Dalhart, TX - Too long since last post!

Hey everyone! Sorry I have failed at posting the last week and a half. I have a good explanation though. My first week of host locations that I set up were this last week and a half. I have been very busy making/checking cue sheets and making sure everything is perfect for our arrival. Everything on my week has been fairly awesome and it is actually really nice to see all the hard work that I put in pre-trip for Bike & Build pay off. Anyway I know you guys probably want to hear more about my riding days than leaders stuff so here it goes.

Today we rode from Spearman, TX to Dalhart, TX for 86 miles. Here is a picture of the flatness of the terrain and us being ridiculous:
I rode with Katie R. and Craig the whole day. It was our flattest terrain so far in the trip. It was an overcast day with a northwestern wind. The wind was at our backs for the majority of the ride and we actually got a tailwind for about 50 miles. It was a great day to just cruise across Texas and enjoy the company of Katie and Craig. We arrived in Dalhart at around 1:00 and got ice cream at Dairy Queen. After that everyone basically came back to the church and took a nap before the Central United Methodist Church came to cook us dinner. They were extremely friendly and excited about what we were doing. It is always nice to see the hospitality of people across the country. After dinner we had another round of our Affordable Housing Curriculum and Karen & Preston taught our group about how education affects housing (or vice versa). It was one of the best presentations so far and they actually had the group do an activity and the results came out how they predicted. The activity was great because really helped show the need for adequate housing options so a child can more easily attain a good education. After dinner 10 of us broke into teams of 5 and played volleyball in the church gym. My team had lots of morale, but sadly lost two games. Everyone is getting much better at volleyball every time we play. It's interesting to watch people excel at everything from cycling to off the bike activities. Then Melissa, Ryan M., Michael Carroll, and I all walked down to the United Grocery Store and I got some chocolate milk. I finally had a chance to clean my bike tonight which The Octagon (my bike's name) really appreciated. Anyway.. tomorrow we are riding into New Mexico and it's going to be awesome!

The day before that we rode 94 miles from Arnett, OK to Spearman, TX. Technically all of the riders rode that far, but to be honest it was another one of my van days so I drove 94 miles. We got up early and ate an awesome breakfast provided to us by the United Methodist Church in Arnett. After breakfast I filled up on gas and headed to meet the riders at the Texas state line at mile 12.5. When I got there the front group was just arriving and starting to take pictures. I got in a group photo with all of them and then proceeded to stand around at the state line for about an hour taking pictures for everyone that came through. After the majority of the group had come through I drove up to another little rock/Texas state marker that was about 200ft from the state sign.
I took pictures of people there and then saw Jillian riding up to the state sign alone. I decided that I should go take a picture of her with the state sign so I pulled my bike out of the van, put on my helmet (very important), and rode back to the actual Texas sign to take her picture. I saw sweep a couple of miles out on the road and decided that I should ride out to meet them. Before riding out to them I stopped at the Oklahoma state sign and got a few pictures of The Octagon leaning against my state sign. After taking pictures for sweep, I loaded my bike up and headed to the first lunch stop at mile 33.3. When I got there most of the group was just arriving. I sat there about two hours before leaving for the second lunch stop. On the way there I got a call from Paul telling me that Craig's chain had broken on his bike and he couldn't fix it. I picked Craig up in the van and it was nice to have company during the drive. We arrived at the second lunch at 66.6 at around noon. We had not seen a gas station the whole day so I let all of the riders in the front group use up all of the water we had in the coolers. I left the food bins and Craig to guard our lunch stop and then I made a 17 mile trek to Perryton, TX to get water for the rest of the group. I filled up all 5 of our water jugs and drove 17 miles back to the lunch stop. When I got to the lunch stop, Craig told me he had only seen 2 or 3 of the 13 riders that had still not made it to the second lunch. I could see a storm growing in the distance where I thought sweep would be riding so I took one cooler in the van with me to make sure the people riding had enough water and weren't getting demolished in the nasty looking storm. I caught up to sweep and called my dad to see if I needed to give them a ride to the next lunch stop to help them avoid the approaching storm. He told me the storm was moving the opposite direction and I let them ride to the next lunch stop. I finally left the lunch stop at around 4:45 and drove the rest of the way to Spearman. It was interesting to see the amount of flooding that had happened recently in Texas. There were entire fields that were underwater and at first I kept thinking, "What an odd place for a lake of this size." Anyway.. a group of us went to the Headquarter's Cafe in downtown Spearman and ate some of the best food ever. After that I finished making my cue sheet for the following day and went to bed at a halfway decent hour.

The day before that we rode from Watonga, OK to Arnett, OK for 85.9 miles. I started out riding with Katie R. for the first 5 miles then we picked up Michael Carroll, Katie, Lizzy, and Kelsey when we had stopped at an old bus on the side of the road. The morning was full of some small rolling hills and went by extremely quickly into lunch. At lunch we ate the donated ham and other goodies that my mom got us donated from Jumbo Foods in Enid, OK. It was awesome to have some fresh food and a change from the peanut butter. After lunch we were busy talking and missed a turn with a group of about 10 people. This added a couple of miles onto our day but we used our phones to route back to the correct road. When we got on the right road we rode 19 miles to Vici. I was pretty tired when we got there so we decided to stop at the Vici restaurant and get milkshakes, fried okra, and mozzarella sticks. Well, that's what I got anyway. The group at the restaurant:
We only had about 27 miles left into Arnett, but I could not wake up after that lunch stop. I was riding with Katie R. and Karen when I suddenly started "bonking" (as they call it in the bicycling community). I could not stay awake to save my life. I was completely hydrated and full of food, so I didn't know why I couldn't stay awake. Katie R. decided that I was electrolyte deficient so she gave me one of her Nuun tablets to put in my waterbottle. I drank the entire bottle of water/Nuun and chewed gum which gave me the energy to stay awake. I enjoyed the rest of my day with Karen and Katie. When we arrived in Arnett, they had a sign that said "Welcome Bike & Build" on a community center lawn. We showered at the high school and then the church provided us ribs, chicken, fish, and a ton of other stuff at a potluck dinner for our group. I am seriously eating way better on this trip than I would if I were at home. We are so spoiled. After dinner we had a bicycle clinic in the park. I'm glad my first bicycle clinic to run went well.

