Final Day 5 - MCCBikeRide (Palmdale to Upland PCC)

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What an adventure this has been. It's been hard work and I couldn't have done it without the support of my family and friends and all the prayers and well wishes. There have been so many kind gestures from so many people along the way. I am surrounded by some amazing people and I am grateful for your willingness to support an organization that I believe is working hard to bring love, hope, peace and a future into this world. This week had it's struggles, and I went through a roller-coaster of emotions from stress and nerves. There were many answered prayers along the way. Thank you!

Before all of this I could barely ride my bike 60 miles without cramping and wanting to die. I could never have imagined doing a ride like this and feeling as good as I do right now. The first picture below was my reminder from above to stay slow and steady. The day was warm and I seemed to have a strong headwind for most of the day. Late last night, after watching Captain Underpants with the family, we drove down 138 to see what construction was like and we determined that it was just too dangerous to ride on. The next option was to ride on Big Pine Road through Wrightwood and then ride down on Lone Pine Canyon Road. This added significantly more climbing to an already long day. The pine tree below was the first tree I saw off the road for shade. The lake in the picture is Jackson Lake and apparently they stock it with trout, so there were a few people fishing as I rode by. My team car (AKA "family") met up with me twice at very critical moments of the day. The first was as I ran out of water at the top of the climb to Wrightwood and the second was right before I got back on the 138 right before the bridge over the train tracks.  The bridge was very narrow, but fortunately, my wife was driving behind me to hold off a couple of cars. From there I rode on the 15 freeway to Cleghorn and then traveled on Old Route 66. At the end of my ride there were about 25 people waiting at PCC for my arrival and they were all cheering and the little ones had signs that they had made for me. What a way to finish this journey. In total I road 353 miles in 5 days and 12,906 feet of climbing. I'm not sure what the future holds in regards to organizing rides in the years to come, but I do look forward to hearing about how the Guatemala Livelihood project progresses.

Thank you for reading and if you'd like to donate to the cause that I rode for, you can visit the link below:

https://mcc.org/stories/acp/winter-2017?_ga=2.233315294.1390861525.1496541283-1672273008.1487577537

Matthew 10:39

Day 4 - MCCBikeRide (Tehachapi to Palmdale)

Theme of the day was heat. I missed my turn to get out of Tehachapi, so I added about 7 miles to my day. I was riding quite a bit with a headwind. I had 1 stop for lunch with the family. I'd probably choose a different way through Lancaster next time. Was a great day considering the heat and the headwind. I feel good and hopefully ready for my toughest day yet. I will most likely be climbing about 5,000 feet with a 80 mile ride. We'll probably drive through tonight to scout out the road conditions of 138. My highlight of the day was when I starting seeing some California Poppies just south of the 58 on Tehachapi Willow Springs Road. Thank you for reading and if you'd like to donate to the cause that I'm riding for, you can visit the link below:

https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-guatemala-livelihoods

Day 3 - MCCBikeRide (Bakersfield to Tehachapi)

Well after a great night stay at Casa Malamma, we headed out bright and early at around 6:15 AM. I was joined by longtime MCC supporter/volunteer Kevin Malamma and he helped me pick the best route to Tehachapi. The weather was absolutely perfect. The sun was out but it was cool, which was nice considering I had about 5,000 feet of climbing on the day. I saw quite a bit of the Kern River, as water has been the theme of California this year. It is one of the most deadliest rivers around. I saw some frogs, hills and oil drills. It's hard to tell, but my first panoramic photo was taken on Panorama Dr. ( I couldn't resist). Way off in the distance are oil drills as Panorama overlooks the city of Oildale. I saw the Tehachapi Loop and you can read the monuments in my pictures below. It's a remarkable engineering accomplishment for the rail system. I even saw pro cyclists Cory Lockwood who happens to be a Tehachapi local. His weekly rides and climbing put my miles to shame lol. (I had to look him up too 😄)

Overall a great day! My body is feeling great and I haven't been cramping. I'm the right amount of tired and I expect to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is a shorter day as I work my way over to Palmdale. Thank you for reading and if you'd like to donate to the cause that I'm riding for, you can visit the link below:

https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-guatemala-livelihoods

Day 2 - MCCBikeRide (Delano to Bakersfield)

The biggest surprise of the day was rain. It was nice to have the cooler weather, since, as of last week, we were expecting everything to be in the 90's. I guess that's what I get for jokingly praying for rain yesterday. Today was a short ride of 39 miles (feels strange to categorize 39 miles as short).  I tried to push myself to go fast since the weather was cooler and the distance was shorter. i was able to average 20 mph, despite the rain, getting lost and taking a couple photo breaks. Nothing too exciting today, just a lot of wide open rode and different fruit crops. I can't get over how perfectly placed each of these trees are. The roads out here are in really good shape. It's a weird experience to ride in complete silence for miles, but it was very peaceful. I hardly saw any cars. We'll probably do something fun with the kids this afternoon. Thank you for reading.

To donate, visit: https://donate.mcc.org/registry/carlos-cardenas-guatemala-livelihoods