And Now For Something Completely Different

It Comes To An End

2008-08-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Day Off – Lake Tahoe, CA – 21 miles

We woke early so Matt, Colin, Scott, Jesse, Dustin, Shane and I could head for the marina first thing this morning. Shane’s friend Beth works at the marina and was able to get us several two-man kayaks for a ride on the lake before it got too busy. We began heading for the west side of the lake, towards an area known as Emerald Bay that Beth had told us about. About an hour into the ride we realized the harm that comes with working only one set of muscles on a daily basis. Our arms were not ready for such activity and we made it about 2/3 of the way to the bay before deciding that open water kayaking on such a big body of water was not the kind of rest we were looking for on our day off. We therefore grabbed some lunch and headed back to the beach for some relax time. We spent most of the day hanging out on the beach and at a coffee shop in town until dinner time. We started riding back to the church when I saw someone walking down the side of the road in the same direction we were heading. “That’s funny” I thought, “that looks just like Brian from Reno.” As we passed I looked back and sure enough, Brian was back in town. We walked back to the church with him and found out that since we were staying in Tahoe for an extra day due to a schedule change, he had come back with Dean and Tiffany for a short vacation. They had brought their ski boat along as well and were offering to take people out on the lake the following day so we signed up for an early ride before the wind picks up too bad.

During dinner we had our final AH meeting where we decided what to do with the money we had raised. It is a challenging task to get two people to agree on a point much less thirty one, but after several rounds of debate and narrowing down of affordable housing groups, we figured an appropriate division for the funding so that all groups who filled out grant requests got at least a small portion fulfilled.

Day Off – Lake Tahoe, CA – 30 miles

We woke early today to get on the water by 8:00 in the ski boat that Dean brought down. Brian was our tour guide for the day as Luke, Paul, Mike, Colin and myself put forth our best efforts at wakeboarding. Somehow I was able to get up a few rides despite my lack of water sports since junior high. We spent two hours taking turns and ended our ride with a circuit across the lake into Emerald Bay which was absolutely gorgeous. After the afternoon on the boat, we checked out downtown Tahoe which was way too touristy, but we managed to find a great burger place for lunch before returning to the church for a short rest.

During the afternoon, I went on a solo ride around the lake to Emerald Bay again to get a view from higher up. The road to the bay had one of the sharpest curving roads I have ridden on so it was exciting going back down, but at the top I found a trailhead to Cascade Falls. The trail was about two miles and didn’t take too long to reach the falls which was a small bubbling stream until it reached a shear 80-foot drop at which point the water spread out and rushed down the mountainside to a smaller lake below. The ride down was a blast and waiting at the church was a great dinner prepared by Hoops and Dragonslayer of eggplant parmesan. A great way to end a day off.

Day 49 – Jackson, CA – 91 miles

It seems we haven’t ridden our bikes in about a week even though it was only two days off in Tahoe. Regardless, everyone awoke ready to tackle what was promised to be an intense riding day through the Sierras. The ride was clearly broken into two parts, before and after the lunch break. Before our mile 37 lunch break, we attacked three major passes. The largest pass was Conner, with a summit of 8,600 feet. Despite the outrageous amount of climbing that we did in the first 37 miles, there was very few complaints to be heard as the scenery was out of this world. We stopped at a few points just to sit on the side of the road and enjoy the views (while catching our breath). The morning was capped appropriately when Colin and I were bombing down a 3 mile hill into lunch and an enormous (I mean huge, like… really) wolf darted across the road in front of Colin, narrowly avoiding an intense collision. A wolf of this size would not only have won the bike vs. animal contest, it would have chowed down on Colin’s face afterwards, but the only exclamation that I heard was “OH YEAH!!!”

After lunch, we expected about 50 more miles of the same, but after a relatively short climb we began our descent from around 8,000 feet. We had been told in the past that it was all downhill after the Sierras and we would laugh along as if we were in on the joke. Apparently no joke, after the Sierras it is literally downhill to the ocean. For 50 miles, excluding a few very minor hills, we dropped over 7,000 feet to Jackson at an elevation of 1,200 feet. The day got even better when we took a stop at a gas station to regroup and a kindly woman bought The Boys and Jesse cool beverages. Since we look all fancy outfits make us look like super intense cyclists, the cashier even gave us all free doughnuts. Best break ever. We finished the ride into Jackson where we stayed at the St. Patrick Church and were treated to a delicious BBQ at the park by the Sacramento Optimists club.

Day 50 – Davis, CA – 60 miles

With our days on the road swiftly drawing to a close, the Boys decided to do something a little different for today’s breakfast. Wakeup was set for 5 am so we sneakily rose at 4:30 and took over the kitchen to whip up a world-class french toast meal. A special thanks to Jane Duddenhoffer for financially backing our treat, which started the day off to a great start. The ride itself started by 6:30 despite the mess we made in the kitchen, and was finally warm enough to skip arm warmers before the sun came up. Ah the familiar joys of low-elevation cycling. The first 10 miles of the ride were absolutely gorgeous rolling countryside as we made a few short climbs and descended into the central California basin. When we came upon the Hwy 16 junction, I realized that I had dropped the pack and was alone. After a few minutes of waiting, I decided to push on but ride slowly, assuming they would catch up with me in no time. By mile 25 there was still no sign of the pack so I took a rest stop at a gas station and chalked the stop for the group. 10 minutes later there was still no sign of the group and I was beginning to get worried that something was wrong when Brian and Nikki rode by. They had passed the pack earlier and apparently Jesse had gotten a flat and Shane’s chain fell off. Relieved, I decided to ride on to lunch, stopping several times to chalk fun messages for the sweeps, who were Caitlin and Colin today.

We enjoyed lunch by another air base and so we were treated to the second private air show of the trip while munching on our PB&Js, a sure-fire crowd pleaser. Though some of our riders can’t even stand mention of peanut butter’s gooey goodness, I have managed to retain my love for it’s versatility in everyday life. The only thing I am looking forward to after this trip is getting an enormous tub of creamy JIF that I can use for everything, and not the peanut butter soup we’ve been enjoying since June.

After lunch we rode a short way further into Sacramento where we visited the capital building and the office of the Governator himself. We were unfortunately not able to meet Mr. “I’ll be back” but we were wrangled by the head of the California Bicycle Coalition who led us across the street to a meeting in progress at the Department of Transportation meeting. Somehow I was swept into action and was elected the group spokesperson so I gave a short presentation to the board on Bike & Build, as well as how our trip had gone thus far, now that we are so close to the coast. After the meeting we went to Old Sacramento where we entertained ourselves walking the streets, eating free taffee samples, and trying on silly costumes at the various shops.

We got back on the road to head for Davis, got about a half mile and were stopped by the Red Bull advertising car for free drinks and a photo from the sales rep. Another half mile brought us to a bowling alley and, in normal Bike & Build fashion, couldn’t pass up an opportunity for ridiculousness. Molly, Caitlin, Colin, Jesse, Brian and myself therefore donned even more amazing shoes than we were already wearing and hit the lanes for an hour. After our games, we finished the ride swiftly following a bike path that paralleled I-80 all the way to Davis, where we took up residence in the Hickey Gymnasium. Our dinner was provided by the Davis Cycling Club tonight in a park just off campus. Several of our riders are going on a ride with the club tomorrow morning to see the countryside. Dustin and I spent our evening in a bookstore downtown planning a ride and hike in west Sacramento County. Nothing like a bit of strenuous physical exertion on your days off!

Day Off – Davis, CA – 50 miles

The group slept in this morning until around 8 am, when we had to move our bags out of the UC Davis gym and to a church 3 blocks down the road. We hefted our bags into our new home, grabbed a quick breakfast, and hit the road for our day’s adventure. Dustin, Scott and I enjoyed about a 25 mile ride west towards Napa Valley through a plethora of fields and farms growing everything from peaches and pears to tomatoes and strawberries; gotta love California variety. We reached a small line of mountains and found the trailhead to a hiking trail that circled a preserve owned by UC Davis. The hike was hot and steep but the views of Lake Berryessa were well worth our efforts. We traveled along a ridge around 1,600 ft above the surrounding countryside, eventually descending away from the blue-within-blue waters and back to our bikes. The ride back was quick with only a short lunch stop in Winters. The evening took us to a delicious Tai restaurant for dinner, followed by a college pub where we commandeered their projection screen to watch the opening ceremony to the Olympics. USA!

