Day One Wednesday September 20

Today our group arrived at our home base, the International Youth Hostel at Santa Monica by bus, car, bike and plane from all over the United States and Australia!

LA turned on a beautiful California day – warm but not hot, although wild fires to the north made the smog worse than usual.  Our hostel is just one street back from the waterfront, and one street from 3^rd St Promenade with its incredible variety of stores and restaurants.

Gigi and Stacy rode down from Oakland, while Meredith won the prize for the longest trip arriving that morning from Australia and operating on just 3 hours sleep.

We assembled in our meeting room at 5pm and our first time Amazon Heart riders got a taste of what our adventures are all about with slideshows of past rides and trips, and a detailed overview of the challenge ahead.  We had a chance to share a little of our own personal stories, and our hopes and expectations for the week ahead.

Then we headed out to 3^rd St Promenade for dinner at Yankee Doodles – a famous sports bar that featured not only great music and food, but a huge pool hall. 

Some of the group retired early after dinner, with Karen, Nancy, Gigi, Meredith and Stacy staying on to play pool.  National pride was on the line with the Australian team (including Megan as an honorary aussie) defeating the mighty United States three games in a row.

After that it was back to the youth hostel for a much needed night’s rest before our first practice day and the arrival of our bikes!