Cycling adventures

Meeker, CO - Back to the desert!

2010-07-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I updated the last post to make it less graphic because I did not notice how much detail I was getting into about the accident. Sorry about any discomfort my blog may have caused, but I am here this week to make up with tales of joyous biking occasions! Right now I'm sitting next to Natalie - she is really cool and really old. I am so glad we are friends (she just said that to me.. because she knows I'm blogging. I had to put it in here)

Today we rode from Rifle, CO to Meeker, CO. It was a 41 mile ride back in the desert terrain. We rode out in a large group with Karen, Katie R, Katie K, Craig, and Nichole. Nothing too exciting happened for the first 10 miles so we decided to make our day more interesting. At around mile 10 we decided that the small hill (also known as a mountain) on the right on the road would be perfect for climbing. We got off of our bikes and began the ascent up the side of the mountain.
After climbing up a couple hundred feet we realized that the mountain was much steeper than we originally intended and that there weren't any good footholds in the mountain to make climbing easy. Most of the group took notice of this and gave up on the climb but me and Katie K. would not be deterred. We climbed ferociously upwards and sent some mini rock slides down the mountain. Upon reaching the top we realized that the terrain at the top was much different than on the sides and also that there wasn't anything interesting up there at all. We took a couple of pictures and then figured out a plan for the descent down the mountain. (View from the top of the mountain!)
I watched Katie K. as she used the mountain as a slide and scooted down the mountain to steadier footing. I followed suit and eventually we were all at the base of the mountain ready to finish our ride. Lunch showed up early in the ride at mile 18 because it was the location of the only gas station to be found on today's route. It turned out that the gas station was closed, but we had good company with Angela and Megan in the van. Katie R., Karen, Nichole, and I rode out from lunch together. Mile 28 was the beginning of a 5 mile stretch of gravel and construction. We made it through that only to find out 3 miles later that the gravel had politely left Nichole with a souvenir of a flat tire. I helped her change it and then we race quickly (mostly downhill) into Meeker. As soon as we arrived, we unloaded the trailer and coolers. I then proceeded to get a milkshake before heading to the rec center to swim. We were there probably two hours going down the slide and playing in the pool. After that we headed back to the church for some excellent spaghetti, salad, and dessert. We finished up the evening by putting more paint on the trailer and playing guitar.

Yesterday we had a build day in Rifle, CO. The build was interesting because it is the first Habitat we have worked with that has a professional contractor in charge of the build site. He broke us up into small groups and had us each do jobs around the house. The group I got placed in with Natalie, Beth (a B&B alum), Melissa, and MOB were all working on sorting building materials, shoveling rocks, breaking up concrete, and moving boulder piles into a dumpster. It was interesting being on a build and not really directly working on the house. Oh well, I'm sure what we did helped in some way or another. After the build we all went back to the fire station where we were staying. The firemen pulled out an old fire truck and let us all play with the fire hose and shoot water at each other. After that they all let us dress up in their gear and take a bunch of pictures. They also filled up a above ground pool thing so we could swim if we wanted. While I was riding into Rifle the day before, I saw a sign that said Rifle Falls were 12 miles away. I organized a group of 10 people to ride with us to the falls and make an epic side trip.
The ride out to the falls was intense because it seemed like I was so tired that I could not make my bike go more than 10 mph. I realized later that we were going slightly uphill the entire time. When we got there we took a bunch of pictures and explored some mysterious caves. Picture of Rifle Falls.

Picture: a view from inside one of the caves!
We noticed it was nearing sunset so we got back on our bikes to ride back to Rifle. On the ride back we didn't have to pedal at all because there was a slight downhill the whole time. A view of the sunset over Rifle Lake.
We stopped once to take pictures, but aside from that I rolled 30 mph the entire time. It was awesome to get rewarded with a descent. For dinner Me, Natalie, David, Beth, and Michael went to a Mexican restaurant and had good burritos, enchiladas, and an ice cream dessert. It was excellent. I finished my evening by sleeping outside under the stars and enjoying the cool breeze.

The day before that we rode 71 miles from Aspen, CO to Rifle, CO. The day started out awesome because we got breakfast donated to us from the pastor of the church at a bakery in Aspen. After devouring 3 pancakes, I rode out of Aspen with Natalie and Beth. This ride was epic because we rode on a bike path for the first 40 miles of the ride. It was great to get to ride and not worry about cars or other dangerous things we encounter daily. The bike path was perfect because it was an entirely downhill ride on the bike path. We rode about 10 miles before catching up with Eugene, Megan, Karen, and Lance. The riding group
At around mile 20 Natalie disappeared and apparently got a few flats. When we all arrived at lunch, the usual PB&J sandwich did not appeal to me, Preston, Kim, or David. We all decided that Subway sounded a lot better so we took a side trip to Subway in Glenwood Springs, CO. When we arrived at Subway we noticed a Qdoba across the street. We went to Qdoba, told the manager what we were doing, and she told us our meal would be free. We all ate our free burritos and headed down to Twin Rivers Park to swim in the rivers. While we were swimming, Lizzy, Katie K, Varun, and Melissa caught up to us. We all left the river in a large group and got on the Interstate for 5 miles. Normally interstates are extremely scary, but this one had one lane conveniently closed down so we were protected from the traffic. It's almost like Colorado DOT closed it down just for us. Thank you CDOT! After we got off the interstate, the headwinds picked up intensely. Lizzy and I pulled away from the group in a paceline. I pulled her for 2 miles at around 18 mph until she flew around me on a downhill going 24 mph. A view of Lizzy pulling the paceline: I followed her for 2 miles until switching with her again. We continued our paceline of 22 mph for the rest of the ride switching every 2 miles. It was awesome to get to ride with Lizzy. We both pushed ourselves and made excellent time finishing out the ride. We took showers at the fire station and hung out with the firemen until dinner. After dinner we watched Dumb & Dumber to commemorate our time in Aspen. I was tired from the riding of the day so I decided to go to sleep at 9:30 outside on the sidewalk. Little did I know that I would sleep 11 hours and wake up at 8:30 the next day. It was a good day.

Okay.. now that I am caught up on my blogging from the last blog entry.. I am going to do a hidden in blog shout out!
Mrs. Whittemore and Lizzy's grandma - Thank you so much for always sending excellent cookies/brownies/everything. I'm pretty sure I look forward to your weekly packages more than Lizzy does.
Dad - People are not mad that you weren't at the top of Independence Pass, they are just highly disappointed that there was no Mr. $ stop.
All CUS09ers - You guys are the best at sending me post cards! I really enjoy all of them and hopefully I'll get around to sending some back.
Everyone else - Thanks for continuing to read my blog and for donating. Our trip has raised almost $150,000 and we couldn't have done it without all of you.

And lastly, hopefully my blog entry this time is a little less traumatic. I will try to keep my blog more on the PG-13 level. haha. Anyways, thanks as always for reading and I'm going to go to sleep now because I have to drive the van 112 miles tomorrow. (It's tough work!)
Until next time..

Aspen, CO - A week's worth of building and the Rockies!

2010-07-13T20:53:00.001-07:00

Hello again everyone! It has been a long time since I last posted and a lot has happened in the last few weeks. We had a rider get in a pretty bad accident about a week and a half ago and that is part of why I haven't updated recently. I guess I'll go ahead and tell you what happened.