The day before that I drove 70 miles from Oklahoma City, OK to Watonga, OK. I started out the day by driving to the Habitat Office to drop off the keys to the vans that they let us use while we were in Oklahoma City. After that I followed the route to around mile 7 where I had to pick up Scott in the van because of a strong thigh pain that made him unable to ride. He rode with me down Ok-3 through Okarche and we stopped 5 miles away from Kingfisher for the lunch stop. The riders actually had a tailwind so they all arrived fairly quickly to the lunch stop. As Natalie left the lunch stop, I told her to go get Donation Magic from the Walmart in Kingfisher. She ended up getting $25 worth of food donated and after the lunch stop I went to pick it up. When I got to Walmart, I picked up the food sacks and had to pack them in the coolers in the trailer. As I was packing the trailer back, I picked up a cinderblock that apparently was also housing two bricks inside of it. As I moved it to it's spot in the trailer, both of the bricks fell out of the cinderblock and one landed on my left big toe and the other landed in the middle of my right foot and cut my foot. It felt awful and even today (4 days later..) my feet still hurt. Oh well, that's why I'm young and I'll survive. After that I drove by all of the riders and we all got to Watonga at around noon. We hung out in Watonga until 4:00 when my mom and Jo Ann came to see me for the second time. She came with the donation from Jumbo Foods and also took me out to eat. After dinner we drove to Roman Nose state park and walked around for a little while before my mom drove back home. When I got back to the church we had our town hall meeting and then an Jeopardy themed Affordable Housing Presentation by Melissa & Sebastian. After that I went to the couch that I had claimed to get ready for bed. Karen and I hung out talking for awhile in that room before we both went to sleep on couches in that room. It was a good nights sleep. I should also mention that the ride into Watonga was the last day for my dad to ride along with us in his VW bug and set up his Money Stops. Thank you so much dad (Mr. Money) for helping our trip out and doing that for us. Everyone in the group kept saying that they couldn't thank you enough for setting those up and we definitely appreciate everything you did for us. Thanks.

I know I am breaking order now.. but the 2 days before that we were Building with the Oklahoma City Habitat For Humanity. Because I am summarizing two days, in order to keep the story straight, I will tell you about the first build day and then the second. The first day we woke up at 5:45 and went to the Lake Hefner boathouse for a breakfast cooked by Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Lake Hefner was beautiful in the morning while eating breakfast on the patio of the boat club. It was the perfect way to start our first morning there in OKC. At 8:00 we headed over to the "Hope Crossing" neighborhood that Habitat for Humanity owns. It is amazing that the OKC Habitat has an entire neighborhood that will be all Habitat Homes when they finish it. Fortunately for our group Habitat had planned for us to frame a house, which is the best job to do on a Habitat site. We all took walls and they had a color coded system that made it extremely obvious for how we should assemble the walls. Everywhere you looked while on the build site there were walls being built. Whether it be out in the road, on the driveway, or on the foundation, there were walls! After we had assembled the walls, we took an hour long lunch break to eat our donated Chipotle burritos. When we came back we all got together to actually raise the walls of the building. Once the walls were raised, we put pieces of OSB board on the corners and started putting up blueboard. It was an extremely hot day but we still got a lot done. After the build site, Habitat provided dinner from Johnny Carino's at their offices for the riders. My mom, Sarah, Amanda, Addison & Huxley, all came to see me that day so instead of eating with the riders I forced my mom to take me to Teds. I love Ted's. Now that I am biking every day, I can eat more chips/salsa/queso than anyone. Then we went to Penn Square Mall to walk around and spend time together. Finally we all went to Braums to finish the night off with ice cream before my mom, Amanda, and the kids headed back to Enid. Sarah stayed with me up in the church gym at night so she could build with me the next morning.
OKC Build Day #2: In the morning we got up to head back to the boat club to have breakfast. After breakfast we went to the build site to do landscaping. We were going to sod one house that was going to be dedicated on Friday and also finish blueboarding/wrapping the house we framed the day before. I guess the OKC Habitat had a group of 30 volunteers in a few weeks before we arrived to sod 3 houses in an entire work day. Apparently these volunteers only got two of the 3 houses done and did not finish everything they were supposed to that day. It is always incredible to watch us on the build site because the 32 of us all sodded the house in less than an hour and a half. It was completely finished in that time. The Habitat people were impressed and sent us to work on other projects in the 7 or 8 different houses they were doing at once. We eventually took a lunch break for more Chipotle burritos and then went back to the build site to try to get work done in the 100 degree weather. It was really awesome to have Sarah come work with our group and really see what we do. It was extremely hot and we did not leave until the job was finished. Sarah's family came to watch us finish building and invited me to dinner with them. I got to skip the shower line at the gym after the build and go to Emily's (Sarah's sister) apartment to shower. Sarah's family took me to Olive Garden where I ate like a pig and scarfed down an entire plate of chicken parm and a ton of salad. I didn't notice that I had done anything extraordinary until I finished my plate and everyone else there still had over 2/3 of their plate in front of them. Thank you the Dupuy's for taking me out to dinner and not shunning me for eating 10x more than everyone else. Bike & Build definitely increases the appetite. After that Sarah left me and I had to go back and do some work to make sure my cue sheet was correct on the way to Watonga the next day. And.. Thank you so much everyone who came out to see me in Oklahoma City. I'm definitely glad I traveled through my home state and got to see everyone. It was great. Oklahoma City was also great because it was an extremely productive set of build days that we got a lot done on the work site. The Habitat said we ended up putting them over a day ahead of schedule on their houses and seemed to enjoy working with us. I think it was the perfect build site to have before our Blitz Build in Colorado Springs. It shows us that building an entire house in 1 week is not impossible and I am ready!

