Day 30 and 31 - Build in Lawrence

Check out an interview Kevin, Joel and I did for the Lawrence Habitat:http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1540729800919&ref=mf

We made their poster - wooo!

The Lawrence build is probably the most fun and productive site we have been on yet. The project director Mark and the other Habitat workers were incredibly helpful, and we were able to get so much done during our two days of building. As I mentioned before, the family that will be moving into the home once it is finished was at the build and helped us out quite a bit. It was great working beside them.

The home, a four bedroom in a quite neighborhood,

was not much more than a foundation and the exterior framing when we arrived. We worked hard through day one despite the heat index of 110 degrees and 70% humidity and were able to get some of the interior walls framed and installed. By the end of the second day, we had all of the interior framing done, had put up all the Tyvek paper, and generally speaking had the site in pretty good shape.

The project is a pretty cool one. It is the 75th house the Lawrence Habitat chapter has constructed and it is the first project they are implementing green building techniques to make the home more environmentally friendly and efficient. Before the build, they invested $1,500.00 in installing insulation that keeps heat from escaping from the foundation and into the ground. Additionally, they were able to get energystar appliances donated from the women's build habitat group in Lawrence. As a result, the chapter was able to get a $3,000.00 return on the house. Not too shabby.

We called it quits around one on the first day of the build due to the terrible weather and we were able to spend a solid amount of time hanging out in downtown Lawrence. We first hit up the public pool and the showers and then headed out for some food and drinks. There was this awesome tshit store we found called Acme that had an awesome concept: you pick the color, style and graphic of the shirt and you have it printed right then and there. We all had fun picking out and designing tees.

Later on, a group of us headed out for sushi (amazing by the way - as much as I am so appreciative of all the donated food we eat, it was so nice to order something off a menu!).

Nicole, Drew and I at sushi!

Jayhawk Country...

Day 29 - Moberly, Mo to Lawrence, Ks

Our day started out a bit shaky as we approached our left hand turn onto a bridge only to find a major detour. As we were googling the reroute, we found that it was going to tack on an additional 35 miles to our already 92 mile ride. This did not make for happy Bike & Builders. At all. Lucky for us, Chris and Laura rode through to the construction site and got permission for all of us to walk our bikes across the site. It was life changing news.

My perception of Kansas before crossing the state line: hot, flat, windy, desolate (you get the idea). While it was unbearably hot, unbelievably windy and quite flat, we rolled into Lawrence Kansas and was pleasantly surprised. The main strip (Massachusetts street) was lined with shops, restaurants, bars, and there was a total artsy feel to it. People were out and about and it felt so good to be in a place where there was a lot going on. And, we are here for a whole two days as well which is awesome!

I rode in with Nicole and Lindsey and we headed right to the hairdressers where Nicole promptly chopped all of her hair off...she jumped right on the mohawk bandwagon. It looks so cute! We then showered up and headed to dinner at Johnny's, a local college pub. We had dinner with the Lawrence Habitat chapter members and the family that will eventually be moving into the house we are helping build here in Lawrence. It is the first family we have met so far and it was cool to add that dynamic and perspective to the Habitat experience. I believe they will be working on the site with us the next few days as well!

MISSOURI

Day 28 - Hannibal, Mo to Moberly, Mo

78 Miles

It has been quite some time since we have seen any kind of large body of water. So, to say the least, it was incredibly refreshing to ride through Missouri alongside Mark Twain lake (of course...). The "lake" is actually huge, being over 30 miles long. We were able to stop at an awesome water side lunch spot halfway through the ride, which was really nice.

As we did the middle part of the ride, we noticed that the clouds were starting to roll in. We were all hoping for rain, we have yet to have a rain day which is absurd! We stopped in for a second lunch around mile 60 at this covered pavilion area. Sure enough, our second lunch/gatorade break turned into an hour and 45 minute stop as we waited for the storm to

pass. It was pretty wild essentially being in the middle of a flat cornfield and watching lightning strike down into the ground. As a bad weather lover, I thoroughly enjoyed the stop.

After much delay, a crew of us continued on with the ride and pretty much were chased by the storm all the way into Moberly. When we got into town a bunch of us spotted our first Sonic of the trip and decided to stop in. It was quite the momentous event and we tal

ked the management into donation magic drinks for all of us. It was amazing!