When we were riding 116 miles from Walsenburg, CO to Trinidad, CO (about 2 weeks ago) the first 40 miles of the ride were miserable. They were seriously the most frustrating 40 miles I have ever had. The headwind was miserable and it was a slight climb until the first lunch stop. Katie R, Craig, Karen, Angela, and myself all slowly powered through until the lunch stop. After the first lunch the wind switched directions and we had a significant increase in speed and flew at around 23 mph average into a Silver Cliff, CO. We stopped at a Shell and I got a Subway sandwich to take to the second lunch stop about 20 miles away. Lizzy joined us while at the Subway and climbed with us for about 10 miles. When we were nearing the top of the climb, Angela, Lizzy, and I broke away from Katie R. and Karen on the ascent. Lizzy and I stopped to wait and Angela powered on towards the top of the mountain. We all reached the top together and then I powered forward to get some speed on the descent. I powered down the mountain at around 45 mph and it was the most gorgeous rock canyons all around the road. After a couple of miles I came to a hairpin turn that had a caution sign that said to slow to 20 mph. On that turn, one of our riders Angela lost control and hit a guardrail. She had a deep cut on her leg, but she is luckily okay and still with our group. Angela got airlifted to the hospital in Pueblo and went into emergency surgery. She had a large cut on her leg that they cleaned and repaired the damaged muscle tissue. The unfortunate news is that the recovery for the muscle damage is 6 weeks, so Angela will be our passenger in the van for the next 5 weeks. I was pretty shaken up about the whole incident for awhile and that's why I didn't update my blog. That night when I got into Pueblo, I stayed the night in the hospital with Angela and spent the next day trying to help her out in anyway possible. I'm so glad that she is okay and did not do any real permanent damage to her leg, but it is tragic that she can't ride with us. I'm glad that I was the first person there and was able to help out but it is definitely something you never want to happen to any of your riders. I'm so glad that she is okay!
(this is edited due to the fact that I was extremely tired when I wrote last time and didn't pay attention to how much detail! Sorry about that!)

Today we rode 40 miles from Twin Lakes, CO to Aspen, CO! It was an epic Bike & Build day of climbing Independence Pass and reaching an elevation of 12,095 ft. I rode with Karen, Melissa, and Kelsey for the first half of the ride. The ride was gorgeous and we climbed pretty steadily for the first 12 miles through the Rocky Mountains. While we were climbing, I made everyone stop about 500 times so I could take pictures of the Rocky Mountains. Every time I looked up and saw a different angle on the mountains, I felt like I needed to take a picture in order to capture the scenery in front of me. The pictures don't do it justice, but I will probably upload a ton just to give you an idea of what we were riding through. I also made sure to make Karen stop a lot because she has asthma and I wanted to make sure she got acclimated to the elevation change on the way up. At mile 12 we began climbing switchbacks up to the summit. We kept a solid pace while climbing closer to the summit of the pass. When we got to the top, we were greeted by a crowd of Bike & Builders that cheered as we reached the summit. It was a great feeling to accomplish my second 12,000+ climb and I am sure it will not be my last. It was cold at the top, but my adrenaline was high so I didn't notice. We took a ton of pictures at the sign and then went to a scenic overlook area to take pictures with the snow capped mountains as a backdrop. After some pictures we climbed off the trail to make some snowballs to throw at each other. I also laid in the snow to make a snow angel, which was a bad idea because I was not wearing my arm warmers/leg warmers/rain jacket. While we were playing in the snow, we saw Kim & Jillian climbing up the last switchback and we ran to greet them. We cheered them in when they arrived at the top and celebrated with them. It was amazing to see everyone in our group make the climb to the top of a 12,095 elevation pass. I am extremely proud of all of the riders! After lunch we began our 16 mile descent. I kept a steady pace of around 30 mph on the way down with a max speed of 43. Karen and I descended at about the same speed and we were within viewing distance of each other the whole descent. We heard about a cliff jumping spot when we were at the top and stopped at a campground to ask where the swimming hole was located. The mountain biking locals told us to follow them downhill and took us to a spot called the Devil's Punchbowl. It was a gorgeous spot that you could cliff jump 40 ft into freezing snow melt water. Karen and I flagged down a group of riders coming down the mountain to join us in the adventure. Dave, Craig, Karen, Brad, and myself were the only ones to jump. It was a rush to step out off of the ledge and the water was so cold when I hit that it knocked the air out of me. The water was so cold that it temporarily shocked the nerves on my skin and it took all of my energy to swim the 20 ft. to get out of the water. After the cliff jumping, I descended the rest of the way into Aspen with Brad. For dinner Dave and I ate at La Cantina and it was really good. After dinner I had to do laundry with laundry crew. Before we left for laundry we were talking with a man outside of the church and he gave us a $500 donation. It is always incredible to see how generous people can be when they hear about our cause. We really only talked with him for 5 minutes before he handed us a large donation. It was definitely a good B&B day.

It is really late here and we are getting up at 6:00 am tomorrow to ride to Rifle, CO. I will try to keep updating this post with more days that have happened since the last post. It will definitely take me a few days to catch up. Sorry about that.

Dalhart, TX - Too long since last post!

2010-06-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Charleston, SC to Moncks Corner, SC - And so it begins..

2010-05-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
Thank you so much for donating to me and helping make this possible. I did make it to my $4000 goal and I can't believe this summer is already here. Because this is my first blog from the summer, I may be a little rusty in my blogging techniques. Bear with me through this post as I get back in the groove of blogging and Biking & Building.
Today was our first day of riding and we rode 57 miles from Charleston, SC to Moncks Corner, SC. This morning we got up early to get everything and everyone ready for the ride. We started out by taking a 12 mile ride to Sullivan's island to go to an accessible beach for the wheel dip. When we got there, the local morning news was there to interview one of the other leaders Travis and take shots of the beginning of our journey. We said some words of inspiration, dipped our wheels in the ocean, and took off towards Moncks Corner. Travis and I left the beach and headed kept a strong pace for the first half of the ride. A lot of the riders missed a turn early in the route and ended up adding 12 miles to their routes. (This is a common B&B mistake that I made more than once). Because a significant number of riders missed this turn, Travis and I ended up out in front of all the other riders and chalked the turns. At lunch we devoured leftover pizza/veggie burgers/nacho cheese and chips from the weekend. After lunch we were riding on roads that were less traveled by cars so we could all ride double file and talk with each other. I rode with Paul, Katy, Michael, Lizzy, & Karen for the afternoon and got to know each of them a little better. The terrain was extremely flat and South Carolina is extremely hot and humid. I cannot express enough just how hot and humid it is! I don't think I have stopped sweating for a moment since I got here and today I was fighting the humidity/heat trying to stay hydrated for the ride. We made it in around 3:00 and celebrated finishing the first day. The church told us about a lake in town and about 20 of us made our first side trip of the summer and added 6 miles to go swimming before dinner. We had Subway donated for dinner by the church and it filled my craving for $5 footlongs that I have not given into yet. I am extremely tired and sore today which was surprising. Looks like my body doesn't remember what it's like to sit on a bicycle seat for 6 hours a day. Can't wait until I'm not sore anymore.
Yesterday was our first build day in West Ashley. It was one of the best build days I've ever had with Bike & Build and was a lot of fun. We made local media come interview Megan and do a story about us. Hopefully the video will work and I will post the link here: (if the video sides are cut off like blogspot tends to do.. try to doubleclick the video and it should open in a new window.)

Our build was working on roofing/putting shingles on a house. When we got there, we asked if the build site manager thought we would be able to finish the job during the day we were there. He said that he didn't think it would be possible, but that he just wants to get as far along as possible. Well.. amazingly enough our group worked very hard and pulled off all the shingles off the house, laid down new plywood, and put new shingles back on the roof all in one day. It was awesome to see how dedicated our riders are this summer and to be able to see the finished roof that we put on this person's house. The Charleston Habitat for Humanity was fulled equipped to have all 32 of us working with tools and staying occupied the entire day. I saw a lot of teamwork from our riders in getting the build finished and I think our group will be able to accomplish and have an awesome summer.
On Monday & Tuesday we had rider orientation and all of the riders showed up! I was excited and nervous for their arrival because I was worried that I didn't have everything ready to go for their orientation. All in all orientation was fun and I think everyone was ready for it to be over so we could all get out on our way to Santa Cruz, CA!
Well.. I'm not sure what else to say for now because I'm extremely tired and we have a 66 mile ride tomorrow. Thank you all again for your donations and I will be getting on thank you cards as soon as my summer calms down and my body gets used to the physical strain of riding a bicycle all day again. Hope everything is going well for everyone reading and I'll be out on the road making sure we're being safe on our way to California. I'll update again soon when I have time!

New Route. New Adventures.

2010-03-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Hello friends & family!
This summer I will be biking from South Carolina to Santa Cruz, CA. But if you made it to this page, you probably already know this because you received a fundraising letter or joined my facebook group. Thank you for joining my group and/or taking time to read my letter. Hopefully my picture still has the magnet attached and is hanging on your fridge.

