Day 44 - Mosquero, NM

Our ride today took us into our smallest town yet! A town of just ~100 people proved to be very difficult to get to but also very interesting once there. We had an awesome ride in on some of the emptiest roads we've seen so far, feeling great with our tailwind in and stopping to climb a random windmill! Thanks to our great record keepers, we also found out that we have now completed over half of our riding distance. After a lunch stop at only the second tree we saw this morning, we continued straight into headwinds and an insanely steep uphill which had many bikers moving imperceptibly slow or walking when the need arose.

The climb was only two miles long, but it did feel like an eternity. Although the climb finally reached the top of the plateau upon which Mosquero sits, the headwinds did not recede. I rested for a while and met other riders at the top of the climb, where a water drop sat awaiting us. Eventually, Molly M and I took off to finish our ride into town... or not immediately, because we fairly quickly came across some horses on the side of the road that were keen on being petted. A quick detour to say hello to the horses and we got back on the road and worked our way to the school where we would stay the night.

After settling in, many people headed to the single convenience store in town to get some cold refreshments. While I could see that the tiny town center was incredibly nice and well kept, I didn't realize that I would spend the next two hours sitting with JB and Claire, talking with the shop owner, Jimmie, and his friend and local, Shane.

Out of all the things that we discussed, it was a little rock that I'll remember for a long time... To summarize, Shane said, "For the entirety of your life, you will be pushing a rock up a hill. God has given you a rock to push but he will never make it any larger than this (holds up small rock). It is you that makes the rock large and unwieldy. You can make the rock as big or small as you would like."

Ride partners:
Katie
Angela
Molly M

Day 43 - Clayton, NM

We've reached New Mexico! Today's ride took us out of Texas with a vicious side-wind into the small town of Clayton, NM.

Just like yesterday, we missed SC2SC by one day as they stayed in the same town (but different host). Our host this night was the First Baptist Church of Clayton. Although a very hands-off host, they had food and snacks ready for us when we arrived! Thank you!!! Unlike yesterday's showers, which were very cold, tonight's showers were fantastic! Once again we showered at the nearby school gym, but this time there was plenty of hot water to share. What a difference that makes!

Since most of us arrived early to the host, we split up to take care of errands and to explore. While a group of riders headed off to check out the nearby "Rabbit Ears" mountains, two ancient volcanoes just outside of Clayton, I toured the town and stopped by a thrift shop where some SC2SC riders had just bought their B&B prom clothes the previous day.

Affordable housing presentations tonight! Since we did not have much else to do, we decided to get our presentations out of the way. Great job everyone (we are finally done with those)! As for the rest of the night, well, we feel asleep pretty soon after that.

Ride Partners!
Emma
Liz
Connor
Hannah

Day 42 - Dalhart, TX

Back to the ride! After our lovely day off, we are now headed to Dalhart, TX. The ride was 80 miles, but we had an awesome tailwind for much of that, so the day passed by fairly smoothly. There were some hills in the morning, but by afternoon it was all fairly flat. I've been told that west Texas is flat and now I get to see it for myself!

When we arrived at the small town of Dalhart, we found a note at our host from SC2SC, who has just stayed there the previous night and wished us the best. It is so strange to run through towns where other bikers already have been! We once again went out for Sonic (this time not DMed) while we waited following the ride, then we showered at the nearby school. A shower after a long day is always nice, even if it is freezing cold!

Finally a surprise! I got my first mail drop from adoring friends and family! Thank you sis for all the bars, snacks, and especially the drawings from my niece, Summer!!! :) Thank you as well to Emily Mazurak (SUS '12) for the awesome grab bag box of snacks and 4th of July party favors. I don't think that those brownies will last long, haha.

Ride Partners!
Emma
Kirsten
Dusty

Day 41 - Day off in Amarillo, TX

So much to see and so much to do on our day off! The van is currently out of service, so we had to come up with our own method of transportation. One 5-person SUV rental later and 7 of us made our way to Palo Duro Canyon, which is the 2nd largest canyon in the US (second to the Grand Canyon). We hiked up to Lighthouse Rock, which as the name implies is shaped like a lighthouse. It was incredible to finally get out on a real hike again! I forgot the joy of being out in the woods with good friends. :)

Later on, after our return from the canyon, our group went out for Mexican food followed by a trip to Cadillac Ranch! Cadillac Ranch is a now-permanent art installation of a row of old Cadillacs sticking nose-first into the ground. At some point, the cars started getting spray painted by visitors and now it is an expected thing to head out with some paint and to take pictures with your spray paint artwork. We also ran into a Chaco advertising truck at CR! After a good discussion about their cross country trip as well as ours, we got some awesome Chaco bracelets to keep.

Not much else for tonight... the car has been returned and we had a great day off! Goodnight!

Day 40 - Amarillo, TX

Well, we did not get to Amarillo by morning... today's 107 mile ride was super long and was not helped by the rainstorm in the middle (during which most of us were "bonking", or having a physical and mental breakdown during the ride). I can't wait for our rest day in Amarillo tomorrow!

We made it through the ride finally, in no small part with the idea of having a day off tomorrow and that we caught a tailwind on the final leg of the ride, after second lunch. Sometimes certain foods really satisfy while we are on the road and in this case it was choosing to buy DQ for second lunch instead of the usual PBNJ (Peanut Butter, Nutella, and Jam). In the final legs of the trip, we passed a knockoff of Cadillac Ranch with combine harvesters instead of Cadillacs sticking in the ground, as well as a huge canyon that hopefully we will go hiking in tomorrow!

We had previously planned on going out tonight, but we are all quite tired... I think that I'll soon fall into a food coma from the wonderful dinner at a B&B alum's parents' house. Thank you, Edie, for the delicious tacos!

Ride Partners!
Kirsten
Emma
Marley
JB

Day 39 - Memphis, TX

Back to Texas! Keep in mind that this is Memphis, Texas and not Memphis, Tennessee. They are two very different towns, haha.

Our ride today took us on some very quiet roads through Oklahoma and back into Texas. Since I missed my picture at the state line into Oklahoma and wasn't feeling my best for the Texas one, i made up for it this time by getting both on opposite sides of the road!

Once again, I went mountain climbing during the ride day, this time up to a plateau with almost all of the guys in our group. While we had to brave some barbed wire (again), we were not ready for the crazy storm of bugs (flying fire ants?!?!) at the summit of the plateau. We didn't stay too long after they got riled up, haha.

For a change of scenery, we stayed in a town community center this night. While it may not have had showers, they did one better and took us to the town pool to swim and shower! I will never say no to a swim on a hot day! Following our showers, we had a delicious dinner provided by the host, then bicycle clinic and the Bike & Build host presentation. Before we all turned in after this long day, some of us including myself went for a tour in a historic Presbyterian Church across the street. The church is currently being renovated, but it is still quite gorgeous inside. When the pictures cone online, I'll let them speak for themselves.

