We made it to Washington

Yesterday we crossed our last state line into Washington. We were on a bike path so we didn't get a chance at the state sign for pictures which was sad. We had a short ride yesterday so we decided to have some fun and have a scavenger hunt which included things like dancing with strangers and finding the largest leaf. My team didn't do very well, but it was still fun. The most entertaining part was the singing category where you had to make up a song for the judges. Some of them were very good. Today we rode to Wilbur (the town not the pig from Charlotte's Web). We're camping tonight and tomorrow we head to Omak where Kristian (aka corporate) will return to our route and ride the rest of the way in to Seattle.


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Location:W Main Ave,Wilbur,United States

Idaho, a vacation destination

I had no idea that Idaho was so beautiful. We arrived yesterday in Wallace, Idaho where they filmed Dante's Peak (staring Pierce Brosnan). It was a cute town with some mines you could tour nearby. It was weird to have a day off from riding but still change location. Today we had a really easy ride to Coeur d'Alene. There is a mountain pass between Wallace and Coeur d'Alene, but it would have required us to get on the interstate again so we shuttled from lunch which was at mile 30 to the other side of the 4th of July pass and had only 6 miles on the other side. So it was a really wasy day with most of it spent on bike trails. We spent the afternoon at the beach swimming in the lake and wandering around town. Tomorrow we have our last build day of the trip. It's wild to think we're almost there.


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Location:E Wallace Ave,Coeur d'Alene,United States

Montana is Beautiful

I now understand why people live in Montana. It really is very beautiful. We have had some fabulous views during our rides worthy of being on a postcard or displayed on your wall. Two days ago we had our second to last build day in Missoula. We were working in a development called Potter Park where all the streets were named after things or people in Harry Potter. It was pretty cool and Paige would have been going crazy there since she was absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter. There are a few streets I saw where I didn't know where the name came from and I'm sure she would have been able to tell me instantly. We did a lot of different projects at the build site. There were three houses being worked on so we were doing everything from drywall (again) to priming, which was what I was doing. Missoula was very pleasantly surprising. It turns out to be extremely bike friendly and overall a pretty cool place to be. I wrote the journal entry for the Bike & Build website for our day into Lincoln so you can read that to learn more about that day (it will be posted here: http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=P2S&year=2010). Yesterday we had an interesting ride into Superior, MT because we had to spend a few small sections on I-90. The first section was fine because we had a giant shoulder and the speed limit is only 5mph higher than on the other roads we've been on. The second section had several bridges where we pretty much lost the shoulder that were a lot more exciting. Because of the uneasiness the interstate caused yesterday we are shuttling today to Wallace, ID. We would have had to be on the interstate for over 30 miles going up a mountain. I think it was a good decision and I'm perfectly happy to spend as little time on I-90 biking as possible. To be clear it is legal to bike on the interstate out here if it is the only way from A to B.

Teton Pass conquered

Today we started our day with a sweet climb up Teton Pass. I really thought I was going to have a lot of trouble with it and would have to walk up some of it. I didn't walk at all although I did stop a lot. It would have taken about the same amount of time to walk and I know this because there was a man with his dog (who was very well behaved) who started at pretty much the same time and finished at about the same time. We kept leap frogging each other up the mountain. At the top we had snacks and a dance party and lots of pictures. We also cheered on other cyclists at the top. One guy we cheered on twice because he was climbing Teton Pass three times today. The decent was really nice and not nearly so scary as I thought it would be. We had a tail wind before lunch and it was really flat. After lunch we got some head winds and some rolling hills. Overall it was a really nice ride with relatively low traffic.

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Location:Mesa Falls Scenic Byway,Ashton,United States

Back in the saddle

Today's ride from Dubois to Jackson was a success. It was a beautiful day and I was worried about getting up the mountain on our route but as it turned out we didn't have to climb much of it because they are doing construction so we had to ride up in the back of a pickup truck. We had some very nice views of the Tetons on our decent and I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open the entire way down in awe of what I was seeing. It's remarkable that I didn't swallow a bunch of bugs. For the rest of the afternoon we biked toward the Tetons and they got bigger and bigger until we were pretty much right next to them. I felt like the view was wasted on all the people zooming past in cars not even bothering to stop and take it in. I really like being on my bike because I feel like I get so much more time to see things.