If you look at my last post from last summer, you can actually see that picture I sent you and you can scroll down the page through all my old blogs. This will basically outline my entire adventure. This summer I will post more pictures, videos, and more often than last summer. Feel free to create a free blogspot account and follow my blog. That way you can comment and let me know that people may actually be reading this.

Anyway I will probably keep my blogging to a minimum until the summer actually starts so I don't bore you with the monotony of school/work/life of a college student.

Here are some useful links that will help you know more about my trip this summer. (Blogspot is being weird so I can't actually make them links.. you will have to copy/paste, sorry.)
If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to me for Bike and Build go to:
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,118/

My profile on Bike & Build: (the best one, I might add. haha)
http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/3499

An overview of the route:
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/content/view/110/277/

And 2 epic videos that represent Bike & Build: (to keep you entertained until the summer). I'm not sure why they won't scale to the page. Maybe it's just my computer?
The Bike & Build video:

And a video filmed by riders on B2SB09.

Thanks for reading. Can't wait until this summer!

Cannon Beach, OR - 4000 miles down!

2009-07-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Vernonia, OR - One more day!

2009-07-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Readers! I spoiled you too much by posting all the time about a week ago. Good news is that I'm still alive and pedaling towards Cannon Beach! We're almost there!

We left Portland this morning headed to Vernonia, OR for a 48 mile ride. We crossed a bridge to get out of the city that was really nice and then followed highways to Vernonia. We climbed for awhile on the trip, but the climbing was only difficult because it was 100 degrees outside again today. Our trip coordinator Brendon drove the van and blessed us all with fudge-pops at mile 35. Dad (everyone calls him Mr. $ - Mr. Money) had a pit stop at mile 20 with redbull, gatorade, and water. About 30 mins ago I ate at a sandwich/coffee house here in Vernonia that was excellent. I can't remember the name already. The food was very memorable though. Soon I'm going to go jump in a river we passed on the way in.

Yesterday we had a day off in Portland. We woke up in a non-airconditioned church dying of heat exhaustion at about 9. (I'm still bitter, haha) We all sat around and I planned out a side trip to our final state line.. Washington! I convinced Courtney, Kira, Laura, and Boss to all ride with me. It was only a 15 mile side trip and we got to ride a bike path down the middle of an interstate to the state line. We all hung on the sign and celebrated our final state crossing and then got back on our bikes to explore the great city of Portland. My dad is currently with our trip so I waited for him to finish getting the bus looked at before Laura, Courtney, dad, and myself all rode to Lloyd Center to catch the Max(the public transportation system). We walked around Portland with no particular destination until dinner. Portland is having interesting weather with a high temp of 107 yesterday. It was very hot. I guess our destination was air conditioning! We ate the best meal of our lives at the Oregon Culinary Institute. Haley's dad is in charge there and he donated a meal at the restaurant to the group. I had a 4 course meal that was amazing. If you are heading to Oregon ever, you definitely need to go to the Culinary Institute's restaurant. The normal price for the 4 course meal is $18. All the tips and money go to help fund scholarships for the students enrolled at the school. It was amazing. Anyway, after dinner a group of us all went to Voodoo donuts and grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to the church.

The ride into Portland was a 101 mile day from Maupin, OR. I plagued Courtney with my company for 101 miles, but it was a great day for me. We were all told about 4 mountain passes that were supposed to be difficult in the morning. The first 20 miles were flat and then we had an 8-10 mile climb to our first "summit". After the first, the passes seemed more like rolling hills than actual mountains. We hit the top of the second mountain pass and flew downhill to see a summit sign for the 3rd mountain pass. We stopped for 1st lunch and everyone was in a great mood because the ride had been so scenic and the climbs weren't as bad as we had expected. After lunch we climbed a few more miles around the edge of Mt. Hood. We then descended about 10 miles through gorgeous scenery along the highway. When we reached the second lunch stop, the van went to pick up a rider with saddle sore issues, but I saw a Subway across the street and had to stop. After my refueling of Subway and water, Courtney and I flew into Portland. We were really tired towards the end, but we still had time to make a side trip to the Tour de Colvin, where Haley's parents had drinks, snacks, and a sprinkler for us to run through. It was a great side trip before making it into the church. Once we got into the church we all hung out until later and then a group of us went out together.

I don't remember the ride into Maupin, but I'm sure it was excellent. The only real news in the last week is that my dad showed up while we were riding into Fossil. He caught up to me and Laura at around the 8th mile of an annoying 10 mile climb. It was really hot and we were both tired. I looked in my rear-view mirror to see a VW bus coming my way. I waved and he pulled over stocked with ice cold water and snacks. Ever since that day, my dad, Mr. Money, has been a huge hit with the entire group. Everyone loves his VW drink stop and it's been great to have dad here to see the scenery and understand the kind of physical challenge we put ourselves through some days with the terrain. It's hard to explain in a blog how hot and steep some climbs are.. at least he will partially understand.

Well.. tomorrow is the day we all have been waiting for. It is insane to think that I will actually be in the ocean tomorrow. It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm so excited to have accomplished this feat, but I don't want to have to leave these amazing people. I have spent every waking moment with 31 people that were strangers 10 weeks ago. I have made 31 new friends and have many best friends from the group. It's going to be sad to see everyone go, but I know I will have 31 people to visit just about anywhere I go across the country. I'm trying not to think about it too much tonight and sticking with the celebration aspect, but it makes me sad thinking it's over. Well.. regardless of whether I want it to end or not, tomorrow is going to be the most epic celebration with 31 people swimming in the Pacific Ocean. I hope someone out there records all 31 of us arriving at the beach at the same time and watch us jump off our bikes, pick them up, and dead sprint towards the ocean. I'm going to dive in right away. It's going to be freezing, but perfect.

I don't know if I will post again after today, I might keep you updated on my road trip home.. but Thank You all so much for supporting me and reading about my journey. I couldn't have done it with out the support of friends and family and the donations from everyone. I have ridden far over 4000 miles, but I am still mind blown that we all made it.

The swimming hole I mentioned is calling to me - so I must be off to make more memories with friends. Thanks again.. and enjoy your air conditioning.

-B$ - Brian Phillips

Ontario, OR - Wow, almost there.

2009-07-20T22:19:00.001-07:00

Greetings from our final state! I can't believe I made it this far. It's mind blowing to understand that I've crossed 14 state lines by bicycle. When we started this trip Cannon Beach seemed so far away. It seemed like a destination that would take years to reach.. and it only takes 10 weeks. Crazy. Where did the country go? It has gone by way too fast!

Today we rode from Boise, ID to Ontario, OR. I left the church alone but caught up with a group of 14 people riding at the front of the group. We rode in a paceline for the first 33 miles that consisted of Me, Boss, Haley, and Barb. We held a fast pace but there was a tailwind helping us. We stopped in Notus, ID for lunch at a gas station to wait for the van. While we were eating, we noticed an apricot tree in a yard across the street. We went over to inspect the mouth watering fruit on the tree when the owner of the house came out to greet us. He told us that we could take as many as we'd like. The whole group basically stood around eating as many apricots as our bellies allowed. The homeowner came back out with trash bags and a ladder and told us we should take some with us. We loaded up bag after bag of apricots. After lunch I rode with Courtney, Kira, and Laura. We had fun riding 2 wide and goofing off. We hit the state line at mile 48 and celebrated! We took a bunch of pictures and then waited for Bridget because she had gotten two flats since lunch and we wanted to hang out with her. After eating more candy than you can imagine and taking more pictures than you can imagine.. we headed on to our destination. On the way there a van flagged us down and interviewed all of us for a women's cycling magazine. They said they would post a story about us soon. I'll post a link when I find it. Sad news... I had my first flat today. It was a slow leak. I had to change it. I can't believe I made it 9 weeks without a flat and all the way to the last state before getting one. I'm not too upset about it because I figured I would get a lot of flats at the beginning. The lack of flats in the past 9 weeks made me hopeful I would survive 1 more. Oh well. Good news is that I have seen enough people change flats that I know what I'm doing. I changed my flat on my own and Courtney and Kira provided moral support. We got into Ontario at 3:00 and I found my $5-footlong haven and enjoyed an afternoon snack (meal). We had provided dinner at the church an hour and a half later and I ate a ton of pasta. I'm surprised I haven't gained 15 lbs since the beginning.

