After a wonderful stay in Vancouver and an incredible trip all summer i am back at home, once again vegging in front of the TV. While the memories of how difficult and absurdly ridiculous some parts of the trip were are still in my head they are overwhelmed by how much fun I had. But the trip was genuinely more than just fun. I was able to work on a 10 houses across the country providing countless hours of work for people that needed it. The best part of working on these houses was working along side the future home owners, and hearing their stories.
Another great aspect of the trip is the church members and communities that helped Bike and Build. We were fed to our stomic's content nearly every night and the hospitality and the love that everyone across the country gave us was remarkable and heart warming. I cant thank them enough. All of them made this trip so much more enjoyable and just incredible. I admire those cyclists that can go across the country by themselves, but for me, those warm meals and the talkative people made every night a new home instead of just a place to sleep. Especially after those long windy and wet days camping. Their was nothing better than to arrive to a church with snacks and cold water with church members awaiting to cook us a nice warm meal. I cant thank them enough!
As of my fellow bike and builders. We share something that is unique to us and will stay with me forever. We have struggled, sweat, and overcome mountains like Washington Pass together. Not only did we all survive we all made it with smiles and laughs along the way. I owe my ultimate thanks to my fellow riders and my fearless leaders. Without their attitude and individual personalities this trip would not be nearly as good as it was. I will miss them dearly and hope to see them in bike lanes shortly.
To my readers. Thank you for baring with my terrible writing and spelling. I understand my blog was not the most interesting or the most dramatic but i hope you enjoyed staying with me on my journey. So thank you and i loved the support and the comments all along the way.
Totals:
Me------------------------------Group
3939.7 miles--------------------114251.3 miles
6303.52 km----------------------182802.08 km
271 hours 10 min on the bike----7863 hours 50 min
72 days-------------------------72 days
3007404.58 tire revolutions-----87214732.82 revolutions
~1575880 pedals-----------------~45700520 pedals
$4,200 raised-------------------$175,000 raised
128 pb&js-----------------------3584 pb&js
29 new friends
thanks again.
out.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
VANCOUVER!!!!!
Everyone made it, everyone went completly across the country on their own power on a bike. I am just so pround and privledged to be part of this group i cant thank them enough. We made it across without serious injury or complications and considering our only van ride came from Katrina's broken finger going into rugby (where she proceded to come back from the hospital and the same day ride another 25 miles to make up the distance) we are one hell of a determined group. This trip has been unforgetable and unbelievable in every sence and i cant thank the riders and the leaders enough. While our trip was not blessed with the weather for the most part, i feel incredibly blessed with everyone involved in it. We had so much fun despite sleeping in campground bathrooms and having hypothermia. Spending 1680 hours nearly continuously with my friends grows a connection that is indescribable and I will truly miss being around them.
Final thoughts to come later.
Final thoughts to come later.
Friday, August 22, 2008
2 days left!!!!! where did the summer go?
So i am alive. Past few days have been crazy and sorry for not updating more but camping and the Cascades have prevented me from finding a public computer.
Overview:
Republic to Omak - Good ride, easy pass (comparatively), then rain. then more rain. then wind... climbed to just over 4,000 feet but the pass was really not so bad. I was a sweep with Pen which made it nice to just take it easy. We took lots of breaks including one right after the pass at a local diner. The only bad part was that while being in the far back meant we got rained on, twice. At this point in the trip so close to our final destination rain is no longer a fun event, it is an annoyance and the effects of being wet can last for days. The scenery changed dramatically as we passed the pass. It immediately turned to desert. I was surprised at seeing a desert in Washington state, my opinion was that Washington got too much rain, (Thanks Grey's Anatomy)but apparently this area needed it badly. Figures, leave it to Bike and Build to bring the rain in an area which gets very little... Also, the wind, jealous of us being challenged by mountains and stupidly high climbs like Sherman pass, returned to impose her superiority over any obstacle we have faced. She remained to tortured us for a few hours just to ingrain in our heads that the one element to be feared and respected over all the others is wind. We plan to make a sacrifice shortly to the wind in honor of her power over us.
Omak to Camping Day number 1. uggg rain, again. probably a pass that was stupidly high. cant really remember. out of dessert and just like that in a forest again. Beautiful.
Camping day number 1 to camping day number 2 - uggg rain. cold, wet, hypothermia, 2 passes. (Washington pass - 5477 ft, Rainy pass - 4016 ft) cold. umbels. last 80 +_ mile day. --So much to say about this day but i will try to spare you the novel and keep it as brief as possible.-- We woke up in our tents to rain, then we left in the rain, then we climbed for 15 miles, in the rain and the cold. Though the ride up was spectacular views of endless mountains in cloud cover and trees. From the begining we knew this was going to be a hard day but we had no idea what was really in store for us. We finally made it to the top and we were cold while climbing up the mountain, which is a bad sign since we usually work a sweat in any temperature. It is so cold at the top some actually reported seeing snow flakes. Well we bundled up and started the decent knowing we would have to climb up rainy pass soon after the initial downhill. I was in my shorts and rain jacket and that was about it. After 50 feet people were jokily hugging to stay warm, little did we know that in another 3 miles people would be legitimately having initial stages of hypothermia. I made it to the bottom and i wasn't in too bad of a shape. I stopped to throw on almost every piece of clothing that i had in my camel back (thank god i have a massive and awesome camel back with tons of bandannas). So i had one bandanna covering my ears and head while another wrapped around my face and neck, i had my rain jacket (and my camel back rain jacket which is so cool i cant get over it) my jersey, and then i had my spandex shorts. i immediately started pedeling with the intention that if i just kept moving i would generate enough body heat to stay warm and for the most part it worked. I stayed warm enough that i could still control the bike enough to stay on the road... Others had other opinions on staying warm, most huddled shoulder to shoulder in a bathroom...again. I kept going though eventually to find the top of Rainy pass only to find Derek and about 7 bikes with no riders. The front riders had had enough of the cold and flagged down an RV to jump inside and get warm. They left their bikes and cruised in the RV down to our lunch stop. where they jumped into our van. So i take out my camera, snap a few photos with Derek, and decide to just keep on going. I figure i made it this far i can keep on going. So i continue. About a mile down i am shivering so bad its hard to keep the handlebars straight and i cant feel my fingers anymore so i am unsure on my braking abilities. Little did i realize 1,000 miles or so back that my 27 miles of riding no handed continuously would prepare me for a biking technique to stay warm for the Cascades. My new method for descending this rainy, miserable, mountain was to shove my hands in my pockets and just let the bike take me. The plan worked mostly and i regained feeling in my fingers at least enough to stop at the lunch stop. I ate as much as i could stand, and as much as i could make while shivering as much as i was. But really i was fine because about 30 min later i was back on the road using my theory that body motion meant body heat and this time it worked great, 3 miles out of lunch the rain stopped shortly and i was slowly regaining feeling. The sun came out briefly and the scenery was fantastic. I would say this place rivals Glacier national park in terms of beauty, absolutely spectacular. We rode along the valley with steep mountainsides on both sides of the roads with amazingly green trees and moss covering the wood. Waterfalls were stair casing down from the top spraying water into the clouds that were still hanging around. Despite the rain it was still jaw dropping to ride through. It was like this all the way through the park and into our next camping stop where Anson's Grandmother and uncle were there to warm us with delicious snacks and amazing food. All in all a good ride minus the hour or so I thought i was going to die.
Camping day 2 to Lynden. Beautiful. easy last 70 + mile day sunny.
ok got to go computer shutting down in t-minus 1 min ....59 sec...58....ahhh~!
thanks for reading this rediculously long blog! excited to be coming home soon!
Overview:
Republic to Omak - Good ride, easy pass (comparatively), then rain. then more rain. then wind... climbed to just over 4,000 feet but the pass was really not so bad. I was a sweep with Pen which made it nice to just take it easy. We took lots of breaks including one right after the pass at a local diner. The only bad part was that while being in the far back meant we got rained on, twice. At this point in the trip so close to our final destination rain is no longer a fun event, it is an annoyance and the effects of being wet can last for days. The scenery changed dramatically as we passed the pass. It immediately turned to desert. I was surprised at seeing a desert in Washington state, my opinion was that Washington got too much rain, (Thanks Grey's Anatomy)but apparently this area needed it badly. Figures, leave it to Bike and Build to bring the rain in an area which gets very little... Also, the wind, jealous of us being challenged by mountains and stupidly high climbs like Sherman pass, returned to impose her superiority over any obstacle we have faced. She remained to tortured us for a few hours just to ingrain in our heads that the one element to be feared and respected over all the others is wind. We plan to make a sacrifice shortly to the wind in honor of her power over us.
Omak to Camping Day number 1. uggg rain, again. probably a pass that was stupidly high. cant really remember. out of dessert and just like that in a forest again. Beautiful.
Camping day number 1 to camping day number 2 - uggg rain. cold, wet, hypothermia, 2 passes. (Washington pass - 5477 ft, Rainy pass - 4016 ft) cold. umbels. last 80 +_ mile day. --So much to say about this day but i will try to spare you the novel and keep it as brief as possible.-- We woke up in our tents to rain, then we left in the rain, then we climbed for 15 miles, in the rain and the cold. Though the ride up was spectacular views of endless mountains in cloud cover and trees. From the begining we knew this was going to be a hard day but we had no idea what was really in store for us. We finally made it to the top and we were cold while climbing up the mountain, which is a bad sign since we usually work a sweat in any temperature. It is so cold at the top some actually reported seeing snow flakes. Well we bundled up and started the decent knowing we would have to climb up rainy pass soon after the initial downhill. I was in my shorts and rain jacket and that was about it. After 50 feet people were jokily hugging to stay warm, little did we know that in another 3 miles people would be legitimately having initial stages of hypothermia. I made it to the bottom and i wasn't in too bad of a shape. I stopped to throw on almost every piece of clothing that i had in my camel back (thank god i have a massive and awesome camel back with tons of bandannas). So i had one bandanna covering my ears and head while another wrapped around my face and neck, i had my rain jacket (and my camel back rain jacket which is so cool i cant get over it) my jersey, and then i had my spandex shorts. i immediately started pedeling with the intention that if i just kept moving i would generate enough body heat to stay warm and for the most part it worked. I stayed warm enough that i could still control the bike enough to stay on the road... Others had other opinions on staying warm, most huddled shoulder to shoulder in a bathroom...again. I kept going though eventually to find the top of Rainy pass only to find Derek and about 7 bikes with no riders. The front riders had had enough of the cold and flagged down an RV to jump inside and get warm. They left their bikes and cruised in the RV down to our lunch stop. where they jumped into our van. So i take out my camera, snap a few photos with Derek, and decide to just keep on going. I figure i made it this far i can keep on going. So i continue. About a mile down i am shivering so bad its hard to keep the handlebars straight and i cant feel my fingers anymore so i am unsure on my braking abilities. Little did i realize 1,000 miles or so back that my 27 miles of riding no handed continuously would prepare me for a biking technique to stay warm for the Cascades. My new method for descending this rainy, miserable, mountain was to shove my hands in my pockets and just let the bike take me. The plan worked mostly and i regained feeling in my fingers at least enough to stop at the lunch stop. I ate as much as i could stand, and as much as i could make while shivering as much as i was. But really i was fine because about 30 min later i was back on the road using my theory that body motion meant body heat and this time it worked great, 3 miles out of lunch the rain stopped shortly and i was slowly regaining feeling. The sun came out briefly and the scenery was fantastic. I would say this place rivals Glacier national park in terms of beauty, absolutely spectacular. We rode along the valley with steep mountainsides on both sides of the roads with amazingly green trees and moss covering the wood. Waterfalls were stair casing down from the top spraying water into the clouds that were still hanging around. Despite the rain it was still jaw dropping to ride through. It was like this all the way through the park and into our next camping stop where Anson's Grandmother and uncle were there to warm us with delicious snacks and amazing food. All in all a good ride minus the hour or so I thought i was going to die.