Ride Partners!
Dillon
Dusty

Day 38 - Altus, OK

Today was a hot ride in beautiful Oklahoma. I'm continuously amazed by the true beauty of Oklahoma and can truly say that it exceeded my expectations. The ride day was a lot of fun, between mountain climbing at lunch and trying to pick up a tarantula along the side of the road. When we finally made it into town, I was super excited to see a small waterslide at a public pool! I've been really wanting to go to a waterpark on this trip, but alas, it was closed on Sundays...

Once again, our host was unable to provide us with dinner, so we had to go out in town and look for businesses that would donate some food (usually referred to as 'Donation Magic' or 'DM'). With Charlie's fantastic DM work, our group got 10 pizzas from pizza hut, in addition to whatever everyone gets!

Since everyone arrived a little bit earlier in the day, we were all starving for an early meal. Hannah did an excellent job of DM'ing Sonic this time, where they gave us anything we craved! For me it was a huge milkshake and some mozzarella sticks. Sonic (DM'd and paid), has been a big part of this trip so far and we are all very thankful for it!

Ride partners:
Charlie
Molly B
Dillon

Day 37 - Lawton, OK

While every Bike & Build morning is rough getting up, today was particularly rough on the group. At some point during the night, someone slashed the tires on our van ("Vanna White") and trailer. Our wonderful leaders took charge of getting the tires replaced and we were still able to get a good start to the day. We would be seeing the van later in Lawton, but for most of the day it stayed in Wichita Falls along with our leaders.

We crossed into another state today!! We set off this morning with a police escort on the busy highway/bridge from Texas into Oklahoma. Some riders from Wichita Falls even joined us for the ride to the border! Sadly, since we were in middle of an escort, there was no time to stop at the state line for pictures with the Oklahoma sign, guess we will have to do that on our way out of the state.

The entirety of the day was spent with some awesome tailwinds, making the 59 mile ride pass by all too quickly. Oklahoma is surely the prettiest state that we've been to yet, in my opinion. Although it does not have the beach and ocean that I find gorgeous, Oklahoma is beautiful in its own way, with rolling hills and even some mountains in the distance. In actuality, Oklahoma is exactly as I thought it would be like, much like all of the other states that we passed through. The only difference being how I underestimated its natural beauty.

The roads were incredibly quiet as I rode with Colleen and Connor today (and as Connor attempted to teach us the lyrics to Oklahoma!). We stopped for lunch at a church in a town with a 7 person population, where I saw my first wild tarantula (dead). Another 15 miles on and we actually saw a live one crossing the road. Crazy!

Lawton is not a roaring city, but it is a lot bigger than some of our past towns, so we made good use of our extra time and explored the nearby mall and ran out to the nearby Walmart and the bike shop for necessities.

Ride Partners!

Colleen

Connor

Day 36 - Wichita Falls, TX

Sweep day into Wichita Falls, TX! I was originally scheduled to sweep with Corina, but since she has sweep day tomorrow too (randomly assigned, of course), Hannah volunteered to take her place as my sweep partner. We took off from Atmos Energy this morning with Jamie on board (yay Jamie for being back on the bike!).

Our day was rather long today and hot, but having an awesome partner for sweep made it pass a lot quicker! Although I was disappointed that we didn't ride all day with Jamie, Hannah and I did have a fun ride together! By second lunch at a local park, we didn't think that we would make it into town by the required time and expected to get vanned at that point, but after a stop for some ice and ice cream, we got a second wind (and a tailwind) and were a able to make it in with plenty of time to shower before dinner.

As you may know, on a sweep day we get to make a sweep challenge, which is a competition for a prize of some sort amongst the other riders. These are always lots of fun and a good way to keep sweep entertained during their long day. Today, Hannah and I challenged others to take the best picture as a Texan. Hopefully we get some good pictures!

As we rode into Wichita Falls, you couldn't help but notice that many of the buildings on the area were boarded up, almost like some quasi-ghost town. As most of these were places for out of town guests (hotels, restaurants, bars), you quickly got the feeling that people have stopped coming to the town. We found out later that Wichita Falls is victim to a large outfox of people and money, due to a huge tornado in the 70s wiping out a bunch of businesses and then, more recently, the drying up of the local oilfields that brought in a lot of money to the area. As I understand it, the town is much nicer in some of the suburbs and near the college, but right in downtown you get the feeling that this is akin to what a post apocalyptic town might be like.

Dinner tonight was sponsored by the Hotter 'N Hell ride organization, which is a once yearly 100-mile bicycle ride that brings in around 20k people to the city and uses proceeds to support bicycling in the city and city rejuvenation. Our contact, Caden, took us out to Pat's diner in town where I enjoyed a fantastic milkshake and burger. Boy am I stuffed! We have the opportunity to go swimming at the Y after dinner, but I think that I'll fall into a good coma now...

Day 35 - Boyd, TX

While our route still shows Decatur as our intended route, tonight we ended up in Boyd, TX instead! The church host in Decatur accidentally double booked their space, so our wonderful leaders went through a last minute reroute and found the most unlikely place for us to stay... at a energy company office. Tonight's stay at the Atmos Energy office in Boyd found us sleeping in offices and meeting rooms, although they did have a shower for us to use! With only one shower the line grew pretty long, so to get a good night's sleep, I took a bucket shower outside and went to bed at the earliest time yet!

Ride Partners!
Hannah

Day 34 - Build Day 11 (Habitat For Humanity)

I'm back to building! Our build days so far have been a lot of finishing work, which is very valuable work to do and to know how to do, but now I'd like to do a bit more construction work on this trip. Today that all changed, as I was actually involved in framing the roof eave of the house under construction. Yesterday, our group lifted and installed all of the trusses as well as most of the windows for this small 2-3 bedroom house, so today we finished the windows, created the eaves, finished the exterior insulation, and completed watersealing all seams.

I'm feeling a lot better today, but we do have a century day tomorrow! Sally has continued to be a great host (they made burgers and sausage tonight for dinner!) and none of us are really looking forward to leaving tomorrow. Something that I haven't mentioned yet is that during our stay, Sally and Peter have been kind enough to allow us the use of their cars to get out and about the city at our whim. All of this generosity has really been overwhelming and I'd just like to give a huge thanks to Sally, Peter, and their family for organizing, funding, and hosting our unforgettable stay in Dallas!

Day 33 - Build Day 10 (Habitat For Humanity)

Well, it turns out that I'm not completely well yet and my lack of appetite was signaling that I needed some more rest, so rest I got. I'm extremely bummed out that I missed or first Dallas build day with Habitat for Humanity because of the cold, but I must get better soon!!! I'm definitely going to be there tomorrow! Today, I started in and slept a while and when I could sleep no more, started watching Game of Thrones with Liz and Hannah.

Tonight, Sally dazzled us with her generosity once more by taking us on an evening catamaran cruise on Lake Ron Hubbard. I've been really wanting to go on a sailboat ride this summer, so that was just the icing on the cake for me (and I even got to steer the boat for a while). There are few words to accurately describe how great of a host that Sally has been, but know that we are all quite grateful. A delicious fajitas dinner sealed the deal and I am now ready for bed. Goodnight!