The day before that was a very long 96 miles from Henryetta, OK to Oklahoma City, OK. The day started out great with a provided breakfast from the Methodist Church in Henryetta. With a hearty breakfast in my stomach, I pedaled vigorously for about 4 miles until I got to the worst road I have ever seen in my entire life. The road, as one of the riders put it, "Looked like someone did abstract art with concrete and potholes." It was the absolute worst road I have ever ridden on during Bike & Build and I am sad that it was my cue sheet that tortured the riders for 7 miles. At mile 11 the Oklahoma DOT decided to give us the most perfect road we could ever imagine for some miles before getting mediocre the rest of the day. I don't really remember when the lunch stop was, but this day was the longest day of rolling hills/extreme heat/extreme headwind of our trip so far. We would be climbing a small hill and the headwind would make it feel like we were climbing a mountain. It was intense. I'm pretty sure I rode most of the day with Katie R. and Zac but I think I also moved around the group a lot. When we finally survived the ride and got into the May Ave United Methodist Church around 4:30. We had dinner that night at the family's home that owned Dane's Design. Their house was beautiful and extremely stylish. They cooked us an Enchilada dinner and it was excellent. After that some people went out and I don't actually remember what I did because it has been awhile since that day. Sorry, it is getting late and my memory is failing.

The day before that we rode 106 miles from Ft. Smith, AR to Henryetta, OK. This was supposed to be my van day, but Travis switched with me so I could ride across the Oklahoma state line. Did I mention that I love Travis for switching with me? Zac, Katie R, Kelsey, Lizzy, Karen, and I started riding around 6:30. When we got to mile two, we saw a group of cyclists standing at the edge of the road at an intersection with a police car there. When we rolled by, I asked if everything was okay, and Natalie told me that Scott had been hit by a car. Apparently Scott had been riding about 22 mph trying to catch the group in front of him and the car did not see him, ran a red light, and Scott t-boned the car. The car was only moving about 5 mph when it hit him, but Scott hit the front left corned of the car, flew off of his bike, and smashed the car's windshield. Scott only had some scrapes on his elbow and a swollen knee. Scott's bike on the other hand had a bent frame, his fork snapped off, and his wheel was bent. This meant that his bike was nearly ruined. After the accident, an ambulance checked him out and said he didn't need to go to the hospital. He decided he wanted to keep riding and rode Travis' bike for 100 miles after the accident! (He's crazy.. really.) I am impressed that he was able to do that, but it is crazy. Anyway, back to the ride, after we heard about Scott's accident, I think everyone was a little shaken up for the rest of the ride. When you ride bikes as much as we do, you definitely forget about the dangers associated with riding cross-country. It was definitely a reality check for all of us and hopefully it will be a constant reminder of how safe we need to be while out on the road. We arrived at the Oklahoma state sign and took a bunch of pictures then rode on throughout the day. I remember it was a long really hot day that was hilly, but I don't remember many specifics about the ride. It was great to be in my home state and Sarah came to visit me that night in Henryetta. It was also nice to talk to Okie's and know that when you say "I'm from Enid, OK" that they actually know where that is located.

And finally, the last day I remember would be the 83 mile ride from Russellville, AR to Ft. Smith, AR. I remember riding with Zac, Paul, Katie R in a paceline leaving Russellville. We rode alongside the Arkansas river for most of the day and kept crossing it and seeing beautiful lakes that had formed because of the damming of the Arkansas River. As we rode throughout the day, we picked up riders on the "Money Train". The "$ Train" is what I call the pacelines that I am up front blocking all the wind for everyone behind me. At one point I had about 10 people in my paceline. It was awesome. Sometime after the lunch stop, a group of riders were stopped on the road and got us a discount at a paintball field along the route. I decided to join in the paintballing and we played for almost 2 hours. It was awesome to be able to let loose in the middle of the ride and do something I had never done before. None of us wore padding other than the facemasks that we were required to wear and all of us ended up with some good looking paintball welts on our bodies. It was a great time though and I would definitely do it again. When we arrived in Van Buren, AR (a suburb of Ft. Smith) we stayed at the Woodland Memorial Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Apparently this church is a small congregation of 30 people of which all of them were out of town except for one extraordinary woman named Linda Joyce. Because everyone else in this church community was out of town, she had spent the last two days before we got there preparing dinner, breakfast, and other snacks for the arrival of our group. It is amazing that someone would dedicate that much time and energy into helping others and her compassion is really inspirational. Because she thought what we are doing is so beneficial to others, she was willing to spend 2 days cooking food for us to make sure we were well taken care of while in Ft. Smith. She was one of the most good hearted and nicest people I have ever met. It was just awesome to see her generosity.

Anyways.. it is very late, and I am adding pictures now.. so sorry for this novel. I will definitely be updating more often because my week of host locations end tomorrow. This means I will have a lot more free time! Well, tomorrow we ride into New Mexico and then the day after that we'll be in Colorado! Can't wait!

Little Rock, AR - Day off #2

Hello everyone! Sorry I took a few days off from blogging. There has been a lack of internet at host locations lately.

Today we had our 2nd day off in Little Rock, AR. I started out my day by sleeping in until 8:30. It is amazing how early we wake up even when we don't have to wake up at a specific time. Some people rode bicycles downtown and others (like myself) were shuttled downtown in our van. When we got downtown Karen, Brad, Angela, Sarah, and I all went to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. I learned today that Bill Clinton started Americorps because he believed service at a young age was important. I think Americorps is a really cool program and I've definitely thought of it as an option for my year off from school next year. After the presidential library we walked to the River Market area and I ate my beef pad thai, Jillian's tofu pad thai, and Zac's chicken pad thai. (They were both too full to finish theirs, so I had to eat it.) After that I got a call from my dad and he came to visit me and follow our route for a week. I went back to the community center and invited him to come along with us to Heifer International. My dad, Brad, and Eugene took a tour of Heifer Int and I was really impressed by their organization. The tour highlighted the Green Building they implemented while building their headquarters. Their ceiling is at a slant so it will collect the rainwater in a 30,000 gallon barrel to be used in the bathrooms and other non-drinking water locations. It is cool to see how you can make adjustments like that to save money over the long term. After that my dad, Varun, Katie R, Lizzy, and I all went to the Flying Saucer to have one of their 200+ beers on tap before dinner. For dinner Natalie got Olive Garden donated and Tyler got us 12 pizzas donated. Now we are currently sitting around watching Game 7 of the NBA Finals. A few people bet on the game but I just want the Celtics to win.

