Santa Clarita, CA

It's hard to believe we are two days and less than 80 miles away from Santa Barbara.

Today we emerged from the desert, crossing over the mountains from Palmdale and descending into the cool green of the valley. As soon as we began our descent I felt the temperature drop, heard birds chirping, and saw grass in its natural habitat, rather than as an imported lawn ornament. Now I'm sitting in a Starbucks (beggars can't be choosers) in the Santa Clarita neighborhood of Valencia, with a few other B&B-ers enjoying some uninterrupted internet time. Really, it's the simple things.

Yesterday we had our last build day, after a 7-day desert trek that included Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert. One of those days was a 120-miler from Parker, AZ to Twentynine Palms, CA...we reached the California border in pitch dark around 4:30 AM! On days over 90 miles we normally have two lunches, but this day we had 3/ Fortunately the temperatures never reached "brutal" status, and most of the group was able to handle the desert heat, mountain climbs, high mileage, and absolute lack of sleep from the night before (we slept outdoors and the temperature never dipped below 85). Our hosts at The Little Church of the Desert in Twentynine Palms were gracious enough to take us into their homes and give us...BEDS!!! for the night, and it was the first time in weeks I can remember sleeping through the night.

120 was followed up by an extremely difficult 90-miler into Victorville. Sore muscles and sheer fatigue, compounded by heat, wind, and climbing, made for a very long day, but it ended on a good note as Denis and I got a free meal at Denny's in Apple Valley before concluding the last long ride day of the trip

The next day was a 55 mile downhill coast into Palmdale, where we were hosted by and built with an organization called Antelope Valley Youth Build. The program is a charter school for troubled teens, designed to teach them vocational skills and help them get a high school diploma and a hopeful outlook on life. The program director, Rossi, his wife Olivia, staff Jill, Janie, and Art are such motivated and charismatic individuals, it's easy to see why the program is enjoying such success, having grown from 7 students to 100 in just a few short years. It's nice to round out our familiarity with Habitat for Humanity with knowledge of smaller, local organizations also doing great things.

Last night we also had our first meeting to discuss grant applications and distribution of funding. All of the grants submitted to Bike and Build HQ have been divided geographically amongst the 8 trips, and we have 11 grants to look at. As a group we have to decide whether or not to fund each of these, and then for how much. After our $35,000 large grant donation to Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity in Andover, MA (in exchange for a van), and $500 per rider to the organization of our choice, we have about $18,000 to distribute as we see fit--not a lot of money for 11 organizations, most of whom are requesting the max of $10,000. It's an interesting process, with 32 different personalities batting for different applications. Each application has its strengths; having never been in a position of this kind of financial influence, it will be interesting to see how we come to a consensus.

Tomorrow we ride 35 miles to Santa Paula, and the next day 42 to our final destination!!

In summary of things that I haven't written about due to lack of internet access: New Mexico and eastern Arizona made this route worthwhile, the descent from Prescott, AZ is worth the trip out west, never ride through the desert of western AZ by choice, there are lots of crazy animals out here (thank God I haven't seen any snakes), I CAN ride 120 miles in one day, In N Out Burger is just alright, the people that advocate for affordable housing are awe-inspiring, and as great as this trip and all the people on it are, I miss y'all on the East Coast.

Love/