Day Off – Davis, CA – 5 miles

Today was the first true day of rest I took on essentially the entire trip. Woke up late, watched the Olympics, checked out the farmer’s market, and generally lounged about. I broke up the afternoon with a quest to In-n-Out burger for my first “Double Double Animal Style” which was everything I hoped it could be and more. As I was on dinner crew for the week, Colin, Hoops and I went soliciting food options for the group. We thankfully had 15 burritos donated by Chipotle, received three meal vouchers for a burger joint and several free cones of ice cream from Baskin Robins. Our feast was completed with the traditional spaghetti dish a la bike and build. Day ended with more Olympic events and a relative early bed time to prepare for our attack on Napa Valley tomorrow morning.

Day 51 – Napa, CA – 79 miles

Dustin, Colin and I awoke at 5:00 am this morning, an hour before the rest of the riders, to get an early start on the day into Napa. We left the parking lot right as the group awoke, having forgone a delicious breakfast prepared for the rest of the group at 7:15 am by the Davis Bike Club. We quickly made our way to Lake Berryessa where we had a mile 30 snack break at a reasonably scenic overlook. We wasted no time and got back on the road to finish our climb over a small coastal mountain range and into the valley. I did not expect the valley to appear as soon as it did as we could see another mountain looming over the final ridge, but we suddenly burst out of the trees and into the northern section of the valley on hwy 128 at Silverado Trail. The scenery was absolutely phenomenal for the entire ride through the valley, and we took our time weaving through the vineyards on our way up to St. Helena. In the city, we grabbed lunch at a KFC, the only fast food joint in the valley it appears, and stopped at a wine shop to inquire about which vineyards to visit. With our recommendations in had we headed back south towards Napa proper. As we were making way towards the Mumm Vineyard, the first of our recommended stops, the golden aura of the Sutter Home Vineyard came into our sights. Without any hesitation we swooped in for the fist tasting at a fine and revered establishment. The day only turned up from there as we were treated to an in-depth tour of the Mumm Vineyard, enjoyed fantastic cabernets at the Plumpjack winery and poked around in the Clos de Val estate. The Plumpjack Vineyard was a highlight as it seemed to be owned and operated by no one over the age of 25. The atmosphere was very hip and trendy and likely to be set up by the same people who brought us Fat Bastard wines. Our evening accommodations were provided by one of Amy’s friends and we all enjoyed a feast of Pizza Hut pies for dinner.

Day 52 – San Rafael, CA – 47 miles

We were handed our cue sheets today and were shocked to find that we had a 65 mile ride ahead of us. I had looked at a map the day before and figured that our ride couldn’t be more that 40 miles at most. We found out that we were being routed in an more “scenic” direction since the most direct roads were very large and scary according to our local, Amy. The boys decided that we had taken on some pretty hectic roads and wanted an adventure on our final full day of riding so we rechecked the maps and headed off for San Rafael. We found our way onto one or two “no-bicycle” roads but survived with minimal incident and no incarceration. We would hate to have Dustin deported so close to the west coast. We even stumbled on a bike route that ran next to hwy 101 next to San Francisco bay so we were able to completely avoid on of the major roads. We stopped around mile 35 when we entered the town and grabbed some breakfast at a bagel shop before getting thoroughly lost in the city due to a few road closures and a cue sheet that may not have actually led anywhere at all. Eventually we ran into another group that had taken the shortcut and caught up with us, so Marc gave us better directions to the host. Our original plan had been to tackle Mt. Tam or Meur National Forest when we got into town but we learned that the Presbyterian church we were staying at for the evening had arranged a private pool and gourmet pizza lunch for us to relax at. We all had a blast relaxing and working on removing our tan lines, and returned to the church late in the afternoon for an amazing cookout and sing along by the church quartet after our final presentation of the summer. As it was our last night outside of the city, Dustin and I rolled out our sleeping bags on the back porch overlooking the San Francisco Bay and Richmond Bridge despite the surprisingly cold weather. Once I closed up the face-hole for my sleeping bag, I slept like a baby despite excitement over our big day tomorrow.

Day 53 – SAN FRANSISCO, CA – 19 miles

Final Day!!!!! We packed our bags for the last time this morning and suited up, taking care of chores as well as a clean out of the van and trailer. In light of the 19 mile ride into San Francisco we decided to forgo cue sheets and the gentlemen of P2SF ditched our spandex for hot pants. Sporting our mid-thigh tan lines proudly, we made our way south as a pack of 31 exstatic cyclists. Big smiles were all that motorists saw as we snaked our way, slowly due to outrageously steep hills, closer and closer. At last we came around the bend of our final climb to see the Golden Gate bridge disappearing into a thick bank of fog. It seemed surreal after having talked about it for so long to finally feel our wheels bump onto the bridge. We took so long making the crossing that by the time we finally reached the beach on the other side, family and friends had been waiting for a few hours more than anticipated. With much ado the pack ran their bikes down to the water, and splashing into the breaking waves of the Pacific Ocean. Variable levels of enthusiasm for the ocean followed as riders felt their toes going numb, but everyone was so excited to reach the finish that plenty of splashing and swimming took place.

Once we all calmed down and finished taking a hundred pictures each, we popped some Champagne courtesy of Colin’s Parents and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach. The group dispersed for the afternoon to explore as much of the city as possible. We headed to the Haight-Ashbury district and poked around in the shops, taking a detour to climb up into Buena Vista Park which overlooked the city. Finally we made our way back to our host for two nights in the city, the Jewish Community Center, were we settled in and had our end-of-the-summer banquet. The catering was delicious and we had the county supervisor as a keynote speaker. Finally Colin and Jesse unveiled their slideshow they had been slaving over for the past few nights which brought back many of the fond memories we had all shared over the course of the trip.

Though I’m glad to be getting back to real life, I will miss the day-to-day excitement of our summer’s adventure. I’m looking forward to getting back to the Habitat site in Gainesville and getting to work with fellow rider’s who spent the summer on other routes. I have had a blast and hope that P2SF ‘08 stays in contact. While we may not have always been the closest of groups, I was lucky to have spent the summer with so many outstanding people who I learned so much from. Yaddah Yaddah, highschool graduation speech. [Cue Green Day “Good Riddance”]

-This is Brent Finklea signing off. Its been real, America.

The End is Near

2008-08-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

After 71 days of cycling, building, sleeping on mats, changing locations nightly, eating 4+ PB&Js per day, climbing, coasting, meeting new people, taking showers with a hose, going on adventures, consuming my weight in ice cream, pot luck dinners, spandex, wearing the same clothing for several days in a row, always being slightly unsanitary, avoiding potholes, jumping sewer grates, waking before the sun comes up, bodies in motion, living out of a 4,500 cubic inch bag, flat tires, finding chain grease constantly on my hands, and legs, and face, arm warmers, singing silly songs, playing 20 questions for hours on end, mountiains, plains, rolling hills, oatmeal for breakfast, cliff bars, saddle sores, camelbaks, diner milkshakes and burgers, and sleeping on the floor next to 30 other wonderful people, our journey has finally come to it's close. Tomorrow bright and early we will wake to make our sub-20 mile ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and down to the Pacific where we can seal our efforts with cold water and hot sand. I would like to appologize again for the delayed updates over the last week. They are mostly written but are stored on my computer which has been comandeered by Colin, Mo and Jesse in order to make a end of trip slide show since it is stocked with many of the riders' photos. If you care to read through the final days of our adventure, I will be posting them as soon as possible (I will be back in Tampa on Saunday morning and can complete any tragglers at that time if not sooner) and if I can figure it out, a file with all the posts in Word document form.

I would like to give a pre-emptive thanks to all of you who have followed us this summer and provided support to our riders. I have enjoyed hearing from all who followed the trip through this journal of events. I began writing as a way to remember the day to day events later on, and I am always delighted and shocked to hear when people other than my family and friends have been reading. I wish the best to all of our 2008 riders and look forward to the reunion rides and adventures we have spent the summer plotting and scheming.

San Fransisco, here we come.

From The Far West

2008-08-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

Day 48 – Lake Tahoe, CA – 75 miles

Sweep day number three! We left the hills of Reno bright and early today with four more riders than usual. Dean, Brian, Tiff and Lisa all donned their spandex and shined up their carbon-framed beauties for our journey into Tahoe. Lake Tahoe, for those of you out of the loop, is the nation’s second deepest lake located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at 1,645 ft deep at it’s deepest, with a surface elevation of 6,229 ft, and a surface area of 191 square miles. Jesse volunteered to sweep with me which was amazing because we had a lot of fun despite our lengthy ride. We were re-routed halfway through the ride due to construction on the hwy 50 pass over the mountains, so we took an alternate route that boasted an eight mile, 9% grade climb which slowed the pack down remarkably well. We still managed to make it into town without too much issue and joined the quicker riders on the southern beach of the lake. One of Shane’s friends from Ithaca, Beth, now lives here in town so we met up with her and she showed us an awesome beach away from the crowds that locals use. We lounged on the beach for the rest of the afternoon, relaxing and throwing sticks into the water for the many dogs that people brought to the beach. Dinner was not provided for the evening, so we went to Safeway and stocked up on burgers that we grilled at Beth’s house. We all had a blast and hit the sack by midnight so we’d be ready to check out the town on our day off tomorrow.