We have started playing some pretty serious road "games" while biking lately in an effort to keep things interesting. There are of course the standard sing alongs and would you rathers but we have also instituted "sharking." Sharking is when you sneak attack a fellow cyclist on the road with your hand up over your helmet as a fin and spit water onto them. Sounds gross and silly but it has gotten pretty intense.

We had a great dinner with the host (that was cut short for me because I was on laundry

crew...wah wahhhh) and then hit the hay quite early to prepare for our 4 am wake up the next day.

What up Mark Twain?

Day 27 - Pittsfield, Il to Hannibal, Mo

Yep. That's right. Today, not only did we cross another state border into Missouri (number 9 I think?!) but we also crossed the Mississippi River by bike. And don't worry we did it in style. As we gathered for our route meeting we noticed that there were some adjustments that had been made to the cue sheets. Due to a mudslide that had taken out the entire road that we were supposed to ride on, we were re-routed onto the interstate for the last few miles. As many of you know, it is completely illegal for cyclists to ride on the highway, but we really had no other choice. (Shuttling all of us and our bikes in the van can take hours - and what fun is that anyway?)

A few hours later, all 31 Bike & Builders were escorted by the Hannibal police department on the highway that took us accross the Mississippi River, across the Missouri state line and into Hannibal, the hometown of Mark Twain. Needless to say, it was one of the most fun rides we have had yet. We were able to ride two abreast and take an entire lane on the interstate which was pretty cool. I was (somehow?!) able to get a few pictures of us rolling in. I will be sure to post them soon!

Waiting for the police escort near the onramp at 72!

It was a super duper hot day and while we were fried, a few of us decided to ride into town to check out some of the Mark Twain historical sites. It unfortunately ended up being a huge, moderately corny tourist trap. Yes, the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were written in and inspired by Twain's life in Hannibal, but I mean literally EVERYTHING there is the Mark Twain something or rather. For instance, you can visit the "Mark Twain Fried Chicken Dinette", the Mark Twain antique shop, the Mark Twain Deli, you can get your Mark Twain tee shirt at the local walgreens...the list goes on. You can even whitewash and sign your name on a fence just like Tom Sawyer. It's that kind of touristy. I guess its great that they can capitalize on it and generate some business from their late resident. I suppose it was worth it to see it once, it was all just so weird.

Downtown Hannibal, Mo

That aside, the hosts at Hannibal were awesome and there were even some cyclists in the group that joined us on the early portion of our ride! We love picking up cyclists!

Thanks again Cindy and Rod!

Laura and I with our awesome hosts the Prentices!

Greetings from Pittsfield, IL!

Our stopover in Pittsfield, Il was one of my favorites yet. As we rolled into the small town, we were greeted by an enthusiastic and excited crows at the church that was hosting us. After a quick swim and a shower at the Pittsfield public pool, we headed back to the church for dinner. We were so impressed with how many people came out to have dinner with us and see our presentation. It was really cool to interact with such a big crowd.

During dinner we gave our presentation on Bike & Build, the affordable housing cause and our work with Habitat thus far. One of the women from the church inquired as to how we chose where we stop and help build. She then explained that Pittsfield is currently working on their first Habitat home and it is really struggling because there just are not the finances that is needed to support the project. Hearing this information really made me wish that we had been able to build at their site. The community was so amazingly hospitable to all of us, it would be so great to give back to them. Hopefully, the P2SF2011 crew will be able to put some hours in with them next year.

One of the women at the church is a hair dresser and volunteered to give us all haircuts if we were interested...I don't think she knew what she was in for. A whopping 13 p2sfer's had mohawks by the end of the night. It was amazing - she did such a great job!

The brave crew of 13 rockin' the 'hawks

After dinner we all kind of mingled around for a bit and a bunch of us decided to walk to the town center to see the annual Pig Festival that was going on. Pittsfield, apparently, has lots of pigs, and the Lions Club hosts a pig festival each year. It consisted of some live local music, vendors, and of course lots and lots of pork...in all forms. It was great to be able to have something to do at night and get to see a bit of the town.

