June 10th, Palmdale California (Picture: Aaron Smith, our fearless organizer and leader)

It's just about 7 in the morning and the team is in Palmdale, California. We rode from Sanat Monica through Los Angeles yesterday, then climbed over the hills all day before descending into Palmdale. In about fifteen minutes, we will start a 75-mile ride to our next location. We are all looking forward to this ride because, well, it's going to be flat!

A quick goodbye, though, to one of our leaders, Aaron Smith. Aaron has worked incredibly hard organizing the details of this trip, and came to Los Angeles for team training and also to ride the first stage of the tour. But last night he headed back home to his family. Aaron, thanks for all your had work, and for organizing this adventure for us and for Blood:Water Mission. You are doing great work there at Venture Expeditions. You will be missed. And also, happy birthday!

I will try to update some more from the road. Everything is going great. I couldn't be more happy.