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!
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