Yesterday I was sweep with Michael Carroll for a 56 mile ride from Stuttgart, AR to Little Rock, AR. We started out our day by waking up at 6. Instead of eating breakfast with the group, Michael and I went to a restaurant called Gracie's in Stuttgart. I ate sausage biscuits and gravy and a pancake. They were awesome! After wasting about an hour eating we got a call from Jillian letting us know that she had a flat tire at around mile 9 with no extra tubes. Michael and I rode quickly to catch her and change her flat. Jillian had a few more bike problems and we ended up getting to lunch at around 12:30. We grabbed a few bananas and apples before leaving lunch. When we got to mile 43, we stopped at a mexican restaurant to eat chips, salsa, and queso for an hour before completing the ride. When we got to the host location, there was a line for showers so we rode back out downtown to relax in a park with Craig and Katie R. The Arkansas Bicycle Club donated BBQ chicken, pork, and beef to us for dinner and we gave a small presentation to them after dinner. After that we all headed back downtown to go watch the movie "The Blindside" out in a park for free. When the movie was over I took a shuttle full of the sleepy kids and under 21ers back to the host location. I was glad to get to sleep early because I kept trying to fall asleep during the movie.

The day before that was an 95 mile van day from Clarksdale, MS to Stuttgart, AR. It was a good day driving but really long. It was disappointing to miss getting to ride over the Mississippi River and a state line, but it was nice to hear how stoked everyone else was about crossing the Mississippi river. I sat up the first lunch stop outside of a church at mile 33 in the shade. After that I drove to mile 66 and sat there for a long lunch stop. When we got to the host the church provided a taco bar for dinner for us. The host also offered to take us to see the movie the Next Karate Kid. I skipped the movie along with Natalie & Travis in order for all of the riders that were on Laundry crew to be able to go to the movie. We went and did laundry and then went home to go to sleep. It was a relatively uneventful day for me.. but a good day overall.

The sad thing is I barely remember the day from Oxford, MS to Clarksdale, AR.. but I'm sure it was a good day as well.

The day from Tupelo, MS to Oxford, MS was an awesome day. It was a hot, humid, and hilly ride most of the day. My favorite part of the day came when I got to the top of climbing a hill and Michael Carroll yelled at me and Katie R. from the side of the road. He had stopped at Lake Steven at a Methodist Church Camp. When we got to the lake we were met by two camp counselors named Tyler and Katherine. They were our lifeguards on duty while we swam in the lake. While we were swimming we noticed a zip line running over the lake into the water. Katherine went to a little shed and pulled out zip line harnesses and asked us if we wanted to zip line into the lake. We were excited about this opportunity and could not pass it up. We zip lined the first time normally and then did it again hanging upside down with our arms out. It was a thrill to get to zipline over a lake. When we arrived in Oxford, we had dinner provided by the Oxford Bicycle Club and a pool party. I was trying to sleep while at the pool because I was tired. When I got back to the church at 7:00, I decided to go to bed at 7:30.. It was surprising when the next time I woke up was 5:30am for wakeup. I guess I was tired.

Well.. apparently I need to update my blog more often! I have had too much going on to remember everything lately. Sorry about the thrown together thoughts and general ramblings. I will try to post pictures some other time.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in Oklahoma in a few days!

Tupelo, MS - One week away from Oklahoma!

Hey people! It is insane to think how fast we are flying across the country. For once I actually woke up an hour early before everyone else so I will be doing a morning edition of my blog.

Yesterday was our 4th Build Day in Tupelo, MS with Habitat for Humanity. We arrived at the build site where there was a cinderblock frame of the house. We poured some concrete, laid floor supports, and finally got to nailing the base plywood flooring down to the ground. The build would have been perfect minus the fact that the heat and humidity combo is awful in Mississippi! Yesterday is was 97 degrees outside with 100% humidity. They said the heat index was 110! It was a killer day out in the heat but we were still able to get a lot of work done. After the build the Habitat for Humanity held a potluck for us that was awesome! It was full of comfort foods and BBQ. After dinner it was my turn to take laundry crew to do everyone's laundry. I went and sat around with them and took another group to Walgreens. The most interesting story of the day came from when I went outside to talk with Sarah on the phone at around 10:50. Lights out is always at 11:00, but you can always stay up later as long as you aren't bothering the sleeping people. So anyway Sarah and I talked for about an hour before I finally decided to go to bed. When I went to go back in the door that they had propped open for us the night before I was extremely surprised to find that the door was shut. I was locked out of the gym that we were staying in. I thought about trying to call someone to wake them up, but I didn't want to be annoying. The main part of the church had been unlocked for us so we could shower, so I knew that door was unlocked. I went inside the main church building, found a couch, set my alarm, and slept overnight on the couch. About 20 mins ago, a very nice elder at the church came in to turn on all of the lights and, probably to his surprise, found me sleeping on the couch. I told him what happened and he got a good laugh while letting me back into the gym. Good news is that I slept surprisingly well for sleeping on a couch in a church with great air conditioning and no blankets or sheets. I'm glad I got some rest because our ride to Oxford, MS today could be another scorcher like yesterday.

