home!

Hello dear ones!

At long last, I am home.

I have been home for almost a month, though it doesn't feel like that long. I have been thinking of all of you a lot, but it was the anonymous "where are you" post that reminded me to write a note to my favorite bunch of kids ever.

It turns out that going online was very difficult on the bike trip. Most of the towns we went

through were small, and libraries were often closed by the time we got there. There were many times I thought of things to tell you, but could not.

But now I can! Remember when we used to do highs and lows? Well, I am going to give you some of that action. First, some high points:

Kissing a giant BUG.

Our first sight of the PACIFIC OCEAN.

Big puppy dog I met when we stopped for a break on the side of the road.

Flying a kite.

This one speaks for itself. We didn't get showers a lot while camping...

COFFEE!

Bicycling through trees as tall as apartment buildings...

And rocks the size of houses!

Campfires.

California rocky beaches!

Annnnnd ---- the Golden Gate Bridge!

After biking for over 1,000 miles, this is where we decided to stop. We then explored San Fransisco for a week, hopped on a train to LA, and visited San Diego before taking the train all the way back up to Seattle.

And, as promised, some low points:

Making our bikes carry this much gear - look how tired they are.

We were so hungry that bad food tasted good.

Seeing signs that say "WHAT TO DO IF YOU MEET A COUGAR" and reading that we should "Fight back."

Getting to a campground, ready to put up our tent and sleep, and finding it closed.

Wet shoes.

Goin' CRAZY!!!!

Ah, but I am home now, enjoying our Seattle and Seatac summer just like you! I hear you are learning Aikido???

HOW EXCITING!

I. MISS. YOU.

Let me know how you are and what you are up to!

Love, Ellie

EAGLETS!

An eaglet, if you aren't aware, is a baby eagle.

Do you know what they look like?

They are fuzzy but don't have real feathers yet, their beaks are way too big for their heads, and they walk kinda funny.

Larissa and I pulled up our bicycles to the Public Library in Rockway, Oregon, and the librarian showed me this LIVE VIDEO of three baby eagles in Dekorah, Iowa! Their nest is 80 feet up in a tree, 6 feet wide, and weighs 1000 pounds. That is 50 times more than my bike weighs.

Here you go, watch the eagles!

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

I love you guys!

Ellie

hello from oregon!

Hi New Futures family (that means you),

Larissa and I have made it all the way to Oregon! We spent 7 days on our bicycles, pedaling down the side of a small highway through forests, by blue lakes, along the ocean shore, and across farmland. It's hard, and we get tired, but we're having so much fun.

Sleeping in a tent - it is not soft like a bed!

Carrying 40 pounds of gear on my bike - yikes! I'm getting stronger.

The dried food - tastes amazing when you're really hungry.

I want to know about you.

Write me one sentence about the most exciting thing that's happened to you this week!

Love,

Ellie

New Photos of Ellie's Adventure!

Hi everyone,

Here are some fantastic photos of Ellie and Larissa!
They're on their way to California!

Check out all that gear! Remember how heavy it was? Do you think they'll be able to pull it all the way there?

What do you think they've had to eat this week?





















....And away they go!

shout-outs

Hello everyone!

First of all -

I MISS ALL OF YOU SO MUCH!

I think about you all every day, and sometimes dream about you at night. Good dreams.

Next, it is definitely time to say HOORAY to the participants in our last

MATH CHALLENGE!

A big round of applause goes to:

Eric Izazaga

Juan Carlos Garnica Mora

Khasan Fazilov

and

Julian Mora

for getting the correct answer of 614.38461, which is how many times you would have to go to Safeway and back to go the same distance as biking all the way to Mexico.

Congratulations on your MATHEMATICAL CREATIVITY and GENIUS, guys!

Look for your prizes this week from someone at New Futures.

And of course, stay tuned for the next...

MATH CHALLENGE!

fingers and toes

First, I'll just tell you, so you won't worry - I still have all my fingers and toes.

But it was close. I almost lost them all.

Let me tell you how it happened.

Larissa and I have been practicing for our big bicycle trip. We've been riding our bicycles for about 2 hours every day.

When you ride a bike that much each day, which is not nearly as long as we'll be riding once we start our trip, parts of your body start to really hurt. There are special pieces of clothing to protect each of these parts:

One - your HANDS. They have to grab a cold metal bar and hold up the front half of your body. To protect them, we use gloves with little pads, like an animal's paw:

Two - your HEAD - well, only if you fall. Which is why we

use helmets to protect our BRAINS from zombies and from falling down.

Three - your PATOOTIE.

It has to sit on a very small, very hard seat the whole time you're riding. To protect this very special body part, very special shorts are required, with lots of padding in all the right places:

When I wear all this clothing at once, it kind of makes me look like a superhero -

And kind of like a visitor from another planet:

Anyway, as you know, it was very cold a couple weeks ago, when you were on mid-winter break. That is when Larissa and I decided to go on a bike ride across the West Seattle Bridge -

and around Alki Beach, all along the water.

We thought it would be beautiful.

We thought it would get better after the first five minutes, so we kept going -

But instead, it just got worse.

Big trucks passed us.

The wind made tears stream down our cheeks.

By the time we got across the bridge and back, we looked like this:

We couldn't feel our fingers OR our toes, and we thought maybe they would fall off.

We got home, took warm showers, and looked down -

There they were! All 20!

Whew.

That's my story.

What did you do over the weekend?

Getting Ready!

Hello, my darlings!

As i write this, it is my second-to-last week here at New Futures. I am happy and sad. I am happy because I am getting ready to go on a big, scary, amazing adventure. I am sad because I have to leave people I love very much.

That's how life goes, I think. Have you ever had to leave people you love?

After next week, I will be spending all of March and the rest of February preparing for this trip. What do you think I'll need?

The first thing that came to my mind was FOOD. Food is going to be an adventure all by itself, because we can't just carry normal food.

Imagine carrying bread, pasta, fruit and vegetables, pizza, and rice for 60 DAYS of breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

It would be like trying to move a mountain. Can't do it.

So we basically have to dry food out so that all the water is gone. This is called dehydration. For example, if we want to eat spaghetti, we have to dry out the spaghetti

dry out the tomato sauce

and put it all in a ziplock bag.

Then when we want to eat it, we put it in hot water, and - Voila! - the spaghetti soaks it up like a sponge and becomes food again.

What do you think?