Traveling to Beautiful Bend, OR

We woke up at 4am for a 24hr day of traveling, no kidding, it was 24 hours! The first flight went from Charlotte to Phoenix, it was 4 hours in a plane and there was a lot of turbulence so everything was shaky. We arrived in Phoenix at 9 am, and because of the time differences we were ready to eat lunch while everyone else was enjoying their breakfast. We had 20 minutes to chow down on out whoppers from Burger King until we got on to the next flight that left from Phoenix to Portland. The Portland flight was not as long as the first flight, only 2 hours this time. Unfortunately we had an older, junky plane with a very small place to nap in. We arrived in the Portland airport at 1 pm and it was empty as if Lance Armstrong came to town and everyone left to go see him. Right when we landed, I knew this was going to be a culture shock. We took a shuttle to get a car rental and the kind driver, by the way her name was Cher, held our bikes while driving.



We got dropped off at the car rental place thanks to Cher, and we picked up out Dodge Pick up truck. It seated 6 people!! This thing was huge!! We left Portland for a 3.5 hour scenic drive through the evergreen christmas tree forest passing mountains that still had snow. After leaving the mountains the terrain turned into a desert, but it was only 50 degrees. Huge thunderstorms pop up all the time:




When we arrived we had dinner and started putting the bikes together. This is going to be an AMAZING and unforgetable trip. The best part of the day was flying over the Grand Cannon and being able to see in person how huge it really was! Now we are off to get groceries from Trader Joes!!!

Today is the Day!

Today is my very first blog. Right now I just finished packing my bags for Bend,OR. Where I will be racing 15-16 Nationals and competing to be national champion against 20+ other girls. This will be my first attempt at nationals and I couldn't be more excited! My dad, my coach (Robin Farina) and I have been planning for this race since the beginning of the year and we are coming down to the very last days of preparation then its, "Go time"!!

We leave Saturday morning at 4am. After stopping once in Phoenix, AZ, we will be arriving in Portland around 12-1 pm. After we get to Portland we a have a 3.5 hour scenic drive through Oregon. We are renting a pick up truck so that there will be plenty of room for all of the luggage and bike cases.

Other than packing my bags, I have been resting, stretching, and rolling out my muscles with my foam roller. I've been reading my summer book for school. It's called "Snow falling on Cedars". I have also unpacked my bags from 1.5 week of racing and training in Johnson City, TN, Greenville, SC, and Salisbury NC. And did a major cleaning in my room.

Tomorrow I am going to spend the day with my mom. We will be going to have lunch and get manicures and pedicures before I leave. Always a tradition before a big race!

The first picture is a race in downtown Salisbury on Friday. I am on the line with my teammate Jackie Blackwell. The course was technical and it was brutally hot out, in the upper 90s.

The second picture was my brothers car with all of my stuff stacked to the very top heading to Greenville, SC. I fit 2 bikes and 3 sets of wheels with my luggage and food all in the back of his car. Crazy!

Look for more posts on my journey to Bend, OR!