Day 32 - Dallas

Not every day do I ride the full distance with the same ride partner(s), but today changed that! During the day, people tend to break off from their groups or shuffle groups at lunch breaks, so I noticed it at the end of the day today when I arrived with Molly M and Maddie, the same people I started off with.

Rewinding a bit, I started off the day with a great breakfast courtesy of Rich and Janice before driving back to the church. At the church I found out that even more people got sick last night, so there was a full van load of people bussing to our next city. :( Although I'm not perfect yet, I felt good enough to ride the entire way today into Dallas and I'm happy that I did! The roads were pretty bumpy at times, but we had a tailwind for much of our ride and were able to cruise quickly along.

On a random aside, I found a hat today! Nothing fancy, but a baseball cap on the side of the road caught my eye as the logo of an eagle over a American flag is exactly the same as one another one of our riders found the other day. The things that you can find when you're concentrated on the road in front of you!

Now to the best part of the day, arriving at the host! We've heard rumors from our leaders and riders from other years about how awesome Sally and Peter Muhl are as B&B hosts (perhaps #1?), but could not have anticipated our experience here! When u first rolled up, I saw a gorgeous house with a RV parked right next to it. I later found out that the propose of the RV was as a place for Sally and Peter to sleep while we were given full run of their entire house. As a walked in the side door, I just saw a huge pile of food and snacks covering their kitchen and there was Sally, asking me if I'd like a milkshake. Have I died and gone to heaven? My appetite isn't fully back yet, so I couldn't gorge on all the snacks, but the milkshake was perfect! Outside, my B&B family was already in the pool and hot tub and enjoying some of the many drinks that Sally has bought for us. Sally even arranged for an inflatable slip and slide rental in her backyard! You can be sure that I jumped right in with everyone!

The rest of the night was fairly chill. I know that a lot of people stayed up late, but because I was feeling a little weak, I went to sleep as soon as I could after the wonderful pulled pork, brisket, and ribs dinner that Sally prepared for us. Thank you sooo much for a wonderful end to a long day, Sally!

Day 31 - Athens, TX

Well, i'm feeling much better today, though still lethargic. As a result of this, I rode in the van for the first part of the day with Greg, who was a great host. At lunch, I got my bike out, got all ready to go, and rode by myself taking a comfortable place for the rest of the day. So great to be back on the bike and feeling mostly better!

I got in to the host a little late, due to my speed and that a local Sonic in Athens donated free slushes to us and I made sure to take advantage of the donation! By the time I got in, I found out that there was a large number of people that didn't finish the whole ride and got vanned due to illness. Looks like I was just the tip of the iceberg of sickness! Hopefully not everyone else gets sick too...

As a change from the norm of us all sleeping in the same building, we split into individual hosts tonight! The sick crew stayed back at the church, but the rest of us divvied ourselves amongst all of the fantastic hosts that were willing to open up their doors to us. I stayed with Rich and Janice at their lake-front house in Athens and they were more than wonderful hosts! Rich and I left the church first and made it back with enough light left for Rich to teach me how to stand-up paddleboard and for us to take a nice cruise across the lake (I only fell in once!). After washing my clothes and sleeping bag (it needed it), they left me to relax in the entire upper level of their house (to which I promptly fell asleep while attempting to blog). Thank you both sooo much!

Day 30 - Carthage, TX

Sick.

Looks like I got the stomach bug that has been hitting some people here and there on our trip. For the sake of propriety, I won't give too many details, but today I did not have any extra energy to spend (seriously it took me hours later on to accomplish simple tasks). It came on last night and has kept me off the road and riding with Maddie in the van. Not an entirely unenjoyable ride, but I attempted to sleep for as much of it as I could. Thankfully they did wake me up for the border crossing into Texas, so I did get my Texas sign picture!

I'm sad to have missed an entire ride day with my Bike and Build family as well as hanging out with everyone at our amazing host's house. From how I understand it, there was tons of food and drinks (including beer) and a great pool and hot tub. I missed all this whole I was asleep upstairs at the host, having gone straight to bed after getting there.

Day 29 - Elm Grove

SUMMARY: Today was a mix of bad and amazing! Oh yeah, and it's our last full day in Louisiana (goodbye bad roads!).

So, while I have not been making a big deal of it, I've hoped to be able to bicycle every mile of this trip. Unfortunately, today that hope was cut short when I chose to be safe and van myself after experiencing some intense knee pain following our short police escort over a narrow bridge out of Natchitoches. I knew that a day like this may occur and I was mentally prepared for it, then Claire and Colleen made sure that the van ride was entirely enjoyable!

After lunch, I was feeling better so I hopped on the bike and finished off the ride to the incredible host awaiting us at their island home on a lake. Our hosts have two children who have both done Bike and Build, so they were quite ready for us to roll in hungry and tired. The pool toys were out, the 4 wheeler ready to go, lots of sodas and water on ice, and plenty of food inside. I was so excited to see the dock leading out onto the lake, it didn't take me more than 2 minutes to strip off my shoes and jersey and jump in the water after arriving!!

The rest of the night passed in a frenzy of swimming, eating, kayaking, and alligator hunting with Rhys. Needless to say that by the end of the night, I passed right out.

Day 28 - Natchitoches

How do you say Natchitoches? We settled on "nacho cheese" at our morning route meeting. As it turns out, the true pronunciation is closer to "nack-a-tish", though we did see some store names and bricks with "Nakatosh" printed on them. Perhaps that's an alternative or older pronunciation?

We left early from last night's hosts, as the school children needed their building back, so that meant that we had plenty of time for our short 53 mile day! There are a couple ways to get to Natchitoches, but we took the most direct (maybe future trips could route the more scenic way by the plantations, wink wink). We were warned in advance of some fantastic plantations along the way that we could stop at for tours and we even had one called ahead for us, but when it came down to it, I decided to skip the plantations. Why? Because of sushi in the amazingly quaint city of Natchitoches! I've been craving some sushi recently, so yesterday night I found a place with sushi in our next town and a small group (Hannah, Megan, and me) headed straight for town after our lunch stop for some delicious food!

We all met up at our host at 5 for another bike clinic today! This time, it was my group (Sugar Gliders represent!) that was in charge of preparing and running the bike clinic, though we were not alone in it at all as all of our B&B team was out there as helpers, obstacles, or even sea creatures in the bicycle riding course.

With a lot of excitement, including the start of the World Cup, today was yet another good day :)

Today's ride partners!
Angela
Marley
Morgan
Hannah
Megan

Day 27 - Alexandria

Mexican
Stayed in church gym

Learning to take it easy and have fun :)

After our recent 115 mile ride, every other ride seems so much shorter and manageable by comparison. Of course our leg muscles have been getting stronger and our average speed has been slowly going up, but it still feels like I am more ready to see the sights instead of getting to the next host. Today's 75 miler was no small feat by any means, but it was a beautiful day with plenty of scenery to see along the way.