Two days ago we rode 50 miles from Hamilton, AL to Tupelo, MS. We officially crossed our 3rd state line! We ate an amazing meal for breakfast with biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, eggs, and hash browns. That food was so good and I ate so much of it that I wanted to take a nap after eating breakfast instead of riding a bicycle for 50 miles. We finally left to conquer rolling hills the entire way out of Alabama. The country road that we were riding into Mississippi did not have a state sign. To help Mississippi out the first group of riders chalked a state line sign on the ground and we all took pictures around it. After that we rode on the shoulder of a US Highway for 4 miles before exiting to have a lunch stop. We continued on back roads and highways. The terrain looked a lot like what the hills I did training bicycle rides in Oklahoma. The only thing that is missing in Mississippi is the Oklahoma headwinds. When we were about 10 miles out from the host, it started pouring down rain. We all hid our electronics and continued riding through the weather. Once we were actually in Tupelo, I looked up through the rain to see a sign for "Elvis birth home" and an arrow pointing right at the light. Katie and I took the right and went on a 2 block detour to go see Elvis place of birth. We took a bunch of pictures on the grounds of the museum but did not actually pay $4 to go inside the tiniest house I've ever seen. After that we went to a cafe and joined up with Varun, Katie K, and Melissa. We finally stopped hanging out and rode the rest of the way to the host location. We showered and ate pizza for dinner. Some people went out to drink and I hosted the alternative to drinking night by renting the movie Shutter Island. We watched it while sitting on comfy couches watching on the big screen upstairs. The movie generated a lot of discussion among the riders the next day so I think everyone liked it a lot.

The day before that we rode 80 miles from Decatur, AL to Hamilton, AL. This was my dreaded day in the van that comes once every 4 days. I have to be honest and tell you that it is so hard to drive down a country road or state highway at 55 mph and look for the side streets that the riders are supposed to turn down on the cue sheet. I pretty much missed every turn or saw it as I was driving past it. Although I made every wrong turn, I sat up lunch at mile 40 and only saw half of the group. After that first half left, I waited for almost 45 minutes before getting a call saying that the other half had somehow also followed the cue sheet and were all sitting at mile 43 ahead of me. So I packed up the lunch stuff and moved to the second lunch location of the day. After everyone had eaten, Karen decided that she was going to ride in the van because she wasn't feeling well. This was nice because it actually gave me company while driving the last 40 miles. After driving for about 10 miles we found Melissa at the top of a climb feeling badly so we also picked her up in the van. We all liked the band Taking Back Sunday at one point in our lives so we put them on shuffle on my ipod and had a sing along. We stopped to try some donation magic at Piggly Wiggly and had no luck. We went to a small produce market across the street from the Piggly Wiggly and the woman who owned it donated 2 boxes of strawberries and about 10 bananas to us. The strawberries were perfect and we had to sample them while driving before showing them to the rest of the group. When we got to Hamilton, we showered at the high school and then ate a provided meal of Spaghetti and salad. It was an awesome combination.

Well.. I would update you about Decatur, AL, but I don't have time to get it out before the actual wake up for everyone this morning. Hopefully you are enjoying your air conditioning fully while you read this post, because the heat is intense where we are. The best thing about cycling is that we create our own breeze to stay cool.
Hopefully my blog is still worth reading and I can't believe that a week from today we will be riding into Henryetta, OK! I can't wait to see everyone and be back in my home state! See you soon!

Scottsboro, AL - Bama!

Hello people.. it is pretty late so I will go straight into telling you about my days. I will hopefully be uploading pictures tonight as well but we'll see how long my blogging takes.

Today we rode 77 miles from Rome, GA to Scottsboro, AL. We started off the day with a large breakfast provided by the Westminster Presbyterian Church/Habitat for Humanity of Rome, GA. It was great power food of bagels with cream cheese, quiches, and a lot of fruit. We got out on the road at around 8:30. I rode with Katie R. for most of the ride today and we added and dropped other people throughout the day. The ride consisted of mostly rolling foothills of the Appalachians for the first 15 miles before flattening out near the Alabama state line. Kern (Ryan Kern) and Zac caught up with us around mile 17 and we rode with them while debating philosophical topics to pass the time. Although debating philosophical things like the possibility of pure altruism sounds boring, it was very interesting to hear everyone's response and we rode quite quickly while passionately defending our sides of the argument. At mile 24 we arrived at the state line and all took pictures. I was very surprised to see how beautiful Alabama is with all of the mountains and trees. We began our first small climb shortly after the state line. I thought it was pretty rough until we encountered an even larger climb of 1.7 miles at a steep grade at mile 34. While I was climbing this second, much larger climb, I was climbing alone with people in front and behind me. Although I was extremely tired and my legs burned, I kept telling myself to make it to the next turn before getting off my bike and taking a break. As soon as I hit that next turn, I would immediately set my "break spot" to the next turn in the mountain and keep riding up. Eventually I reached the top without ever stopping to take that break and I remembered why I love the challenge that Bike & Build offers. It really tests your mental and physical strength. The lunch stop was at the top of the hill and we had leftover BBQ brisket sandwiches from last nights meal. While at the lunch stop we heard about a trailhead that was half a mile ahead that lead to a waterfall. Nearly everyone stopped at the Little River Waterfalls for some swimming and cliff jumping. It was beautiful and this is a picture of me about to jump off of a 30 ft. cliff.
Picture of Waterfalls:
After about an hour we kept riding and eventually had another steep climb with switchbacks. After that we rode down CR-51 and got chased by 9 different dogs on the same road. A few of them got really close to catching us but all were deterred by me spraying my water bottle in their direction. Just so you know, if you spray water at a dog, the dog thinks you hit it with poison and will yelp and run the other way. Very helpful for biking cross country. Anyway we eventually got tired and needed a break so me, Katie R, Varun, and Melissa laid out in the shade of large tree on the side of the road and relaxed for almost an hour. Because we had moved into Central Time Zone and lost an hour, we were in no hurry to get into the host location early. After our relaxing (and nearly falling asleep) under the tree we headed out to finish the last 16 miles of the route. Picture of shady area below. Very relaxing.
It was just rolling hills for awhile before we had a 3 mile decent that parts were 13% grade. My max speed for the trip I believe is 46.7 mph. After we came off the decent we passed over a large lake/river on our way into Scottsboro. As we were going over the bridge, I looked at the other bridge for the opposite traffic and noticed a large nest sitting atop of the bridge. I immediately noticed a majestic looking bald eagle watching over it's nest. We finished the ride at about 5:15 and the host location provided us with BBQ and a lot of salad. I ate my weight in brisket sandwiches and salad. It was delicious. I then called the girls from OU to see how their B&B trips are going. All in all it was a great day and it was nice to relax and still ride almost 80 miles. It feels good to be back in the groove of Bike & Build!