Yesterday we had a shake down ride in preparation for today. I had replaced my tires so I was riding brand new Gatorskins. 7 miles into the ride my rear tire exploded. The sidewall had blown out. I'm going to send it back to the company since it really must have been a manufacturing defect. This is at least the fourth Gatorskin that has has the sidewall fail on this trip and it has always been on nearly new tires. I loved my old set of Gatorskins because I hadn't had a single flat on them yet, which would lead you to ask why I replaced them at all and to that I have no good answer. I even thought I would get a flat with the new ones because so many other people had had problems with them. I should have just saved myself the trouble and not bothered replacing them until I actually got a flat. I've learned my lesson although the new tire on the front is holding up just fine so far. Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself by saying that.

Tomorrow we tackle Teton pass which apparently has up to a 13% grade. I'm a little intimidated and my only real goal is to make it to the top even if I have to walk a little.

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Location:Seneca Ln,Jackson,United States

The journey continues

This was written yesterday but i was unable to post it.

Today we are headed back to Chadron from Lincoln and tomorrow we will catch up with our route in Dubois, Wyoming to ride on Friday into Jackson. It was really good to get to go to St. Louis. We stayed in the dorms at Washington University so we all got real beds. A number of people from Paige's trip last year came and stayed in the dorms too. Usually it's really awkward when two Bike & Buils trips meet but it really wasn't so bad. It was good to hear stories about Paige from people who knew her in similar circumstances but had different experiences with her. The memorial service on Monday was nice. I forget at times about how short the time was that I knew Paige. Hearing stories about Paige from her high school days and from her childhood was really neat because the same spirit we all saw and loved has been there forever. Paige knew who she was and wasn't afraid to be herself. Caring, intelligent, spontaneous, creative, wonderfully odd, and so much more that was her.


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For Paige

So as most of you probably know by now one of our group leaders, Paige, was struck and killed by a truck three days ago. It was an accident and no one did anything wrong. If you want to know more about it you can go to the Bike & Build website at bikeandbuild.org. Paige was an incredible person who had an incredible zest for life. I know I am a better person for having known Paige. My plan as of now is to continue on with the trip, which I know is something that many of you probably don't want me to do but I feel like I need to in order to heal. I don't know yet if I'll be able to get back on my bike, but I do intend to try. Tomorrow we are starting our trip to St. Louis for the memorial service which is taking place on Monday. After the memorial service we will return to Chandron, NE where we have been the past couple days and skip ahead in our route to Wyoming so we are where we are supposed to be. We will still make it to Seattle on time.

Today we were originally going to go to Mt. Rushmore but we scrapped those plans in favor of helping clean up in Chadron after a nasty hail storm blew through yesterday and a tornado touched down on the other side of town in a trailer park. We spent the day cleaning up yards and fixing windows. It was good to be able to go out and do something for the community after they have been so great to us.

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Location:Lake St,Chadron,United States

Iowa

Today we had a nice 80 mile ride into Mt. Vernon, Iowa. It was overcast and cool (aka perfect riding weather) for most of the day aside from the 5-10 minutes it rained. The day was generally full of rolling hills just as I remembered from last year. There were also a lot of rumble strips, which I also remembered was something often found always in groups of three. After a run in with a skunk (don't worry I didn't get sprayed) and hearing some funny stories from my post lunch riding partner, Chris, I made it in by just past 1:00, took possibly the coldest showers we've had so far and headed over to a bar in town to watch the world cup. That's where I am right now and I should pay attention to the end of the game so that's all for now more to come later.


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Location:Mt. Vernon, Iowa

I made it to Peru

Yesterday was our second day off. I slept until 8:00 and saw the sights in Pontiac. I went to the swinging bridges, which you're not actually allowed to swing, but they do sway when you walk on them. I went to the route 66 museum and saw some murals. I spent the afternoon playing a game called jungle speed and hanging out with some friends and some visitors we had.