The friendly dog in this pic followed us for at least a couple miles


Riding with Madeline and Hannah

We still arrived a little early to the church host and decided to grab some food since the host and dinner would not be ready for a couple hours. How could the Taco Bell be closed?! Oh well, we got some more legitimate Mexican food and headed back to the usual craziness at the host.



Cheers!

DAY 26 - Opelousas, LA

Boy oh boy was this a day to remember for various reasons.

We started out the day with a stern warning by our leaders to get over to a nearby location by a certain time. There we would be meeting a police escort for our bridge crossing across the mighty Mississippi.

I left in one of the first waves of bikers to head to the rendezvous location. The morning was a little rainy, so I had all my raingear on and my taillight flashing. After crossing one set of railroad tracks, I realized that my taillight was no longer on my bike (need to fix its tenancy to fall off). Since I knew where it fell off (I heard the faint thud), I headed back to grab it, leaving the rest of my riding group waiting for me. As I crossed back over the railroad tracks, the rain signal came on and a train started approaching. Not a big deal, until the train stops in the crossing. Not 15 minutes goes by before the rest of the bikers behind me start showing up. As we waited for the train to move, we entertained ourselves with impromptu dancing, singing, and group huddles to keep out the cold. It didn't help that the rain started pouring viscously while we waited.

After about an hour of waiting, we took shelter in a truck repair building. That's when we learned that the train always blocks that intersection for 1-2 hours in the morning. Needless to say, we were pretty late getting to the rendezvous and were all very cold by the time that we got there. Forgetting any boundaries within the group, we all got under our big blue tarp at the rendezvous and cuddled to get warm.

The rest of the ride continued to be wet wet wet. Eventually we got to our host for the night, which was in the locker room of a high school football team. Since there was no host on site and no dinner prepared, we headed out in search of food donations on our way in. My group did a pretty good job in this with getting a few pizzas and some Chinese food for everyone.

We ended the night with our in-group affordable housing presentations (finally out of the way!) and all fell right asleep.

Day 25 - Build Day 9 (Rebuilding Together)

Instead of new construction, which I've been solely involved in at all of our build sites, today's build day focused on home restoration with Rebuilding Together. We headed out brought and early to caulk and paint the new siding of our homeowner's house. Along the ride in, our RB leader talked with us about the importance of helping out long term homeowners in run down neighborhoods. He described how they are anchors to neighborhoods and have influence over keeping out crime and drugs in their communities and keeping the neighborhood from falling to seed.

After the build day ended, we got a little bit of time to explore Baton Rouge, home of LSU. For my part, I headed out with Micah for smoothies, bicycle parts, and to visit the LSU Bengal Tiger. Throw in a late night walk through town and by the water and you have a nice day. :)

Day 24 - Baton Rouge

Although I had no idea what to expect of Nola, our stop there proved to be much too short and I'm left wishing that we could have had one more day off as a group there. Too much to do and too many things that I'd like to see for our limited time outside of working for affordable housing, but sightseeing is not what this trip is ultimately about, do I'll just leave with the knowledge that I'll be back again.

Perhaps I'm just missing the time off of my bicycle, because today was one of the longest bike rides of the summer at 115 miles! Although the distance was tough, much of our ride was on a paved trail on top of the levee leading all the way from Nola to Baton Rouge. Although we followed the levee the whole way, not all of the trail was paved, so we had to get back on the main road while passing through 'cancer alley', a series of refineries and chemical/oil plants. Talk about a bad smell! I couldn't imagine living near those plants for any extent of time and I truly feel for those who do.

After a slow start with a bunch of flats in my riding group, I didn't think that is make make it to Baton Rouge, but here I am! Not much happening tonight... we are all quite exhausted and headed to bed as soon as possible.

Day 23 - Build Day 8 (St Bernard Project)

Guest blog today! This is filler until I can complete the post on my own :)

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Today was our final build day in New Orleans. It was rewarding to see the progress we had made as we walked away from the site. Working in New Orleans has been an eye-opening experience for all of us. Nine years after Katrina, the amount of work that still needs to be done in the rebuilding efforts is staggering. More so, the disparities in progress and renovation between the wealthy and impoverished areas of the city remind us that there is a much greater battle than simply reconstructing levees and houses. The affordable housing cause is a small facet in a greater movement for justice.

That being said, we had a BLAST at the worksite today. Three of our brave (stupid?) friends engaged in what is commonly known as a strenuous test of human will and strength: the gallon challenge. In this challenge, the competitors must consume a gallon of milk in one hour and resist vomiting for the hour following. While our brave comrades fought valiantly, their efforts were futile, and the ground ran wet with regurgitated milk that fateful day.

Following our work day, we were graciously received for dinner by a Bike and Build alumni. The food was amazing, and we really enjoyed sharing stories from the road. It's exciting and encouraging to consider the impact Bike and Build has had, not only on the affordable housing cause, but on those of us fortunate enough to embark on this great journey.

Colleen Daly
Rider, SUS '14

Day 22 - Build Day 7 (St Bernard Project)

Guest blog today! This is filler until I can complete the post on my own :)

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We started off the day with a lovely cereal bar provided by the Camp Hope. While we were getting ready for the day a few of the guys decided to get creative with their facial hair. Super stylish mustaches and other awesome things that I'm not sure I know the names of! Then it was off to the build site! We went back to the same mint green house we had been working on in the 9th ward. I worked on the second floor of the house which is where I had been working most of the week. We started off the day with some really intense paceline sanding, which was hilarious and surprisingly kind of efficient. Most of the day we worked on sanding, mudding, skimming, and priming while another group was outside painting the exterior of the house. It was a very productive day and we even got done a little bit early! We were all a little sad to be working with the awesome AmeriCorps volunteers (Jack, Amy, and Amelia) for the last time. However some of us were able to hangout with them for a little while after building, which was really fun! After that we headed back to Camp Hope for showers and some dinner! Then we were off to do some more exploring in New Orleans! It was nice to hit some favorite spots from earlier in the week, but also check out some new and exciting places!

Megan Lindgren
Rider, SUS '14

Day 21 - Build Day 6 (St Bernard Project)

Guest blog today! This is filler until I can complete the post on my own :)

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After spending the previous build day swimming in sweat inside a tyvex suit, it was a relief to spend the day painting and mudding with the entire group. The folks I was working with focused on reskimming and priming the giant kitchen-dinning-living room.

After the work day, we were all invited to a Welcome Home ceremony for another home in the neighborhood. A few staff from the St. Bernard Project told us about the process Ms. Vera went through to be accepted into the program. She first applied in August 2009 and now 5 years later her home is complete and she can move back in. It was amazing to see all the AmeriCorps volunteers at this event and many of them she thanked by name.