Yesterday was my first sweep day, which was a 78 mile day into Rome, GA. I was sweep with Sarah Barry and Travis (one of my coleaders) decided that he wanted to take it easy and ride with sweep that day. We didn't want to catch the riders that were at the back so made a couple of pit stops before hitting the road. We went to the Chabad Center in Norcross, GA and bought some things from their garage sale. While we were there, a man wanted to buy a bicycle for his kid but the brakes did not work. Since Travis was with us and he is a bike mechanic, we reconnected the brake cable with one hand and fixed the bike. Fixing the brake cable is easy to do, but it was nice knowing that we were in the right place at the right time and could help out in such a small way. We left and it was our first hilly day so the riders were all getting used to the strain of climbing hills(foothills of the Appalachians). We caught up to the riders around mile 20 and needed something to do so they could get a head start. Travis and I were hungry so we stopped at a Wendy's to get a "snack". I ended up eating a double stack, a crispy chicken sandwich, a side caesar salad, and a spicy chicken wrap, all within a 25 minute period. After that we headed towards the lunch stop at mile 35. By the time we arrived I had already digested the Wendy's from earlier and was ready to eat some more food. The thought of PB&J did not sound good so I made Melissa come "donation magic" a pizza for lunch from Papa Johns. She got me a veggie pizza and I shared it with sweep and the other riders that were there. It was good. After lunch the wind had really picked up and Travis basically pulled Sarah and I through the headwinds towards Rome. We were both very tired at the end but I know if it weren't for Travis that I would've been completely exhausted. We had a BBQ brisket dinner provided for the Habitat for Humanity. The host in Rome also set up for a chiropractor, a bike mechanic, and a massage therapist person all to help us out. It was awesome and greatly appreciated. After that we had our first round of affordable housing presentations and went to bed.

The ride into Norcross, GA from Athens, GA was probably my worst riding day of the trip so far. I rode about 4 miles before the start of a headache that is only comparable to a migraine. Paul passed me and gave me Excedrin to ease the pain and I rode most of the morning with a throbbing headache. I rode with the migraine until lunch and considered vanning it the rest of the day. Because I am stubborn and don't want to give up any more days in the van, I continued to tough it out. I realized at about mile 40 that I was extremely dehydrated and started chugging water and gatorade. My muscles started cramping up and my headache came back towards the end of the ride. Although I wanted to kill someone, Katie R. caught up with me at the end of the ride and pushed through excruciating knee pain through the last 4 miles so I figured me with a headache was nothing. Once we actually arrived in Norcross, I went immediately to lie down and had people bring me Gatorade/water. I attempted to hydrate myself for a few hours before getting up. Karen and Katie went to a CVS and bought me Salt & Vinegar Chips and a real Gatorade to help the process. Gotta love the caring B&B spirit. In Norcross we stayed at the Boys & Girls Club and had dinner provided by a local BBQ place. It was extremely delicious. After dinner everyone went back to the host location and I went undefeated at air hockey and then lost a few games of ping pong.

Well.. I think that pretty much catches us up. It seems like every meal I have eaten for the last 2 weeks has been BBQ Brisket. Man, what a rough life. I'm eating better on B&B than I would if I were at home cooking for myself. We really know how to rough it on B%B. Anyway.. I'm getting extremely tired and should probably head to bed.

Thanks for reading and we'll be in Oklahoma in less than 2 weeks! 12 days to go!
See everyone soon!

Athens, GA - Build Day #2

Hey people. I know I shouldn't get you used to me posting so often, but I have some free time before dinner. So now I will get straight into the blogging. Oh, I was just reading through my last post.. sorry about all the typos/run on sentences. It was really late and I was trying to catch up on blogging. I will try to have better quality writing from now on. Anyway..

A few days ago we rode from Greenville, SC to Hartwell, GA. This was our first state line day! In the morning we got up and ate the bread and bagels that the Atlanta Bread Co. had donated to us the night before. That morning Brendan (our program director) said bye to our trip after spending all most an entire week with us. We will miss having him around but I guess he has to go be awesome to all of the other routes he is running this summer. At the cue-sheet meeting in the morning, I decided that we will begin something that I am calling the rider "Donation Magic Challenge." Each day we ride, I will give the riders something to get donated to the group that useful but difficult to attain. I didn't want them to think that I was going to go easy on them for the Donation Magic Challenge so I told them to get a shade awning and some strawberry sherbet donated to our group. I figured the shade awning would be awesome to have for our lunch stops so we never have to worry about not finding shade on the side of the road. After the cue sheet meeting we all headed out on the roads. I rode with Nichole for awhile and helped fix her bike in the morning. We stopped to try to get a shade tent donated at a grocery store but we had no luck. I eventually made it to lunch and ate a ton of Olive Garden salad. The group that rode into lunch ended up leaving me there because I kept eating bowls of Olive Garden salad. I eventually caught up to Kelsey. We got missed a turn at one point because we were talking about whether or not to stop at a grocery store to ask about donations. Because we missed the turn, we added a 7 mile detour on our days mileage. We finally got back on route and took an popsicle break at a gas station before riding into Georgia. We took pictures at the state line and rode into Hartwell. The first thing we did when we got there was stop at a Dairy Queen for ice cream. It was really great to get to ride with Kelsey because I hadn't really talked to her at all. Now I feel much closer to her after riding almost 30 miles together. When we got to the church, the first thing I noticed was a giant shade awning standing in the middle of the gym. Apparently the riders got two shade awnings donated to our group. I was very surprised by this because I really figured it would take them a couple of weeks to acquire this item. I was definitely wrong and I am still astonished that we now have two shade awnings. Impressive! There were also a ton of church members helping make us dinner. We had an awesome hamburger/hot dog meal with a lot of fresh fruit. We got spoiled rotten. It was a great day overall.