Instead of staying as a group at the church, we each got a chance to stay with a host family from the congregation. My and Laura's hosts were Rod and Cindy Prentice. A bunch of us were able to stay at the Monroe Inn in the center of town which was a huge treat. Queen size beds, private baths and even a TV! It was unreal. A huge thanks again to all of our hosts - it was so special to have the "homestay" experience and get to know you all!

Build day in Springfield, IL

Day 25 - Springfield, Illinois

While the majority of Habitat's build projects are the construction of new houses, most of the builds we have worked on so far have been rehab projects, usually foreclosed homes that Habitat buys, rehabs and then gives to a family.

The house we worked on in Springfield was a foreclosed home that needed quite a bit of work. There were holes in walls and doors, burn marks in the floors and the yard was a disaster. There was a sad twist to the story however. The family who had lived in the home was a Habitat family and they had received the house from the organization 10 years prior. Even with the help of Habitat in making adjustments in the mortgage payments, the just couldn't swing it, and the house was foreclosed on. It just makes you wonder, where are they now.

I was talking to the project supervisor, John, about the case, the family and how sad it was that this was the way it is. While he agreed, he assured me that this is not at all typical of families that recieve Habitat homes. In fact, of the 80 homes the Springfield chapter has placed families in, only 2 have been foreclosed on...not a bad record.

I am learning through my involvement with the affordable housing cause that there is a misconception that Habitat "gives away" homes to those in need. This is in fact not the case. Each family that is interested in obtaining a Habitat home, must first apply. In doing so, they have to meet a number of requirements (for example, for the house we worked on in Springfield, one I'd the requirments was the family had to make less than 24,000 a year. The house is then sold to them for about 60,000.) The application is then submitted and reviewed by the board of the respective chapter. If the family is approved to recieve the home, they are required to take a number of classes and seminars about homeownership, money management, budgeting, so they have the tools and knowledge necessary to make mortgage payments and prepare to be home owners. In addition, each family is required to work a minimum of 300 sweat equity hours of work at a Habitat build site. At  least 50 of those hours need to be at their own site. It's really a cool aspect of the organization. Everyone involved is so invested before the keys are even handed over.                     

The first thing we had to do at the site was to gut the house and yard....it was chock full of moldy furniture, trash and even bugs...needless to say we filled a dumpster by 10 am...not an easy feat.

My primary job at the Springfield site was landscaping. I pretty much mowed lawns for four hours, but it was good. As a team of 30 we were able to accomplish so much in a day. They hope to have a family in there within the next month or so.

Here's a pic of the house at the build site!

Home of Homer himself...

Day 24 - Effingham, Il to Springfield, Il

91 miles

In an effort to stay on top of blogging, I have started to update from my phone directly (yes, there is an app for that...) to avoid absurdly long lines for computer use. It's kind of a pain in the butt but we'll see how it goes.

Today was another long and hot ride. We made pretty good time in the morning and arrived at first lunch relatively early. When we got to mile 65 ish we pulled over for second lunch, which promptly turned into an hour and forty minute stop after a major lightning storm caused us to camp out for a bit. It was pretty crazy being outside (under a pavilion type thing) watching lightning hit straight down into cornfields. We waited it out and left when we thought it was safe to ride. We did get caught in some rain, but the Kristie, Bree, Lindsey and I were able to ride ahead of the storm for the rest of the ride. Every time we looked back all we could see were these black ominous clouds moving toward us. It felt like we were being chased. Other B&B ers were not so lucky and a bunch had to camp out in diners and gas stations.

Other than the storm, the only notable part of the ride was that the road curved around mile 70. Still surrounded by cornfields on either side, but a curve nonetheless. Welcome to the plains of the midwest p2sf!

On the way in, we stopped to get some donation magic subs from subway because we didn't have food for that evening. When we arrived at the church however, we found that they had left us donated food to cook for ourselves! Props to dinner crew for cooking it for us! Woo! Also, the church we stayed in was really cool. It was super old and had been part of the underground railroad. We had tons of space to spread out, which is always great...

Elise's parents ended up doing the ride with us and stayed to hang out for a few days. Her dad is a PA and was so generous in checking out all of our ailments and sickness. We are so appreciative of your help! Thanks so much!

God bless America...and homemade apple pies

Joel, Kevin and Mark - "The Meatballs"

Ohhh Effingham...