Check out my blog for pictures of Ms. Vera's rebuilt home-
www.corinabikes.blogspot.com

Corina Cheever
Rider, SUS '14

Day 20 - Build Day 5 (St Bernard Project)

Guest blog today! This is filler until I can complete the post on my own :)

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On Wednesday, June 4th, we awoke to a lovely breakfast of oatmeal and fresh blueberries. One of my favorites so far. After doing dishes and packing our sack lunches we hit the road to walk to our build site again. We are working with the St Bernard Project, and being led by some fantastic AmeriCorps volunteers named Amy and Jack. Today, I became an expert at what is called "floating." This is a process where you spackle a product we call "mud" onto areas of drywall that need to be smoothed or covered. I was in no way comfortable with this process at the beginning but then became very good at adjusting my angles and pressure to create the smoothest lines. I worked with Morgan, Kirsten and Liz on this project upstairs for most of the day. In the afternoon, we got to steal the boom box from the downstairs volunteers which made our work so much more fun with music. There may have also been
a bit of dancing involved. We packed and cleaned up at the end of the work day and headed back to Camp Hope where it was also cleaning day. We had to clean the bathrooms, kitchen, and the showers. Afterwards, we were treated to a traditional Cajun dinner and a night on the town.

Hannah Crawford
Rider, SUS'14

Day 19 - Build Day 4 (St Bernard Project)

Guest blog today! This is filler until I can complete the post on my own :)

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Today as we walked towards the first day on our build site in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, locals called out from their trucks thanking us for helping them rebuild. As it has been 8 years since Katrina (August 29, 2005) this is remarkable to me. Unfortunately, this also reflects the sobering reality of how much destruction remains and how forgotten New Orleans may feel. We, however, are proving each day we build that New Orleans is not the city that hope forgot.

We are volunteering with the St. Bernard Project in the Lower Ninth Ward. Mostly we have been working on the inside walls by mudding, priming and painting a duplex which will serve as a rental unit. never knew it took so much to make a wall flat and straight.

We have also gotten to know the Americorps volunteers at the build site. It is very rewarding to know that we are going to be working with the same organization, at the same house for the next couple days. I am excited to see the impact we will make.

Bikebuildkirstin.wordpress.com

Day 18 - Day Off in Nola

Guest blog today! This is filler until I can complete the post on my own :)

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I feel very privileged to write the blog entry for 6/2, as this was our day off in New Orleans! Although it was out day off, we gathered together at Camp Hope in Arabi at 11 to walk over to the blair school farm. Once there, we met with Nat Turner, a former New York City schoolteacher who moved out to New Orleans after Katrina in order to pursue some of his passions and assist in turning the neighborhood around. Turner was treating us to a social justice tour of the area. He brought us around to various sites in the Lower Ninth ward, including a Levy, to try and explain why some of the devastation was so severe in this area and how things came to be this way. He also showed us some parts of the local wetlands, or rather former wetlands, and explained their crucial role
in absorbing hurricane storm surges.

Later that night I went out with some of the group after dinner, and we ended up back on Frenchman street. Once there we went to a bar/music venue called Maison, where we were dazzled by a local music act called big easy brawlers. This was such an amazing way to see live music, just walking into a bar and seeing something incredible, radically different from the buying of tickets and waiting in line that I'm accustomed to.

Build day tomorrow! Looking forward to meeting the project partners!

Charlie Santos
Rider, SUS '14

Day 17 - New Orleans

We are in New Orleans!!!!!!

We've been getting ready for Nola since the beginning of this trip, so we are all quite excited to finally get here! It took another long rainy day to get here, but we were well entertained along the way.

Today's 69 mile ride kept us in view of the coastline for most of the trip. As a group, we had previously decided to start up "rando rides," which are half day rides with someone that you have not ridden with as of yet. While I feel like there are still a fair number of people that I have yet to ride with, it has been my goal to ride with everyone in the group. Today marked the first of these, from our start to lunch.

When it comes to lunch, sometimes you have awesome lunch spots and sometimes you have normal ones (they haven't been bad yet ). This time, the lunch stop was one of the cooler ones, as we stopped after crossing an old lifting bridge at a bayou tour business. Although I did not partake in the tour, a small group of riders did and they had a great time!

After lunch, we continued on our way and battled even more drenching rain. As we were cruising along, I noticed something quite unexpected... a crawfish in middle of the road! It appears as though it was time for the crawfish to be moving about (in the rain), because I never would have expected to see one in the road! Once we stopped, we saw many others in the puddles and mud around the side of the road, but we took it upon ourselves to name our first friend Wilson. Wilson has a starting time in a short video of clamping into Rhys' lip, who allowed it on behalf of a dare.

Another story from the road... as we reached the final stretch into Nola, we found ourselves almost on the set of Terminator 5! As we passed a construction lot, I called to the group that there was some plane wreckage inside and that maybe we should check it out! The gate was open and we didn't see anyone around, so we bicycled in just to get stopped instantly by a security guard. Although he didn't allow us any further in, he did tell us that it was a movie set for T5 and that no, he hasn't met any big stars yet.

How many more things can I talk about? Well, dinner this night was not provided by our welcoming hosts at Camp Hope (where we will be spending the next 6 days), so we went instead to a feast at a Nola Hare Krishna temple. It seems as though this dinner service is regular and always free to anyone, but we went early to join in with a religious praising and offering to Krishna. With dancing, chanting, and wonderful food, this is not a night to forget.

As we are in Nola and we have no curfew tonight, it is only fitting to enjoy the town! To end the night, we headed out as a group to have some fun out on Bourbon and Frenchman street.

Day 16 - Long Beach

Yes, we're in Long Beach, not Biloxi, but we did ride through there on our way! Long Beach is the next city west of Biloxi, so while we were rained on and the traffic was very busy, we had a great time riding in and also stopping in Biloxi along the way.

Excitement from the day:
First off is the donated lunch from Sonic. One of their locations along our ride came through in fine form and donated as much as we could eat! Lunch was greasy, fatty, and unhealthy, but it tasted just sooo good! I got some beads (from a tree) and we stopped at Cafe Beignet in Biloxi for a quick coffee pick-me-up but we missed out on the beignets. I must get some in Nola!

Our host for the night has given us free rein of their church community space and eight showers!!! While it may seem silly to be excited about showers, having that many sure makes things go quicker and much easier! We've had hose showers, cold showers, and showers with very low water pressure, so every time that there is an ample amount of hot water and available showers, there is reason for celebration.

Tonight was also the first night of dinner crew making dinner. I give them some serious credit for an awesome meal cooked up, including mac & cheese, soup, and crawfish! Thanks crew!

When will this rain stop? I do love riding in the rain (for some reason), but it will be nice to be dry soon. :)

Day 15 - Build Day 3 - Habitat For Humanity

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

We had our 3rd build day today! This time it was with Habitat For Humanity of Mobile. They were very flexible for our large group of 32 volunteers, so when the forecast called for more rain, they switched our group into three houses needing interior finishing. I got my first experience with fitting flooring pieces into place and that took up most of the day.



The construction of these homes is quite intense! Although we were not part of the framing, they showed us how they anchored down all edges of the house with full height allthread to withstand hurricane strength winds and installed triple pane windows with extreme object impact resistance. One thing to say is that these Habitat homes will be around for a while!