Camping day 2 to Lynden. Beautiful. easy last 70 + mile day sunny.
ok got to go computer shutting down in t-minus 1 min ....59 sec...58....ahhh~!
thanks for reading this rediculously long blog! excited to be coming home soon!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Chelewah and Republic, WA
I made it to the last state. All that is left is a few more mountain passes and about 400 miles.
So our trip out of Idaho was a relatively good one until we started climbing a hill. Five miles later we were still climbing the hill. Five miles after that we were in sight of the top. This was a nasty climb. the outside temperature was recorded at 106 degrees and working all the way up the hill just adds to your body temperature. We woke up at 5:15 in hopes we could beat the heat but even at noon when i was just about to the top the hill was unbearably hot. I feel bad for the others that were behind me because it would only get worse for them. Everything turned around at the top of the hill though. I think it was called the Flower trail pass with a top elevation of 4,046ft or something like that. My favorite sign (downhill truck sign) was posted about every mile on the downhill just to remind us that we were in fact going downhill (not that we needed a reminder). 8 miles later of continuous downhill we made it to the church. This church that we stayed at was amazing. upon arrival they had a potluck they invited us to and laid out a delectable array of fruits and snacks soley for us. It was fabulous. So after i ate about 200 grapes i went out back with a few others and just sat in the ice cold stream. Then like we really need more exercise we started a game of volleyball for about an hour and a half. Then the church was so nice they reserved the public pool for us. Again...like we really need the exercise we were just playing basketball in the pool and getting absolutely exhausted. But it was so nice and spectacular that the church put this all together and fed us so well! I loved it.
So today's ride started off well once again. Then at mile 35 we started climbing. 25 miles later of continuous uphill riding we finally made it to the top of Sherman pass with an elevation of 5,575ft. I cant stress how much up hill that is, just ridiculousness. Thats the distance from mainland to Catalina Island all uphill. or for people that have not gone to Catalina thats a complete marathon distance all up hill! Then from the top to the bottom it took me 34 minutes without using my brakes going around 30mph on average.
so to recap. yesterday we climbed 4,046 ft. then went back down. then today we climbed 5,575ft just to once again come back down. yeah cant we just stay up at 4,000ft until Vancouver?
So our trip out of Idaho was a relatively good one until we started climbing a hill. Five miles later we were still climbing the hill. Five miles after that we were in sight of the top. This was a nasty climb. the outside temperature was recorded at 106 degrees and working all the way up the hill just adds to your body temperature. We woke up at 5:15 in hopes we could beat the heat but even at noon when i was just about to the top the hill was unbearably hot. I feel bad for the others that were behind me because it would only get worse for them. Everything turned around at the top of the hill though. I think it was called the Flower trail pass with a top elevation of 4,046ft or something like that. My favorite sign (downhill truck sign) was posted about every mile on the downhill just to remind us that we were in fact going downhill (not that we needed a reminder). 8 miles later of continuous downhill we made it to the church. This church that we stayed at was amazing. upon arrival they had a potluck they invited us to and laid out a delectable array of fruits and snacks soley for us. It was fabulous. So after i ate about 200 grapes i went out back with a few others and just sat in the ice cold stream. Then like we really need more exercise we started a game of volleyball for about an hour and a half. Then the church was so nice they reserved the public pool for us. Again...like we really need the exercise we were just playing basketball in the pool and getting absolutely exhausted. But it was so nice and spectacular that the church put this all together and fed us so well! I loved it.
So today's ride started off well once again. Then at mile 35 we started climbing. 25 miles later of continuous uphill riding we finally made it to the top of Sherman pass with an elevation of 5,575ft. I cant stress how much up hill that is, just ridiculousness. Thats the distance from mainland to Catalina Island all uphill. or for people that have not gone to Catalina thats a complete marathon distance all up hill! Then from the top to the bottom it took me 34 minutes without using my brakes going around 30mph on average.
so to recap. yesterday we climbed 4,046 ft. then went back down. then today we climbed 5,575ft just to once again come back down. yeah cant we just stay up at 4,000ft until Vancouver?
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Sandpoint, IDAHO!
The end is near for NUS 2008. I think we have only 8 more days of biking. To be honest i don't know how we made it so far in so little time. But we have one more US state line to cross before I have to give my goodbye's to an absolutely fabulous group of people.
As for our ride out of Montana it was a pretty usual day. Except it was difficult from the extreme heat we are in. For some reason i haven't been drinking enough water making riding very uncomfortable. The distance of 84 miles has been a challenge but yesterday it was hard for me. Only after drinking about a gallon of water at lunch did i feel good again. The ride was again scenic and filled with trees and lakes. This time we had quite a few cars since we re-entered civilization. Entering Sandpoint was great to because the whole day i wanted to go swimming and i didn't have the perfect opportunity. We even gained an extra hour entering Pacific Time Zone so we had the time yet their were no good spots along the route. Well the second i got to the united Methodist church i asked Dan if there was a good spot to go. He simply responded "lets go". I followed him to be the best hangout spot i could wish for on a hot day after a long ride... a rope swing into the river. This rope swing was almost perfect. It was completely public and in plain site of everyone which meant it was approved by the town as safe and all the locals were there. I must have spent an hour there just waiting in line to jump in. Then i headed back to the church, then after about 30 min later i headed back to the swing.
The next day was our build day, which turned out to be a half day build. We nearly finished applying side paneling to the whole house so it was cool to see progress throughout the day instead of a never ending giant pile of dirt. The site was great and we left around 12:30 and took a good 1.5 hour nap to break up the day. Then what else was there to do but head back to the rope swing. Again stayed for a really long time then called it a day. Went to have dinner and now i am looking forward to some Thermerest.
Hope all is well.
Until next time.
oh and to add to my list
Huckleberry honey
Huckleberry margarita
As for our ride out of Montana it was a pretty usual day. Except it was difficult from the extreme heat we are in. For some reason i haven't been drinking enough water making riding very uncomfortable. The distance of 84 miles has been a challenge but yesterday it was hard for me. Only after drinking about a gallon of water at lunch did i feel good again. The ride was again scenic and filled with trees and lakes. This time we had quite a few cars since we re-entered civilization. Entering Sandpoint was great to because the whole day i wanted to go swimming and i didn't have the perfect opportunity. We even gained an extra hour entering Pacific Time Zone so we had the time yet their were no good spots along the route. Well the second i got to the united Methodist church i asked Dan if there was a good spot to go. He simply responded "lets go". I followed him to be the best hangout spot i could wish for on a hot day after a long ride... a rope swing into the river. This rope swing was almost perfect. It was completely public and in plain site of everyone which meant it was approved by the town as safe and all the locals were there. I must have spent an hour there just waiting in line to jump in. Then i headed back to the church, then after about 30 min later i headed back to the swing.
The next day was our build day, which turned out to be a half day build. We nearly finished applying side paneling to the whole house so it was cool to see progress throughout the day instead of a never ending giant pile of dirt. The site was great and we left around 12:30 and took a good 1.5 hour nap to break up the day. Then what else was there to do but head back to the rope swing. Again stayed for a really long time then called it a day. Went to have dinner and now i am looking forward to some Thermerest.
Hope all is well.
Until next time.
oh and to add to my list
Huckleberry honey
Huckleberry margarita
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Libby, MT
wow..yeah 12 days in Montana. Tomorrow we will finally be leaving this ginormously huge state. Though i must say i will miss western Montana. The rides recently have been fabulous. Yesterday I had a great short ride into Eureka and today we had slightly longer ride but it followed a lake the whole way with a nice wide shoulder for most of the time. The day was hot and clear so it felt great to jump into the freezing waters. The best part of the ride today into Libby was that most of it was through Kootenia National Forrest meaning there was absolutely no development. The ride today reminded me of half New Hampshire and half Southern California so i am happy. I am sorry to disappoint but i have no exciting stories other than Montana is obsessed with Huckleberries and I have tried nearly every form it comes in.
Huckleberry Pancakes,
Huckleberry Gummiebears,
Huckleberry hot chocolate
Huckleberry crepe
Huckleberry taffy
Huckleberry ice cream
Huckleberry shake
Next post will be out of Montana! (But everyone in Montana is awesome just fyi, super nice)
Huckleberry Pancakes,
Huckleberry Gummiebears,
Huckleberry hot chocolate
Huckleberry crepe
Huckleberry taffy
Huckleberry ice cream
Huckleberry shake
Next post will be out of Montana! (But everyone in Montana is awesome just fyi, super nice)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
whitefish, MT
So... I have biked over the Rockies. All the way up, and all the way down. From Cut Bank we made it into St. Mary's the "Gateway to Glacier National Park" after a very long hard very hard ride. It took me 6 hours on the bike to go just over 60 miles. I will spare you the details because i just dont want to think about that day. Lets just say headwind. The last part of the ride (15 miles) was great. We were entering mountains and the backdrop was intimidating because we new we had to climb it the next day. But the change of scenery inspired me to just pound out the ~2,000 ft elevation climb after being harassed by the wind all day. I saw a group of wild horses and trees... yup we made it to trees. So after the climb we got this amazing downhill looking over the Rockies down into St. Mary's. The wind hadn't died down at this point either so even going downhill (12% or something like that) we were still only going 18mph. But we made it. Our campsites were in a great location and everything was hunky dory and despite the fact that we were camping, it didnt rain! Sadly the wind stayed all night. But the Camping went well for the first time on our trip.