DAY 23 - Linton, IN to Effingham, IL

Stats:

89 milerrrrr

Happy to be in Illinois that's for sure, but man they must have the worst roads we have hit yet. I don't think we even turned once today. It was just straight cornfields and every 30 miles or so we would hit a little town. So painfully boring. To further the painstaking ride, there was so much crap and tar in the shoulder it was like you were playing Mario Cart and trying to dodge all of the bananas. Ugh. We were happy to have that ride done thats for sure...

We made great time and because of the time zone change, technically had first "lunch" at 8 am (gotta love 4 am wake up calls...) We rolled into Illinois pretty early in the morning and were excited for the new state sign (see below...)



Elise and I entering Illinois!

So what's in Effingham you may wonder? Well, Effingham happens to be home of the country's second largest cross. (So so weird) It is a steel structure that stands 198 feet tall and is literally between a cornfield and the interstate. You can even press buttons on the little displays around the cross and someone reads the ten commandments. Unreal.

Check out the Bike & Builders in the pic for some perspective....




We had another dinner at the church tonight. 89 miles today, 89 tomorrow. Love waking up at 4...ugh. Springfield, here we come!

Linton, In

Day 22 - Linton, IN

Stats:

46 miles

We had a quick little ride over to Linton, Indiana today. When we arrived we went over to a Habitat member's home near the church. They were generous enough to cook an amazing meal. I guess one of the church members (he's 87) is famous for his ham roasts, and the did one for us. The day before we arrived he prepared the ham and wrapped it in linens and cooked it for 14 hours in the ground. He then woke up at 4 am to dig it up! It was a really special treat. We went swimming in their back yard and just hung out on thier beautiful farm - such a great dinner!

Linton, In

My new friend Thomas shared his kitten with me....so much for chore groups that morning!

What's the 4th of July without a little pyromania?

We spent the night of the 4th in Bedford, In. The ride there was short but really tough and really hotttttt. We celebrated that night of course (but it was an early evening because we had a 4:30 am wake up the next morning, ouch)

I learned that we haveHere are some cool pics (compliments of Nicole) of our fireworks experience...
quite a few pyros on the trip...haha. It was fun nonetheless....

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

Day 21 - Louisville, KY to Bedford, IN (4th of July!)

Stats:

77.1 miles
5:25 time

While I was initially kind of bummed out that we had to ride on the fourth, it turned out to be a great day. Joel took some of the group on a "little" (turned into 3 hour) detour so that he could give us a tour of Old Louisville and the downtown area. The first stop we hit was Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. After being scolded after posing with our bikes on statues of horses (sounded like a good idea at the time) we tried our hand at donation magic. Luckily, there was a really accommodating security guard on that morning and she let all 25 or so of us into the facility and gave us a mini tour. It was the last day of the season too so there were actually jockeies on the course training their horses which was cool to see...Other highlights included a tour of the millionaires club and seeing all the plaques of the past winners. I obviously knew about the Derby before the trip, but I really had no idea how big of a deal it is. It was super cool to see it first hand!



All of us at Churchill Downs!




(Before getting in trouble for "biking" on the statues...well done Robbie, very creative!)

As we were biking out of Louisville, we were stopped by the local news station who proceeded to do an interview with Joel. While we were waiting for him to finish up, ironically, the mayor of Louisville rode by on his road bike and greeted us. We told him what we were doing and he welcomed us to Kentucky which was sweet. Here comes the embarrassing part. So the news crew wanted to film us all biking off over the bridge into Indiana. Well thats all well and good except for the fact that there was a miscommunication paired with a wrong turn somewhere along the way and all 25 ish of us ended up on the interstate while I film crew was expecting us further down the road. (P.S. biking on intestates = very very bad and stressful) We were only on for a second or two and then we were able to smart phone our way out. Woops.



Joel - You're famous!

Shortly thereafter we crossed the state line into Indiana - Woo for crossing state lines!! (No pic because it was on the interstate...wasn't really the time for "state line" group shots...)

Fun in the sun!

Day 20

Day off in Louisville!