Today we woke bright and early at 5:00 again for a 62 mile ride into Peru, IL. For the past several days we've had winds from the southwest but today since we were spending a lot of time going north we had winds from the north so we spent most of the day battling headwinds. Other than that it was mostly uneventful other than I took another fall going into lunch. I started into a parking lot, but there was a giant hole so I thought I might not make it so I stopped but forgot to unclip and went down and landed poorly. I ended up landing on my wrist and absorbing most of the impact in my shoulder so I'm fairly sore right now. I was able to finish the day after taking all non essentials out of my camelbak although I wasn't able to signal with my left arm because my shoulder tightened up so much. It's feeling better now and I expect in a few days it will be all better. Tomorrow we cross into Iowa and I begin the part of the route that I have deemed the reverse RAGBRAI.


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The post in which I try to tell you all about the last 4 days

Last Saturday we had a build day in Dayton. We spent the day hanging drywall. I had never done that before so it was fun to learn something new. I got to use power tools so it was even better. I got to actually hang some dry wall and cut some so I experienced the entire process. After our build day was over John Michael came to hang out and meet some Bike&Builders. We went with some other riders to a sushi/tai food place and had pad tai as usual. After we walked through this folk festival they were having in Dayton on the way to watch some fireworks. The Dayton Habitat chapter we worked with that day had secured us a good place to watch the fireworks. We watched from a lumber yard parking lot that we needed a secret password to get into. The fireworks were really good. They were certainly on par with the Boston fireworks and were only lacking the Boston Pops.

The nex morning John Michael woke up bright and early to see us off at 6:30 with our police escort. Four police cruisers showed up to escort us out of the city. It was a really amazing experience not having to stop at red lights for a whole 8 miles and being able to ride in the middle of the road without having to worry about cars. Next we got on a nice bike trail for about 12 miles so we were able to stay in a big pack. After that we split up to complete our first century ride. It was a long hot day and I didn't make it into the host until about 5:00. When we got there we had hose showers outside also our first of the trip, but we were all so hot it actually felt really nice. I definitely had my ups and downs during the century ride, but at the end I felt alright. I was really tired, but I felt alright.

The next day we had another long day of 86 miles. I only made it to lunch at mile 40 because I haven't been sleeping all that well on the trip. I spent the rest of the day in the van napping. I'm working on the sleeping thing and hopefully will be sleeping through the night soon. In the meantime my goal is to get as much sleep as possible whenever I can.

The next day we had another 80 miles and crossed into Illinois and crossed into central time. I enjoyed parts of the ride particularly the morning when I was playing games with my riding partner Brittany. After lunch we had a stretch of about 20 miles where we had a really nice tail wind and all zipped along at 20 mph. After we turned west again we found a nasty head wind for the last 15 miles. About 10 miles out we were able to see the Gilman (our destination) water tower. I think that was one of the flattest and straightest roads I have ever been on. We finally reached our destination at about 1:30 central time which wasn't so bad for having gone 80 miles.

Yesterday we had a short 45 miles and got to sleep in until 6:00 instead of having to wake up at 5:00 as we had the past three days. We flew right out of town and reached Pontiac by 11:00. It was a very enjoyable ride and we all went out to eat at a restaurant in town and pretty much took over the entire place. Pontiac is a very cute town with lots of little shops. Today we have a day off and I'm planning on visiting the route 66 museum and the swiging bridges.

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Location:Mohave Dr,Pontiac,United States

Sorry for the absence...

I'm sorry I've been away for so long and this is going to be unsatisfactory because this post is just to assure you that I'm fine and my absence doesn't mean anything bad happened. It just means that I've had some really long days and I'll be back tomorrow to fill you in on what has been going on.


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Location:Elmwood St,Pontiac,United States

This is the Ohio I imagined

Today was probably the easiest 90 mile ride I will ever experience. It was a beautiful day and there wasn't much wind and we got a non PB&J lunch in the middle. I was only mildly grumpy just before lunch because I was hungry and we didn't know if we would be back tracking after lunch to get back on route and we were going to have to backtrack a lot if it was necessary. Luckily we didn't have to backtrack at all and we had an awesome lunch at the house of parents that had a son on the soyhern route last year. We had pulled chicken, mac and cheese, Oreos, chips, Gatorade, bananas, as well as granola bars and trail mix we could take with us for later. After lunch we had some freshly paved road and then some bike paths. I got to chat with another rider, Chaz. We're staying at Sinclair Community College for the next two nights and so far they have been very welcoming. We have a build day tomorrow and John Michael is coming to visit tomorrow.