The next morning (11th) we woke up to climb the Rockies. The wind was still there (i guess it really likes us) and the temperature was around the 50s something that is very new to us all. Despite the cold and wind the ride up and down the Rockies was breathtaking. I must have taken 300 photos during the two days and each one of them is spectacular. Bikes wernt allowed on a certain part of the park between 11am-4pm so we planned to just spend all day in the park and ride out after 4. This was one of the best decisions i have made on the trip. We made it to the Continental divide (6.650 ft or something) around 1pm and still had 55 miles to ride and an entire park to see. So we took our lovely time going down with barely enough room for cars. the sun was poking though the clouds every once in a while spaying light over the mountains and the glacier water below. Many pictures later we made it to the bottom at 4 and then stopped for more food and pictures. After the mountain there was still quite a bit of riding to do. we still had 40 miles left and the entire ride out of the park was perfect. We were following Lake McDonald and enjoying the greenish blue glacier water. i jumped into one of these rivers as a white water rafting trip was passing (calm section dont worry mom) and this was the coldest water i have ever been in but the river was just calling for me. Then we had "lunch" at mile 51 around 630pm... and i still had 25 miles to go. So after being in slight shock from the river and lack of food i ate as much as i could handle and I raced the sun to my destination of Whitefish. Needless to say I won, yet it didnt really matter because the van broke down again standing all of our stuff until about 10 pm that night. luckily the church members at the First Pres are amazing and arranged to tow the trailer with all of our stuff to the church so we could all change and go directly to sleep.
today was supposed to be a day off but we ended up having a optional surprise build day. The Habitat site that we worked at was extremely organized and just put us right to work and it was a great way to spend part of the day. We shingled about half of the roof with the help of the excellent site supervisor then called it a day. Now i am exhausted and need a day off....already. But Whitefish is an amazing little town and has been a lot of fun to have our day off in i wish i could spend a few more days here. But VANCOUVER HERE WE COME
The next morning (11th) we woke up to climb the Rockies. The wind was still there (i guess it really likes us) and the temperature was around the 50s something that is very new to us all. Despite the cold and wind the ride up and down the Rockies was breathtaking. I must have taken 300 photos during the two days and each one of them is spectacular. Bikes wernt allowed on a certain part of the park between 11am-4pm so we planned to just spend all day in the park and ride out after 4. This was one of the best decisions i have made on the trip. We made it to the Continental divide (6.650 ft or something) around 1pm and still had 55 miles to ride and an entire park to see. So we took our lovely time going down with barely enough room for cars. the sun was poking though the clouds every once in a while spaying light over the mountains and the glacier water below. Many pictures later we made it to the bottom at 4 and then stopped for more food and pictures. After the mountain there was still quite a bit of riding to do. we still had 40 miles left and the entire ride out of the park was perfect. We were following Lake McDonald and enjoying the greenish blue glacier water. i jumped into one of these rivers as a white water rafting trip was passing (calm section dont worry mom) and this was the coldest water i have ever been in but the river was just calling for me. Then we had "lunch" at mile 51 around 630pm... and i still had 25 miles to go. So after being in slight shock from the river and lack of food i ate as much as i could handle and I raced the sun to my destination of Whitefish. Needless to say I won, yet it didnt really matter because the van broke down again standing all of our stuff until about 10 pm that night. luckily the church members at the First Pres are amazing and arranged to tow the trailer with all of our stuff to the church so we could all change and go directly to sleep.
today was supposed to be a day off but we ended up having a optional surprise build day. The Habitat site that we worked at was extremely organized and just put us right to work and it was a great way to spend part of the day. We shingled about half of the roof with the help of the excellent site supervisor then called it a day. Now i am exhausted and need a day off....already. But Whitefish is an amazing little town and has been a lot of fun to have our day off in i wish i could spend a few more days here. But VANCOUVER HERE WE COME
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Cut back
Nothing extraordinary to report, Montana has lots of the same terrain for a really long time. And we are still on Route 2 and its still hot and we are still biking...
Good news though is we are finally in visible range of the Rockies and we get to try camping again tonight! so that should be fun, hopefully all the storms are past and i can actually sleep on a night of camping.
oh yeah and I tallied of the votes and SHAVED! so thanks for your input, I decided it just had to go and now no one can recognize me.
Off to bike 66 miles. MOUNTAINS!
Good news though is we are finally in visible range of the Rockies and we get to try camping again tonight! so that should be fun, hopefully all the storms are past and i can actually sleep on a night of camping.
oh yeah and I tallied of the votes and SHAVED! so thanks for your input, I decided it just had to go and now no one can recognize me.
Off to bike 66 miles. MOUNTAINS!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Chinok, MT
Yup still in Montana. Points of interest today: We had a tail wind (which is the best thing for a long flat road). I rode without touching my handlebars for 27 miles continuously (look Ma, no hands) and I would have been able to go longer but my front tire went flat. I hit 38.9 mph on flat ground. Less than 3 weeks left for the trip.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Malta
Miles - 70.8
riding time - 4 hours
wind - ok
avg - 17ish
mosquitoes -my new enemy
camera - freaking out
scenery - fields everywhere, one road, all 70 miles
Dinosaur museum - freakin awesome. The museum is located in Malta where we are staying and this non-profit museum is home to lots of real dinosaur artifacts and really cool information. The best part of it though was that a very nice lady named Sue showed us around the whole exhibit explaining everything and anything pertaining to Dinosaurs. She was so helpful and made me want to go start looking for dinosaur remains. Apparently Montana has huge amounts of fossilized material and they find teeth and horns daily. The museum is home to "Leonardo" a nearly complete mummified dinosaur remains that has detail down to the scales and even toe-nails! Really cool stuff and the best part is Discovery channel is putting on a show airing September 14th on it! SO DON'T MISS IT
Mosquitoes - Guinness book of records for greatest density (just wanted to say how much i hate them)
weather - sunny
bike - happily clean
until next time
riding time - 4 hours
wind - ok
avg - 17ish
mosquitoes -my new enemy
camera - freaking out
scenery - fields everywhere, one road, all 70 miles
Dinosaur museum - freakin awesome. The museum is located in Malta where we are staying and this non-profit museum is home to lots of real dinosaur artifacts and really cool information. The best part of it though was that a very nice lady named Sue showed us around the whole exhibit explaining everything and anything pertaining to Dinosaurs. She was so helpful and made me want to go start looking for dinosaur remains. Apparently Montana has huge amounts of fossilized material and they find teeth and horns daily. The museum is home to "Leonardo" a nearly complete mummified dinosaur remains that has detail down to the scales and even toe-nails! Really cool stuff and the best part is Discovery channel is putting on a show airing September 14th on it! SO DON'T MISS IT
Mosquitoes - Guinness book of records for greatest density (just wanted to say how much i hate them)
weather - sunny
bike - happily clean
until next time
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Glasgow, MT
Finally a nice easy ride with no head wind! it felt so nice to go fast and for only 2.5 hours! ahhh amazing. Anyway the Evangelical Church we are staying at here in Glasgow is perfect. They have all these toys and games for us to play and the people are just so nice. Thats not to put down other churches either, i just wanted to say thanks to all of them. They are such a crucial part of bike and build that we cant thank them enough. I love it when they go out of their way to make our trip more comfortable and enjoyable. For instance last night the church set up a Bike and Build event at the public pool for us and it was so cool. we had the pool to ourselves with slides and water jets.
So thank you churches and hosts!
Now i am off to bed to get up to bike again tomorrow.
So thank you churches and hosts!
Now i am off to bed to get up to bike again tomorrow.
Monday, August 4, 2008
...
Out of New Town and on to Theodor Roosevelt National park, to Culbertson-MT, and finally to Wolf Point-MT. It has been a long long few days. So in the morning before leaving for new town we discovered that once again the van would not get out of park...so all of our gear was stuck at the high school until we got the van fixed again. So i packed everything that i would ever possibly need into my ginormous cammelback. I had my rain coat, camera, my hammock, a change of clothes, about 6 pounds of food, and of course 3 litters of water.... you know just in case the van didn't get fixed. The ride was outstanding we had the best weather, the hills and the scenery were all brand new and the ride was great and to top it off fir the last 15 miles we had a tail wind for the first time as strong as our normal head wind. So we made it to Roosevelt's National Park in no time and the last five miles were great because we were just cruising in the park and i got to ride past all of my Buffalo from Catalina! They were all over the park, and the ride was perfect. So we were all excited to be camping and enjoying the outdoors. Well, we toured the park and got ready for a night in the tents! So i set up my hammock and i thought i was preparing myself by setting up an old rain tarp just in case we got some rain, and i was pretty confident that my setup would keep me dry even in the heaviest of rains. So around 2:30am i wake up to a light drizzle and i make sure the tarp is on and secure and i was happy that i wasn't getting wet. About 30 minutes later it was raining pretty hard, and lightning in the background. It was really cool to be out in it and i was sure i was going to get through this. Well the wind picked up, and blew with hurricane force, it was so strong i am pretty sure i was parallel with the ground at some points in my hammock. The wind speed kept on increasing and i was starting to get nervous about my rain tarp. So far it was holding up and i was completely dry. then one gust came and it was so strong it ripped my rain tarp from the strap it was sewen on to. I immediately was drenched and I had no chance of fixing it in this storm. Since i was drenched already i took my time to make sure i had everything and i waddled my self to the Men's bathroom to find it empty so i hung everything up to drip dry and noticed i didn't have my Pillow that Karen gave to me. So i left the shelter of the bathroom to search for my pillow to no avail. On my way back i noticed all the tents that we set up for Bike and Builders were litterally flattend. everyone in the campsite seemed to have abandoned their tents for some sort of shelter. I began looking for them and found nearly everyone jammed pack in the girls bathroom. It still boggles my mind that everyone managed to cram themselves in one bathroom while the other was completely empty. I eventually returned to the men's bathroom to spend the rest of the night. Yup... I spent the night in a bathroom! yay for bike and build. oh and the ironic part of it was the park charged us for entry so these were the most expensive accommodations we have stayed in yet....and i was sleeping on the ground of a bathroom.
Anyway we all survived and the next morning i did find the pillow about 50 yards away in the brush. The morning was again perfect weather and we were back on the road. After helping to fix Bobby's 4 flats we were out of the park. Oh and we had to hop a fence because the buffalo were taking over the road to get out of the park. Well the day was really hot and long but we finally made it. I had been riding with Isaiah all day and the poor kid fell in the last 100 feet of an 85 mile day. He pulled up on his handle bars and it broke one of the bolts holding his handlebars to his bike and there was nothing he could do to recover because he was holding his handlebars and they were separate from his bike. He is ok now and is already eager to get back on his bike.
Today's ride was also long because of the headwind but its good to be done at such an early time.
Well i am off to get ice cream!
hope all is well and i will be finalizing the votes on the facial hair one week from today so get your votes in now!
observation of the day: Its frustrating to know that my mood is determined by which direction the wind is going...