Picture Update: Blogger hates me and after 30 minutes of work I still cannot upload photos. A new method of photo sharing will be explored as soon as time permits. My appologies to everyone, I know the multi-media portion of this blog is a highlight.

Utah and Nevada - At last

2008-08-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

First off, my appologies for the lack of update. Internet has been sketchy on our long traversing of Utah and Nevada but we have finally resurfaced in Reno, and should be in contact from here on out. Pictures will not be posted yet because connection is rather slow when you are hijacking it from nearby buildings. Hope everyone enjoys.

-Brent

Day 38 – Green River, UT – 54 miles

Today’s ride was kicked off with a delicious French toast breakfast provided by our hosts at St. Pius X Catholic Church. It was delicious and one of our best breakfasts of the trip by far. Thanks! As for the ride itself, we tore across the red sandy Utah terrain at a pretty brisk pace as an entire group. Since it was a shorter ride we stopped about mile 28 for a break with the trailer, the entire pack arriving within about 5 minutes of the lead group. After our rest, we hopped on I-70, as it was the only non-dirt road heading west. This was a good interstate experience as there were actually few cars on the road and a wide shoulder. Not only that, but the pavement itself was smoother than anything we had ridden on in about 5 states, a very nice change. The boys were clipping along nicely until about 10 miles out of Green River, we turned around to shout at Scott just as him and Shane had a collision and went down hard, skidding across the asphalt. We skidded to a hault and ran back to where they were lying on the pavement. Fortunately neither was injured too badly, though both were pretty scraped up with road rash and Scott was sporting what seemed to be both a sprained wrist and a sprained ankle. We patched both up as best we could, by which time the entire pack had caught up to us so there were about 20 riders milling around on the shoulder of the interstate. The van came to pick up the guys and their bikes and take them into the city to get cleaned up. Down two riders, Dustin, Colin, Sarah, Paul and I continued on towards Green River. We decided we didn’t want to be on the interstate anymore and Dustin had seen a side road on his maps that headed to the city, so we got off at the next exit. The road we finished the ride on turned out to be the most broken and bumpy road I have ever been on that was technically “paved.” I’m pretty sure all of our bikes will require realignment before tomorrow’s ride as everything must have been shaken loose.

We still managed to arrive in town shortly after noon, and spent the rest of our afternoon bumming around town. Green River is a small city that in the heat of the day could be mistaken for a ghost town. We were fortunate to find a coffee shop with amazingly comfortable couches that many people crashed on for a bit. Heat kills, I hope we wake up at 2:30 am tomorrow to beat the heat on our first of two back to back century rides across the Utah desert. Three cheers for coppertone!

Day 39 – Torrey, UT – 109 miles

The theme for today was “Beat the Heat.” The arid climate we are riding in is not a good place for cyclist to be spending long hours in the sun. We woke at 4:00 am and with some pushing, we were on the road by 5:30 am, headlights and taillights flashing. It was fortunate we got out so early since we had a decent climb out of town that took us until around 6:30, when the sun finally crested the mountains to the east. We enjoyed a mostly flat or downhill ride to lunch at mile 50, seeing two badgers along the way and a an assortment of desert plant life. We decided not to take the side trip to Goblin Valley State Park after Marc told us that it was a 22 mile detour. Several members of the team who were riding behind us did not get this message however and took the turn leading to a 130+ mile day. Some of these riders finished the day around 8 o’clock pm while a few had to be picked up before the final climb into Torrey because it was getting too late. After lunch we continued on our way through the desolate terrain, at which time I got my second flat of the trip. Luckily I have had a decent amount of practice in changing tires by now, and it did not cause much of a setback. The ride led us through Capitol Reef State Park which had some beautiful canyon views and even provided a decent swimming hole by a small waterfall. We were so excited by mile 94 that we had a place to swim, we ditched our bikes and ran down in our shorts to the water where several local kids were jumping off the waterfall into the water below. Naturally as soon as Colin, Jesse, Mike and I saw this we had to follow suit while Dustin took some amazing pictures shown below. Our fun was unfortunately brought to an end by the arrival of a park ranger who pointed out a sign telling us we can’t have any fun of any sort inside the park perimeter. Go figure.

Back on our bikes we quickly (relatively speaking) ascended into Torrey where we stopped at Slackers at a tip from the kids at the swimming hole to get shakes and burgers. Needless to say the food we received was unreasonably delicious and a wonderful addition to the pasta dinner we would be making for ourselves later in the evening. At our host we found a lack of showers so Colin and I set off to inquire with locals about a place to get the grime off. After an hour of searching and several failed attempts (RV parks requested $5 a shower, yeah right) we returned to the church, dejected and prepared for our punishment of the icy cold hose on the front lawn. I can only describe this experience in the words of Grace: “It is like being molested by a polar bear.” I could not describe it any better. After lots of shivering and clenched teeth we retreated to the church where our quarters were so small, people were sleeping both on and under pews, while still crowding one another. With Bike and Build, there is no such thing as personal space. I love it.

Medical Update: Scotty and Shane took today off to ride in the van and heal their wounds. Shane has some pretty intense road rash and Scotty went to the clinic where an x-ray revealed he had a fractured ulna, aka a broken wrist. They were able to fit a splint on him though and said he would be able to ride on as soon as his bruised ankle starts feeling better.

Day 40 – Panguitch, UT – 111 miles

Today we slept in to the late hour of 4:40 am because everyone needed their beauty rest. We were still on the road by 6:00 am to a surprisingly brisk temperature of around 50 degrees. Definitely unexpected but welcomed with open arms. We had covered a cheerful 1.5 miles when Matt got his first flat of the day. Dustin, Colin and I were riding with Matt, Luke and Mike today as Shane and Colin were spending another afternoon recouping from their “pavement encounter” on the ride into Green River. No big deal, we patched it quickly and went on our way. The morning held lots of climbing as we rose to over 8,000 ft by mile 25. We cranked out another quick 25 miles getting to lunch, mostly downhill but with a few decent climbs along the way, and Matt’s second flat in the middle of the major climb. Most of the afternoon passed swiftly and without much to tell. We took a break at mile 84 where we found an abandoned building to seek shelter in. After another stop for the official second lunch at mile 92 we were chased by storm clouds into a canyon where we were sheltered from the wind. Exiting the canyon, we found that the fates were not favoring us and the wind had shifted so that the storm was once again bearing down on us. Almost on cue, Matt struck irony gold with his third flat of the day. We patched it as quickly as we could but still managed to get a little wet, though the bulk of the storm was being held at bay. We rode into town as quickly as we can, trying to avoid being soaked, but so thankful that it was overcast and not the unreal heat from the day before.

Our host, the “Social Hall” of Panguitch, did not have showers and our only option was to use the showers at a rodeo about 2 miles away. Our desire to not set foot on a bicycle for the rest of the day kept us from making the commute, instead taking sink showers as best possible and looking forward to better facilities tomorrow. Hygene really has seemed to take a back seat to convenience and I am ok with that. Hope my bad habits don’t carry back to Gainesville too much.

Day 41 – Milford, UT – 82 miles

Relative to our previous rides, today was short and swift. We awoke at 5:00 am to be on the road by 6:30, backtracking our way ten miles to SR 20. As Scotty and Shane were back on their bikes this morning because Scott managed to attach aero bars to his bike so he can ride with the soft cast while Shane was toughing out the road rash. Scott took it slow with sweep while the rest of us tried to make it as short a day as possible, riding with the Slayers for the first 25 miles of the day. There were some significant climbs up to the 25 mile mark, along which I found my best souvenir yet: the rattle off of a road-kill rattlesnake. On the descent into lunch at mile 45, Colin and I combined our forces to try and break new speed records with different tuck and drafting techniques known as “the slingshot.” With a little help and some pretty steep drops, I am proud to say that I finally reached my 50 mph goal. Some riders manage this on an almost daily basis (though how eludes me) but be it an untrustworthy speedometer or an insufficient body mass, I have been unable to do so until now. The rest of the ride was spent at top speed getting to Milford where the father of Colin’s roommate was able to score us hotel rooms! Not just the 6-to-a-room style at the Riverfront in Lawrence. We are talking about 10 singles and 20 doubles. I don’t even know what to do with all the space I have available. After two months of sleeping on the floor next to several other people, I feel quite secluded and I’m both loving it and kind of missing the company in an odd sort of way. Nonetheless, we passed our afternoon all packed into Colin’s room eating chips and salsa while watching the Yankees dominate the Red Sox. I am not a big baseball fan but I definitely enjoyed a relaxing afternoon inside, safe from the intense storms that rolled into town in the early afternoon. Some downtime is exactly what everyone needed and I think we will be ready to tackle tomorrows ride starting bright and early.