After the build day finished, we had a short bicycle clinic for some neighborhood kids, showing them how to signal, pump up their tires, and to always wear a helmet. We finished up the day with a delicious dinner provided by our host Lella, who went through the effort to get taco salad and pizza donated to the cause. You are the best!

Day 14 - Mobile

Soaking wet! Yesterday we had a little bit of rain, which was a crazy downpour that left us completely soaked, but today was our first extended ride in the rain (94 miles!). Getting away from Pensacola was a little busy but we made it on the road and out to Mobile with no trouble, besides some pretty heavy headwinds and some increasingly steeper hills as we entered Mobile.

A couple of exciting things happened today... The first is that we are no longer in Florida! The Alabama state sign surprised all of us as it appeared out of nowhere on Perdido Key, so i of course took some pictures (coming soon!) at the state line and the Flora-bama bar there. Secondly, we took our one and only ferry ride today! We were warned about having to ride fast enough to catch the ferry or else we would be vanned after the ferry ride, so I was super happy to get to the ferry on time. I tried for an early ferry and might have made it, but my plans were derailed by 2 flats on the way. Not a problem at all and irrelevant because the ferry schedule was off today. I can only imagine what the car drivers thought of the 20 or so bikers on the ferry, haha. We definitely had a lot of fun on our ride.

I will say that today has been eventful, not for me directly but for some of our other riders (and henceforth the whole group). Sadly, Jamie took a fall while coming down one of the bridges with a heavy, gusting side-wind. She has sustained a number of scrapes and scratches, but they all seem to be superficial, so we are hoping for the speediest of recoveries for her!

Although the mood of the group is a bit down, our host has more than made up for it! Welcoming us in with cucumber water, hummus, amongst other treats, we were happy to relax after such a long day.

Day 13 - Gulf Breeze

So tired!!! Today I completed my first century ride ever (that is, a bicycle ride over 100 miles). It's amazing to see what your body is really capable of when you push it to the limit, which is what we all did.

Our ride today took us from Deguniak Springs to a church in Gulf Breeze, FL. Gulf Breeze is on an island just outside of Pensacola, so we never did get into downtown Pensacola. Our cue sheets for the day (which have our bicycling directions and other important info) only had us riding 98 miles today, so many people in the group found a way to add on another 2 miles. For me that was cycling around the second naturally roundest lake in the world (in Defuniak Springs).

Today also happened to be my first sweep day! Sweeps are the riders that stay behind the entire group and have a med kit and bike maintenance items in case anything happens to the riders in front. I was paired with the lovely Colleen today as my co-sweep and we had a blast of a time! Not everything went quite so well, as Colleen picked up a large metal object in her rear wheel and damaged her derailleur within the first 15 miles of the ride. With a bit of hitting the derailleur with a rock to flatten it out and a zip tie replacing a missing screw, we did succeed in getting back on the road after a half hour of resting on the side of the road. Let's just say that everyone's moods improved after that :)

We did have to make good time after that, which we did at an incredible pace of 18-22 mph. We made it the entire way to the host and didn't have to get vanned (which happens if you fall far behind or are otherwise unable to continue riding)! Woohoo!

Not much to say about the host, other than it was the biggest and most decked out host space that we've had thus far (it was a youth center at a church). We say around, talked about affordable housing for a while, and fell asleep.

Day 12 - De Funiak Springs

That awesome host that I mentioned that served us dinner on Memorial Day? Oh yeah, they took out one step farther by making our first hot breakfast of French toast and sausage. To a rider that has been having cold breakfasts so far, that is quite awesome!

Today's ride to De Funiak Springs was rough, I'll admit. There were some hills that really took it out of all of us. With a lunch break a little further down the road than we expected, we had definitely pushed our bodies a little too far too fast, but it's all good! :) On an even more positive note, we stopped to take pictures on hay bales only 5 miles away from the host, so that was lots of fun! (Pics to come)

Our hosts here at the East Baptist Church once again showed just how awesome hosts can be. With homemade spaghetti and sauce (and fabulous sweet tea), we stuffed ourselves to the gills tonight before relaxing to listen to a live concert by the church band put on just for us. That was just so cool and a perfect end to a challenging day. Thanks! Goodnight :)

Day 11 - Panama City

Wool! Panama City! I think all of us have heard about Panama City and have a certain preconceived notion of the crazy partying that happens there during spring break season. That was my thought at least.

What we did find when we arrived was that we were not in the party city I expected (which is actually Panama City Beach... 15 miles away), but a much more relaxed city without the glitz and glamour of resorts and bars. Today we passed the time zone change, so with a fast ride in and an extra hour, we had some time to kill. My riding partner, Hannah, and I were definitely looking forward to some Mexican food ( hopefully at a beach bar), but since we were not at "The Beach," there were no beach bars/restaurants around. Instead we found ourselves at an awesome authentic Mexican restaurant with some delicious burritos! It took a while to find an open place, with it being Memorial Day and all, but it was worth it in the end.

By the way, on the ride in, we stopped at possibly the best lunch stop ever! We stopped in an eerily quite condo community right on the water, bit that meant that we got to enjoy a rest stop with shade, actual toilets and running water, and a pristine beach where everyone went swimming after lunch. Did I mention that we saw a pod of dolphins and a stingray out in the water? Quite cool.

At the host, we were once again graciously welcomed in and well fed, this time by former and current service members that should have been relaxing on a day dedicated to their service to the country. The lasagna dinner was fantastic and I am definitely looking forward to seconds for lunch tomorrow! Thank you for hosting us, feeding us, and for your service to the country. You are truly inspirational!

Day 10 - Apalachicola

How could I be more wrong?! Okay, let's back up a second....

Prior to this trip, reach rider must investigate 1-2 cities to present to the group. This presentation happens in the morning of the ride to the city, so everyone knows what to expect and where to go or what cool things to see, not to mention the current state of affordable housing in that city. Mine were Tallahassee and Apalachicola.

In my research, I read news of a town that seemed to be not doing quite well, because of a declining oyster population (their main industry). While this still seems true, the town still looks great and is an extremely friendly and hospitable town. While i expected a rundown town, it is the essence of a quaint and friendly town, with beautiful streets, homes, and a location on the water. After we arrived, Hannah and I went for a swim with some local children underneath the bridge that we just rode over, which in itself was a very fun and hilarious adventure. Before dinner, we went out for some coffee and to look around. We ended up at a small local restaurant/bar and enjoyed some excellent craft beers and a delicious crab dip. When we finally made it back to the host site, our nostrils were filled by the smell of the delicious low country boil that our wonderful hosts made for us. Can I say delicious? Oh yeah... it was all that and more.

All in all said, I think that Apalachicola has far exceeded my expectations and I will remember that small town of less than 3000 people for a long time.