Anyway we all survived and the next morning i did find the pillow about 50 yards away in the brush. The morning was again perfect weather and we were back on the road. After helping to fix Bobby's 4 flats we were out of the park. Oh and we had to hop a fence because the buffalo were taking over the road to get out of the park. Well the day was really hot and long but we finally made it. I had been riding with Isaiah all day and the poor kid fell in the last 100 feet of an 85 mile day. He pulled up on his handle bars and it broke one of the bolts holding his handlebars to his bike and there was nothing he could do to recover because he was holding his handlebars and they were separate from his bike. He is ok now and is already eager to get back on his bike.
Today's ride was also long because of the headwind but its good to be done at such an early time.
Well i am off to get ice cream!
hope all is well and i will be finalizing the votes on the facial hair one week from today so get your votes in now!
observation of the day: Its frustrating to know that my mood is determined by which direction the wind is going...
Friday, August 1, 2008
New Town, ND
QUESTION TIME! Ok so my facial hair is getting long.... and I need your help! I really need your participation on this so send your vote to me via any of the below.
cell 626 975 3869
blog - comment
email -erik.m.bell@dartmouth.edu
look ----------------------->
Should I shave now? or wait for the end of trip. I have not touched it all summer. Need your votes. Thanks! I will do what the majority wants
ANYWHO....
We all made it! including our van!
So first of all let me clarify the little "i hate wind" comment. I truely do hate wind. it is the bain of my existance and it will not leave us alone. We dealt with a headwind into Rugby, all 60 miles of it. i was just so furious i couldnt stand it. Oh and we heard from a local that the storm that caused us to take shelter behind a biulding had winds that reached 60...
anyway today's ride was simple enough. We started in Minot, ND where yesterday we had a day off. It was good to sleep and not ride my bike for 5 hours. So this morning, the local media came to see us off which was great. we left the church and headed on our way. we were less than 2 blocks away and we already were lost. So we spent the next 10 minutes asking around for directions and were off again. luckily we didnt follow google maps which had us going 10 miles east before heading south so we got to bypass 9 miles on the day. So around mile 20 our van pulls out infront and christopher the driver gets out to chalk. the only problem was when he got back in th van, it wouldnt come out of park, leaving us stranded for a couple of hours. I stayed back with Joy and Christopher to make sure the van got onits way fine with the tow truck and all, and to pass the time we all climbed in the van to get out of the wind and watch a movie. Well eventually the towtruck showed up and got us on our way and once again we were biking. The only real descriptive word i can use for ND terrain is it has lots of fields....lots of them. We could see our road for miles and miles and it was perfectly straight and their was not a town in site, then we would look back, and we could see for miles and miles without a town again, perfectly straight. We biked farther than we could see. The van got fixed and we made it to the small town of New Town, ND. We were just welcomed by a flash thunderstorm and looks like we will have many more later:
cell 626 975 3869
blog - comment
email -erik.m.bell@dartmouth.edu
look ----------------------->
Should I shave now? or wait for the end of trip. I have not touched it all summer. Need your votes. Thanks! I will do what the majority wants
ANYWHO....
We all made it! including our van!
So first of all let me clarify the little "i hate wind" comment. I truely do hate wind. it is the bain of my existance and it will not leave us alone. We dealt with a headwind into Rugby, all 60 miles of it. i was just so furious i couldnt stand it. Oh and we heard from a local that the storm that caused us to take shelter behind a biulding had winds that reached 60...
anyway today's ride was simple enough. We started in Minot, ND where yesterday we had a day off. It was good to sleep and not ride my bike for 5 hours. So this morning, the local media came to see us off which was great. we left the church and headed on our way. we were less than 2 blocks away and we already were lost. So we spent the next 10 minutes asking around for directions and were off again. luckily we didnt follow google maps which had us going 10 miles east before heading south so we got to bypass 9 miles on the day. So around mile 20 our van pulls out infront and christopher the driver gets out to chalk. the only problem was when he got back in th van, it wouldnt come out of park, leaving us stranded for a couple of hours. I stayed back with Joy and Christopher to make sure the van got onits way fine with the tow truck and all, and to pass the time we all climbed in the van to get out of the wind and watch a movie. Well eventually the towtruck showed up and got us on our way and once again we were biking. The only real descriptive word i can use for ND terrain is it has lots of fields....lots of them. We could see our road for miles and miles and it was perfectly straight and their was not a town in site, then we would look back, and we could see for miles and miles without a town again, perfectly straight. We biked farther than we could see. The van got fixed and we made it to the small town of New Town, ND. We were just welcomed by a flash thunderstorm and looks like we will have many more later:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
ND
i hate wind
joke: knock knock? who´s there? dwyane. Dwyane who? Dwain the tub, I´m dwowning!!!
(complements of Elise)
joke: knock knock? who´s there? dwyane. Dwyane who? Dwain the tub, I´m dwowning!!!
(complements of Elise)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Devils lake NORTH DAKOTA!
We left Minnesota today and we got a cold stormy welcome to North Dakota. Yesterday was good by the way. I rode with Quang and he has just such a good attitude. we had a 90 mile day, and none of us wanted it. well Quang just let me know that a mile on a bike is just like shooting a fish in a barrel. so its really easy to just shoot a fish in a barrel 90 times. Well the miles just flew by. So a great prelude into our 120 mile today!
Anyway so we had to get up at 4:15 am to leave at 5;30 to get into devils lake by 4 to make it to Isaiah's farm which is absolutely great. well the ride started off perfect (besides the whole 4:15 thing) we got to watch the sunrise in the background as we rode our first 20 miles and made out first lunch stop at 8:30 am. We were booking. Thank God there was no headwind, we were all anticipating it and if it had been there I probably still wouldn't have arrived. By 1130 we made it 80 miles to our second lunch stop where we were warned about an incoming storm. Well the guy that warned us said it was just a storm and didn't really warn us for the severity of this minor hurricane we were about to hit. We were about 10 miles out and started to get nervous with the lightning strikes. Then the rain came harder then the wind came at about 30 mph. This was the first time in the trip i couldn't ride my bike. it was so windy and so hard to see that i couldn't stay vertical. Our group (Kate, Derek, and Craig) ran (or walked because the rain and wind was so hard to stand in) to a wall. that was all we had to protect us from this thing. So we waited about 45 minutes freezing as the wind and lightning passed. i must say i have never been in a worse storm. Anyway we chugged on to get warm and we finally made it! then we headed straight to Isaiah's farm which is awesome. I got to ride a tractor for the first time and then ride a horse for the first time as well. These horses were excellent and we were able to do tricks and jumping onto the horses. So much Fun.
Ok well sorry i couldn't relay how cool this farm is in my writing. Hope all is well!
Anyway so we had to get up at 4:15 am to leave at 5;30 to get into devils lake by 4 to make it to Isaiah's farm which is absolutely great. well the ride started off perfect (besides the whole 4:15 thing) we got to watch the sunrise in the background as we rode our first 20 miles and made out first lunch stop at 8:30 am. We were booking. Thank God there was no headwind, we were all anticipating it and if it had been there I probably still wouldn't have arrived. By 1130 we made it 80 miles to our second lunch stop where we were warned about an incoming storm. Well the guy that warned us said it was just a storm and didn't really warn us for the severity of this minor hurricane we were about to hit. We were about 10 miles out and started to get nervous with the lightning strikes. Then the rain came harder then the wind came at about 30 mph. This was the first time in the trip i couldn't ride my bike. it was so windy and so hard to see that i couldn't stay vertical. Our group (Kate, Derek, and Craig) ran (or walked because the rain and wind was so hard to stand in) to a wall. that was all we had to protect us from this thing. So we waited about 45 minutes freezing as the wind and lightning passed. i must say i have never been in a worse storm. Anyway we chugged on to get warm and we finally made it! then we headed straight to Isaiah's farm which is awesome. I got to ride a tractor for the first time and then ride a horse for the first time as well. These horses were excellent and we were able to do tricks and jumping onto the horses. So much Fun.
Ok well sorry i couldn't relay how cool this farm is in my writing. Hope all is well!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
I Hate Wind
Yesterday i wanted to throw my bike in a ditch light it on fire let the ashes sit in extreme high pressure for thousands of years then separate the remaining oil to form gas by a car and use my bike remains to drive myself to the next church. Basically i am saying is that a headwind is my new worst enemy. Yesterday i started off alone and got to lunch just fine. however when i left lunch the wind decided to pick up to about 20mph. It is the most demoralizing thing while biking. all that you think about is how much you hate the wind and how much faster you would be going without it. Well 7 hours after i started biking i got to our destination exhausted dehydrated and frustrated! I have to thank Katrina and Kate because they waited for me so i could survive to tell the tail. but now i am ok and i love my bike again. Today i was smart got in a pace line. So now we are in the town of Bemidji, MN and we are enjoying all of the big statues.
Until next time.
Joke: the wind is like riding with 2 flat tires. (not really a joke just how i feel)
Until next time.
Joke: the wind is like riding with 2 flat tires. (not really a joke just how i feel)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
DULUTH, MN
I am writing from the awesome town of Duluth, MN. The last few days have been great weather and smooth riding so not much to report here. I apologize for not posting more of my pictures but the sparse internet and the difficulty in posting 600 or so photos has been slightly daunting. But as soon as I am done i will get them all up. well at least the best ones.
The last 2 days we have been riding on a nicely paved bike path which has allowed us to ride side by side and chat along the way making the miles fly by. Today we had a 80ish mile day with about 70 of them on a bike path! Apparently the longest in the world!
Anyway nothing exciting to report other than the amazing hosts and paths we have had.
check in later!
Joke answer: A pirate getting hit by a cAAAARRRG
Joke: If toast always falls butter side down what happens when you strap a piece of toast to a cat and drop it? (complements of Joy)
Monday, July 21, 2008
St. Paul, MN!
Hello again from some random computer in a random library. BUT thank God they are here for me to use. I am kinda upset how dependent on Internet and a computer. I guess that's my generation though. Couldn't imagine doing this trip without a cell i guess you would get lost a lot more. So the last few days have been pretty much equivalent. Avg distances of 75 or 80 miles on absolutely gorgeous terrain and beautiful days. The routes have been great and the miles just keep flying by. Its hard to believe that we are nearly half way across now and just a few months ago i thought my 40 mile jaunt was difficult. Now i pray for a 40 mile day. But all is well in bike and build. We have stayed at some pretty extravagant churches with church members as nice as ever and giving us so much delicious food (like fresh fruit) and ice cream floats and muffins the size of my head and so much else. Tonight is extra ordinary where we get to sleep in a nice bed in host families houses, so i am looking forward to that. Sadly we left the awesome roads of Wisconsin and amazingly upgraded to bike paths in Minnesota all the way to Duluth! However the Wisconsin Dairy was absolutely delish and i stuffed myself with as much Ice cream and cheese as my body can handle. I will test out Minnesota's selection and let you know.