-Ecstatic to be in a real bed

Day 42 – Great Basin National Park, NV – 91 miles

We pealed ourselves out of our wonderful beds this morning as usual and set off for Nevada. We had a surprising 4 major climbs over the course of the ride: three ridges and a climb into Great Basin National Park. Our first shock came when we passed over the first ridge and saw the straightest and road that must have ever been build stretching from the pass, down and across a barren valley, and up and over another ridge about 18 miles away (we clocked it). I’ve never felt so out of place in a certain terrain. There was a similar valley over the next pass and one house in each of the valleys. It is impossible to tell distance in such surroundings. We spotted the lunch trailer from the top of the second ridge and guessed it was maybe 3 miles away. 8 miles later we finally pulled into the small clearing where the trailer was parked, go figure. The rest of the ride was fairly quick after the third ridge climb. We passed the Nevada border around mile 78 and descended into a small town at the foot of the park where we stopped for about an hour to enjoy some ice cream in the shade. It began clouding up so we packed it up and made for the 8 mile climb into the park. The climb was about 8% grade so it took us close to an hour to reach our campsite, just in time for the clouds to open up and the storming to begin. Thank goodness Paul had been their earlier and set up our tents already. Luke made a roaring fire to keep us warm as the temperature dropped and we attempted to make our burrito dinner in the rain. Slightly soggy, we polished off all the beans and rice swiftly and most everyone was out cold by the time the sun snuck behind the mountains.

Day 43 – Ely, NV – 74 miles

The day began about 5:45 with our usual wakeup call. Everyone packed up pretty quickly despite the remaining wetness from last night’s rain. The group split up during route meeting into three parts for the day: those who were heading strait for Ely, those who wanted to check out the famous caves the park had to offer, and the Dustin-Marc duo that went to conquer Mt. Wheeler, Nevada’s highest peak at about 13 thousand feet. I tagged along with the spelunking team and headed for the visitor center. We got a early-bird tour at 8 o’clock of the cave system which was fascinating as well as frigid, at a constant 50 degrees. After the cave tour we grabbed a quick bite of breakfast before heading out for the day. The boys were all split up because Shane was on sweep, Colin woke up sick and so took the van to Ely, Dustin was climbing a mountain, and Scott was taking it slow because of his arm. Therefore, I decided to take my second solo ride of the summer to see how much physical improvement I made. I left the visitor center for the park around 10 am for the long 48 mile ride to lunch including two big passes and an outrageously long valley crossing. It was fun and I managed to catch up with 6 riders from the original group before reaching lunch at the peak of the second pass, though I realized the value in having a group to talk with or pace your ride against. I finished the ride from lunch riding with Hoops, Grace and Molly into a ridiculous headwind. With some pushing we made it to our host at Ely in time to avoid the looming rain clouds, where we set up camp in the basement filled with what appeared to be a yard sale in progress. We took showers at the truck stop again, which I’ve discovered are not as bad as you would expect. Anything is welcome after two days of riding without cleaning off.
Colin and I met up with Jesse and Neal on our way back from the showers in order to settle my cravings for Chinese food and offer some protein to supplement our otherwise carb-packed diet. We enjoyed a second dinner about an hour later back at the church of (surprise surprise) spaghetti!!! In good carb-loading fashion we tucked in and hit the sack soon there.

Day 44 – Eureka, NV – 84 miles

Today was a four-pass day. Not too long, but plenty of vertical to keep us busy. The ride itself was fairly non-descript. More of the same on hwy 50. Only real events to relate are with respect to motorists we met on the road. At our lunch break we were stopped at the top of the second pass when a white Jetta pulls up next to us and a couple gets out. Generally Dustin and I seem to be the meet and greet team whenever someone is curious about what we are doing, so we mosied over the see what the issue was. The couple turned out to be Dean and Tiff with the worlds cutest Pomeranian puppy, Gracie. They were a pair of cyclists who had seen our group along the road and wanted to take a break on their drive back to Reno. We explained what we are doing and commented that we were going to be in Sparks in a few days, just outside of Reno, but didn’t know where we were staying yet. After talking to the friendly couple for about a half hour, Tiff said she would try to help us find lodging and food during our build day break. We exchange information and cross our fingers that we may soon have a lawn to pitch a tent on and maybe, just maybe, a single shower we can all share.

Our second encounter was when a car passed us farther down route 50 with someone clapping and shouting “go bike and build!” Now we are used to random excitement from strangers but most don’t know who we are, so Dustin pulls over to introduce himself. Small world, because as it turns out the driver was a bike and builder who just finished the central US route a few days earlier and was driving back east. Weird.

In town we were given the opportunity to shower at the community pool, where we got talking to the head lifeguard/manager of the pool. She offered to let us sleep in the facilities as they were indoors and handed me her keys to the building, under the agreement that I leave them under a rock outside when we went to leave. We decided to sleep with the group in the tents but we did use the pool building to watch the Big Labowski first. Eureka really is appropriately named “the friendliest city on the loneliest highway.

Day 45 – Austin, NV – 70 miles

Today’s ride was largely uneventful, attempting to leave bright and early though the dawn brought such a cold that we took refuge in a diner for an hour after route meeting until it warmed up enough to brave the ride. Once again the desert proved it’s unappealing nature with 60+ degree temperature swings over the course of the day. Within an hour of the sun coming up it was up to 75 degrees and an hour later it was a full heat. We took it slow today as it was a shorter day with only two passes – so we thought. Turns out the second pass was actually a double which had a false pass at about 6,400 feet followed by one at 6,600 feet. It was quite a climb but we were rewarded with an amazing downhill into Austin in which Matt sat on my rear wheel and we bombed down around a series of sharp twists and turns that were way too exhilarating. We reached the bottom of the hill and the church/RV park (unique combo I know) where we were greeted with a barrage of water balloons from the slayers and others who had arrived first. Fortunately for us we were under attack by cyclists and not baseball players and so only one or two balloons found their targets. The accommodations were fine but cramped because renovations were taking place and stuff was everywhere. The weather was great so several people even pitched tents outside. We enjoyed some of the finest burritos I think bike and build has ever made and promptly headed for bed, preparing for our final planned century of the trip.

Day 46 – Fallon, NV – 114 miles

Today’s ride merits a small novel unto itself, but it seems when I go to write down the day’s events I can only recall a few notable moments. The point is that it seems we were on our bikes forever, though we were still stuck in Nevada landscape. We began the day with a 4:30 wakeup call into the brisk desert morning weather. It didn’t seem too cold at first but we began with a steep descent that left us zooming into a valley that was around 50 degrees according to my thermometer. The sun was up by this point but it wasn’t until we began our only major pass of the day around mile 21 that it finally got warm enough to remove layers. Colin still wasn’t feeling quite right today due to the stomach issue that’s been passed around over the recent weeks, so we kept it in low gear and made plenty of snack breaks along the way. Highlights for the day: (1) Mile 63 we hit the “shoe tree.” This is a tree out in the middle of nowhere that motorists took the time to stop and discard massive quantities of old sneakers, boots, and even high-heels onto the branches. (2) We were given a private air show as we crossed the training grounds of the naval air base. Jets streaked overhead and performed ridiculous maneuvers while we chugged along on the winding road below. A few jets even fired a few blanks or flares during the fly-bys. (3) After an explosive flat tire blew on Jesse’s bike, we cut across a large expanse of salt flats. This is a sandy area where nothing grows because the salt is so concentrated you can see the crystals glinting from the road.

We somehow made it (somehow) to our hosts at the United Methodist Church around 5:15, just in time to enjoy a quick shower at the community pool across the road before a delicious dinner of sloppy joes, corn, beans, and fresh watermelon was served. We were so hungry that most of had to go lay down directly following the meal because we chowed down so much. Now for a brief night’s sleep before the final ride of our intense 10 day stretch across Utah and Nevada. Reno here we come.