Two days ago we rode from Idaho City, ID to Boise, ID. The ride into Boise was only 40 miles and it was mostly downhill. Laura and I rode in together and we got in early. The ride was a great way to set up a good day off the next day. The afternoon in Boise was spent walking around downtown with a group of people. We were informed that there happened to be a professional cycling race in Boise in the evening. Courtney and I headed down to watch these men and women riding an average of 32 around a track for an hour and a half. It was amazing to see the races. After that, we all went out for Nick's birthday. The next morning I got to sleep in until 10, which was a real treat. I went out with Mark, Kira, Courtney, and Bridget to breakfast. After breakfast we went tubing down the Boise River with the group. The water was freezing, but it felt really good to not be able to feel my sore butt for awhile. I'm pretty sure I ran into everything possible to run into while on the river, but it was still a great time. After tubing, we all decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie. I didn't like it as much as I liked the older movies, but I'm sure the final movie will be amazing. The time spent in Boise was a lot of fun and I think it has been my favorite day off so far. Hopefully our day off in Portland can top it!

The day before all of that was the ride from Stanley, ID to Idaho City. I know I talked about that in my last blog and I was wondering when people were going to show up. The next person finally showed up at 5:30 and informed me that they weren't looking for me. I was worried they would be because I skipped both lunch stops. They said that people were concerned at the first lunch stop because Laura told them I was with Courtney and Kira.. and Courtney and Kira said they hadn't seen me all day. Apparently everyone was a little worried until they saw my chalking to Laura on a big hill in the middle of the day. They told me they celebrated the fact that I was alive when they saw it. Haha. Crazy days.

Tomorrow we have an 80 mile day into Unity, OR. I'm sweep with Courtney so I better go get some rest. We're in the Oregon desert and heat, so enjoy your AC (if you have it) while you read this.

Idaho City, ID - Almost to Oregon!

2009-07-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Today we biked 91 miles from Stanley, ID to Idaho City! The day started out extremely cold. The low was supposed to be 31, but I don't know how low the temperature actually got. We survived the cold camping last night by packing 6 people in a 4 person tent. Here at Bike and Build we all like to get extremely cozy with one another. After we finally thawed out enough to ride, everyone headed to a coffee shop/cafe to warm up. I can't drink coffee before rides because it will make me crash throughout the day, so I stopped to fill up water and then headed out. When I left the cafe with my water, the van was gone from outside so I assumed it was driving to the lunch stop. I rode on towards Idaho City expecting to see the van at mile 35 and mile 65. The only rider that had started riding before me was Laura and I passed her at mile 8.. I would've ridden with her but it was so cold that I just wanted to get there as fast as possible. I reached mile 35 and wondered why the van wasn't there. We've been having lunch stops later than the planned 35 mile mark lately so I rode to mile 37. When I stopped this time, I didn't have signal or I would've called the van to see where lunch was going to be. I decided after 20 minutes that it must be at mile 40. After riding to mile 40 with no van in sight, I realized that I had probably missed my chance to get the van lunch and riding back (all uphill) was not an option. I rode on until I found a diner at around mile 47. I ate two full meals at the diner, filled up on water, and continued my trek. The rest of the ride was an ascent over 2 long mountain passes followed by some decent downhills. I assumed after skipping the first lunch stop that I wouldn't see the van on my ride, but I was pretty sure I had enough water. When I was at mile 77, I got to the summit of some climb and there was a man from Boise that offered me some water. It was perfect timing because I had just run out of water in my camelback. I made it into Idaho City at 2:30 today and I haven't seen another rider yet. That is why I am here blogging away.. there's nothing else to do!

Sad news. Tomorrow is Jen L.'s last day riding with us. She is extremely excited about dental school that starts next week, but it is a bummer to lose a rider. I think we're all going out tonight for a going away party.

Yesterday we biked from Challis, ID to Stanley, ID. It was a 67 mile ride and the terrain wasn't too bad. We followed a highway that ran alongside the Salmon River all day. Apparently no one in our group knew anything about the Sawtooth Mountains that are in Stanley, because Laura and I thought that we were riding through them all day. After rounding a turn near Stanley, the Sawtooth Mountains were in full view and you could see that they were appropriately named. Yesterday it seemed that everyone is starting to get sick, hopefully everyone will start feeling better soon!

My mom called me yesterday and told me that the news station in Idaho sent the interview of me to the Oklahoma station and I was on the news at 5 in Oklahoma. Crazy! There must really be nothing going on in the news if I get put on the news in Oklahoma for being interviewed in Idaho. Oh well, it's neat that Oklahoma seems interested in Bike and Build!

Well, I don't know what else to talk about so I'm going to head out. Idaho is beautiful but I'm ready for Oregon! If you're going to be at Canon Beach, get ready to see 31 people go crazy and swim in cold water! It's going to be a party and I'm really excited!

Try to stay cool in Oklahoma! Don't melt before my next post.

Idaho Falls, ID - Build Day and more adventures.

2009-07-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

Hello! To start off my blog this week, look at the Tetons!

Okay, I've figured out a few new blogging techniques.. so enjoy the new media! It's too bad I figured this out with only 2 weeks left in the trip! Oh well, it's better late than never!

The lack of internet access has made it harder and harder to update this lately! Sorry about that. Apparently I'm doing better than some of the other riders because they only have 1 or two entries! We're all staying busy and having fun.. here's some things that have been going on the last few days.

Today we had a build day in Idaho Falls. We had a lot of fun hanging siding and throwing things for animals to fetch! We also made the local news! I found a link to the video earlier.. hopefully you can find the video! They interviewed me and Buttaro. Check it out:

http://www.localnews8.com/Global/category.asp?C=155383&nav=menu554_1_2

You may have to scroll through a page or two of videos before you see the Bike and Build one!

We've been at the First Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls for 2 nights now, and I must give a big "Thank you" to their congregation. They have provided amazing meals and great accomodations! Tonight we ate at the pastors house and the food was epic. It's nice to have a break from PB&J!

Anyway.. lets talk about the rides.

Yesterday I rode from Jackson, WY to Idaho Falls, ID. This ride was awesome because we finally got to conquer Teton Pass. We have heard about Teton Pass the whole time we've been on Bike and Build as one of the hardest, steepest climbs of the trip. The mornings are getting so cold we're bundled up in all of our arm warmers, leg warmers, and rain jackets. I rode out in the morning with L-Peso (Laura) and we headed towards the pass. We climbed for 4 or 5 miles at a 10% grade! It sounds intense, but it really wasn't that bad. Laura and I climbed slowly and steadily all the way up without stopping. It was a great experience because we both took our time and talked. Once we got to the top, everyone was waiting and cheering the other Bike and Builders on! We stopped at the top and got a bunch of group pictures and then headed towards the descent! On the descent, it was also 10% grade for 3 or 4 miles. Good news is that Kira let me borrow her camera handlebar mount.. so I filmed my descent down Teton Pass. I hit a speed of 52.9! A new top speed! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjhEW3pXXK4

After the descent, we were only at mile 20. We entered Idaho and headed to Victor, ID where we got Huckleberry milkshakes at a store called the Emporium. They were amazing! We had another mountain pass to climb after the milkshakes and it wasn't nearly as long or steep as the Tetons. I was riding alone during the pass being bored and thinking, "I wonder how long this will last," when a car drove by and yelled, "Whooo! Keep going, You're almost there!!" I got a spur of inspiration from this stranger and I pedaled faster all the way to the top. (Later that day, I found out the stranger was Christina's dad cheering on all the Bike and Builders!) Thanks Christina's dad (if you happen to read my blog!). Anyway.. once I reached the top, the Church of the Tetons had set up a drink and snack station for us. That was perfect. I ate watermelon, brownies, and cookies and drank Gatorade. I rode the rest of the ride with Emily and Idaho is beautiful. There were mountains and green fields. We made it to Idaho Falls right before a storm came in at 3:00. It was a good day.