Today's ride was pretty good. Fabulous day with great weather and now that the biking part of bike and build is getting a little monotonous and our butts getting sorer by the day one of the leaders decided to have a picture scavenger hunt. This includes about 30 tasks and each task is assigned a point value based on the ridiculousness of it. My group of 4, Anson, Pen, Kevin and myself got nearly ever item on the list believe it our not. but apparently there is one group that will be challenging us for the victory. For your enjoyment i typed out the tasks and posted some of the pictures.
1) Dead Frog
2) Person in uniform
3)Motorcyclist on a bicycle
4) Ice Cream scooper (Funny story about that. my group was busy taking pictures with our found ice cream scoopers at a lovely place called Nesbitt's Nursery which had ice cream, apple cider donuts and a whole bunch of cool stuff, but anyway we saw another coming up and they noticed that we had one of the tasks on the list that they didn't have so it was a mad dash by both groups to try and grab all of the scoopers before the others could get to it. Quite a funny spectacle, but my group managed to get the scoopers but then they actually bought ice cream meaning we had to give back the scoopers :( )
5) B&Ber name on a headstone
6) Live Non domesticated mammal
7) picture of baby cow
8) Purple flower
9)Unicorn (we found a real one)
10) Bike and Builder over 10 feet above the ground
11) B&Ber mimicking a statue while standing next to it
12) Abe Lincoln look alike
13)person in a shawl
14)person wearing waders
15) mail carrier
16)yellow ball
17) B&Ber handing out a buissness card to complete stranger
18)misspelled sign
19)road sign pertaining to bike safety
20) girl under 7 years old
21) pop sign under 500
22) B&Ber smelling fake flowers
23)Person wearing foam hands
24) license plate from a state bordering the ocean
25)discarded glove on the side of the road
26)a mullet
27)person eating a carrot (this was the hard one)
28) an open umbrella
29)someone sitting on a park bench
30) Discarded beer can on the side of the road
ok well that's it! ill let you know the victor when we have the totalling and voting
Joke answer: A stick
Joke: Whats worse than a biker who thinks he is a pirate? (complements of Pen)
Today's ride was pretty good. Fabulous day with great weather and now that the biking part of bike and build is getting a little monotonous and our butts getting sorer by the day one of the leaders decided to have a picture scavenger hunt. This includes about 30 tasks and each task is assigned a point value based on the ridiculousness of it. My group of 4, Anson, Pen, Kevin and myself got nearly ever item on the list believe it our not. but apparently there is one group that will be challenging us for the victory. For your enjoyment i typed out the tasks and posted some of the pictures.
1) Dead Frog
2) Person in uniform
3)Motorcyclist on a bicycle
4) Ice Cream scooper (Funny story about that. my group was busy taking pictures with our found ice cream scoopers at a lovely place called Nesbitt's Nursery which had ice cream, apple cider donuts and a whole bunch of cool stuff, but anyway we saw another coming up and they noticed that we had one of the tasks on the list that they didn't have so it was a mad dash by both groups to try and grab all of the scoopers before the others could get to it. Quite a funny spectacle, but my group managed to get the scoopers but then they actually bought ice cream meaning we had to give back the scoopers :( )
5) B&Ber name on a headstone
6) Live Non domesticated mammal
7) picture of baby cow
8) Purple flower
9)Unicorn (we found a real one)
10) Bike and Builder over 10 feet above the ground
11) B&Ber mimicking a statue while standing next to it
12) Abe Lincoln look alike
13)person in a shawl
14)person wearing waders
15) mail carrier
16)yellow ball
17) B&Ber handing out a buissness card to complete stranger
18)misspelled sign
19)road sign pertaining to bike safety
20) girl under 7 years old
21) pop sign under 500
22) B&Ber smelling fake flowers
23)Person wearing foam hands
24) license plate from a state bordering the ocean
25)discarded glove on the side of the road
26)a mullet
27)person eating a carrot (this was the hard one)
28) an open umbrella
29)someone sitting on a park bench
30) Discarded beer can on the side of the road
ok well that's it! ill let you know the victor when we have the totalling and voting
Joke answer: A stick
Joke: Whats worse than a biker who thinks he is a pirate? (complements of Pen)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
La Crosse
Well the extra sleep didn't last for long. So Thursday night after an excellent day off in Madison of eating a lot and just relaxing some of us thought it would be an excellent idea to see Dark Knight, the new batman movie. While I completely agreed, the only downside was that it was opening Friday so that meant midnight showing! Oh lets not forget the next day we are supposed to have a long day like 104 miles, its supposed to be hilly, and its supposed to rain might even hail. So with all this in the mix of course we saw the movie and only got 2 hours of sleep to make it the next day. Let me say, IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT. That movie was great, absolutely phenomenal, kept you guessing and on edge the whole way through. The movie ended at around 3....am.... with a wake up call at 5:30 the next morning. But we made it! and yes we could have just waited until another night to see it but it made it so much better at midnight. The next day was grueling though despite the lack of sleep. Even the ones who didn't see the movie were struggling. The day turned out to be great; No rain, hot and sunny. So that made riding a lot easier. So the day was predicted to be 104 miles from Madison to Gays Mills. So around mile 20 everything is going great and we are cruising along. Normally the wind is in our face and its a struggle to get past 15, but for some reason that day i was just flying; flying meaning 20. Well it was still pretty early in the morning and i noticed something i don't usually see riding. It was the sun, we were heading straight into it. Being early with lack of sleep I didn't think much of it at the time, but then i realized that meant we were heading EAST in an east to west trip, something you really don't want to do. Well after about an hour of asking strangers and breaking out maps we turned around and headed west. The detour only added 14 miles to our trip but on a hundred mile trip 14 miles is an extra hour of riding on an long day to begin with. Well everyone on the trip took it well and rolled with it, literally. So we finally made it around 6:30 7:00 to the church jumped in the local pool and ate some delicious food provided graciously from the church and went straight to bed. We did nothing else.
So that brings me to today, only 63 miles or so on absolutely beautiful country side and perfect weather. Today was partly cloudy probably in the 80s and the roads were flat mostly all along the Mississippi. We were in 3 states, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota so that was cool. So I am off to visit my thermarest before dinner and then back to the thermarest.
Joke: Whats brown and Sticky?
So that brings me to today, only 63 miles or so on absolutely beautiful country side and perfect weather. Today was partly cloudy probably in the 80s and the roads were flat mostly all along the Mississippi. We were in 3 states, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota so that was cool. So I am off to visit my thermarest before dinner and then back to the thermarest.
Joke: Whats brown and Sticky?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Madison
Well we made it Madison, Wisconsin.
I finally get to catch up on some sleep and be able to enjoy the day. Last night i went out for some ice cream and it was delicious. They made it in the store and from all of Wisconsin's dairy. Fabulous ice cream, what made it even better was the store really didn't have a name, all that identified it was a picture of a giant cow...that's it.
Today is our day off and i am excited to search for some Wisconsin Cheese and other local dairy products. So i will keep you informed on how Wisconsin compares to Happy cows from California. And yesterday we finally made it to a decent sized bike shop. I was desperate to find a good bike shop for another pair of shorts and brand new tires since i have been "rollin' on stocks" since I got my bike. So i spoiled myself and got the best pair the shop offered, which definitely hurt the wallet, but oh well, at least they should last a long time, and I cant think of a better use of my money other than buying cheese and ice cream.
In terms of Bike and Build i am continually amazed at the hospitality given by our hosts. We are taken in and fed and all they ask for in return is a little of our time to tell our stories about our trip. I have no way of thanking them enough.
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer!
I finally get to catch up on some sleep and be able to enjoy the day. Last night i went out for some ice cream and it was delicious. They made it in the store and from all of Wisconsin's dairy. Fabulous ice cream, what made it even better was the store really didn't have a name, all that identified it was a picture of a giant cow...that's it.
Today is our day off and i am excited to search for some Wisconsin Cheese and other local dairy products. So i will keep you informed on how Wisconsin compares to Happy cows from California. And yesterday we finally made it to a decent sized bike shop. I was desperate to find a good bike shop for another pair of shorts and brand new tires since i have been "rollin' on stocks" since I got my bike. So i spoiled myself and got the best pair the shop offered, which definitely hurt the wallet, but oh well, at least they should last a long time, and I cant think of a better use of my money other than buying cheese and ice cream.
In terms of Bike and Build i am continually amazed at the hospitality given by our hosts. We are taken in and fed and all they ask for in return is a little of our time to tell our stories about our trip. I have no way of thanking them enough.
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
update
What a long couple of days. Believe it or not i am in Wisconsin (dont ask me how it happened). We just keep on riding and the hours and miles just keep rolling by. The scenery has remained about the same since we left the Adirondacks, except we haven't gotten much rain! Though from what I hear on the streets this coming week will be HOT and HUMID something that does not work well for 6 hour bike rides.
Anyway, the rides have been pretty standard since Camden, MI. Though we are very disappointed these Midwest States HAVE NO WELCOME signs. We passed though Indiana, Illinois and now Wisconsin without seeing a single road sign welcoming us. Our rides have been mixed with some of the smoothest, most scenic, to streets that were paved with a dump-truck then run over by a pothole machine then torn up by IRON MAN himself. Oh not to mention big-rigs and over-sized loads and even tractors pushing us off the road. But other than a few terrible roads the rides have been quite nice. Going into Chicago was pretty incredible. We started in Edwardsberg, MI, at around 6:30 am. Well it started raining around 7am leaving us all wet and miserable. then at about mile 25 we hit a dirt road, meaning we went on a detour which lead us about 2 miles further than normal (but we apparently saved our tires from about a mile of loose gravel and dirt) After asking about 10 people how to get back on track and finally doing so it started to rain again. At mile 40 we had our first lunch stop. Yup first lunch stop. then it cleared up and was nice for the rest of the day thankfully. So we just kept riding past Indiana Dunes State Park. We saw about 30 signs for that, yet they cant seem to put up one state sign. At mile 80 we had our second lunch stop. Right before hand poor Pen accidental got on the Interstate and had a police officer drive him back to the entrance...with his bike bungeed to the back. At around mile 100 we finally saw the city's skyline and as it so happened there was a very nice bike path for us to use. I was quite proud of myself...my first century ride after only a couple of weeks of riding. So I was psyched however i didn't realize we still had 20 more miles to tack on. But the rest of the ride was cool because it was right on the lakefront and was a nicely paved bike path completely separate from the cars and we had to weave through other cyclists and pedestrians.
We finally made it to the church after 8 hours and 45 min of riding time (thats time actually on the bike moving...yeah i know kinda ridiculous its amazing i even wanted to touch that bike again). Thankfully we had the next day off in Chicago, so we all went out on the town. The Next day was fun as well but i will spare you of the details until a later posting. Make sure you remind me.
We finished off our night in Chicago with a delicious deep dish pizza all i have to say is yumm.
So tonight we are staying in Janesville and enjoying some good hospitality as always and a huge veggie platter.
Joke: (Still nothing)
Riddle: (Fresh out...need more)
I will update again when i can. Thanks again for reading this ridiculously long blog entry hope you are enjoying it.