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Location:S Robert Dr,Dayton,United States

Hello, Columbus

Today we had an easy ride from Gambier to Columbus but before I can talk about the ride I need to fill you all in on sleeping and breakfast. Last night we all got an amazing night of sleep on real matresses and real sheets. I woke up feeling refreshed and the only bad part was gettingout of bed. Usually with the thermarest it's only difficult to get up because it's early not because I'm just so comfortable I don't want to. After we woke up and got all ready we headed over to breakfast at the campus dining hall. It was amazing. First of all the dining area looked like Hogwarts. To eat there were hash browns, eggs, strawberries and blueberries, yogurt, cottage cheese, cinnamon rolls, sausage, cereal, pancakes, oatmeal, bagels, and icecream. I didn't eat all of that but I think I did have about half not including icecream. If every morning was just like that we would be all set. Today's ride was only about 43 miles and mostly flat with a few gently rolling hills just the way I imagined Ohio would be. We even had a few bike trails worked in to avoid the cars for a while. This afternoon was another laundry day so off we went to the laundromat that is also a tanning salon. We got all the clothes in just two washers and 4 driers which is impressive by Bike&Build standards. Dinner was at the house of one of our riders roomates parents. They have a paddle boat that I took a spin on and we had pulled pork for dinner that my Dad would have loved. It was an overall excellent night and now I'm off to bed for an early start tomorrow to get to Dayton where I will see John Michael the day after tomorrow.

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Location:E Schrock Rd,Westerville,United States

O HI O

What has rounded edges and is hi in the middle? Ohio! I know this won't be shocking to most of you but I learned today that Ohio is in no way even remotely flat. I thought we'd have nice gently rolling hills the entire way moving toward pancake flat. We had nice gently rolling hills for the first half of the day and then we got hills reminicent of the four other states we've been through so far. Yesterday was really nice and had the gently rolling hills I expected. I road sweep with Sarah yesterday which means that we road at the back to make sure everyone made it. Then when we got to Tallmadge we went to the Firehouse Grille for lunch and almost all of us had burgers. We got free cookies at Linda's Kitchen which were really good. Then we had a relaxing afternoon and ate dinner at our host site the First Church of God in Tallmadge. After dinner we had a party for one of our riders, Anthony L., who missed his graduation yesterday. We got him a robe and set up chairs and had a few people conduct the ceremony and then we had cake and went bowling. I bowled an ok game after a rocky start and had 3 strikes in 2 games.

Today we had a long 85 mile ride so we got up at 5:00 and set off by about 7:30. We had an excellet breakfast at which I ate a bagel with cream cheese, eggs, a bowl of oatmeal, and two donuts. This is a perfect example of how much we have to eat in order to take in enough calories. Our ride this morning was alright. There was some truck traffic and almost no shoulder so my riding partner for the day, Chris, and I had a close call with a semi that did not leave enough room when it passed. We are both perfectly fine so no worries. We ate lunch at a firehouse today and the firemen were very nice and let us use their bathrooms and gave us ice for our camelbaks. They even pulled a truck out so we could take a picture with it. After lunch the roads we were on were much lower traffic which was really nice, but they were really hilly. Tonight we're staying at Kenyon College which I knew was in the Midwest, but did not know was in Ohio until today. We are staying in a dorm building so was all have our own beds to sleep in tonight complete with sheets. I'm very excited about getting to sleep in a real bed since I don't really remember what that is like anymore other than to remember that it is wonderful. Tomorrow we're headed for Columbus.

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Location:Ward St,Gambier,United States

Second build day

Today we had our second build day. We hadn't been to a build site since Providence so it was nice to get to one and remember why we're doing all this. The house we worked on today is nearing completion so we were doing things like touch up painting, caulking, installing trim, etc. I spent the day caulking which was fine because I had spent one of my sweat equity days at a build site caulking so I was comfortable with it. After our getting back from our build site we showered at the local YMCA and then relaxed. We had a nice dinner at the church we're staying at which was chicken and rice which was a nice change from all the pasta we've been having. After dinner my chore group headed to the laundromat to do all the laundry, which is where I am now. It's incredible how much laundry we produce and how strangley people look at you when you show up with hundreds of pounds of laundry wrapped in tarps. We are quite a spectacle.