So today was the day - our FIRST day off (and our last day off until Utah...Yikes!) Well we enjoyed it that's for sure. Chris worked some donation magic and got us all free day passes to the local public pool, and let me tell you, this was not your regular local town pool. The pool was 8 million gallons of water and consisted on an olympic size competition pool, 2 8 lane 25 yard lap pools, a lazy river, a high dive and diving well, a kiddie pool and a beach entry adult area. All outdoors! It was unreal! Nicole and I slept in until 11 (we needed it!) and spent the entire day at the pool. I tried with all of my might to fill in my tan lines, but it was a failed attempt. It is going to take a lot more sun exposure to fill in these lines. For those of you who have yet to see what I am talking about, I will try to post a picture soon. It is AWFUL. We are talking full on tee shirt and shorts with distinct dark lines. No matter how much sunscreen I put on while riding there is no escaping it. I get so much crap from all the other riders about it. Someone many of them have been able to avoid this problem and have a mere subtle fade...I, on the other hand, am doomed.

We love corny attractions!

Drew, Robbie and I taking a break!

Louisville Lovin'

Day 19 - Paris, KY to Louisville, KY

Stats:
84 miles
7ish hours

Like many other days, today started out great and kind of fizzled from there. The last 10 miles always seem to kill us. Let me put it this way. It took Elise and I over an hour to do the last 8 miles. Bad news bears… We were quite lost and ended up having to do a 6 mile detour…extra milage is not something I strive for by the way. The route was super stressful, think Route 1 by the mall in North Attleboro. 6 lanes, divided highway, turning lanes, the whole deal. Oh ya, and it was 5pm on a Friday. Super cool. We had your typical road-ragers but also just some total lame-os. Particularly annoying were a group of guys in a white pick up truck. For some reason or another, they had a bull horn with them and thought it would be fun to blow it at us in traffic while we were sharing their lane. Mind you, it is 95 degrees, 5 pm, we are hungry and we have been on our bikes for 6 hours…we are not in the pratical joke kind of moods. They thought it was hysterical and yes, later we did laugh it off, but seriously people? Nick – it makes me rethink your Boston shenanigans where you make loud noises at unsuspecting pedestrians…I suppose I am more ok with sppoking people on their feet rather than those on bikes.

Louisville was awesome – probably my favorite stop yet. The city was small but had so much character. You could tell there was a pretty present art scene, and there were tons of cute shops and cafes. Joel, Laura and Chris, all riders on the trip, are from Louisville so we were able to go out to their local favorite spots and hang out with their friends which is always great. The evening ended at a late night karaoke bar (obviously) where there were a number of stellar P2SF2010 performances. Word on the street is that many of these were even captured on video which is great news. (To be shared at a a later date…)At one point we had the entire place chanting “Bike. Build. Bike. Build!” We also got significant donation magic which is always great too.

I don't have any pics at this point but here are some older ones to catch up!

Welcome bikers!

Elise and I at the laid back in Ironton, Ohio!

Second Century! Holler.

Day 18 – Flatwoods, KY to Paris, KY

Stats:
113.96 miles (2nd century!)
7:28 time

So, all and all, Flatwoods is not really a happenin’ town. We had a night with not too much to do and decided it would be fun to take advantage and go for a night out. Well, this was quite the ordeal. Not only does Flatwoods not have any bars, but they also do not have cabs (wha?) As desperate 20-somethings we actually ended up calling a cab company in Ohio (just over the border) and had them shuttle us to a local bar in Ironston, Oh. Thew cabby was very curious as to why “a church group was putting so much effort into going to a late night dive bar on a Tuesday” hah. It ended up being a pretty fun night as the place we went was equipped with multiple cornhole set ups (a P2SF2010 staple) and outdoor music. It was just too funny how difficult it was to try and go out for a bit.

While my first century was incredibly epic due to the absurdity of the terrain and the time I spent on my bike, our second century was even more amazing because we were able able to finish the ride together, as a team.



CHECK OUT THAT MILAGE! (sorry its rotated)

It was a wicked hot day, but the ride itself was not too bad as Kentucky has proven to be quite flat. We pretty much just kinda cruised the whole time which was refreshing. It felt good! We stayed at the YMCA in Paris that night which was awesome because we were able to swim right after the ride. We also were able to get some serious donation magic action and Papa John’s provided pizzas for us to eat and a local bakery delivered pastries for breakfast the next morning. WE LOVE DONATION MAGIC!

Flatwoods, KY: neither flat nor woods...discuss.

