Adventurous Women Blog: Pedaling to Portland: Day 28

July 3, 2013

Pedaling to Portland: Day 28 - 32

Julie and a bunch of young adults are biking from Baltimore, MD to Portland, OR to benefit the Ulman Cancer fund for Young Adults. They will cover 4,400 miles in 10 weeks. This is Julie's report for

Day 28 - 32:

Over the weekend, days 28 and 29 of the trip, we were in Omaha, Nebraska, which was really fun. I think Omaha has been one of my favorite stops of the trip so far. We had our first home stay, which means that we all stayed in houses of people who live in the area. I was with three other girls from the team. The house that we went to had a mom and dad (Robin and Curtis), three boys (Mike and John are twins and James is younger), and a dog (Murphy). It was so nice being in a home because I really did feel right at home. The boys felt like brothers and the parents felt like parents. This was good for me

The boys and dad

because I had kind of been missing home. The first night in Omaha we went to a restaurant and we all got steaks for dinner, which was awesome! After dinner we went back to the house with Mike and John for cookies that Mike made and ice cream that John had to go get. Our host mom made all her sons give up their beds so that we had somewhere to sleep and they took the air mattresses. I had the best night's sleep there for the entire trip so far. In the morning we got up and had french toast made by our host mom. After breakfast, the family went to church and dropped us off in The Old Market [an arts & entertainment district] where we went on slides and went into the shops. That night, there was a cookout-pool party at our host's house that was a lot of fun! Leaving the next morning was hard because it was almost like leaving my real family at the beginning of the summer.

Today, day 32, was a century -- 100 miles or more -- but I didn't ride the entire thing because at mile 25 I blew my tire and needed a new one. The water van had to drive me to the water stop at about mile 40 where the food van with the extra tires met us and gave me my replacement. I changed [my tire] and finished the day in Franklin, NE. Tomorrow is the fourth and we should have a pretty easy day ahead of us!

The girls with their host "mom"

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Start An Adventure Club!

A few years ago, some friends and I formed an adventure club. Over wine and appetizers we decided to sponsor four adventures per year. Each one would be an opportunity to try something new or challenging or just plain fun. We all agreed to limit the group to women -- no kids, no husbands, no significant others.

That was more than eight years ago and the group has tripled in size. We maintain an ever-growing, very eclectic, master list of possible adventures. We don't limit our adventure list in any way because what one woman finds adventurous another woman may find terrifying or routine; so variety gives everyone choices. Over the years, the group has done everything from trapeze lessons to flower arranging, ghost tours to skeet shooting and skydiving. We still meet every January to plan our adventurous year.

Now it's time for you to create an adventure club of your own. Look below for adventure ideas and the basics of starting a group in your neighborhood. Then go out and expand your horizons!