and I next to the Deschutes River

Downtown Bend

Lots of young people... and lots of hipsters. THEN we found a bike shop, and I bought myself the following awesome birthday present:

I was sooooo excited about these!!! Hashtag bike nerd status :)

These tires are some of the best road tires you can get, and the one girl on our team that has them (Ashley) is also the only person on the team that has never had a flat tire!! A lot of people including me had been looking for them, but very few bike shops carry them. Happy birthday to meeeee :) :)

Back at the house, I needed the help of 3 guys to get the new tires on my wheels. The only problem with the really good quality tires is they're extremely stiff and thus really difficult to put on. Good thing I had lots of teammates willing to help :) 

We were all sad to see our last rest day together come to an end. We have all become a true "4K family." Living with 24 people for 70 days will do that to you. 

With that, we were ready for the final stretch of the ride: just 6 days until Portland!!