The day before that, we had a day off in Jackson. We stayed the night and spent our day off in Jackson at the Ambler's house. They had an amazing house and let us camp out in their front yard. Their house had an epic view of the Teton's! The Amblers also took some of us on a tour of Teton National Park. We got to see some Bison, antelope, and a moose! This is my 2nd moose sighting ever! We also went white water rafting down the Snake River on our day off! It was a great time and I'm glad I went! No one got thrown out, but we all got soaking wet and the water was really cold!

I rode from Pinedale, WY to Jackson, WY with Jen Dvorsky! This ride was rolling hills in the morning and then a huge descent (about 20 miles) into Jackson in the afternoon. We saw a lot of wildlife, but didn't stop much because we were both excited about Jackson. It was a great day, I just am having problems remembering a ton about it because it is late!

Thanks for reading!

Rock Springs, WY - Utah flew by!

2009-07-08T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.. this will be an extremely short update because I'm supposed to be at town hall meeting in a few minutes!

We biked into Utah and it was amazing to see the gorgeous snow capped mountain landscape turn into desert/mountain landscape. Yesterday we biked from Vernal, UT into Flaming Gorge, UT. It was only a 43 mile ride, but I'm glad it was so short. We climbed about 20 miles in the first few hours of the day. After a brief lunch stop, we headed downhill for a good 15 mile ride. It was amazing. I believe I broke my speed record for the trip yesterday, because a lot of people went 50 mph.. but my bike computer broke off, so I have no idea how fast I was going on the downhills! Jen D. was riding with me and she went 47 and I flew by her.. so I'm guessing I broke my record.. I just don't know by how much!

Anyway.. today we biked from Flaming Gorge, UT into Rock Springs, WY. Wyoming was a beautiful surprise. I have never been to Wyoming before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Wyoming has blown away all of my expectations!! We rode through beautiful mountain landscapes different from Colorado and Utah. We had a few big climbs in the morning, but the scenery made the climbs not seem that bad. I rode with Laura all day today and we killed the hills and mountains together. The only times we stopped while pedaling uphill was to take pictures. It was great. We got to lunch and the day got a little more intense. The wind shifted directions and we had a direct head wind for the last 30 miles. Although the head wind was bad, we kept our spirits up and finished the ride in good style. (If you call sweaty spandex a style!)

Anyway.. I have town hall meeting! Tomorrow we have a century day (100+ miles) into Pinedale! We're getting up at 4. It's going to be fun.

Thanks for reading again! Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

Kremmling, CO! - Finally have internet!

2009-07-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the few days of not updating! Today I finally have internet access thanks to a local public library! The sad thing is that I don't have cell phone signal.. So I guess its a trade off.

Anyway.. We've had some amazing epic days.. So I'll get onto talking about that because I only have 20 minutes.

We had a day off and a build day in Denver. Denver was an amazing place to ride around and see downtown. They had bike paths that ran everywhere. I don't call it much of a day off for me because I spent the 2 days there biking 70 miles. Laura and I rode to Cherry Creek Reservoir and swam.. but other than that the group just checked out downtown Denver.

After Denver we had a 50 mile ride to Boulder. We got up early and had a quick ride to Boulder. It was just rolling hills and at the top of each hill you could see the mountains getting closer. I rode with Dave that day. We were riding in downtown Boulder talking with our wheels slightly overlapping when a car pulled up next to us and yelled "What the F, ride single file!" As the guy yelled that at us, he was not paying attention to the road and slammed into the car in front of him. Which caused that car to slam into the car in front of it. It was a crazy moment.. but I really think that karma has shown it's work here. We were riding single file, I just didn't want to run into Dave's wheel.. but he shouldn't have yelled at us. We're just cyclists on the road.. it's not hard to pass us. It was just unfortunate for him that his anger made him have an accident. Anyway.. in Boulder I got to see Sarah Ballew! We walked around Boulder together and she gave me a tour of the town. It made me wish our day off would've been in Boulder so we all could've gone hiking or something outdoorsy.

The next day we rode from Boulder to Estes Park! This was our first day to actually enter the mountains. As we rode closer to the mountains, I was so excited that I couldn't slow down! I rode an average of 20 until I reached the mountains. Once we were in the mountains, the first 7 miles had a nice grade that I could still ride 10-13 mph, but it quickly got steeper! Dave and I rode up going very slowly at around 6 mph as we climbed another 5 miles. It was very steep and hard to breathe because of the altitude. The scenery made up for the torture we put ourselves through! Once we made it to the top of the road, we connected with CO-7 or Peak to Peak Highway and had an amazing descent that lasted probably 5 miles. It was gorgeous watching around each turn as more of the Rockies unfolded in front of us! We had a few short climbs and descents into lunch.. but it was awesome to see almost everyone made it to lunch at the same time. Our group is getting so solid that not even the mountain passes spread us out too much! I'm really proud of everyone! After lunch, it was mainly uphill until we reached a long descent. This descent was the best of the trip so far. We were riding with all the trees and high rock walls around us when all of a sudden there was a break in the mountains and we looked out and could see all of Estes Park surrounded by the mountains. It was an amazing descent! It was so beautiful and it made it so much better that I didn't have to pedal for about 7 miles! I flew down it at around 40! It was great.

I could probably talk all day about that descent, but I still have other things to say in 6 minutes! Moving on!

After Estes Park we rode to Grand Lake, CO. That was the day we rode on Trail Ridge Road, which I believe is the highest elevation highway in the U.S. (You might check Wiki on it's importance!) I was riding out in the morning getting so excited about Rocky Mountain Natl Park that I was on an adrenaline high. We rode into the park when I caught up with Laura. I decided to hang with Laura so neither of us would have to do the climbing alone, because we had a 25 mile climb ahead of us. We caught Trail Ridge Road and started slowly climbing. Around each switchback and turn we got to see more beautiful mountains and scenery. I can't describe it all in words. We rode 4-6 mph all the way up to 12,100 feet.. but I wish I could've gone slower to take in each moment of the scenery. We stopped and took tons of pictures, which one of these days I'll upload again! We hit lunch at around mile 26, where we were informed of a Bike and Build dance party at the Information Center at the top. We coasted downhill into the info center where all the riders in the front had waited for everyone to show up. It was great coming around the turn into the Visitor Center and seeing everyone yelling, cheering, and being so excited about me making to the top. It was great. I stood with them and cheered the last few riders in that we behind me. The van pulled up right next to where all 31 of our riders stood and Barb cranked the music in the van and we all danced, hugged, and had fun. It was one of the best moments so far on the trip. It was awesome to see the group all at the top of a huge climb dancing and cheering. (I'm pretty sure there are videos of it.. If I find one, I'll link to it!) After the dance party, we all took the descent. We probably descended 5000 feet in a matter of 30 minutes. It was awesome to fly down the other side of the park. On the way down, we stopped at the Continental Divide sign and took pictures. We talked with people about our cause and a couple on a motorcycle followed me from the stop down the rest of the descent. When I was stopped at one point for construction on the road, we were chatting about how amazing the scenery was.. and they asked what wildlife I had seen so far. I was telling them about all of the Elk that we saw on the way up and how I'd never seen a moose before and I was really hoping to see one. It was finally our turn to go through the construction and I rode the rest of the descent in front of the couple on the motorcycle. They finally passed me on a slight uphill because I was no longer going the speed limit.. and we both waved as we parted. A little while later, I was riding downhill again and the couple was coming towards me on their motorcycle. They were pointing towards a little parking area and yelling, "Moose!" I pulled off into the parking area and ran towards the field with my camera. There were 2 moose, a baby moose, and a ton of elk! I got to see my first moose! There were probably 15 cyclists behind me.. So I grabbed my chalk and chalked on the road, "Hey B+B! Moose!" and an arrow pointing into the parking lot. A bunch more people all pulled up and saw it as well. The rest of the ride was great too. Laura and I finished the day together and it was such an accomplishment to say we climbed up that high! All 31 of us finished the ride! I'm so proud of everyone! Another note about Trail Ridge Road.. This was the first time we were riding on the road that cars honked or yelled at us with a thumbs up out the window. We received so much support that it was a real boost on the way up to be cheered on by random people! It was great! Sorry.. I can talk all day about these things!

