Saturday August 01: Frederick, MD to Washington, D.C.

52 miles, some rolling hills, and the End!!

Gosh, did we take lots of pictures today. *grin*. And we're finally back to just normal rolling hills and more normal climbs.

First things first -- when we woke up, the tents were dry. The clothes were dry. There was no dew. The weather was clear and sunny and highs in the 80s. You can't get a more perfect last day to a long ride like this.

I took lots of morning pictures as people were getting ready to leave:

Of course, there was still a couple of neat-looking places for scenery and location shots on the way in:

The holding area was a madhouse (as expected):

They lined us up, ready to go, so I took some photos of the front people (we were media riders, so we got to go in front. ooooooh...)

At a certain point in the closing ceremonies, Dan Pallotta called for us to be sent in -- so we rode in, across the lawn, to the tent where the stage was set up, into two holding areas just in front of the stage. We eventually moved further back from the speakers, but it was great, riding in to one of the recognized Riverdance songs, and everyone cheering and clapping, almost at the base of the Washington Monument...

Dan talked, the president of the National American Lung Association talked, more people talked, but the best part was when they got John to get up on stage, and play the song he finishes every night with: Amazing Grace.

And that's it! We're done! It hasn't really hit me that we rode across the whole country, because we just did it a little bit at a time. But, like with every big project, that's the way to do things -- because as long as you don't quit, you can accomplish things that seem impossible at first. We're not all that different from anyone else out there. We just took the risk, spent the time, spent the effort, and did something that will be a major experience to look back at and remember. Hopefully, this will help others who wish to try similar challenges remember that it IS POSSIBLE!! All you have to do is start, and not stop until you're done. *bounce*

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