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Location:Youngstown, OH

So we found the Pennsylvania hills again

Today we had a relatively short 50 mile ride that made up for it's shortness in distance with hills. We started out the day with a somewhat extended climb out of Franklin, PA. After our initial climb we had a few more including a few rather steep ones although probably none quite as steep as yesterdays but close. It was a very hilly day until we crossed the border. After that it was relatively flat although at that point the temperature was quickly approaching 90, so we still weren't moving very fast. Now we're all in Youngstown, OH and settled in and looking forward to dinner tonight and our build day Tomorrow.

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Location:Youngstown, OH

We seem to have found the least hilly part of Pennsylvania

Today we road from Warren to Franklin. It was a pretty good ride with not too many hills other than the one really steep one that I tweeted about. There were some very nicely paved roads even more exciting not one but two bike paths. Not having to deal with cars for part of the day was fantastic. We were able to ride two across and talk comfortably. After getting in we went to a bar to watch the world cup game. We got to talk to the owner (I think that's who she was) and we got free T-shirts so now I have four shirts to alternate. The place as called Celtic Cafe and they did have a Celtics theme going on which I found to be a little weird since we are no where near Boston. Yesterday we also had a pretty good ride that wasn't too hilly. Both days were just south of 70 miles. Yesterday we had a particularly beautiful ride after lunch in Allegheny National Forest. We road down to a reservoir. We also liketo play games while we ride and I had a fantastic game of categories with two other riders Sarah and Chris. Categories is a game where you pick a category like bands or animals and you go through the alphabet trying to come up with a band whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet for example. In our game we tried to come up with as many different names as we could for each letter to make the game last longer. We also went off on lots of funny tangents including Sarah singing a song about rocks that she wrote for a school project in middle school. It was quite good. Tomorrow we're crossing into Ohio. I'm excited to get to see another state and looking forward to the flats although I'm sure I'll change my tune before long.


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We found the Pennsylvania hills

So I'd heard all about how awful Pennsylvania hills are supposed to be from multiple sources and after yesterdays absolutely beautiful and relatively flat ride I was skeptical about whether they really existed, but today's ride convinced me they are really there. We spent the entire day on US6 which was awful. There is a tremendous amount of truck traffic on that road because of all the newly found natural gas in the area. We were constantly beig passed way too closely by dump trucks and semis and that coupled with the hills made for a very unpleasant ride. Tomorrow we head back out on the same road for another day although it will be shorter (only 45 miles instead of 60 today). We had some tough hills today including one that was at least 1.5 miles into lunch. We did get to go swimming when we got in though which was very refreshing. The only bad part was the very cold shower I had to take afterwards.

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Location:Wellsboro, PA

Hello Pennsylvania

Today we had a 60 mile ride to Wysox, PA. It was mostly flat so we flew and got in just before 1. It was a good day for confidence building although tomorrow seems like we'll have a tough day with lots of those typical Pennsylvania hills. Yesterday we had a day off which was really nice and we got to relax and we went to see Toy Story 3 which was actually really good and had plenty of humor for the grownups. Today we also had our fifth birthday on the trip, our trip leader Brian turned 24. He and another trip leader, Gabe, had a little run in with a black bear on the route, but didn't have a direct confrontation so both lived to tell the tale. I'd also like to let everyone know that I've completely recovered from my dehydration issues I had on my birthday and feel great. Hope everyone is well and I'll try to keepthe updates coming.

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Location:Wysox, PA

New York has mountains

Today we very quickly we crossed the border and entered New York greeted by nothing more than a change in pavement and no sign. We continued on and took a very unfortunate wrong turn that brought us in a circle and added 12 miles to our day. After our long detour we finally got headed on the right path we very quickly found ourselves going uphill. It wasn't until after the second switchback that I realized it was a mountain. After very slowly making my way up the mountain I zipped down the other side although not as fast as I might have since it was very twisty. There was a second smaller climb and then mostly down hill after that but what we all thought would be a really easy 30 mile day was not at all. Tomorrow we go to Roscoe with a long 75 mile ride. On a side note last night one of the contributers to our dinner was Shaun Donovan the secretary of HUD.