Day 47 – Reno, NV – 71 miles

Today we finally returned to civilization. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs and muffins, three things that blow our usual breakfast of solidified oatmeal out of the water. We finished out our time on Hwy 50 (finally) and got onto I-80 in the town of Fernley. We took a quick snack break, finishing off the muffins from breakfast, and then Luke and I got on the interstate and bolted for Sparks. We made it in short order to Sparks where we met up with the rest of the group and our host for the weekend Tiff at a quick stop just off the road. We found out there that the reason we hadn’t seen anyone following us on the road was that there had been an accident back at a construction area in the road and that several riders were detained by the highway patrol for over an hour before they could complete the ride. Luckily no one was seriously injured, though several riders got in the van to nurse wounds and road rash. We jumped on a bike path that ran through town and into the heart of Reno, eventually arriving at Idlewild Park where a picnic lunch was waiting for us courtesy of local sandwich shops that was set up by Dean and Tiff. We enjoyed the beautiful weather for a bit, eventually making our way to the house of Marilee where several of us were to be staying for the weekend. She was amazingly generous to let 8 strangers take over her floor space for 48 hours and can’t be thanked enough. While at the park we had met Brian, a friend of Dean and Tiff, who took Dustin, Colin, Jesse and I to the river nearby for a dip before dinner. We got back just in time for delicious burritos donated by a local shop. We watched clips from past stages of the Tour de France while we munched which was amazing because everyone actually got really excited. Nothing like bike nerds having fun. After dinner we hit up the Blockbuster and enjoyed a private showing of The Usual Suspects before passing out for the evening. Perfection.

Build Day – Reno, NV

We awoke bright and early at 5:45 am for our half day 7 – 11 am build. The build itself went well with most people working on siding, painting or sheetrock. I forgot how frustrating hanging sheetrock can be if not done properly, but it was nice to see the house come a little closer to finish. I saw one of the saddest sights of the trip today unfortunately, as the habitat house two down from the one we were working on had been recently broken into and burned down, only a week before the expectant owner was to move in. I can’t believe someone could be so malicious and spiteful. Dustin and I mused over possible motivation for such an attack on either the individual, the organization or the community as a group. Its easy to see how such an act could take the wind out of the sails of a habitat chapter, and I can only hope that it does not put too much of a dark cloud over the good that the volunteers are trying to accomplish.

After the build we all convened at a park in downtown Reno. We had some time to kill so several of us went with Brian to the Cal Neva for a real Nevada gambling experience. We enjoyed learning the finer points of Blackjack from a friendly dealer and played for quite some time with some wins and some losses. As soon as the dealer’s break came and a new stony-faced dealer took over, the game sped up 5 fold and we all quickly found ourselves devoid of a chip stack. Regardless, we had a great time a returned to the park just in time to enjoy a donated lunch of gourmet pizza while we watched tubers and kayakers frolic in the river that flowed by.

We stopped by a bike shop on the way back to the house to stock up on tubes and for a new tire because my back wheel decided that it only had enough rubber for around 4,500 miles. Such a shame, but we did a serious bicycle maintenance session in the front yard to get our chariots tuned up for the final push to the Pacific. Dinner was a delicious Italian smorgasbord supplied by several local restaurants held at Dean and Tiff’s house. We discussed grant applications over dinner and continued to debate which housing organizations would receive the $9,000 we have left to give after the majority of our fundraising went to fully fund a house in Providence. After dinner entertainment took place in the cul-de-sac in the form of double dutch, pogo-sticking and finally a poi demonstration by Dean and Brian. As fire is always a big hit, two guys swinging flaming balls on the end of chains was enough to get our blood pumping. Before jumping into the ‘ol sleeping bag, I rode down to blockbuster to drop off the movie we rented last night, and in the process got a phenomenal view of the city lit up against the backdrop of the Nevada mountains. It was an beautiful sight, almost a miniature Las Vegas as seen from a low flying plane. I am glad we are back to civilization though I know I will soon be missing the vast expanse of nothing that was our last 10 days of riding.

Red Rocks

2008-07-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Day 37 – Moab, UT – 85 days

Our last day in Colorado brought an outstanding ride of changing scenery. We had an extended descent for the first 26 miles of the ride, heading directly west towards the La Sal Mountains and dropping close to 1,000 ft in elevation. On either side of us was a sheer faced canyon which sported red-rock walls and a wide valley for us to ride down. The group was pretty bunched up at first so the Boys of Summer (Dustin, Colin, Shane, Scott and Myself as we were dubbed by the other riders) decided to step up the pace and we flew through the ride much quicker than usual. At mile 36 we entered Utah, our third to last state, and did the traditional taking of silly pictures at the state sign. We enjoyed two substantial climbs over the day up to an elevation of about 7,300 ft as we passed the La Sal Mountains to the south around mile 50. We descended for the majority of the ride that remained, and as we rounded the mountains and began to head north, we officially entered the Utah desert. Scenery changed almost instantly it seemed to an arid red sand and stone terrain that led us down into some phenomenally beautiful canyons that were rather narrow and wound across the countryside towards Moab. We arrived in town by 1:30 and enjoyed some time off by checking out the main street and all the fun a medium sized city could offer that we hadn’t seen since Ft Collins.

For dinner, our hosts at St. Pius X Church set out a great spread of hamburgers and hotdogs followed by our usual presentation which my group was in charge of this week. Afterwards we had a Bike and Build version of “Coffee Talk” with the priest who was a founder of the Moab Housing Coalition. I very much enjoyed the round table discussion of the roots of not only poverty housing, but homelessness and general social distress. It was fascinating to hear everyone’s input as well as those from individuals outside of our team. Having discussions such as these has been one of my favorite parts of the trip relevant to our cause. Dialogue is what our mission is all about. Opening peoples’ eyes to the social problems we are facing domestically and inspiring them to take individual action. I can’t wait until our Affordable Housing meeting on Thursday to continue the discussion.

Day Off – Moab, UT – 35 miles

Days off from any activity are meant to be relaxing and a change of pace. So to mix things up Colin, Jesse, and myself woke up at 5:15 and left the church by 5:50 am on a quest for Arches National Park before the sun came up and started baking the land. The ride in was gorgeous despite two climbs that took us upwards over 1,500 ft on our 16 mile ride to the Windows section of the park. We spent about an hour walking around this area, exploring and taking pictures of the enormous holes created in the sandstone by water and wind before Scott, Sarah, Shane and Shannon showed up and we all continued exploring. We were debating on if we wanted to bike further into the park since it had gotten so hot by that point, when Marc and friends showed up with the van, so we bummed a ride down to Delicate Arch, the formation featured on all Utah license plates and the most photographed of all arches. After getting dropped off back at the Windows, we hopped on our bikes and sped back down to Moab where we gobbled down some lunch, entertained showers, and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon wandering around town and taking care of the various things that we needed for the coming 10 days of consecutive riding. All things bicycle related break after a certain amount of use, we have discovered. The mouthpiece of camelbacks are notorious for springing leaks or tearing, which mine finally did (despite the ridiculous mold colonies growing inside it, aka my pets) so I had to pay a visit to the local bike shop for replacements. We finished the day with another amazing meal, this time of fried chicken provided by our hosts before hitting the hay and getting rested up for tomorrow’s assault on the Utah highways.

-Monsieur Finklesteinowitz

Of Splashes and Bluegrass

2008-07-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Day 35 – Montrose, CO – 65 miles

Today we recovered from our past three rides through the Rockies, and it couldn’t come at a better time. A relatively short ride gave us plenty of time to enjoy ourselves along the route after an amazingly late wakeup of 7:00 am. Sam heard from a local that there was a great reservoir along our route for the day so at mile 15, twenty two of our riders pulled off to explore a park along the reservoir. After some searching and a fifteen minute hike, Luke and Paul found a rock outcropping that we all clambered down to do some cliff jumping. Now this may sound a little bit dangerous, but trust me we are professionals and checked the water before making out 25-ish foot descents into the brisk water below. We spent about two hours practicing our flying abilities, drawing a small crowd of boaters to watch, and taking ridiculous pictures in mid-air. Though the water was cold it was perfectly refreshing on a hot day, and we had to eventually peel ourselves away so as to make it in a somewhat timely manner to lunch.

The ride was pretty flat and followed a reservoir for about the first thirty miles, but there were two pretty decent climbs and descents involved. The first of which began around mile 30 as we caught up to a group of 7 fully-loaded touring cyclists from the North Carolina area. We rode with them to the top of the hill, and I’m ashamed to say that I felt more out of breath by the time we reached the top than the other group looked. We enjoyed about a 5 mile descent, stopping halfway for lunch and completing the run at top speed to try and avoid storms that were very threatening and even started to sprinkle before we made it out of harms way. One more 4 mile climb followed and we reached the top about mile 50 to have our first view of a strait shot out of the Rockies. We were all so excited to see flat land laid out in front of us that we got into the tightest tucks possible and bombed down the 15 miles descent into Montrose, at some points reaching speeds in excess of 48 mph.

As an evening treat for a week well done, we all piled into the party van and went downtown to catch the 10 o’clock showing of Dark Knight which was AMAZING. Everyone had a blast and crashed as soon as we got back to the church to get ready for tomorrows build.