Day 9 - Build Day 2 - Good News Outreach

Woohoo, build day!!! You know what that means, right? We got to sleep in! Our bodies will probably never get used to the torture of Bike and Build sleep hours, so we make do with getting as much sleep as we can whenever we can. Every day has a different wakeup time, based on time expected at our next host and distance to ride that day (or if it is a build day).

What did we do today with Good News Outreach? GNO has a large number of permanent single-wide homes that are earmarked as affordable rentals particularly towards single parent families, all located on a large parcel of land. They've discovered a termite infestation on one home in the wooden support for the under-home fencing, which could lead to termite infestation of the entire home. Our task was to create an air gap so that there is no way for termites to migrate to the home. This meant lots of sawing and cutting existing wood and installing some new exterior molding pieces.

Not only did GNO provide breakfast for us in the morning, but they also provided lunch and dinner! We have not yet had an organization provide all three, and we are extremely grateful and full because of it. Thanks!

That's it for now... Tomorrow, Apalachicola!!

Day 8 - Tallahassee, FL

We've arrived in Tallahassee!

With consensus of the group, we took a detour on the way into town for some frozen yogurt. One of the things that happens on these trips is called "donation magic" (DM), when random people and businesses supply our group with free food, supplies, and service. Every one of these helps us Dave money and give more to affordable housing. In this vein, some thanks must go out to the folks at Nuberri for free froyo, to Panera Bread that gave us a large box of their excess bread for us to eat on our trip, and finally to the wonderful couple that drive our 20 lb box of Panera to the host site.



Although we got slightly lost and had to climb a couple massive hills on our way to tonight's host, the froyo was definitely worth it! We are staying tonight and tomorrow night at the Westley Foundation house, who were also kind enough to provide us with a wonderful dinner! Thanks guys!

An ode to Tallahassee:

Oh Tallahassee
your hills so high
Froyo so delicious
Colleen really did cry.

52 miles we rode
To reach your one way streets
Trying not to think
Of the pain upon our seats.

You've welcomed us in
With free yogurt, smoothies, and bread
And gave us a comfortable place
To lay our heads.

Our new friends from FSU
Made sure that we were all set.
With food, showers, and sleep
We are ready for all the rest!

Day 7 - Perry, FL

Another long day and another great evening off of the bike! We changed things up a little bit today and ended up camping instead of staying indoors. Thank goodness the weather was nice and there was no rain!

We stayed at the Perry KOA campground, which (as a bonus) has a pool and a mini golf course in addition to all other amenities. Once again, the cool pool water was incredibly soothing on hot and tired bodies and we all perked up a little bit following our dip in the pool. Also once again, our hosts at the campground provided us with dinner, for which we were incredibly grateful. The salad and lasagna went over quite well!

Day 6 - Lake City, FL

80 Miles! The longest bike ride that we've done yet on this trip and the longest bike ride that I've ever gone on.

How could a host be more considerate to the pains of 33 bicyclists traveling 80 miles? Popsicles of course! After rolling in, exhausted and overheated, we were greeted at the door by our host with popsicles in have and a van ready to drive us to the pool and showers! Not only did we get this wonderful treatment but also had a fantastic meal of taco salad. So delicious! I'm definitely feeling ready for tomorrow!

Day 5 - Palatka

Rolling in from a significantly larger city, (St Augustine), the change to a much smaller town today has been quite the difference. As we rode through the farm fields full of potatoes and corn, I was reminded strongly of my hometown of Jamesport, NY.

As always, we find fun ways to pass the time during our ride days. Although today was a shorter day, we found the time to climb a fire tower, what a view!





Even time for some goofing off...



What can I say about Palatka? While it is a very small town, the town is very quaint and nice. Immediately upon our arrival, we got a tour of all of the town's grand murals on the sides of old buildings by one of our hosts.

By the way, Laura might have gotten in a little bit of trouble in town...



Just kidding!

Our hosts this night set us up in their church (air conditioning!) and provided us with a lovely spaghetti dinner.  I cannot describe how great a home cooked meal tastes these days!  I'm glad to be carbo loaded for tomorrow's 80 mile ride!

As this trip goes on, I continue to be very amazed and impressed by the stories and varied pasts of all of our riders. Each and every one comes from quite a different background, but everyone is getting along great! I daresay that this group has done of the best group dynamic that I've ever seen or heard of, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of this summer plays out.

Day 4 - St Augustine

How exciting is this?! We took off from Jacksonville today on our cross-country ride!!! We started the morning with a group wheel dip in the Atlantic Ocean as we prepared to cross the country. Although our trip will end far too soon, for right now, the Pacific wheel dip seems years away.









On our way to St Augustine, we cruised down a beautiful stretch of A1A along the beach and nature preserves. With clear skies and 90 degrees, today was an awesome ride! No problems today!

Day 3 - Orientation Day 2

Bike safety and maintenance! Today we went over bicycle safety and maintenance, some extra B&B orientation stuff, and went for a bike ride!

Our "shakedown ride" took us 20 miles through the beautiful Atlantic Beach area ofa Jacksonville. Only two flats for the group and a great ride completed!



We're off tomorrow! So excited!!

Day 2 - Build Day 1

Things are getting real! Today we spent the day with Beaches Habitat in Jacksonville, FL, helping to work on three separate duplex housing units. Each one was in a different state of construction, giving us many different jobs to do. The most finished house is expected to be opened in mid June! Josiah and I were on siding duty, with some occasional help from our awesome group leader Claire (but really, all 4 leaders are awesome!).



We're all cleaned up and awaiting dinner and our evening bike safety meeting, so I'll sign off now and enjoy the rest of my birthday :)

Day 1 - My Adventure Has Begun

And I'm off! Day 1 of my 80 day Bike and Build summer has come to an end and now I'm laying here looking forward to tomorrow! Already I've had a great time and met some awesome people, so all is well :)

We had a great time driving down from Stevensville, MD to Jacksonville, FL over the last couple days. After an overnight stay in Charleston (where we enjoyed a short bike ride and some celebratory pre-trip drinks down by the ocean). Five people with bags and bikes all in a Chevy Tahoe made the final push from Charleston to Jacksonville today, where we arrived in style and got right to work with orientation!



To everyone who had supported me and donated to the cause, I'd like to send out a huge thank you straight to you! Bike & Build promises to provide an awesome summer of doing good and I really couldn't do it without you. Thank you from the bottom if my heart!!!

The Countdown Starts!

4! 15! 29! 30!

It's The Final Countdown!!!! (Cue guitar solo)

What does that mean????
1. I have 4 weekends left to make the most out of (and one of them will be up in NY with family).
2. I have 15 days left of work before my Bike & Build adventure starts!
3. I have 29 days left before I hit the road on a road trip down to Jacksonville, FL.
4. I have 30 days (1 month!) left before this Bike & Build business gets real.

How much do I have left to do?  Lots of course.  I still have 40 thank you cards to hand-write, many training miles to put on, a room to clean up, tasks at work to finish, and a theater to get ready for the summer.  How will I do all of this in my little time left?  I don't know!!!!