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Connecticut has hills

Yesterday we had a 60 mile long day with a lot of hills before lunch and then not too many after. For dinner we had some really good food provided by the church we stayed at and then a yoga instructor came and we ha a yoga lesson which was perfect. Today we had a shorter 50 mile day. There were some very large hills before lunch some of which were quite steep. The first hill we hit that was not very long but very steep I made the mistake of stopping on it and I couldn't get started again and I kept falling over every time I tried. I managed to scrape up my right leg even more on every side but I was okay just a little bloody. I kept riding and made a stop with the van to get cleaned up. Coming down a hill a little later I lost my cue sheat and shortly later accidently reset my odometer so I had no idea where I was or where to go. I managed to make it to lunch which was at the enterance to some paths into the woods. We had lots of left overs from last night so we got a break from the usual pb&j. After lunch we immediately got to go down this giant hill where some people topped 40mph. The rest of the trip into Kent was mostly downhill which made up for the morning being so hilly. We stopped at this house with these sculptures in the shape of animals like elephants and giraffes and took some pictures. We're staying at the Kent school. So far these showers have the best water pressure. Today is also laundry day which is good because we were collectively as a group starting to smell. Tomorrow we cross onto New York and only have a 30 mile day.


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Location:Kent, CT

And it starts

I arrived yesterday in providence thanks to a ride from my friend Rachel and my friend Emma was kind enough to acompany us and keep Rachel company on the return trip. Yesterday was mostly introductions and name games. I'm still working on the names but I've got at least half down. Today we woke up early and did some bike safety (on the way to which i fell and scraped my leg (i'm fine)) in the morning and then went on a short ride this afternoon to make sure everything is working properly. Tomorrow we have our first build day before we start riding west on Tuesday.


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Location:Providence, RI

Testing my new blogging app

In an attempt to keep you all informed I will do my best to blog from the road. This will probably mean having to use my phone so I bought an app today that will hopefully make it easy. The only real downside is that my updates will probably be full of spelling mistakes. I leave Saturday so I'm busy running last minute errands and packing. I had my last or second to last trainning ride today and I'm feeling comfortable on my bike. I bought a new saddle last week and it is amazing I hardly think about my butt now aside to think about how I'm not thinking about it.


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First Flat

Today I had my first flat and as I'm sure was cosmically necessary it was raining. Luckily though I was pretty close to home so after I struggled unsuccessfully to get the tire off I called my brother to come pick me up. I did manage to get the tire off and the tube out and the new tube partially on before my brother arrived, but I gladly accepted the warm dry ride home to finish fixing my flat. Once home I did successfully finish putting the new tube in and getting the tire back on. I'm glad my first attempt at fixing a flat was a success (thank you Youtube). It's remarkable that I made it through the entirety of last year without a single flat and this year with far less mileage I've already had one. Hopefully this isn't a sign of what's to come, but if it is I feel much better prepared now.

Excitement

In less than one month I'll be arriving in Providence ready to start this adventure. Today I had a nice 30 mile ride and tried out one of my shot blok flavors I got yesterday. I think the most exciting part of the whole ride was when I saw another Bike & Builder in Newton Centre going the opposite way. I have no idea who it was, but I saw a Bike & Build jersey and got really excited. Here are my stats for my ride: 31.89 miles, average speed 13 mph, max speed 31.2 mph, 2 hours 27 minutes.

Lovely Day for a Ride

Today was a little on the cool side, but otherwise a perfect day for a ride. It being a little cool is actually a good thing because there are fewer clueless pedestrians to walk out if front of me. A few miles into my ride I noticed a sort of rattling buzzing noise coming from my bike. I wasn't sure what it was, but wanting to make sure it wasn't some noise indicating my front tire was about to fall off I stopped to take a look. I have no idea what it was still, but everything looked all right and it disappeared at some point or the traffic got so noisy it drowned it out. At any rate I'll try and keep a look out for it in the future, but hopefully it has resolved itself. The other thought I have about it is that it might be a result of the surfaces I'm riding on, which are not the smoothest. If anyone has any ideas about anything I should check out let me know. Mostly it was a pretty easy ride with not too much wind and only one motorist yelled at me. It was a little hard to tell if he was disapproving or not because all I heard was "bicyclists" although he didn't really look happy. I'd also like to point out that I was absolutely in no way doing anything wrong, I was simply following traffic laws waiting for and then using a left turn signal. I guess he just didn't want to share the road, which is a reaction I'm going to have to get used to this summer. Right now the plan is to get out tomorrow and Thursday, take Friday off, get a long ride in Saturday, and take Sunday off to work at Commencement. Now off to hunt down some dinner and do some MCAT studying and laundry. What a night.

