Team BikeBreatheBelieve left San Diego yesterday with high spirits in the pouring rain. We all wished for sun. Today we set out from Alpine with a very steep climb under a beaming sun. We wished for flat road.

At mid day we were elated to find a flat road that soon became wind swept and quickly turned into a rough surface replete with pot holes and gravel and we wished for a shortcut. By late afternoon we crossed paths with a stranger who proposed a shortcut that we gladly took. We left the horrible path we were on with high hopes of shortening our day when we quickly discovered that the shortcut road had actually been washed away leaving us to walk through sand carrying our bikes. We eventually rerouted and finally arrived at our destination just as the sun was setting.

Lesson learned: be careful what you wish for and accept with equanimity what you have been given. The silver lining —had the day’s journey been smooth we might never have witnessed the magnificent sunset that marked the end of day 2.

– Isabella