The next day was a 46 mile day from Hartwell, GA to Athens, GA. This day was my second van day so it won't be nearly as exciting as the day before. I didn't have to do grocery shopping or anything in the morning. This meant that when the riders left the host location that I could drive straight to the lunch stop. The donation challenge of the day was to get a cinderblock and an extension cord. I drove out to around mile 25 and stopped in the parking lot of a Trinity Baptist Church just outside of Danielsville, GA. I went in the church to ask if we could use the parking lot. The youth minister there gave me the approval and also told me we could use the restroom in there as well. I set up the lunch stop under a big tree and hung out while everyone came through to eat. Lizzy presented me 50 ft extension cord and Craig & David got a 25ft extension cord donated in the morning. After all of the riders had left, I stopped about 2 miles down the road to pick up a cinderblock that Brian N. had gotten donated. With the donation challenge complete, I followed the directions to the host location and only got lost a few times around the church in Athens. Holy Cross Lutheran church hosted us and gave us the best potluck meal ever! They had everything you could possibly imagine and more. I ate a ton of food and it was awesome. After dinner a group of us walked around the strip malls around the church and then I took a van of people to Baskin Robbins. After that I was really tired and went to bed early.

Today we had a build day in Athens, GA. We did demo work on a condemned apartment complex. We knocked out walls and took out drywall. It was really nice to get to let out some built up aggression on the walls. The build site manager said that the job we were going to do would take two days to complete it. We had the original job completed in about 3 hours and then they opened up another apartment for us to work on. We got it done by about 2:00 when they ran out of stuff for us to do. We took a group picture and then rushed back to shower at the YMCA. Now I am currently waiting on dinner and going to CVS with some people.
Anyways.. I'm not that exciting right now.. so here are some links with news articles we've been featured in:
Hincapie's website:

Newspaper in Charleston:


Alright, I'm going to go out with some people to CVS to get some Silly Bands for the group. I'll update when I can in the next few days! Hope everything is well in Oklahoma!

Greenville, SC - First Day Off

Okay, sorry it has been a few days since I have updated. Unfortunately I have not had decent internet connection recently so I have not have time to update. So, instead of giving you lame excuses for not writing about my trip, I will write about my trip starting with where I left off. You will probably hear me talking about "Donation Magic" often. It refers to anytime that anyone gets anything donated to the group. This year our riders are really pumped about trying to get things donated. It is a definite thrill to go into a business and ask for free food and our riders are always out getting us donated goods and helping us leaders out a lot. I really love the group, they are all so cool.

The ride into Sumter,SC was supposed to be a 60 mile day but we pulled a classic Bike & Build move and made it an 88 mile day. South Carolina continued to be very hot and very humid during the day. I guess the most unfortunate and eventful portion of the day was my first bike wreck. I was standing up off of my bike seat for a minute to give my butt a rest from sitting on my seat when my right foot accidentally unclipped from my pedal and my bike went sideways. I fell to the left and got a pretty good cut on my arm and scraped up my side, knee, and ankle bone. I'm very thankful that I landed on my left side because all of the really important stuff on my bike (shifters/chain rings/etc) is on the right side of the bike. So luckily my new bike is still in prime condition. So, just so everyone knows, I am fine and my bike is fine and I will use this unfortunate experience as a lesson to be more careful and pay more attention to what I am doing. I just can't believe I wrecked on day 2! It was extremely frustrating. I wrecked around mile 35 and still finished out the ride with Melissa and Preston. When we got to the host location we stayed in a big gym and played basketball. For dinner all of the leaders attempted to go out and get things donated from local businesses. Because it was Memorial Day Weekend, we only got minor donations from a Piggly Wiggly(grocery store). One of our riders, David Smith, had a friend that lived in Sumter decided to buy our group two platters of Chik-fil-a nuggets. Nichole took charge of making pasta sauce and I helped her and dinner crew cook 6 lbs of pasta. We had an excellent makeshift chicken parm and the meal was successful. All in all it was a good day.. minus the accident.

The ride into Columbia, SC was around 61 miles.. the days are already starting to blend together. I started out riding with the front/fast group of cyclist averaging a pace of around 21 mph. It was frustrating at times because I was the only one that had chalk in the front group and every time I stopped to chalk a turn, the front group would take off at 21 mph and I would have to ride 24 mph in order to catch up with them. I caught up with them 3 times in 18 miles by sprinting after chalking the turns and it was wearing me out. When I tried to catch them the fourth time my chain accidentally slipped off in the front and locked up my gears. This made it where I had to get off my bike and fix the chain. After that incident another group passed me so I ended up riding with Katie R and Lizzy most of the rest of the day. This day was one of my favorite lunch stops because MOB(Megan O Brien) placed the lunch stop at a gas station that had a Subway attached to it. I got my 5$ footlong and was satisfied with life. When we got into Charleston, we were staying at the Green Quad on the USC campus. When we rode into campus we saw a bunch of restaurants on the main street we were riding on and decided to see if we could get some Donation Magic. We were riding in a group of 6 so we all broke up into twos and each group went into a different restaurant to ask for donations. Although all of the businesses said no, it was still good to know that we tried our best to get things donated. We got to USC early in the afternoon and had some time to kill before dinner. We all hung out for awhile and then used the projector and speakers to watch the movie "The Big Lebowski" before dinner. For dinner one of the Bike & Build alums from NUS08 named Kristen Boegner hosted a vegan potluck for us and there was a great turnout. Our presentation crew did another presentation and it was very well done. That night we all went out to celebrate Natalie's 26th birthday.