Erik
Anyway, the rides have been pretty standard since Camden, MI. Though we are very disappointed these Midwest States HAVE NO WELCOME signs. We passed though Indiana, Illinois and now Wisconsin without seeing a single road sign welcoming us. Our rides have been mixed with some of the smoothest, most scenic, to streets that were paved with a dump-truck then run over by a pothole machine then torn up by IRON MAN himself. Oh not to mention big-rigs and over-sized loads and even tractors pushing us off the road. But other than a few terrible roads the rides have been quite nice. Going into Chicago was pretty incredible. We started in Edwardsberg, MI, at around 6:30 am. Well it started raining around 7am leaving us all wet and miserable. then at about mile 25 we hit a dirt road, meaning we went on a detour which lead us about 2 miles further than normal (but we apparently saved our tires from about a mile of loose gravel and dirt) After asking about 10 people how to get back on track and finally doing so it started to rain again. At mile 40 we had our first lunch stop. Yup first lunch stop. then it cleared up and was nice for the rest of the day thankfully. So we just kept riding past Indiana Dunes State Park. We saw about 30 signs for that, yet they cant seem to put up one state sign. At mile 80 we had our second lunch stop. Right before hand poor Pen accidental got on the Interstate and had a police officer drive him back to the entrance...with his bike bungeed to the back. At around mile 100 we finally saw the city's skyline and as it so happened there was a very nice bike path for us to use. I was quite proud of myself...my first century ride after only a couple of weeks of riding. So I was psyched however i didn't realize we still had 20 more miles to tack on. But the rest of the ride was cool because it was right on the lakefront and was a nicely paved bike path completely separate from the cars and we had to weave through other cyclists and pedestrians.
We finally made it to the church after 8 hours and 45 min of riding time (thats time actually on the bike moving...yeah i know kinda ridiculous its amazing i even wanted to touch that bike again). Thankfully we had the next day off in Chicago, so we all went out on the town. The Next day was fun as well but i will spare you of the details until a later posting. Make sure you remind me.
We finished off our night in Chicago with a delicious deep dish pizza all i have to say is yumm.
So tonight we are staying in Janesville and enjoying some good hospitality as always and a huge veggie platter.
Joke: (Still nothing)
Riddle: (Fresh out...need more)
I will update again when i can. Thanks again for reading this ridiculously long blog entry hope you are enjoying it.
Erik
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thrursday? ?
So... It has been a long few days. to be honest i had to ask someone for the date, and i am ready to fall asleep in about 30 min making it a bedtime of 8pm. So I could bore you all with a full day by day update but i think i will pass and just let you know the basics. It has been a week since my last blog at RIT. Basically I have followed two roads the whole way. US rt 20. And 6 west. Both of which have almost no shoulder and have no idea the concept of repaving. Since RIT we have peddled our way through Lockport, NY, Niagara Falls, NY, Westfield, NY, All of Pennsylvania, Ashtabula, OH, Avon Lake, OH, (with a build day) and Bowling Green, OH, and tonight we are staying in Camden, MI. I have had quite the adventures since then.
Luckily for the fourth of July we had an 18 mile day which took all of about an hour to complete then the rest of the day we had off. Almost everyone went into Niagara Falls. I was able to take my first international steps into Canada! (including my first stamp on my passport). We spent the day walking around the falls and checking out Canada then went back for the fireworks. Sadly it was the worst fireworks display i have ever seen on the forth of July, but thats alright it was a fun trip anyway. The trip was pretty normal going through Westfield, and Ashtabula was great since we had families donate their showers and we had a delicious bbq on a nice lakefront property. The cake that they made for us was outstanding. half vanilla, half chocolate, with a frosting job that would put ace of cakes to the test.
I have also discovered through my travels and missing out on good opportunities that when you have a change to swim, you should. I have passed too many swimming locations because i always say "oh the next one" well... the next one doesnt always show up. But the few times i have jumped in i haven't regretted even though lake Erie needs some hard core clean up.
So the trip to Avon Lake was probably the most theatrical. Our route takes us straight through downtown cleaveland then follows the lake to Avon lake. So the day started as usual but very quickly turned into some hard riding. by hard i don't mean hilly or windy but stressful and dangerous. For example we stayed on US route 20 basically the whole way and had to avoid pot holes, construction and semis. Craig, a very easy going Dartmouth grad who i have not heard anything negative come from his mouth chalked into the road in bold letters "I HATE RT 20". I agreed with him. But anyway the road was terrible and to make matters worst we were entering East Cleveland. Lets just say its not the best place to be young, on a bike and in spandex. So we tried to get though that as quickly as possible. But the ride continued to get better throughout the day. The roads got better as we approached Downtown and so did the neighborhood. As soon as we left the city the roads got perfect for bikers including our own bike lane, and the rest of the ride was glorious. We thought it couldn't get better...then we got to the church... These people were so incredibly friendly and nice and willing to help. We stayed in their homes after a huge dinner with a complete spread. I stayed with a family with lake front property with a water trampoline and inflatable log-running-thingy which everyone played on all afternoon. It was the funniest thing i have ever seen. 30 eighteen to twenty five year olds trying to run 15 feet on a inflatable cylinder. It was continuous laughter for about 45 min. And the house was gorgeous. All in all AVON LAKE ROCKS! Just amazing people and place and i really cant thank them enough. What was even better was that we had a build day there as well so we could all enjoy it for even longer. (I feel that i am not giving Avon lake enough credit. They were amazing and no amount of words can describe it (well at least the way i write)).
So now we are in Camden, MI. The rides recently have been very difficult, and even more exhausting. The distance isnt what made these rides hard, it has been the wind. A constant headwind has always been present in Ohio making riding very very difficult. If i have to choose between wind or hills. I might pick hills because at least you get a downhill. The wind just never stops.
So i will end the agony there. thanks for reading this far and thank you so much for all of your support! I love the comments and the riddles!
I need more to think about so send them my way!
Joke: ?
(send those too)
Bed
Luckily for the fourth of July we had an 18 mile day which took all of about an hour to complete then the rest of the day we had off. Almost everyone went into Niagara Falls. I was able to take my first international steps into Canada! (including my first stamp on my passport). We spent the day walking around the falls and checking out Canada then went back for the fireworks. Sadly it was the worst fireworks display i have ever seen on the forth of July, but thats alright it was a fun trip anyway. The trip was pretty normal going through Westfield, and Ashtabula was great since we had families donate their showers and we had a delicious bbq on a nice lakefront property. The cake that they made for us was outstanding. half vanilla, half chocolate, with a frosting job that would put ace of cakes to the test.
I have also discovered through my travels and missing out on good opportunities that when you have a change to swim, you should. I have passed too many swimming locations because i always say "oh the next one" well... the next one doesnt always show up. But the few times i have jumped in i haven't regretted even though lake Erie needs some hard core clean up.
So the trip to Avon Lake was probably the most theatrical. Our route takes us straight through downtown cleaveland then follows the lake to Avon lake. So the day started as usual but very quickly turned into some hard riding. by hard i don't mean hilly or windy but stressful and dangerous. For example we stayed on US route 20 basically the whole way and had to avoid pot holes, construction and semis. Craig, a very easy going Dartmouth grad who i have not heard anything negative come from his mouth chalked into the road in bold letters "I HATE RT 20". I agreed with him. But anyway the road was terrible and to make matters worst we were entering East Cleveland. Lets just say its not the best place to be young, on a bike and in spandex. So we tried to get though that as quickly as possible. But the ride continued to get better throughout the day. The roads got better as we approached Downtown and so did the neighborhood. As soon as we left the city the roads got perfect for bikers including our own bike lane, and the rest of the ride was glorious. We thought it couldn't get better...then we got to the church... These people were so incredibly friendly and nice and willing to help. We stayed in their homes after a huge dinner with a complete spread. I stayed with a family with lake front property with a water trampoline and inflatable log-running-thingy which everyone played on all afternoon. It was the funniest thing i have ever seen. 30 eighteen to twenty five year olds trying to run 15 feet on a inflatable cylinder. It was continuous laughter for about 45 min. And the house was gorgeous. All in all AVON LAKE ROCKS! Just amazing people and place and i really cant thank them enough. What was even better was that we had a build day there as well so we could all enjoy it for even longer. (I feel that i am not giving Avon lake enough credit. They were amazing and no amount of words can describe it (well at least the way i write)).
So now we are in Camden, MI. The rides recently have been very difficult, and even more exhausting. The distance isnt what made these rides hard, it has been the wind. A constant headwind has always been present in Ohio making riding very very difficult. If i have to choose between wind or hills. I might pick hills because at least you get a downhill. The wind just never stops.
So i will end the agony there. thanks for reading this far and thank you so much for all of your support! I love the comments and the riddles!
I need more to think about so send them my way!
Joke: ?
(send those too)
Bed
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Thursday?
Is it really Thursday already?
Anyway it was an easier day today only 57.7 miles and 4 hours and 15 min of riding time. So we have lots of time in the town of Lockport. Its a pretty decent sized town so it looks like we will be able to walk around and get some ice cream.
The ride was scenic until it started pouring. From about mile 15 till 40 the rain was non-stop and heavy. Luckily there was a nice women that let us warm up and dry off in her house for our lunch stop. The rain is getting quite comical because it was raining so hard today that it was stinging through my rain coat. I am so happy my camel back has a raincoat its self. Otherwise all my stuff would be drenched.
Hope all is well and dry for all of you.
Answer: Arhg its drivin' mee nuts
Joke: A man walked into a bar and said ouch.
Anyway it was an easier day today only 57.7 miles and 4 hours and 15 min of riding time. So we have lots of time in the town of Lockport. Its a pretty decent sized town so it looks like we will be able to walk around and get some ice cream.
The ride was scenic until it started pouring. From about mile 15 till 40 the rain was non-stop and heavy. Luckily there was a nice women that let us warm up and dry off in her house for our lunch stop. The rain is getting quite comical because it was raining so hard today that it was stinging through my rain coat. I am so happy my camel back has a raincoat its self. Otherwise all my stuff would be drenched.
Hope all is well and dry for all of you.
Answer: Arhg its drivin' mee nuts
Joke: A man walked into a bar and said ouch.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
ok back at library
Hey again. I know you are tired of my babbling on. But i did have a few more things to say.
This trip if anything has really opened my eyes to a lot of people willing to help. From people walking on the street to the churches we sleep in every night. these people are so gracious and helpful it really wouldn't be possible without them. I feel i am getting spoiled. so far every night i have been stuffed to the brim with food and I can't figure out enough to say to these kind people. The same is true for my donors. If you wouldn't have donated I would have never been able to meet these great people and have a great summer. I really cant wait for the rest of the summer. I fear though, that it will all be over before i know it. And these houses that we are helping to build are great houses and its really encouraging when the future home owners are out there building with us.