Build Day – Montrose, CO – 0 miles

We went into today’s build with the impression that there were not going to be many jobs available for us to do. We were proven wrong and stayed very busy all afternoon doing jobs such as putting windows into one house, installing insulation, framing a second house, raising the walls and putting up the plywood around it. Katie, Paul and I were put to the task of building a shed behind the house being framed. This turned out to be a much larger job as I anticipated as we were building it essentially as a smaller version of the house, doing everything from building a foundation to framing walls. We had a bunch of fun and returned to the church for showers before the Habitat chapter threw a block-party event for us in which there was a pot-luck feast and live bluegrass band playing all the essentials. We all had a blast dancing and practicing our spoon-playing abilities and it seems everyone is revitalized and ready to tackle a few more ride days on our way into Utah.

Taste the Rockies

2008-07-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Day 32 – Granby, CO – 64 miles

Today was one of the most beautiful and scenic days I have been fortunate enough to witness in my short 21 years of life. We awoke at the ripe hour of 4:30 am to get our gear packed up and get into the park before the gate guards arrived and began charging $10 a head. Not a very good price when there are more than 30 of us going through. Before we even left the church parking lot though, we were greeted by a friendly ungulate in the form of an enormous elk walking by. He did not seem too bothered by us gaping at him so we got in close and took a few good pictures before setting off on our skyward journey.

We made it into Rocky Mountain National Park by 6:45 am, early enough to elude the watchful eye of park rangers and began our ascent of Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuously paved highway in the United States. Amazingly enough, we made pretty good time up the entire 20 mile climb, averaging between 6 and 8 mph on most of the sections. The views were incredible up the entire ride, so I will not even begin to attempt a description, but everyone’s cameras seemed to be out as much as not. Highlights of the ride include playing in the snow at the peak of the mountains, Dustin sledding down the snow embankment on his rain jacket, seeing a marmot for the first time, an enormous herd of about 50 elk in the tundra, riding above the Timberline, an amazing descent out of the park, standing on the continental divide, and nearly running into an enormous bull elk I spooked while plunging down a big hill. It was amazing that it took us about four hours to reach the top of a 20 mile climb to 12,183 ft, and about 40 minutes to descend out of the park. It was also surprising to see how many cyclists were out for the day riding the course for fun. Definitely more than your average ride. All in all the day was beyond amazing, and it seemed we couldn’t keep our jaws from hanging open at the views we were catching. It was even sweeter too because we felt we earned the rewards by paying in sweat. I’m sure the day will go down as one of, if not THE greatest ride of our summers.

Day 33 – Leadville, CO – 103 miles

Today we decided it would be a good idea to ride a century in the Rocky Mountains. To accomplish this task, we awoke at 4:30 am to get an extra-early start on the day and learned that it is cold in the morning when you are in the mountains. VERY cold. As we sped away from the church shortly after 6:00 am, I checked the temperature on my cyclocomputer to discover an ambient temperature of 38 degrees! This is cold enough when standing still, but add a 20 mph wind chill from the bicycles an you have a recipe for freezing. I cannot describe how cold we are, as even the Canadian on our trip was frozen solid. Fingers and toes that were exposed to the air ached in a way that I have never even experienced in a snow-skiing setting. After a blustering 10 miles we reached the next small town as a group and immediately fled into the first diner we saw and decided to wait out the cold. Enormous mugs of hot chocolate and fantastic breakfasts were enough to instill courage in us to head back outside 45 minutes late into now 50 degree weather. Since the sun had come up, the temperature quickly rose as we made our way towards what we believed to be our impending doom. Nothing is worse than thinking that a huge climb is coming. We had been told to expect two large climbs over passes during the day, so we were constantly on edge looking for the road to head off over mountain peaks where they were likely buried in snow still. But to our relief, no such climb came until very late in the day. We spent most of our day riding in the valley between mountains, stopping once for a slurpee break when we saw a gas station on our route. We even were fortunate enough to spend several miles on bike paths today. Colorado has gained even more points in everyone’s eyes because it is so bicycle friendly.

At our second lunch stop after a beautiful ride through a canyon, we met a representative from SRAM (a bicycle components company) who was helping out at a Specialized Bicycle fair where buyers from all over the world come to test out bikes from the same company who sponsored us this year. After a few pictures, we got back on the road and finally found our climb. We headed up for several mile, eventually reaching the summit of Fremont Pass at 11,318 ft where Climax Molybdenum was located. An interesting point about this pass we learned, was that it was the western bound of the Louisiana purchase in 1803, and therefore the westernmost part of the United States. We crested the pass and flew down the next 12 miles into Leadville, the highest incorporated city in America at 10,200 ft. Our host for the night provided an incredible chili dinner which everyone devoured after our long century ride. Its just hard to believe that in a few short hours we will be waking up to do it all again. Yikes.

Day 34 – Gunnison, CO – 119 miles

Once again we must prove our level of hard-core in an unnecessarily long day of riding. A 119 mile ride is very long in any terrain, but in the Rocky Mountains it becomes a whole different ball game. We began in Leadville a little later than yesterday in order to avoid the frigid cold and allow the sun to warm things up a bit, but it was still mid-50s when we shoved off on the day’s ride. We started things off quick with a 40 mile dash to the first lunch stop. I say dash because it was mostly downhill or neutral terrain and I had an average speed of 22 mph when we pulled into our stop. This was only broken by not one, but two flats at mile 20; one for Matt and one for Shane. At least we are getting very fast at our flat-changing.

After lunch, the ride was pretty quick, with some beautiful scenery of the surrounding mountains. We passed both Mt. Harvard and Mt. Yale which are part of the collegiate mountains. At about mile 58 we passed through a small town and the road turned up in the beginning ascent of Monarch Pass. After passing over Trail Ridge Road, we figured that everything else would be a breeze. Monarch Pass proved us very wrong. We climbed for about 15 miles at a grade that was much steeper than that in Rocky Mountain National Park in many places. Eventually, after spending far too much time in our granny gears, we reached the summit of 11,312 ft at mile 75 to find Mo camped out with supplies for more PB&Js as well as a small shop where we feasted on hotdogs for a change of pace and a celebration for cresting the top.

Back on our bikes, we bombed down the mountain at an average of 35-40 mph, covering the distance that took us about two hours on the way up in less than 20 minutes going down. Nevertheless, there is still nothing as exciting as rocketing around corners at those speeds. Definitely worth the climb. The remainder of our epic day was spend pounding out the miles over rolling hills as we headed west through a valley towards Gunnison and eventually Utah. When we arrived in Gunnison, we had expected to be camping out on the campus of Western State University, but to our delight found that Jess had scored us a place to stay at a nearby church. As we had a bit of light rain on our ride into town we were beyond excited for this news. Dinner was hosted by the local Habitat chapter and was definitely some of the best food we have received on the trip. Eggplant Florentine was served if that is any hint on the quality of grub laid out. Great end to a tiring day. Oh yeah, and I showered for the first time in 48 hours and 220 miles. Best feeling in the world.

-Sir Used-To-Smell-Like-Feet-And-Wet-Dog

Into the Mountains

2008-07-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

Day Off – Fort Collins, CO – 16 miles

The day off was well needed and very relaxing. We were awoken at 6:45 am by the church members b/c it was Sunday and naturally there was a service that was about to begin. We cleaned up and took off on our bicycles to check out the reservoir at the base of the mountains that we had been told about. We found a few foot trails leading up a ridge to what we thought was the reservoir so we hiked ourselves up, only to find out that we actually had to ride up to a much higher dam that was pointed out to us. Regardless, we were able to get a great view of the mountains and city below so we took a few pictures and headed back to the church. As we are heading into the mountains tomorrow, I decided to give the ‘ol bicycle a full scale tune-up. That means everything from brake pads to tire alignment was addressed. Faulty brakes are not fun when rocketing down a mountain at 50+ mph. The rest of the afternoon was spent bumming around town, and laying under trees reading because the weather was beyond gorgeous. Getting pumped up for some serious hills tomorrow. Yehaw.

Day 31 – Estes Park, CO – 45 miles

D-Day has finally arrived. We got up at 6 am to pack our bags and head out into the day. Our cue sheets showed that we would be riding up to the reservoir by way of the dam, aka the way we decided not to go yesterday because it looked too high. Spirits were high nonetheless and much encouragement was shouted between groups as we passed on another on the switchbacks until we finally completed a set of three decent climbs to a point high above even the reservoir. Climbing is completely worth it because even though the altitude and grade make your legs and lungs burn with exertion, the views are spectacular and the down hills exhilarating.

