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
Friday, June 27, 2008
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
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