Regardless, what I don't have to worry about anymore are donations!  You guys have come through in a fantastic manner and have really blown me away. To everyone who has helped and donated, I am super stoked to say

THANK YOU!!!!!!

How much have I raised?  $1? $4500? $5000?  Nope, I have raised $6440 for affordable housing already and there's still another month left to go!  I cannot believe the generosity of everyone and the amount of support that you have shown for me in this endeavor, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

On a final note, to those of you whom I have not thanked yet, I sincerely apologize.  I have had so little time at home in the past few months with trying to juggle everything on my plate that I have fallen severely behind on thank you cards and follow-up correspondence.  As long as I have your name and your address, I do promise that there will be one on its way to you before I leave on this trip, and that everyone can expect a postcard from me from some point along my journey :)

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By the way, I had the chance to go on a nice bike ride on the B&OD trail with a mix of B&B alumni and newbies two weekends ago.  What an awesome group of people!  Next up is my 65-mile training ride this weekend with JoBeth.  I'm definitely looking forward to it!!!

Bicycle Tuesday - 11

We can all remember how just a year ago, the Boston Marathon was interrupted by a series of bombs that changed a happy occasion to one of sadness, grief, and anger.  As an amateur athlete, I was very shaken by the news of the bombings.  No, no one that I know was there or was injured by the blasts, but it still struck a deep chord within my heart.  Runners rarely mean any harm to others, because they are most often racing against themselves and not against the people around them.  Even on race day, I personally strive to give a wave or a quick 'thanks' to everyone there helping out along the course.  I take risks and occasionally get accidentally injured doing things that I love, but no person should have to be scared of personal danger when pursuing their own interests.  Let us never forget what happened, work together to keep similar events from happening again, and keep those affected by these travesties in our thoughts.

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With regards to biking and Boston, I just saw this article: 
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-doctors-write-prescriptions-for-bike-share-program/

How about that?  The implementation seems a bit odd to me, but I do appreciate that they are doing their best to encourage low-income families to make use of their expanding bike share program.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. 

~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bicycle Tuesday - X, Diez, Dime, 2x5

As a kid I had a dream - I wanted to own my own bicycle. When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world. I lived for that bike. Most kids left their bike in the backyard at night. Not me. I insisted on taking mine indoors and the first night I even kept it in my bed.

~ John Lennon

 

Bicycle Tuesday - 9

 Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.

~ Charles M. Schulz

Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls.

~ Bob Weir

"I see here that you're a cyclist?"

 

Memory Quilt Winner!

So, what did you think of that How I Met Your Mother finale?  Wasn't quite what I expected...

Anyways, tonight we pulled the winner of the Memory Quilt raffle, for a quilt custom made by my sister for you!  Thanks to everyone who entered the raffle and thank you to my sister for donating the time and materials to make the quilt!!  My friend Andrew drew the winner and my roommate Katey and friend Dan were there as witnesses, in case you need to check...

Without further adieu, the winner is... Regina Seltzer!  Congrats, Regina!

Finally, if you did not win and still would like your own quilt, please let me know and I'll put you in touch with my sister.  She really does make great quilts!

Fundraiser Recap

It's been a few weeks coming, but I'm stoked to announce the HUGE SUCCESS that has been both of my Bike & Build fundraisers!!!!

Since January, my family worked diligently and tirelessly to put together a booster night fundraiser for March 7th in my hometown, Riverhead, NY.  This night featured a Chinese auction, live music, great food, a few fun competitions for the kids (and adults), a even a photo booth!  Needless to say, everyone had a really fun time hanging out and getting to know one another.  I was on hand at the event, getting to personally meet everyone and say some words about my trip.  Thank you to my wonderful mom and sister for being the driving force behind this fundraising night and thank you to everyone else who donated money, goods, and music to make this one so successful!  All together, we were able to raise $1019 by this fundraiser!!!

Just last Friday, I held my second fundraiser here in Maryland at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center.  This fundraiser brought together friends and family from the surrounding area for a good night of trivia, food, and drinks.  Harpoon brewery was kind enough to sponsor the event with 8 cases of beer and (almost) all the food was cooked by my roommate Katey and myself.  As it turns out, my trivia questions were a bit harder than I anticipated them being (sorry everyone!), but everyone still had a good time nevertheless!  Thank you to Katey and my girlfriend Emily for stepping up and helping out with all of the trivia night planning and running that I could not do just by myself!  Thank you to all the businesses that donated to the event, their donations totaling over $1500!  At this event, we ended with $1006 raised for affordable housing!!!

What does this all mean?!  This means that my fundraising total currently stands at a whopping $5820!!!!  This is far above and beyond my initial goal of $4500 and it all goes straight to supporting affordable housing!!

When i started preparing for this trip, my biggest concern was how i would raise the money to put on such a wonderful trip. What I didn't plan for was how much everyone would want to support me in this endeavor and how many people would willingly donate towards a trip supporting affordable housing. It means so much to me to see everyone coming out to support these events, support my trip, and support affordable housing!  You are all quite wonderful people and I thank you again from the bottom of my heart!

Bicycle Tuesday - 8

You never have the wind with you -
either it is against you or you're having a good day. 
~Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

Bicycle Tuesday - Lucky Seven

To everyone, I'd just like to take a minute to share my thoughts on how lucky that I've been to have all of your support while preparing for my upcoming summer with Bike & Build.  Between individual donations, donations not even asked for, everyone who showed up to the booster night fundraiser, and everyone who has given their own personal time in spreading the word about my trip, contacting businesses for donations, and sought out other donors, THANK YOU!!!!!!

There have been some naysayers and some that want no part of supporting the cause, but by and large everyone has had good things to say about Bike & Build and Affordable Housing.  I feel incredibly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family around me right now.  You are all wonderful people and I am lucky to know all of you! Thanks!

Now, for the bicycling part....

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.

~Albert Einstein

Bicycle Tuesday - Sextus (That's 6th in Latin)

If Americans made one 4-mile round-trip by bike instead of car each week, we'd burn nearly 2 billion fewer gallons of gas annually. At $3.64 a gallon, that's a savings of $6.6 billion.

- Sierra Club: Pedaling Prosperity, 2012

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We all know that it costs much more to ride a bike than drive a car.... but what can you find wrong with the following chart?

That's right, there's no way that I only drive 15k miles a year!  On the other side, try to limit an enthusiastic cyclist to spending only $308 a year on bike parts and upgrades... now that is a kicker!  Nevertheless, the chart still does make a good point.

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What about reducing traffic in cities?  Back in 1991, a photographer in Munster, Germany captured the amount of space required to transport the same number of people in different modes of transportation (bicycle, car, bus).

Keep in mind that these cars are also much smaller than American cars!  The bus actually takes up less space than the bikes, but then you're stuck to a predefined route.  How boring is that?

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Now, wouldn't you like to give bicycling a shot?  I know, some of you might be thinking "but my arms are just too long to comfortably ride a bike."  Don't worry, there's still a bike for you!

So come join the fun!  Even Mr. T's doing it!

"I pity the flat"