We took lunch at about mile 20, halfway through the day, to regroup and check on how everyone was holding up. Directly after lunch we had a pretty nice descent into Thomson Canyon which was our gateway to Estes Park. Nearly the entire way through the canyon everyone’s jaws were hanging open as we looked up at the sheer cliff faces surrounding us. It was by far the most dramatic area I have ever ridden in and there was far too much to take in during a single pass. We had our eyes peeled for bighorn sheep the entire ride as well, because of the signs on the side of the road warning of them. We unfortunately did not see any sheepish animals, but Dustin was able to spot a little rattle snake as we were ascending. We climbed through the canyon following a small river at a constant grade all the way to Estes Park, which luckily meant that it was not to steep, but definitely noticeable. We arrived in the town to find ourselves surrounded by snow-capped peaks. It was an amazing feeling to turn a bend in the road and find the valley stretched out before us. Just another reason why I love being in the mountains.

As an afternoon break, the boys (Jesse included) and I headed to a putt-putt golf course we spotted on our way in and played a round of 18. The competition was fierce because of a small wager we put on the game, but yours truly came out victorious with a score of 40 strokes, while poor Scott will be eating peanut butter on ALL of his food tomorrow due to his 50 stroke game. We will be monitoring his diet closely for any hint of a violation. Once again, early to bed after a delicious supper provided by the congregation of the Community Church of the Rockies and getting pumped for tomorrow’s early ascent into Rocky Mountain National Park!

Terrain Changes, Oh My

2008-07-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Day 29 – New Raymer, CO – 86 miles

All of our sickly comrades found there way back onto their bikes today for a very interesting ride out of Holyoke. The day began as a very shallow climb out of the city. As we traveled through each new town, the elevation on the signs increased by about 200 feet, showing the team that we were not just imagining the grade. We passed one of the most shocking terrain changes of the trip about mile 20 when we entered a small town of about 200 people having passed corn and wheat fields all morning as we had for the last few weeks, and left the far side of the city about a half mile down the road to find ourselves in prairie scrubland such as you would expect in an old western film, tumbleweed and all. We took a break to appreciate the new terrain and check out a massive wind farm about 10 miles off in the distance with what seemed to be more than a hundred windmills. Wish we were close enough to go take a look but we chose to push on into the city of Sterling, where we enjoyed lunch at a Colorado visitor center. It only took about half an our of us sitting in the parking lot before someone alerted the local newspaper of our presence and we were lining up for photos in front of the trailer. More great exposure, gotta love it.

We left Sterling on CO-14, the “scenic” highway and entered the Pawnee National Grasslands at about mile 55. This was our second dramatic terrain change of the day. Along with the theme of Colorado being a state of extremes, the grasslands have become the new flattest area we have traveled on so far. We redefined being in the middle of nowhere when at several points along the ride we could see from horizon to horizon without having a single tree obstruct our view. Some of the interesting sights we saw along the way were a disarmed ICBM missile silo, a herd of about 20 buffalo that ran along the road next to us for a few minutes and even some pronghorn antelope. Still, the most exciting part of the ride was when Shane and I squeezed through not one but two barbed wire fences in an attempt to get pictures of the prairie dog colonies that were next to the highway. Those guys are just too cute but noisy as heck when they think you want to BBQ them for dinner. We finished out the day as a pretty slow pace as temperatures reached past 100 degrees. The heat led several riders to take to the van on the prairie ride just because dehydration and heat exhaustion became a real issue.

We finally rolled into the bustling metropolis of New Raymer, CO about 3 pm, a town of approximately 91 residents, where we took up residence at the community center. We realized after a quick count that there were enough chairs at the center for every citizen to sit in two at once and there still be several left over. Fun fact. We had no hose or shower facilities either, so we took to knocking on the doors of houses and making friends with locals for showers. Everyone we encountered was very friendly and a special thanks goes out to the Boon family for allowing five of us to invade their facilities for the evening. Despite the many attractions the town had to offer we decided to hit the sack early and be ready to roll tomorrow for our mountain approach.

Day 30 – Fort Collins, CO – 74 miles

Best day of riding yet. The ride today was initiated with an incredible cold front that moved in over night, dropping the temperature to sub-60 degrees for much of the morning. Never thought I would be using arm warmers in the middle of July but no complaints were heard after the previous day’s scorcher. We left town by 6:45 am and were back on the scenic highway early enough to see all the wildlife running about, including several more pronghorn antelope. There was a slight tailwind and we made great time with very little effort. All morning long we kept watching the horizon for any sign of dark mountain outlines but to no success except for us occasionally convincing ourselves that we could see something that really wasn’t there. Finally, about mile 30 we crested a large hill and there before us were the snow capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Keep in mind that this was still nearly 50 miles out at the time, so they were very faint at first, but as we rode closer throughout the day they took a more defined shape and continuously grew taller until we decended into Fort Collins at 1pm where the foothills finally began. Nothing has been so exciting and frightening at the same time. We have been warned by people across the nation about these mountains and now we are finally here. The sights are going to be absolutely incredible but the effort required will be equally awesome. The next three days of riding should prove to test everyone to the edge of their abilities. The ride into Estes Park will be a good warm up as it is shorter but there is still a substantial amount of climbing to be done. The following day we are going through Rocky Mountain National Park and riding Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuously paved highway in America. Finally we will be doing nearly a full century into Leadville on day three, the highest incorporated city in America.

What has been interesting already is the effect of being at altitude where the oxygen concentration in the air is lower than where most of us are from. We played a game of capture the flag with youth from the church we are staying at and it was remarkable how much we could already feel the extra strain low oxygen takes on us. Yet another obstacle to overcome in the coming days.

Fort Collins is great town, home of Colorado State University so it contains all elements essential to a college town. We spent much of the evening exploring and taking care of last minute necessities before heading into the mountains. While walking around College Ave, the main street for the university, we saw a sign advertising a jazz festival going on this very weekend. Not only that, but tonight none other than the world famous Wynton Marsalis would be playing at the theatre in town!!! Being a jazz head, this is an opportunity that cannot be passed up so I made my way to the box office to inquire about tickets, only to find out that they were $85 each, but they were sold out to boot. Still not to be dissuaded, Matt and I made our way back right after the scheduled start of the concert and pleaded with the ushers to let us stand in the back of the hall for just one chart. Thanks to winning smiles we not only got to get in the show, but we watched nearly the entire first half of the performance with the ushers. It was, of course, a stunning performance and the last number we were able to catch was “I left my heart in San Fransisco.” How appropriate. We met up with the rest of the pack after the show and enjoyed some college nightlife for a change before retiring to our beloved sleeping bags. A great end to an amazing day.

Colorful Colorado

2008-07-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Day 27 – McCook, NE – 80 miles

Today was my second day as sweep along with the charming Paul. We spent our morning in the back of the pack discussing the finer points of marine biology as he has been doing research in the Bahamas on Bonefish and Lemon Sharks. Pretty neat stuff. The ride wasn’t terribly long and weather conditions were perfect. We took a few short breaks for photo ops, one in which Paul almost walked onto a decently sized corn snake on the side of the road, not realizing it was there until it took a shot at his front tire. The hiss sounded like he had blown a flat so we were upset until the snake was spotted backing away. Its funny we ran into our scaled friend, as we had been talking about how we hadn’t seen many snakes on the trip and how Paul wanted to wrangle one Steve Erwin-style. We contented ourselves with taking a few pictures and moving along. The rest of the day went swimmingly and we even arrived at the host location by 2:00 pm.

In the evening we had a slight downturn in luck as several of our riders, myself included, came down with some sort of stomach bug right after dinner. We all went to bed strait after the meal and crossed paths in the night on our flights to the bathroom. This is another knock on wood incident because we had recently been discussing how it was great that none of the riders had gotten sick yet since we share everything. Hopefully the issue will stop at those of us already effected.

Day 28 – Holyoke, CO – 66 miles

Go figure, everyone who was having stomach issues last night woke up feeling terrible this morning so several riders loaded into the van to rest up for the day. This of course is the intelligent course of action, which I tried my best to ignore. Since it was a century day there were two lunch breaks planned along the route at miles 45 and 75 respectively. I decided to start out the morning after a breakfast of Gatorade and shoot for the first lunch stop. I made it without much ado but didn’t feel on the top of my game upon arrival so I took a nap and jumped in the party bus with the other infected persons for the second leg of the trip.

This was my first time riding in the van when there were cyclists on the road so it was a very interesting experience. Zooming through the countryside at three times your normal speed gives you a completely different view of the land, not to mention it was awesome to see where all the riders were stretched out along the road. When you are riding in a small group, you may not see anyone else from the team for the entire trip from stop to stop because everyone is moving at about the same speed, give or take a mile per hour.

We arrived at around mile 80 to catch up with the lead group who got a little farther ahead then planned and I had started feeling better on the ride so I jumped out and grabbed my bike for the last 20 mile stretch. During the course of the ride we passed both the change into Mountain Time as well as the Colorado border. I seriously can’t believe we’ve already hit Colorado, the state we’ve all been talking about since day one. The mountains are only a few days away and then its judgment time. In the meantime though, Colorado is the flattest state we’ve been in yet. Farmlands from horizon to horizon, just as we had been promised in Kansas and Nebraska but never saw.