Enjoying the Spring Weather

Today I went out intending to do a short 10 mile ride, but it felt so good I ended up going 18.6 instead in about 1.5 hours. It was a really nice sunny day today and not at all cold in the sun until the end of my ride when the sun started getting low. There was a pretty good wind that picked up toward the end to the point where there were gusts where I could feel myself getting pushed to the side. The half of the ride where I had a head wind was pretty slow going, but the half where I had a tail wind I felt like I was flying. I'm no longer really afraid of clipping in and out which is good because now I can go find some hills and practicing my shifting.

Here's an update on my fund-raising, I've passed the $2000 mark which is good because this Monday is the deadline for reaching $2000. Those of you who have already donated thank you again, and to those of you who haven't donated yet please do here.

Sweat Equity

Today I finished my sweat equity requirements for Bike & Build. Each rider is required to complete at least eight hours of sweat equity with an affordable housing organization, so I did two six hour trips with BU's Habitat Chapter. Todays trip wasn't really a build trip because we spent the day making last minute touch ups on several units in a larger habitat project in Boston that are going to be shown to people tomorrow. I spent most of the day scrapping dried paint off of linoleum floors and painting over scuff marks on the walls. It wasn't so bad and really I only wish I could have been outside instead of cooped up inside all day (take note that it was 70 degrees, something I'm not likely to see again for several months), but the units look great and ready for tomorrow. It's kinda funny that now that I'm supposed to be gaining actual building experience for this summer the build trips I go on end up not really involving building (the last one I spent nearly the whole day caulking and sanding). I guess it's good I've been on so many other build trips.
The other big news for today is that I made a special trip home this weekend to collect my bike and the packages that have arrived containing exciting goodies like pedals, a bike computer (that was amazingly easy to install and worked on the first try), and Chamois Butt'r. My next great adventure is going to be learning to clip in and out of my new pedals. I'm hoping I only fall over once or twice.

Bike and Build: Be The Change

There is this great documentary that a couple riders from last summers Southern route made about their trip entitled "Bike and Build: Be The Change". It does a really good job talking about what Bike & Build is really about, so you should all check it out here: http://vimeo.com/10183174

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far and for those who haven't keep the donations coming.

First Ride

My new bike arrived last Friday, just in time for spring break, and after some frustration I was able to get it all together finally on Saturday or Sunday and the other day I went out for my first ride. The biggest difference with this new bike is with shifting gears. For the past year I had been using my Mom's old Motobecane, which is a very nice bike and one that they drool over at the bike shop whenever we bring it in, but has old fashioned shifters down on the frame of the bike that aren't always so user friendly. So out I went with my new bike for the first time on a beautiful day here in Newton and found myself wishing for the first half of the ride that I had the old shifters back. I'm very quickly coming around to the new ones though and after a few more rides I'm sure I'll like them infinitely better than the old ones.

My Bike

Today I have officially hit the $1000 milestone (1/4 of the way there)! This means that I will shortly be able to order my bike. If you want to see what it will look like check out this website: http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bikes/model/defy.2.triple/3882/37100/

Building

So as part of my preparation for the trip I have to put in sweat equity hours building at affordable housing organizations. This past Saturday I got six hours done at a Habitat For Humanity build site in Dorchester in Boston. The house we were working on was nearing completion so we were mostly patching holes, caulking, sanding, and doing some painting. I was glad to be inside though seeing as it's still February. A true novelty at this build site though was that we were able to use the toilet in the house, so we had a real flushing toilet. We were also lucky enough to get to work with two different families that will be getting Habitat houses. I always love when I get to work with the families that will actually be living in the houses I'm helping to build. I still have two more hours to complete before the trip and I can't wait to get them done, but I think I'll wait until it's a little warmer.