Day 16 - Wellston, OH to Flatwoods, KY (home of Billy Ray Cyrus, oh boy)

Stats:
53.6 miles
3:45 ride time


(From the Bike & Build online journal I had to write this week…)

We left our hosts in Wellston, Ohio after a lovely breakfast and headed out for our 53mile ride to Flatwoods, Kentucky. (Horray for another state line!) Overall, the ride was great – not too hilly, not too long and the weather was beautiful! With the exception of a handful of flat tires, everyone was in great spirits and anxious to get to Kentucky. We even had enough energy for a mid – lunch dance party, which is always a good time! We cruised the last 13 miles into Flatwoods and were warmly welcomed by our generous hosts at the Advance United Methodist Church.

After we unloaded the trailers and got ourselves situated at the church, we did a bit of exploring around – it was such a great facility! We had access to so much space – a place for bikes, tons of room to sleep and even areas to hang out, play basketball and watch some movies!

The church provided us with an amazing meals during our two day stay in Flatwoods. The men’s and women’s groups even made a competition of who could prepare the best breakfast – eggs and sausage vs. pancakes and bacon! In my opinion, both meals were equally delicious! As of yet, we are unable to decide on a winner!
On the morning of the 30th, we all headed out to the Habitat build site in Flatwoods. After arriving, we met with the Habitat volunteers at the site and they gave us a little bit of background on their chapter, the specific project and the area. The house we worked on, was a three bedroom in a quite neighborhood just a few miles away from the church. Come to find out, the project is actually the first build for the chapter, which is such a huge milestone. It is really cool that we were able to be a part of their first build.

The build day was incredibly successful. We worked really well with the volunteers at the site and a lot of progress was made. The site directors were incredibly helpful in providing directions, helpful hints and demonstrations. Throughout the day, we started the construction of the front porch, sided three sides of the house, did some roofing work and a few of the guys did some work on the interior framing.



Seemingly, there was a lot of community involvement in this particular build. A few weeks before we arrived to help work on the house, Habitat sponsored a blitz build day where over 100 volunteers from the community got together in a church parking lot to cut wood and pre-frame the structure and walls of the house. This really expedited the build progress and it is really great that so many different people had invested time and energy in the project.
Habitat of Flatwoods provided yet another amazing meal at the church that night. Soon thereafter we promptly got ready for the next day’s ride passed out on our thermarests. On to Paris…



Look what we found! (Connor, Bree and me!)

Just keep spinning, just keep spinning....

Day 15 - Marietta, OH to Wellston, OH

Stats:

90.5 miles

Today was kind of a lackluster ride...it was fine, just nothing special. Our ride into Wellston was a long day. Hmm...what else?

I finally got a new camera which is exciting! Hopefully this will improve my overall blog and make it a bit more interesting! It is kind of overwhelming to try and keep up with blogging, posting pics on facebook and the bike & build site all simultaneously and without computer (or internet for that matter!) access. I am taking the "something is better than nothing" approach. Joel, a guy on the trip, had the great idea of journaling in a atlas along the way. So he has mapped the route and along the way he writes in notes, notable things that have happened and pastes in different mementos. i think a number of people are going to take that idea and run with it - it will end up being a journal/photo album scrapbook thing which is pretty cool. I am not nearly organized enough to pull something like that off...props to you Joel!

O-H-I-O

Day 14
Weston, WV to Marietta, OH

Stats:
84 miles
6:08 time

Welcome to Ohio! Today we had a great (but long) into Marietta. Emily, a girl on the team, is actually from Marietta and she rode like a nut (and skipped lunch!?) and was able to make it home by 2:30 pm. Everyone was in a great mood and I think the ride was enjoyed by all!

We crossed into Ohio during the second part of the day and the last 20 miles proved to be the most challenging. Once we came over the bridge, there were strong, gusty headwinds that pretty much just killed us. On an exciting note, I was a part of my first successful pace line! Woo. We were able to all ride super close to one another and draft which totally made the ride more tolerable and fun.



We arrived a bit early and before dinner at Emily’s house, a few of us hit up the lovely Marietta Brewing Company, which was great! Emily’s house was a blast, it was great, once again, to be in a home rather than a public space, and its always fun to see where someone comes from/meet the people that are important to them! Emily’s mom whipped out some pretty impressive news clippings / mags from when Emily was in high school. She actually holds a world record in jump roping and competed internationally for years! She was even in Sports Illustrated! Thanks again Bonnettes for everything!