Now, finally onto today! We rode from Grand Lake to Kremmling, CO. It was only a 40 mile day and it was mostly downhill. The scenery was awesome, but BG and I flew by it. We averaged 21.5 mph into a small town that had a diner. We ate there for about an hour and then rode on into Kremmling through a beautiful canyon. We stopped at a bakery when we got in and ate donuts and drank coffee. We got in about 11:00, so I have all day to do nothing.. which is really nice. I bet we'll find something to do!

Anyway.. Tomorrow we are riding into Steamboat Springs and it should be about a 50 mile day. I know we have some climbing, but it won't really matter because tomorrow is also one of the best days of the year.. My birthday!! Luckily tomorrow night we are all able to go out and celebrate because we have a build day on the 4th! For all of those who sent me birthday cards and presents to the mail drop, Thank you so much!!! I really love getting mail and it's nice to know that people are reading my blog, even when I can't update it that often!

That pretty much sums up the last week for you guys. I can't believe we only have 4 more nights in CO. It's crazy how fast this trip is flying by. Less than 4 weeks left! I wish it could slow down!

Sorry about the novel, but thanks for reading! Will update again when internet is available!
Have a good 4th of July!

Phillipsburg, KS! It's so hot!

2009-06-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Don't be surprised if this one is really short! We're all melting here in Kansas! Today we rode from Beloit, KS to Phillipsburg, KS. It was an 86 mile day in the upper 90s with a headwind the whole time. Lately I have been picking people to ride with in the morning and sticking with them the whole day. Today Emily and I rode together and endured the abuse from the sun. The scenery is getting closer to my Oklahoma view.. so there's not much to talk about there. We stopped in Cawker City at the big twine ball. We all were taking pictures and having fun when a woman pulled up. This woman was the twine ball keeper and had a spool of twine in her back seat and she let us each wrap a time or two around the ball of twine.. So we got to add twine to the record setting ball! It was awesome! Another achievement for today is that we're officially over the halfway point for being halfway across the continental U.S.! Apparently the mark is around Downs, KS which we passed through early in the day. We're on the downhill slide.

Yesterday we rode from Clay Center to Beloit, KS. It was a 65 mile day that was similar to today. It was very hot and really flat. After about 15 miles, there was a giant cut-out metal indian thing sitting on the top of a hill. Kira and I decided it would be an excellent idea to climb to the top of the hill to take pictures with the "statue." I'm not sure whether to call it a statue or not because it was just a metal cut-out thing. Well.. anyway.. the "statue" looked really close, but 20 mins later we were at the top and taking pictures. The group had mostly passed by the time we got back to the road, so we hung at the back of the group. We caught up with Laura a ways down the road and all rode the rest of the day together. Although it was hot and windy we managed to find a windmill to climb all over and take pictures with it. It was great.

It's weird that when biking across the country that the most miserable weather conditions are bearable and really don't seem to phase us anymore. Basically, biking across the country is an amazing experience and I think it will help put a lot of things in perspective when I get home.

On a side note - we're 20 miles away from Nebraska right now and I'm debating on whether I should side trip there or not. If it rains, I'm totally going. It's 2 hours more of riding.. but it would add another state onto my total for the trip. I can't believe we've conquered Virgina, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky (side trip!), Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and we'll be done with Kansas soon.

Well.. obviously heat and dehydration are setting in so I'm going to go drink more water and relax. (my life is so difficult!) haha. Hopefully everyone out there is enjoying their air conditioning and cars!

Clay Center, KS

2009-06-20T20:53:00.001-07:00

Hi!
We're in Clay Center Kansas tonight. I was sweep on a 40 mile ride today with Boss Brian. We found a daylight donuts in Manhattan and stopped for an hour before heading out. It was great. The ride today was excellent. The road we were on turned into a gravel road so we had to detour to find our route. The people in the front of the group did an excellent job at rerouting the group and making sure everyone else in the group knew about it. I was really proud of the communication between group members today. Boss and I took it easy, but since it was only 44 miles, we all made it in by 12:30. I didn't get much sleep the last few days, so I took the chance to take a 3 and a half hour nap this afternoon. I woke up later with a tiara on my head and apparently people have some awesome pictures of me sleeping. haha. oh well. I guess thats what I get for sleeping around 30 crazy cyclists!

The last 2 days have been amazing. We rode 90 miles from Lawrence, KS to Manhattan, KS. Barbara and I rode the first 26 miles together at an average speed of 18.6. We got up early to try to avoid the heat and headwinds. After the first lunch stop, we joined with Jenny and Christina and rode on to the second lunch stop at mile 66. We made it there at the front of the pack and we were all running low on steam. Christina and I left the 2nd lunch together and thought it was going to be smooth sailing. We were wrong. The wind picked up a lot and there were 2 decent sized hills before Manhattan. It slowed us down a lot, but we still made it in by 1:00. My family came to visit me and I was really glad to get to see them all. My girlfriend Sarah also came and surprised me while I was napping. It was so good to spend time with everyone!
We had a day off in Manhattan as well which really helped me get adequate amounts of rest on my muscles for the first time in weeks. Days off make me happy. At this point I love riding, but a day off is just luxurious. I also got to stay in a hotel room for a night which was awesome! I hope you people reading this enjoy your actual beds.. because you're spoiled! haha.

Anyway, we have a 60 mile day tomorrow before a stretch of three 90 mile days in a row. There will be some long days, but we will be in Denver before you know it! I'm getting excited about the Rockies.. and the day off in Denver.

Well.. I'm going to sleep so I can be rested for tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

Kansas City, MO - different than Kansas City, KS

2009-06-16T19:14:00.001-07:00

Hello faithful readers!
Today we built in Kansas City, MO. We worked on a house for Habitat that needed some landscaping and exterior renovation. They had planned for us to take all of the shingles off of the outside of the house and take all the trim off the house and thought it would take us all day. Turns out that 31 of us can take off shingles a lot faster than expected and we had finished those jobs in a few hours. I thank the Ezzells for letting me help on Ben's house otherwise the shingle pulling could've take much much longer and wouldn't have been so efficient. Most of the build days I have done something that I did for the first time on Ben's house. It's good to have some experience! The best part of the build day (my favorite part of every day.. food!) was lunch. We had pizza ordered in from Habitat and Haley got us hooked up with sandwiches from McCormick and Schmicks!! They were amazing and the energy from all of that food kept me building strong the rest of the day. After that we all hung around the Plaza and got some cheesecake. Life is pretty rough for the Bike and Builders! Tonight I think we're all going out because we have a short day tomorrow = 40 something miles.

Yesterday was crazy! We had our first century ride. Sorry about the lack of clarification on the last blog.. a century ride = a ride of 100 miles or more. We got up in Sedalia at 4:00am to start the day. It was thundering, lightning, and pouring down rain as we ate breakfast and got ready. We started riding at around 6 and ventured into the pouring down rain. I took off with the first group of people to leave.. the fast group.. to see if I could keep up with their pace on the long day. The way to describe the first 30 miles is downpour. It rained so hard at some points it felt like it was hailing. We had to stop a few times and wait for it to stop lightning and thundering, but we patiently enjoyed the temporary break from riding. We rolled into lunch at around 9:30 after 45 miles. We stopped for a quick lunch because of the weather and then pressed on. Me, John, and Boss took the lead out of lunch and we rode at a moderate pace (around 15 mph) and talked. The weather started to clear so we took a break in a oat field at around mile 70. The groups behind us caught up to us and we took some group pictures. I survived riding with the fast group all the way until mile 92. Everyone in the group wanted a different type of food or didn't want to stop to eat. Alicia and I split from the group and went to the Salvation Army. While we were at the Salvation Army, Alicia talked to a man in line in front of her and he bought our clothing because he supported our cause. After the Salvation Army we rode to Taco Bell to get some snacks. We wasted a bunch of time at both of those places then decided we should finish the ride. In case you were wondering, Kansas City is not flat! It was lots of hills, but we made it to mile 100 and stopped and took a picture. I will upload it on here whenever I get a chance! We finished the day by 4:00 and I enjoyed the rest of the day celebrating with each rider as they came into the host location. A century is definitely an accomplishment and I'm proud of all the riders for making it.

