WhooHoo! It be over! lol We are refreshed this morning having slept in late (no interesting presentations for the first few hours this morning) and in a few minutes we will dive into the swirl of the conference with renewed vigor!

Yesterday's ride went well, 28.5 miles, designed to be shorter so we could make the triumphant entrance at 2pm. The terrain was pretty much flat into the Outback in Seattle, a place for lunch and to organize the last push. Of course it rained the whole way, ;-) , but the company was good and the pace on the slower side. Outback again outdid themselves; they have been so supportive on this ride. There were even about a dozen of them on the ride. At lunch we got the bad news, to get to the hotel we had to go over the "Mt. McKinley" of hills! 1 mile long and the first stretch a 21 degree uphill climb!! I warmed up on the 10 block ride to the hill's corner, then as I came around the corner to immediately start up the hill my front sprocket refused to go into the lowest gear! Gaaa! Struggling, muttering loudly, I only made it 3o' up before having to stop! Darn! As I was standing there trying to spin the wheel to put it in low the first trike with Sean from Alaska came around the corner. When he put it in low (his worked!) his driving wheel started spinning; he couldn't get traction on this steep grade! So I abandoned my bike (wasn't doing me any good anyway) and started pushing him up the hill. About 30 more feet up the hill I realized I had no traction either; my foot warmers with the Safeway grocery bags inside were sliding off my feet! As I stopped to pull them off two other bikers took over pushing Sean, what teamwork! When I turned around for my bike another biker was ride behind walking his and mine behind the group. Again, what a group effort! These 70-ish riders have pulled together like this the whole ride! Since this was the steepest part of the grade and I no way could mount my bike to get a start (nice excuse, eh?) I walked the bike past this first challenge and remounted just after. At the top was a pretty sight; my lovely wife giving a turn instruction and shouting encouragement! A kiss or two later off I went on the downhill leg to a church only a few blocks from the hotel. We let everyone catch up and rolled in together, trikes out front, to the roar of the welcoming crowd! Nice finish.

For me the total miles was 193.56, my max speed was28.3mph, and the average speed overall was 11.1mph. And of course the best stat is my bod supported me well through this adventure.

Below are some pics of that Lewis & Clark bridge from Day 2, the Day 4 Hill, and a couple other of Day 4 after the Hill.

I do want to thank my sponsors SO much for their financial help, and to all the folks that followed my ride and The Ride so closely, Emailing me support and prayers! All was much appreciated! The total for Ride Ataxia 3 is somewhere beyond $220,000, and some think it might get to $300,000! With matching funds from NAF and FARA we may be funding research grants of a half a million dollars as a result of this effort! Wonderful! My sponsor total is currently at $2,448, certainly more than I had envisioned! Thank you again! And of course there is still time to be a post-ride sponsor! ;-)

On to the pics!