My first day to drive the van was a 50.1 mile day into Newberry, SC. It was pretty crazy waking up in the morning and not having to get dressed in the usual Bike & Build spandex attire. Natalie and I hitched the trailer in the morning and then we all did our morning chores. The day before we thought that the weather would permit us to paint the trailer so we had driven the trailer down an alley that we could only go in reverse with the trailer to get out. After the trailer was packed, breakfast was eaten, and the riders had left, I decided to back the trailer out of the alley. I did it in two tries and felt like an accomplished trailer driver. Brendan, the Bike & Build program director, says I'm a natural at driving with the trailer. Anyways I left USC campus and went to find a grocery store and get some gas. I went to a Bi-Lo grocery store and gave the Bike & Build donation spiel. The manager seemed confused about what "Raising money and awareness for affordable housing" meant because he told me their organization only donates to organizations that are aimed at reducing poverty and homelessness. I tried to explain to him politely that by increasing affordable housing that you in turn reduce poverty and homelessness but apparently he did not see the connection. He did not give a discount but I did not see another grocery store for miles so I went ahead and bought the bare minimum groceries there. After that I went down the road a little further and filled up on gas in the van. I finally began to leave Columbia and drive the route trying to follow the cue sheet. It was really stressful at first because it is hard to drive at 35-60mph trying to find the little side street to turn down that is listed on the cue sheet. I realized though that when the riders chalk the turns (like their supposed to do) that you can see the chalk very clearly from the van and it was extremely helpful when locating the next turn. During the first 10 miles of the drive we went over this giant dam and there was a really pretty lake on the left side of the road. It made me wish I were out riding, but I am also glad that I can drive the van and help out riders on the road. I finally got to a city around the halfway point and set up a lunch stop for the riders. It took about two and a half hours for all of the riders to come through and eat at the lunch stop. A storm looked like it was headed our way from the south when the Sweep riders came through so they hurried to get back on the road and avoid the storm. In the afternoon I was less stressed about driving the van because there was barely any traffic out on the road so I turned on Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up" pretty loudly on the van and rode behind the riders out on the road for a minute before passing them. When I rode up to Kelsey and Varun, they both looked like they were getting tired and were riding pretty slowly up a hill. I turned on the music and pulled up next to them in the van. They both immediately cheered up on the bike and seemed to have more of a hop to their pedaling. It was nice to be able to show support to the riders in such a basic way. When I was about a mile out from the host location I pulled up next to Lizzy and rode next to her playing music all the way into the host location. At the host we stayed in a gym and played volleyball and basketball. My team lost at volleyball but won at basketball. We ate breakfast for dinner that night and then attempted to paint the trailer. We had the trailer perfect and it was by far the best looking trailer until...... (Cliffhanger)

The ride into Greenville, SC started out horribly. I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to one of my least favorite sounds. The sound of torrential downpour. I really don't mind riding my bicycle in the rain, but the reason this made me so angry was (as you may have already realized..) because of our freshly painted trailer that was outside getting rained on. The rain had completely washed away all of our hard work from the night before. It was a real bummer, but we all tried to ignore the fact that our beautiful trailer was ruined. We sulked while we ate breakfast and then got out on the road. The rain stopped for awhile before starting again around mile 20. I rode with Varun until around mile 25 and then rode with Zac, Katie R, Paul, Sebastian, Craig, and Varun the rest of the day. At the lunch stop, it was lightning and thundering so we hung out by the gas pumps at a gas station hiding from the rain. While we were hanging out there, we pulled out the long rope that we had in the van and used it as a rope for double-dutch jump rope(jumping two ropes at once). I successfully jumped it a few times.. which I hadn't done since Jump-Rope-4-Heart in elementary school. Anyways we waited out the lightning and thunder but continued to ride in the downpour for the next 30 miles. We had a 5 people crash while going over railroad tracks during the day. No one was badly injured just some bruises and scraped knees. The last 5 miles of the ride was full of intense uphill climbs that were extremely tiring. The church was in downtown Greenville so after we all showered we walked Main St. to pass the time. We went to a Vegetarian Mexican restaurant and I had portabella mushroom fajitas. They were excellent. Then we went out and walked around the city and had some drinks before sleeping.

Now that brings me to this morning.. sorry for such a long post. If I update more often.. this won't happen. This morning there was no wakeup time because we had a day off in Greenville, SC. We got up and walked through downtown in order to get some coffee and tea to wake us up. We made it to a bubble tea place called Cha-O and I got a blueberry bubble tea. I drank it while we walked around near the river in downtown Greenville. While we were walking across the suspension bridge over the water a local woman was explaining to me about the local college in the town and a little about it's history. I told her about our organization and she reached in her wallet and handed me $10 without me even asking her for a donation. It is amazing how often this occurs while out on the road by I am still always shocked by the generosity of people across the country. That is 10 more dollars that we can donate out to people in need throughout the summer. For lunch we got a bunch of Olive Garden salad/dressing donated so I ate 8 bowls of salad and 2 bread sticks. I know my mom will say.. "not surprised" about the Olive Garden salad quantity. After lunch we met Bill West, one of Bike & Build's board members, and visited the Hincapie headquarters in Greenville. Hincapie is the company that supplies us with awesome high quality Bike & Build jerseys for a cheap price. That is an awesome sponsorship to have and I'm glad we got to go represent Bike & Build and meet the people that help us out. Thank you Hincapie! (If you read my blog ever.. you never know). After that I came back to the church to lay down for a minute and I accidentally took a two hour nap in the middle of a room where a bunch of people were hanging out. When I woke up we went to dinner at Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria and Bill West and his family bought our riders a bunch of pizza. I was talking to Bill West before we were eating and he was telling me about his daughter that works at Brandeis University as the head of the International Admissions office. I told him about one of my friends Meghan McHale that just got hired at Brandeis working in international admissions. When his daughter showed up, I asked her if she knew Meghan. She told me she just hired her. It is crazy how small the world is. It is amazing that I made a connection with someone that lives in Waltham while they were visiting their family in South Carolina. Small world. We all hung out there playing pool, darts, and eating pizza until 9 and then came back to the church. I just worked on leader stuff for a few hours before deciding to catch up on my blogging.

At this point we have had about 10 riders wreck and I am winning the scar competition (or future scar competition..) and I hope to keep it that way because I really don't want anyone to get injured worse than me. Mine wasn't that bad and I want to keep the accidents that way. I definitely need to update my blog more so that I don't end up with forever long blogs like this one. Oh well. Maybe by in the time that it takes you to read this novel of a blog that my next blog will already be posted before you are finished.

First state line crossing tomorrow! Will try to upload pictures to facebook/Bike & Build's website soon. Thanks for reading.. more coming soon!