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!