Other than the events of the last few days, I think everyone should know the amazing amounts of food that everyone eats on these trips. I seriously eat better on Bike and Build than I would if I were at home. The PB&J sandwiches for lunch may be a downgrade to my daily salads, but other than that, I eat nonstop. I just thought I should let you all know how hard life is here! haha.

Life is good. Hope everything is amazing wherever you all are!

Sedalia, MO - trying to get back in the swing of blogging!

2009-06-14T16:46:00.001-07:00

Hi people! Remember me? I haven't blogged in forever! Sorry!
We are currently in Sedalia, MO.. We had a 60 mile day today and it was a great ride on Highway 50! We were supposed to ride the Katy Trail today, but the crushed limestone path added 20 miles to our route. We have our first century ride tomorrow so everyone voted to take highway 50. This morning we were all pretty tired and I tried to ride with the fast group of riders. I fell behind with Suzanne(who was also tired) and we rode a slow pace until lunch. Boss Brian was driving the van today and parked across the street from a Subway so I got good energy through a 5 dollar foot long. After lunch I was going to ride with John and Kate (not plus 8) but my seat bag broke so I told them to go on. I made it my goal to catch them when I took off 10 mins later. I cranked up to my highest chain and maintained a speed of 20 mph all afternoon. It took me 12 miles to catch up to John and Kate and pass them. I got to Sedalia in an hour and a half (a 30 mile ride) and the fastest group went to TB (Taco Bell) so I was the first one to the church. The church fed us a really good meal to set us up for a 100 mile day tomorrow.

Yesterday we rode from Washington, MO to Jefferson City, MO. This was our second day on the Katy Trail and it was a great day of riding. Our ride on the Katy Trail was really nice and the weather was perfect for the first 30 miles. The Katy Trail is an old railroad that they took out to make a cycling/pedestrian path. It was a great change of pace from the highways because we could ride in a big group and talk the whole time. We got to around mile 30 when we saw Boss Brian and Tony (a CUS 08 alumni) getting ready to jump in a creek - Massie Creek. The water looked muddy but I am always up for a swim on the road. We ended up testing the water and jumping from the top of the bridge (around 30 feet) into the creek. It was safe.. the water was deep enough. (No worries mom!). After I had spent 2 hours at the creek bridge jumping with just about every rider on the trip, we rode on to lunch. We had lunch at a family farm that was 2 miles off of the Katy Trail. The family saw the van sitting on the road and invited us out to their home to swim and hang out. They had a really nice lake and we all got to hang out and swim. After lunch I rode with Emily the rest of the day. We talked to some passerbys and heard about some nudist cyclists on the trail and were glad that we didn't run into them. The trail was really long and seemed like it would never end. The trail is made of crushed limestone and our road bike tires were not the best for the terrian. It seemed like we worked extremely hard just to ride 13-15 mph. In the end, we made it to Jeff City at 6:30 and BBQ sandwiches were provided by Steve's family. It was really really good. They also had Head Country BBQ sauce, which made me extremely happy! It was a total 81 mile day. Mark also fell and sprained his wrist today.. so he'll most likely be out for a few days to heal. I hope he can get back in the saddle soon because he's lots of fun to ride with.

I wish I remembered more important events from the last week and a half.. but since the days blend together.. I will give you the important things that happened.

I had my first wreck about a week ago.. I don't remember where we were going when it happened. We were riding in heavy traffic and were pretty close to the host location. I was with Justin and Julie going 20 when I slid off the road into a gravel shoulder. I tried to get back on the road but ended up going head over handlebars and rolling down the road. I remember looking up and hearing Julie yell "B-MONEY!" and her front tire was about 3 feet away from my face. I sat up, she swurved around me and I scooted myself into the shoulder and dragged my bike behind me. As I sat there gaining my composure, Julie ran up to me gave me a big hug and said "B-Money, I almost killed you! You're alive!" Justin and Julie both made sure I was okay and all the cars had stopped to check on me. I waved the cars on, stood up, and barely had a scratch on me. I was lucky, but I'm glad to have my first fall out of the way. My bike took a little damage, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

Sorry again about the lack of blogging, but I will make a point to blog at least every other day! Thanks for reading!

100 mile ride tomorrow and Kansas City!!!

Bloomington, IN

2009-06-06T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a little while since I posted last!

Yesterday was our longest ride ever at 90.1 miles. We rode from Cincinnatti, OH to Columbus, Indiana! Crossing state lines was excellent!!! There was no sign at the border, so we had to chalk one for the group to take pictures with. I rode with the fast group until lunch and it went quickly. Then I was tired after eating porkchop sandwiches at lunch and had to slow down my riding pace. After lunch we went through Greensburg, IN and there happened to be a strawberry festival going on. We bought 4 strawberry shortcakes that was supporting the local YMCA in Greensburg and started eating. As more riders showed up at the stop, the organizers of the event noticed all 15 of us out in the field and thought our organization was awesome! They ended up giving us 10 more strawberry shortcakes as a donation. (Everytime we stop, we draw lots of attention to ourselves because we don't really fit into society with spandex on). We even made a local newspaper there.. I'll try to find the link to the article tonight. When we got to Columbus, my mileage read 87.4.. So I decided to bike around and look at architecture until my odometer read 90.1! I wish it would've been a century like the website said because it was really flat. OH well.. i'm sure it's coming.

We are in Bloomington, Indiana now and had a 40 mile ride today. Because it was such a short ride, we got to sleep in until 7 (we usually get up at 5) and take it easy. There was a farmers market in Columbus, IN so we all stopped and looked around there. We rode steadily until Nashville, IN and we stopped at a bakery there. We all stuffed our faces with desserts. There we 5 of us at the stop so we each bought at least 1 dessert and shared with eachother. It was amazing. After that I got ice cream and then rode on. It got hilly in the afternoon, but we pressed on. As soon as we got to Bloomington, we found a fountain on the campus and got soaked. There are pictures, but they aren't on my camera.
Some people talked about a quarry that was around Bloomington that was in a cyclist movie called Breaking Away. We got directions to the quarry and 5 of us took off riding. This was the best side trip I have ever taken! We got to the quarry, ran into some locals that showed us around, and then went swimming and cliff jumping. I was one of the first ones to make the ~25 foot jump, but everyone in our group eventually took the plunge! I was really proud of everyone. There was a 65 ft. ledge there that people could jump from, but it was dangerous enough, so we decided against it. Some locals were also at the quarry and one of them did a full gainer off of the 65 ft. ledge. It was intense! Apparently the quarry was on private property and some police officers were coming to bust the people there for trespassing - so we had to cut our visit short. We took off towards our bikes with no legal trouble. When we got back our chicken parm dinner was still being cooked by Nick. It was amazing! Nick is one of the riders that is an amazing chef and he's always helping others out. Thanks Nick!
Well it looks like tomorrow we're headed to Terre Haute, IN, which is our last day in Indiana! I can't believe that we fly through these states so quickly! We're getting close to our 1000th mile! I'm so excited.
Well, I Julie just came up to me and informed me about "Baked! of Bloomington" and now we are ordering hot cookies to the church we're staying at. This means I'm going to go downstairs and wait for hot cookies to get to me! Sorry I've neglected updating.. trying to get back on top of it!!
Thanks for reading! (Sorry about typos/grammar)

Huntington, WV - a sad day of rest.

2009-05-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hello-
We are finally on our last day in West Virginia. I can't wait to reach Ohio! We are nearly out of the Appalachians and on to flatter ground.