So far i couldn't be more pleased with this trip. Hopefully we can keep it up.
Joke (provided by a fellow rider): a pirate walks into a bar, and the bar tender asks why do you have a wheel in your pants?
p.s. i love the riddles keep them coming
This trip if anything has really opened my eyes to a lot of people willing to help. From people walking on the street to the churches we sleep in every night. these people are so gracious and helpful it really wouldn't be possible without them. I feel i am getting spoiled. so far every night i have been stuffed to the brim with food and I can't figure out enough to say to these kind people. The same is true for my donors. If you wouldn't have donated I would have never been able to meet these great people and have a great summer. I really cant wait for the rest of the summer. I fear though, that it will all be over before i know it. And these houses that we are helping to build are great houses and its really encouraging when the future home owners are out there building with us.
So far i couldn't be more pleased with this trip. Hopefully we can keep it up.
Joke (provided by a fellow rider): a pirate walks into a bar, and the bar tender asks why do you have a wheel in your pants?
p.s. i love the riddles keep them coming
A lot of days....
So sorry for the long delay it has almost been a week and i haven't let you all know how tired i am. Well now you know. Honestly it isn't that bad now and it looks like it will continually get better. Though i must say i went through a lot to post this blog. Tonight we are staying at RIT in NY, and I have been trying to get on a computer here since last night. We had a build day today and we did lots of landscaping to clear a lot for a new home. This area had 10 Habitat homes done recently. But anyways so i got back from that about an hour ago and have been looking for Internet ever since. I tried one place they told me to go to another place, who told me to go to another place, finally i found the right place and now i have to catch you up on almost a weeks worth of material in 15 min since we have dinner soon.
So my last post left you at silver bay which was great. the beds that we had were comfy and their were activities all over the place. I wish we had a few more days staying there so we could explore all the different options on the lake. But we left early that morning with as much breakfast as we could handle and as much bagels we could carry to the van for lunch. The day started off fine until a mile into it we hit the steepest longest hill i think i have ever been on. this road just kept climbing and curving so we couldn't get a full grasp on how tall it actually was. About an hour after starting the hill I finished, and Dan i would agree this day was the hardest yet. After this daunting hill was over we would run into a hill exactly like it... then another...then another... I would love to know the total elevation gain we had that day because it seemed all of the hills went up and only a few went down and if they did they didn't do it for long. So we made it to lunch. about mile 35 right on the Hudson. It was great. pb and banana with some honey. Then we started off again and what was ahead of us was more hills.....then it started raining again...and then we climbed another hill again...then it continued raining...then another hill...you get the idea. So we finally made it off of rt 28 (i think we were on it for 53 some miles or something like that). then we got lost, found all of our members then got lost again...then finally after a really long wet day we found our campground. We were all getting soaked and getting eaten alive by bugs which the remnants are still itching and we were not in a good mood though i think everyone here likes camping. Anyway thankfully we found 2 separate churches that would host all girls and all boys so we packed up all of our gear and headed out. Thankfully i got to sleep inside and out of the rain though all of my stuff was drenched so it didn't really mater anyway.
The next morning. June 29th we rode from Indian lake to Boonville. Another very long ride. the longest yet i think at 75 miles. Though this is the first day i tried a real pace line and i loved it. though we didn't stop much it was really nice to go fast for a long time. We averaged 16.4 mph (i know it doesn't seem that fast but it really is for a 4 hour and 30 min ride). The ride was hilly but not too bad. So now i like pace lines. Oh and it was the second day of our trip that it didn't rain on us while riding!
Monday was similar to Sunday in that we had no rain and it was a very aesthetic ride. Kevin and i decided to take it easy and just stay in the back. The only problem was that we didn't realize that we needed to make a turn so we went approximately 17 extra miles... it turned out to be a great ride and we really weren't to mad at the extra mileage. The sweeps were quite surprised when we told them that we were about an hour and half back when we had only been riding for an hour and a half. But the ride was great. we finished the day going 81.5 miles and had a lot of fun while doing it. the others however got to nap at the church something that i have yet to be able to do. Tammy the Church leader in Palermo (where we stayed) was very nice and had some great stories of the past B and B groups.
Tuesday's ride was the longest ride so far at about 87.8 miles. It was quite a long day and seemed much longer than the previous day. it took 6 hours and 15 min of riding time averaging 14mph. We stopped for lunch on a bay that connects to Ontario Lake. The day was perfect though and we took lots of breaks to stop in local stores and get some fresh cherries and strawberries. it was very very very good. we bought a qt of cherries on the side of the road for $1. talk about a dollar menu. Anyway we finally made it to RIT and are enjoying the dorms and real beds.
Well I hope all is well. That was the fastest i could type so hopefully not to many typos and hopefully it made sense.
Joke will have to wait
So my last post left you at silver bay which was great. the beds that we had were comfy and their were activities all over the place. I wish we had a few more days staying there so we could explore all the different options on the lake. But we left early that morning with as much breakfast as we could handle and as much bagels we could carry to the van for lunch. The day started off fine until a mile into it we hit the steepest longest hill i think i have ever been on. this road just kept climbing and curving so we couldn't get a full grasp on how tall it actually was. About an hour after starting the hill I finished, and Dan i would agree this day was the hardest yet. After this daunting hill was over we would run into a hill exactly like it... then another...then another... I would love to know the total elevation gain we had that day because it seemed all of the hills went up and only a few went down and if they did they didn't do it for long. So we made it to lunch. about mile 35 right on the Hudson. It was great. pb and banana with some honey. Then we started off again and what was ahead of us was more hills.....then it started raining again...and then we climbed another hill again...then it continued raining...then another hill...you get the idea. So we finally made it off of rt 28 (i think we were on it for 53 some miles or something like that). then we got lost, found all of our members then got lost again...then finally after a really long wet day we found our campground. We were all getting soaked and getting eaten alive by bugs which the remnants are still itching and we were not in a good mood though i think everyone here likes camping. Anyway thankfully we found 2 separate churches that would host all girls and all boys so we packed up all of our gear and headed out. Thankfully i got to sleep inside and out of the rain though all of my stuff was drenched so it didn't really mater anyway.
The next morning. June 29th we rode from Indian lake to Boonville. Another very long ride. the longest yet i think at 75 miles. Though this is the first day i tried a real pace line and i loved it. though we didn't stop much it was really nice to go fast for a long time. We averaged 16.4 mph (i know it doesn't seem that fast but it really is for a 4 hour and 30 min ride). The ride was hilly but not too bad. So now i like pace lines. Oh and it was the second day of our trip that it didn't rain on us while riding!
Monday was similar to Sunday in that we had no rain and it was a very aesthetic ride. Kevin and i decided to take it easy and just stay in the back. The only problem was that we didn't realize that we needed to make a turn so we went approximately 17 extra miles... it turned out to be a great ride and we really weren't to mad at the extra mileage. The sweeps were quite surprised when we told them that we were about an hour and half back when we had only been riding for an hour and a half. But the ride was great. we finished the day going 81.5 miles and had a lot of fun while doing it. the others however got to nap at the church something that i have yet to be able to do. Tammy the Church leader in Palermo (where we stayed) was very nice and had some great stories of the past B and B groups.
Tuesday's ride was the longest ride so far at about 87.8 miles. It was quite a long day and seemed much longer than the previous day. it took 6 hours and 15 min of riding time averaging 14mph. We stopped for lunch on a bay that connects to Ontario Lake. The day was perfect though and we took lots of breaks to stop in local stores and get some fresh cherries and strawberries. it was very very very good. we bought a qt of cherries on the side of the road for $1. talk about a dollar menu. Anyway we finally made it to RIT and are enjoying the dorms and real beds.
Well I hope all is well. That was the fastest i could type so hopefully not to many typos and hopefully it made sense.
Joke will have to wait
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I AM SO EXHAUSTED. Today was much worse than yesterday. We climbed Brandon pass to start off and it was so long. then we just kept going mile after mile. ran into many fields and hay (i think the first of many) Stopped on a nice hilly area for some lunch and frisbee. (PB&J again) we then crossed into New York at mile 30ish and just about everyone was feeling done. but no we still had like 20 miles to go. Not to mention that it was still very very hilly. So we were cruising through the first few miles all of us running on empty and guess what. Yes it rained...again. luckily it started just as soon as it started and we past a lake (i think lake George) and we decided to jump in and test the waters. Then we had another 5 miles to go. Blah now i can barely walk and we have another hard day tomorrow. so off to bed for me tonight. Luckily we are staying at this fabulous ymca with beds and all you can eat meals. so i need my sleep
Answer: because 7 ate 9
Joke: So the hat turns to the tie and says you hang around here, i will get on ahead
I AM SO EXHAUSTED. Today was much worse than yesterday. We climbed Brandon pass to start off and it was so long. then we just kept going mile after mile. ran into many fields and hay (i think the first of many) Stopped on a nice hilly area for some lunch and frisbee. (PB&J again) we then crossed into New York at mile 30ish and just about everyone was feeling done. but no we still had like 20 miles to go. Not to mention that it was still very very hilly. So we were cruising through the first few miles all of us running on empty and guess what. Yes it rained...again. luckily it started just as soon as it started and we past a lake (i think lake George) and we decided to jump in and test the waters. Then we had another 5 miles to go. Blah now i can barely walk and we have another hard day tomorrow. so off to bed for me tonight. Luckily we are staying at this fabulous ymca with beds and all you can eat meals. so i need my sleep
Answer: because 7 ate 9
Joke: So the hat turns to the tie and says you hang around here, i will get on ahead
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday's Ride
All week we have been anticipating this ride from Lebanon to Rochester. Everyone has been saying this is the most difficult ride of the trip...the HOLE trip.
Anyways we wake up at around 6:15 and have a hot meal..AGAIN. We frantically scarfed it down and just as frantically cleaned the church. Our departure time was 8am where we managed to not get lost and get on the right path right away. To be honest it was sad to be leaving such a great church and meals. So the day started off just great, it was nice and sunny and bareley any clouds. We were able to cruize at about 20mph up slight grades for the first 20 miles just fine. We were flying. At about mile 30 we stoped for lunch...yup you guessed it PB&J. Then right as we left, yup you guest it again...the rain came. It started pouring again as we were riding and we were drenched...again. We barely managed to get dry from the last ride 3 days ago. Guess we cant get any break. Well we were able to puch through it and made it to mile 40. Now came what everyone was talking about. we had a mountain to get over. Bethal(sp?) mountain rd. about 6 miles of continuous up hill. Oh yeah did i mention it was still raining? Well we destroyed this mountain. ALL THE WAY OVER. I couldn't feel my legs about half way up...yeah brutal. We had some inclines which my front tire was coming off the road and my lowest gear was apparently not low enough. But the whole group power climbed our way to the top for the nice downhill on the other side. It was pretty hard but i was honestly expecting alittle more from all the build up. But thats probably why it was easier. On the way down it kinda stopped raining and gain some speed. again for the sake of my mother i wont mention anymore.