A few of us at a bike shop in Ohio!

West Virginia

Day 13 Parsons, WV to Weston, WV

Stats:
60 Miles
4:45 time

We have had such an awesome stay in Parsons, WV. The local church that hosted us was amazing – church members even shuttled us to their various homes in town so that we could all take showers. I went to the home of a young couple who had a three year old girl named Neveah. It was so nice to be in someone’s home with showers and a TV! They were super sweet and it was wonderful getting to know/connecting with some of the people we meet along the way.

Today’s ride to Weston was stressful. There was very little shoulder on the major highway we were on and it was filled with debris…not fun at all. After lunch I was riding with Elise and I signaled for her to move over and take the lane so that an ambulance could get by. As we got closer we realized that the ambulance was for one of our bikers who had crashed. It was so scary not knowing what had happened and if everyone was ok. While Mellon had some serious road rash and a cracked helmet, she walked away from the scene like a trooper. We called the van and had Laura pick her up so she could get to a bike shop and get a new helmet.

Needless to say, we all rode the remaining milage with serious caution and called out probably every bump and hole in sight. Mellon (Mary-Ellen=Mellon) is in great spirits and I am sure she’ll be back on her bike before we know it!

I have to say that I am totally freaked out by the number of dogs that are unleashed that chase us while riding. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is terrifying to be chased and clipped into your pedals. Hopefully, once we get out of the more rural areas, dogs will not be as much of a concern...

Every once and awhile, I kind of forget to recognize the immense generosity that we get from our hosts and all of the people we meet along the way. Literally everything that we eat and all the places we stay are completely donated. Yes, we often joke about "donation magic" (all of the free stuff we pick up along the way from local businesses when we tell them about our endeavor) But it really is amazing that so many people are willing to give up their time and energy to help us out. It's a good feeling and it makes it feel like this is truly a collaborative effort to help make housing more affordable in the U.S.

Peace out PA and MD!

Day 12 - Cumberland, MD to Parsons, WV

Stats:

86.5 miles
7:40 bike time

So I thought my lowest low of the week would have been yesterday, when, after climbing literally 3 mountains and having been on my bike for over 7 hours, a man stopped a group of us and explained that we were about to “cross a mountain like no other mountain he had ever seen.” (He, unfortunately, ended up being correct…) However, the first half of today’s ride proved to be even more of a low…

Looking at the cue sheet this morning, I saw that we only had 86.5 miles today, and thought to myself, after yesterday, piece of cake. One small problem, I forgot the fact that despite the milage being almost 15 miles shorter, the terrain had not changed a bit. The first 30 miles were absolutely brutal. It was hot. It was humid. We were all fried. Not to mention it was uphill. I did most of the ride by myself (which I think was good for me…) As I climb to the top of one of the hills, I noticed a bike leaned up against a tree. I figured someone had stopped for a break, but kind of panicked when I saw my friend Bree lying on the ground. When I got closer I said her name and she popped up and explained that she stopped for a snack and accidentally fell asleep on the side of the road (told you we were fried!) This actually also happened the other day when we had a long ride. One of our leaders, Laura, stopped at a general store about 20 miles out from lunch and feel asleep in a rocking chair, only to awaken to the sound of the sweep cow bells of the final riders (Everyday 2 riders are assigned to be sweep, they are the last two of the group and carry first aid, tires, etc). Anyway, when I arrived at lunch I just wanted to grab something quick and keep going. I had moved so slowly during the morning ride, I was nervous I would not have been able to make the rest of the mileage by the sundown deadline. To my surprise, we made an (unprecedented) group decision at lunch to re-route ourselves around the mountains to avoid more climbs. This little bit of a break was just enough to keep me on my bike. The rest of the ride was great and it was so nice to enjoy a ride instead of struggling though it!

The ride ended with a well deserved 5.5 mile long 6% decent. We literally coasted into Parsons. Not only was the second half less hilly, but the ride was also beautiful! I had no idea how gorgeous West Virginia is!

On a side note, I am so happy we are done with PA. While it too was a pretty state, I have never seen (or worse, smelled…) so much roadkill in my life. It was terrible. And I thought Jersey smelled bad…