Day 7 - We Finally Arrive in Washington D.C.

Day 7 marked the end of the bike tour, and it was a very memorable day.

Our final leg of the tour began at 6:00 a.m. with a team breakfast at the hotel, and the entire group then took a ferry ride across the Potomac River to the spot where our bikes were waiting. Todd decided to take the morning off from biking so he would have energy for the afternoon ride, so he spent the morning at the ferry landing teaching a little boy from Spain how to throw a football (I’ll bet that was cute to watch!).

Meanwhile, Scott and I (along with several others) biked 20 miles from Leesburg, VA to Great Falls, MD. Unfortunately, it rained overnight, so the trail was very muddy and peddling was a challenge to say the least!! Not only was it difficult to peddle through the muck, but Scott ended up crashing his bike in the woods trying to avoid a hug puddle – yes, both father and son crashed on this tour but fortunately, neither of them were hurt. In fact, Scott and I ended up biking at a brisk pace and arriving in Great Falls ahead of schedule (albeit quite filthy!) :)

In Great Falls, we reunited with Todd and the rest of our group at a historic lockhouse located at Lock 20 on the canal, where we were treated to an old-fashioned mule-drawn canal boat ride and a delicious picnic lunch (the majority of the food on this trip was amazing – so much for losing any weight!).

After lunch, Todd, Scott and I headed out for the final 13-mile ride into Georgetown, where we planned to meet the group at mile-marker 0 to celebrate completing the tour. However, no one told us that we needed to get off the towpath and onto a paved path in order to reach the final destination, so instead of ending at mile-marker 0, five of us found ourselves alone at the end of the trail in the middle of bustling Georgetown. Oh, and I also found myself with a flat tire! But it didn’t matter – we only had to walk about a ½ mile to meet up with everyone and we were just happy to celebrate everything we all had just accomplished. All in all, Scott completed 201 miles, I completed 136 miles, and Todd completed 101 miles on this bike tour :)

After reaching our final hotel, we showered up and headed downstairs to the ballroom for a celebratory banquet. And it was quite the banquet! Our speakers were the Ambassadors of New Zealand, Mexico, and Lithuania (who attended in honor of those survivors in our group from those countries), the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Surgical Outcomes Research, and the Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Several government representatives who are working on legislation to eradicate rare cancers like sarcoma were also in attendance. To see the article and video from the banquet, go to http://tr.im/uU7C. But the real stars of the evening were each of the sarcoma patients/survivors from the “core” team (pictured here), who were honored for all they have overcome.

Following dinner, we had an incredibly memorable night with our new friends, which culminated with an “after party” of sorts in one of the hotel rooms and an impromptu pizza party thereafter. I have some funny stories -- but I won't be publishing them here! ;) Honestly, of all the amazing memories I have of this trip, this final night will probably be the thing we remember most … we laughed nonstop and had so much fun with everyone. It was truly a wonderful way to end a wonderful trip.

-Karen