So now i am typing from the Rochester Public library and i think i am all caught up on my blogging. Sorry for such the sparadic posts. it is supprisingly difficult to find the time and the computer and hte internet to do it. But i will try as often as possible.
Hope all is well. OH AND SEND ME RIDDLES IF YOU HAVE THEM. I need something to think about while peddeling.
ANSWER: Hey do you know how to drive this thing?
Joke of the day/post: Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Anyways we wake up at around 6:15 and have a hot meal..AGAIN. We frantically scarfed it down and just as frantically cleaned the church. Our departure time was 8am where we managed to not get lost and get on the right path right away. To be honest it was sad to be leaving such a great church and meals. So the day started off just great, it was nice and sunny and bareley any clouds. We were able to cruize at about 20mph up slight grades for the first 20 miles just fine. We were flying. At about mile 30 we stoped for lunch...yup you guessed it PB&J. Then right as we left, yup you guest it again...the rain came. It started pouring again as we were riding and we were drenched...again. We barely managed to get dry from the last ride 3 days ago. Guess we cant get any break. Well we were able to puch through it and made it to mile 40. Now came what everyone was talking about. we had a mountain to get over. Bethal(sp?) mountain rd. about 6 miles of continuous up hill. Oh yeah did i mention it was still raining? Well we destroyed this mountain. ALL THE WAY OVER. I couldn't feel my legs about half way up...yeah brutal. We had some inclines which my front tire was coming off the road and my lowest gear was apparently not low enough. But the whole group power climbed our way to the top for the nice downhill on the other side. It was pretty hard but i was honestly expecting alittle more from all the build up. But thats probably why it was easier. On the way down it kinda stopped raining and gain some speed. again for the sake of my mother i wont mention anymore.
So now i am typing from the Rochester Public library and i think i am all caught up on my blogging. Sorry for such the sparadic posts. it is supprisingly difficult to find the time and the computer and hte internet to do it. But i will try as often as possible.
Hope all is well. OH AND SEND ME RIDDLES IF YOU HAVE THEM. I need something to think about while peddeling.
ANSWER: Hey do you know how to drive this thing?
Joke of the day/post: Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Build days
We just arrived in Rochester after a hard ride but first i wanted to say how awesome our build days were. WE had 2 sites available to us a Dartmouth sponsored site in Lebanon and a location in Norwhich. The Lebanon site was in the foundation phase so we spent the first morning (Tuesday) taring and insulating the foundation and moving things around. Luckily we had a second site to work on so most of the 30 riders could work. I went to the Norwich site to put on some roofing. I must say this is the steepest roof i have ever seen. Clearly steeper than 45 degrees. So we worked on the roof for about an hour then came the rain...(seems to be a reoccurring theme). So we went into the house and waited for the rain to stop. then went back out on the roof (mind you it was very slippery and very steep). But we managed just fine. We left the site with about 90 % of the roof still to do and we hurried back to the church for some dinner and showers. This church and a church nearby provided us with nearly every meal, and every meal was hot and delicious. We got so spoiled all three nights we were there. And Lebanon gave me faith in humanity just by seeing how many people were willing to get up at 445 just to make a whole bunch of kids food then help organize our trip. they were just incredeble and the whole community was just so excited to hear all about each riders story and why they were doing this insane trip.
The second build day was much more productive. We had a georgeous day (finaly) and we were up on the roof all day and basically finished the part we were working on. We hauled about 20 sheets of plywood up on the roof and nailed them down. Again all on a very steep roof. We also completed a hole bunch of little projects like makeing windows out of plastic to keep the rain out and shelves and what not. then i spent about an hour of taking pictures (I think i am up to 500 already). To finish off the day we managed to jump in the river, and I mean JUMP. For the sake of not scaring my mother I wont say exactly what we did but i will say it was a long way down. Once again we came back to a hot meal and nice compfy thermarests (they are very compfy now that we are so exhuasted ALWAYS!).
ANSWER: They got assulted.
Joke of the Day: What did one gold fish in the tank say to the other gold fish in the tank?
Erik(no, thats not what it said you have to read the next post)
The second build day was much more productive. We had a georgeous day (finaly) and we were up on the roof all day and basically finished the part we were working on. We hauled about 20 sheets of plywood up on the roof and nailed them down. Again all on a very steep roof. We also completed a hole bunch of little projects like makeing windows out of plastic to keep the rain out and shelves and what not. then i spent about an hour of taking pictures (I think i am up to 500 already). To finish off the day we managed to jump in the river, and I mean JUMP. For the sake of not scaring my mother I wont say exactly what we did but i will say it was a long way down. Once again we came back to a hot meal and nice compfy thermarests (they are very compfy now that we are so exhuasted ALWAYS!).
ANSWER: They got assulted.
Joke of the Day: What did one gold fish in the tank say to the other gold fish in the tank?
Erik(no, thats not what it said you have to read the next post)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Day's 2, and 3
So sorry its been so long for me to do another post. It has been difficult finding internet connections so i have alot of catching up to do.
So our second day was concord to New London. Totall distance on this trip wa 35.75 miles, So a pretty easy ride after the grueling 1st day. I happend to be in a good position for the ride. The leaders assign "sweeps" meaning you stay in the very back of the pack and make sure everyone makes it to the destination. I was assigned as one of the sweeps so i got to take a really nice slow pace and just cruise along. I tried to take lots of photos by stopping often but at the end of the day i always want more. The ride was pretty easy. It was a cloudy day but the sceanery wasnt too bad and the ride was nice rolling hills. We stoped at a local flee market on the way and found some awesomly pointless things. We also found some useful things, including a swiss army knife and some 50 cent t-shirts for bike rags, i thought it was a pretty good idea considering we go through those things so fast. We also stoped at Warner Fire Station and tried on some clothes and climbed on to the trucks and everything. After that we made it to the lunch stop had some PB&J and the usual then since I was a sweep we stayed to hook the trailer up and pack it. We then had a very nice 10 mile ride to our church "Our Lady Fatima Chatholic Church". We Arrived around 1:30pm and at about 1:45 it started pouring, so we thought it was a good time to just nap. Sunday was also laundry day meaning about 5 group members set up 2 giant tarps and everyone throughs their dirty clothes into one big pile (pretty nasty because all of our bike gear is sweaty and damp). So these lucky 5 members stuff the van with the tarps and take it to a local laundry mat. Well coincidentilly one of the machines broke causing none of our stuff to be dry (or really clean). A group of us went to get ice cream and again it started pouring... So i guess laundry isnt really clean from that either.
Day (?) Monday
We rode from new london to Lebanon which was phenomenal (I will explain later). It was only 35 or so miles meaning we got into town a good 3 hours too early. It was a hilly ride but nothing too serious but about halfway through we ran into a wall of rain. It was a waterfall but we decided to keep riding. just made us get to the curch faster. We past Mascoma lake and some riders went straight up to Dartmouth since we were so close. Coincidentally Karen just got back from her Track trip to Ireland and London and she was at Dartmouth so we were able to meet up have lunch and hang out all day. Pretty cool suff. well it looks like i am getting kicked off my public computer in the library so i will tell you about the build stuff tomorrow.
SNAIL
Joke of the day: What happend to the peanuts in the alleyway?
So our second day was concord to New London. Totall distance on this trip wa 35.75 miles, So a pretty easy ride after the grueling 1st day. I happend to be in a good position for the ride. The leaders assign "sweeps" meaning you stay in the very back of the pack and make sure everyone makes it to the destination. I was assigned as one of the sweeps so i got to take a really nice slow pace and just cruise along. I tried to take lots of photos by stopping often but at the end of the day i always want more. The ride was pretty easy. It was a cloudy day but the sceanery wasnt too bad and the ride was nice rolling hills. We stoped at a local flee market on the way and found some awesomly pointless things. We also found some useful things, including a swiss army knife and some 50 cent t-shirts for bike rags, i thought it was a pretty good idea considering we go through those things so fast. We also stoped at Warner Fire Station and tried on some clothes and climbed on to the trucks and everything. After that we made it to the lunch stop had some PB&J and the usual then since I was a sweep we stayed to hook the trailer up and pack it. We then had a very nice 10 mile ride to our church "Our Lady Fatima Chatholic Church". We Arrived around 1:30pm and at about 1:45 it started pouring, so we thought it was a good time to just nap. Sunday was also laundry day meaning about 5 group members set up 2 giant tarps and everyone throughs their dirty clothes into one big pile (pretty nasty because all of our bike gear is sweaty and damp). So these lucky 5 members stuff the van with the tarps and take it to a local laundry mat. Well coincidentilly one of the machines broke causing none of our stuff to be dry (or really clean). A group of us went to get ice cream and again it started pouring... So i guess laundry isnt really clean from that either.
Day (?) Monday
We rode from new london to Lebanon which was phenomenal (I will explain later). It was only 35 or so miles meaning we got into town a good 3 hours too early. It was a hilly ride but nothing too serious but about halfway through we ran into a wall of rain. It was a waterfall but we decided to keep riding. just made us get to the curch faster. We past Mascoma lake and some riders went straight up to Dartmouth since we were so close. Coincidentally Karen just got back from her Track trip to Ireland and London and she was at Dartmouth so we were able to meet up have lunch and hang out all day. Pretty cool suff. well it looks like i am getting kicked off my public computer in the library so i will tell you about the build stuff tomorrow.
SNAIL
Joke of the day: What happend to the peanuts in the alleyway?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
First DAY of blogging
More to come I promise! I just got this set up and our first days ride was very hard, 61.4 miles from the ocean (Newcastle, NH) up and down hilly New Hampshire until we reached our final destiniation of the day in Concord Lutherian Church. Being our first day everyone on the trip including myself was very excited and alittle anxious to get on the road. We had to be considering we had a wake up song in out of our not so comfy (at least for now) thermarest at 5:30am to get on the road to ride the first 6 miles from our church in Portsmouth to the Altantic which was hopefully the only eastward riding i am hoping of doing. We took photo op of all 30 of the bikes in the water ready for their cross country trip. Then we anticlimatically walked our bikes up the sandy beach to keep our parts as new and free of sand as possible to a nice little road to reconviene for some final departing words. We then left in groups to avoid congestion and we managed to get a great auspicious start by managing to turn the wrong direction the very first turn. oh well we found our way despite many more missed turns (including the turn for the lunch) yeah good story bout that. Well thats about it tonight. Orientation was great but now the true test starts tomorrow! The first second day of riding.
I pormise to post more later. I just had time to set it up and get up and running so i will make it all fansy later! Hope all is well to whomever is reading and more to come later including pictures!
Erik
I pormise to post more later. I just had time to set it up and get up and running so i will make it all fansy later! Hope all is well to whomever is reading and more to come later including pictures!
Erik
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