Yesterday we rode from Summersville, WV to Charleston, WV. After 30 miles of riding, we climbed Mount Olive. It was a solid mile or 2 climb at 11% grade. It was intense. I was pushing so hard to make it to the top and my body wanted to quit on me. I had to take a few breaks, but pushed onwards. After climbing this mountain for what felt like years, I was running out of energy and needed another break. I was about to stop when the support van drove by and my friend Dana(who's been injured) leaned out the window and yelled, "B-Money, Keep going! You're almost to the top!" That encouragement gave me inspiration to push onwards to the top of the mountain. At the top, I found 3 other team members waiting cheering me on as well. We all stopped and waited until almost the entire group got up there before going on. The whole groups energy and support really helps pull me through at rough times. The best part of Mount Olive was the 13% downgrade on the other side for 1.5 miles. My bike computer wasn't working at the time, but I may have broken a new personal max bike-speed record. It was beautiful soaring through the Appalachians. After the fun at Mount Olive, we proceeded on Highway 60 in the shoulder. We rode highway 60 for about 25 miles, and it was terrifying. The West Virginians didn't seem very hospitible to cyclists on the road, even when we were on the shoulder. They were constantly yelling at us, and I had my first near death experience on the road. A motorcyclist swurved over towards me and Andrew and rode very close by us. The good news is, no one died or got hit. Just shaken up. But, the bad news - my knee felt awful on the last 5 miles of the trip.
We arrived at a church that was amazing in Charleston. They fed us a giant meal and called the media to spread awareness about what we were doing for Bike and Build. They were amazing hosts and I hope they continue their mission of feeding the hungry.

Now, about today.. Today - The group rode from Charleston, WV to Huntington,WV.
My knee was way swollen after yesterday so I stubbornly decided that it would be best if I took a day off for my knee to get better and so I could ride tomorrow into Ohio. It was a tough decision to take a day off, because I wanted to ride every mile.. but I figure if I take the time to let it heal now, I'll be able to conquer 8 more weeks of riding injury free. So today I rode in the van to heal. I'm not sure if my knee healed today, but I know I'm going to at least ride the morning tomorrow so I can ride into Ohio. I'm so excited about getting closer to the midwest and getting to see everyone in Kansas!

I'm going to see if I can figure out how to post some pictures. I'm not very blog savvy yet.
I'll post pictures when I figure out how.. and I'll update again soon!

Done with Virginia!!!!

2009-05-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Hey! Good News! We are in West Virginia!
The day yesterday was awful! (but really rewarding looking back on it.) Charlottesville to Lexington, VA. We are more than officially into the Appalachians! We had to climb mount Afton after a 20 mile ride and it was 3 miles straight climbing. My legs hurt so bad but Me, Kate, and Brian (B-Pot), powered through to the top. At the top we found Blue Mountain Ridge Parkway. We were told the Parkway was supposed to be one of the most beautiful rides in the U.S., but unfortunately it was foggy and raining the whole day. Even though it was foggy, the green trees on the mountains were really beautiful. It was the toughest ride by far, but a bunch of us powered through and made it. There was a downhill on 60 that had a 8% grade for 5 miles.. and I reached a new speed of 41.3!

Today was equally as rough. We rode from Lexington, VA to Marlinton, WV! There were a lot of mountains we crossed (3 big ones) and it was a physical strain. I got to ride with Dan today and that was great. We had a great time dominating those mountains. After we made it into West Virginia, it started raining with 6 miles to go. By the time we got in, we were both soaking wet. I was extremely glad to have made it even though it was a long day.

There is a long line for the comp, so I'm out. (I need sleep anyway)
My knee is starting to really bother me so I'm now killing the Tylenol. Hopefully it will feel better soon!

Thanks for reading.

Charlottesville, VA - Build Day!!!

2009-05-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I am on the internet at a public library, so I only have 12 minutes to update! Sorry if its short!!

We biked from Waverly to Blackstone which was a 65 mile day,I think? These days are all blending together! Sorry.. things have been crazy. Lets move on to things that I can remember.

We biked from Blackstone to Dillwyn, VA and it was the roughest day I've had so far. It was planned a 72 mile day. I decided to ride with sweep because Jen was riding back there. Jen is one of the faster riders and I've gotten to know her well.. but I can't talk to her normally when she's riding because she is way too fast! So I decided to take it slow and ride with the back of the pack. We made lots of stops and took traditional bike and build pictures. (you'll see them when I get a computer with a memory card reader!) The majority of that morning was all good and well. Later in the morning I decided to ride with Barbara and Jenny to get to know each of them better. Barbara, Jenny, and I all ended up taking a 10 mile detour and getting lost. We had to stop and ask locals for directions.. and the local routed us 13 miles towards a point on our route. The unfortunate thing is, when we got lost we were about 3 miles away from lunch. This detour made it where we didn't each lunch until mile 54.1 and the van had to set up a different lunch spot to accomodate for us lost ones. Haha. Anyway, the story only gets better(worse) after that.. Jenny and I took off after that headed to our destination. We officially entered the Appalachian foothills that day and the last 15 miles were about 2 or 3 giant hills per 1 mile. It was intense. I felt near breaking point a few times, but never stopped to walk. We made it at around 5:30 into town and my odometer read 81.5 miles. It was completely crazy! I didn't think I would make it. I did, and now the low mileage days don't seem as bad!

Okay.. quick sum up because I have 3 minutes!!
We rode Dilwyn to Charlottesville (43 miles) yesterday and we got to sleep in a sorority house that had beds!!! It was a hilly ride, but nothing after the day before. We all got a good nights rest for the build day today. During the build, I hung drywall the whole time. It was great. I got to go. 1 min left!

Update when I can!!!

Tomorrow: Charlottesville to Lexington, VA

Thanks for reading!

40 miles down - 3812 to go!

2009-05-21T18:10:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!
Orientation has been great these last few days. Everyone is really unique and very friendly. We sat through a bunch of speakers the last two days that made me even more anxious to get on the bike and ride!
Today was our first day leaving out of Virginia Beach! We rode through very pretty, flat scenery to our destination. The sheet said we rode 40 miles today, but my bike computer tracked 49.3. Counting the ride to and from the showers, that is a 52 mile day! This is the furthest I have gone ever and it's insane to think that we go further tomorrow. It was so awesome to get to see everyone geared up and riding like madmen. The pace today was really intense, so I'll probably slow myself down tomorrow! Today we rode a constant 17-20 mph. I'm sure as the time goes on, the hills will make us slow down.
One of the coolest things about riding across the country is how much of a novelty 30 college-aged students are that are riding in full spandex. People are extremely interested about why all of us look insane and are all riding in the same group. I had a bunch of people stop and ask us where we were going and why we were doing it. It's great to be well received and supported by many communities.
I think I figured out today that I am going to eat more this summer than I ever have before. While we were riding the last 20, all I could think about was food at our destination. Dana and I had decided that a chocolate milkshake sounded really good.. so we had to stop when we got to Suffolk. The milkshake was not satisfactory today, so I am going to have to make another milkshake run tomorrow to satisfy the craving.
Another interesting thing I nearly forgot.. Jen D. brought a slackline as her group item. She strung it between two trees and everyone tried it. My goal for the summer, aside from making it to Canon Beach, is to successfully walk the slackline. I think either way, I will buy one when I get home. It's countless hours of entertainment/concentration.
Anyway - this tired kid has to sleep! More riding tomorrow! More posting/updating this whenever I can!
-Brian

Virginia Beach, VA - 5/18/09

2009-05-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Hi friends and family!

A few quick links that will help you stay up on everything that's going on with me.
To see my day-by-day progress through the country and to read my bio.. visit: http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/2691

If you feel like you want to be even more awesome and send mail, food, or anything at the designated mail drops, you can find the information at:
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,347/
(I am doing the Central US route)

I just want to start this blog out by saying Thank You! to all of the people who donated to me and helped make this experience possible! I couldn't have done it without all of the support!

Ben, Riley, and I drove from Enid yesterday and saw a lot of country. We weren't tired so we powered through and made the trip in 23 and a half hours. It was an excellent trip. Virginia Beach is chilly tonight, but I'm sure it's not nearly as cold as the Rockies will be in a few short months.

I can't believe Bike and Build starts tomorrow! I'm so excited. I can't wait to get out on the open road with 29 other amazing people! It's mind blowing - I'm getting ready to start a trip from Virginia Beach, VA to Oregon! It's going to be intense!

Well.. I need to make sure everything is packed and ready for tomorrow!
I will try to post as often as possible to keep everyone updated!
Wish me luck!
- Brian