We arrived in Holyoke around 3ish and enjoyed a pulled pork dinner before going to the local movie theater for a private screening of Mel Brooks’ hit movie Robinhood Men in Tights. Talk about ending the day on a high note. Looking forward to a healthy day tomorrow!

We're not in Kansas Anymore

2008-07-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

Day 24 – Manhattan, KS – 91

An important stat to know about today in addition to what I normally provide is that we only spend a little over 4 hours in the saddle. Our handy cyclocomputers tell us the total time in which the wheels were turning for a days ride, Sweet! Also, the actual ride into Manhattan was only 80 miles; the extra 11 came from bumming around the city. If you do the math properly, you will see that our average speed comes out to just under 20 mph. The reason for this glorious turnabout is that we had OUR FIRST FULL DAY OF TAILWIND. It dawned on me why RAAM (Race Across America) goes from west to east each year with the prevailing winds as myself and several others rocketed down the roads at speeds exceeding 27 mph on flat ground. Allow me to explain.

The day began at a moderate pace, nothing ground breaking until lunch break at mile 40. We were about to leave when we got a call from a group ahead that a heavy storm was heading our way so we should stay put until it passes over. We heard the ominous thunder in the distance so we decided to camp out in an open walled garage nearby. During the following two hours we checked out topography maps of upcoming routes on Amy’s computer. We finally saw how we are basically climbing gradually about 4,000 feet in the coming week until we reach Ft. Collins, CO. We also compared routes we have already biked to those we will be seeing in the mountains and it is scary to see how much larger the mountains in Colorado will be, though a lesser grade most of the time. After that I passed out on a bench for about an hour until everyone decided it was dry enough to move on.

About 5 miles into the second half of our 80 mile ride we passed a cyclist at a stoplight riding a bright yellow Cannondale racing bike. He let us pass and then followed us for a few miles (we were going about 22-23 mph at this point) before coming up and introducing himself. His name was Bob and he was going to a family reunion about 100 miles in the general direction we were heading, so we invited him to ride with us. He proceeded to get in front and pull us at 25 until we caught up with those who had left lunch early and been caught in the storm. At that time we decided to pace-line so we began switching off leads and stayed in the 25-27 mph range at least until mile 70 when we reached his turn and he headed off for the remaining portion of his ride. Since we had already been sustaining the pace, we kept it going all the way to our host location. My reflection on this style of riding is that while I had fun and got a good confidence boost at my cycling abilities, I did not see any of the countryside we were blowing past, nor did I get a chance to talk to Bob and get to know much about him. I will be content with the occasional push, but all in all I prefer the moderate steady pace we normally ride.

As we pulled into Manhattan, several stops and reroutes were made, accounting for the additional 11 miles around town. First several of us caught the 5th of July fireworks sale where we picked up some extra propulsion for our bicycles. Danger will be kept to a minimum when using them, never fear. I then headed for the Kansas State campus which my personal opinion was that KU has superior facilities, though K-State has an excellent college-town downtown area. While around the campus I ran into several other builders attempting to solicit dinner from the restaurants so I jumped in and helped with an endearing smile. We managed to get donations from several places including Pita Pit, Jimmy Johns, Chipotle, and a wing joint so we had quite the feast come dinner time.

After dinner I helped out with laundry which is always a party, rolling in two giant tarps of dirty spandex and the like to a small laundramat. While everything was being washed we walked down the road to the Manhattan Jazz Festival which happened to be going on. There were several awesome acts including the Marine Jazz Band, a dixieland jazz combo, and an awesome blues singer who was the closing act. It was great to hear some live music from the local community and state, and I discovered than even a place like Kansas can have a little funk to be spread around.

Day 25 – Beloit, KS – 100 miles

Not much can be said about today’s ride other than it was our third century. It was hot (upwards of 100 degrees at times), long, hilly, and had strong headwinds almost the whole ride (15 mph). I bonked for the first time, and also got my first flat tire of the trip all in one full swoop. Bonking is the term in cycling meaning that you basically just run out of gas and can’t go any further without consuming something. It happens almost every day to some, but I haven’t had an issue b/c I enjoy my food and don’t forget to eat in utilitarian fashion, which is necessary on a long day like today. For some reason though I failed to get in the calories I needed and at mile 67, 3 miles short of a snack break, I hit a wall and had to drop off the pack to slam a Clif bar. I recovered pretty quickly and got back on the road with enough speed to roll into the break only a few minutes after the rest of the pack showed up. The rest of the day went without incident though we kicked up the speed b/c we were sick of being in the saddle.

On a brighter note, I did test out my bicycle-firework-afterburners today on route 87 and have a few rather humorous videos courtesy of Shane and Dustin which will hopefully be posted soon.

The evening held a Dairy Queen outing which pushed us over the 100 mile mark as it was nearly 3 miles from our host at the Catholic School. As a rule, if there is a DQ in the known vicinity of our nightly accommodations, we will make the journey regardless of the distance and how tired we are. One Strawberry Cheesecake Blizzard later, its bedtime.

Dreaming of a white July 7th,
-Brentos the Freshmaker

Day 26 – Red Cloud, NE – 70 miles

Today was a great day of riding which was greatly needed for morale after yesterday’s disaster of a ride. The day started on a high note when at mile 4 my odometer struck 2000 miles! We celebrated by chalking the road and setting off the last two of my roman candles from the 4th of July. After that it was smooth sailing to the 37 mile lunch stop. Temperature was hot but not unbearable and the wind was coming from slightly to our backs thanks to our NW progress. Shortly after leaving lunch, a group of us stopped to take more ridiculous hay bale pictures, as they are one of the only appropriate accessories in bike and build photos of the Midwest. On a side note, we also got to see our first square hay bales today. This is exciting to many of us b/c hay bales are the only interesting thing we see on many days outside of corn, wheat, and soybean fields.

A big landmark was waiting for us at mile 55: the center point of the continental United States!!! …Or so we thought until we read the sign which said the ACTUAL center was 3 miles north and one mile west of where we were. We therefore got back on our bikes and went off in search of the true center point. After a few miles of rolling hills, we arrived at our destination, which was essentially a flag and a picnic table out in the middle of more corn fields. Still very exciting though, so we took way too many ridiculous pictures until sweep showed up, so we got back on the road.

Miles 65, we entered NEBRASKA! This of course meant that about a quarter mile from the state line Matt, Dustin and I began an all-out sprint so we could be the first to say “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” Needless to say, Matt toasted me as he races for NYU and is an excellent cyclist, but to my consolation he wiped out right past the state sign. (No worries, he was going slow by this time and is fine. Only some minor road rash.) We proceeded to take our traditional state line pictures as the rest of the pack rolled in, and enjoyed an easy last 5 miles into town where we are staying at the Community Center. This is awesome b/c we get to stay in a big gym and there is an awesome community pool right outside.

Tonight was also our 4th AH meeting (AH = Affordable Housing), in which a group presented on further issues with poverty, healthcare and the housing market. I have enjoyed the weekly AH meetings so far, as they are a time we can learn a little more about the cause we are riding for and helps to refocus the group on our ultimate goals.

Day 27 – Alma, NE – 52 miles

Today’s ride was short and swift. Since the actual mileage from town to town was only 45 miles and we stayed on one road the entire time, normal riding groups seemed to split up and everyone enjoyed some new company for the short ride. I found myself in the company of Caitlin for the majority of the ride, and learned all about her adventures with Americorp. We stopped once to take pictures as we passed through Republican City (pop 199) and arrived in Alma (pop 1,100) by 10:30 am. We were told by Les and Mary Parish, our hosts in Red Cloud, to check out Bugbees for their amazing breakfast special so we took the advice and made our way to the local diner. When someone tells you from almost 50 miles away to go for somewhere for a certain meal, its generally for a good reason. The breakfast special we received consisted of a healthy mound of hash browns covered with chicken fried steak, country gravy and fried eggs. I was so excited by this regional meal I even busted out my camera to immortalize the moment.

Full to busting, Colin and I rode down to the municipal golf course to check out rental rates. We caught the grounds keeper right as he was heading out to “dinner” which is lunch b/c “supper” is the evening meal out in rural country. Anyways, he told us he would have a golf cart and a bag of clubs waiting since we wanted to go and change out of our spandex first. On our way back to the Methodist Church we ran into Dustin who is a much more avid golfer so the three of us changed and headed out to the links. The 9 holes were maintained amazingly well for a small town course and the staff was amazingly helpful, even loaning us their personal clubs for free. We kept score for the first seven holes in which a few pars were shot, but as Colin and my shots became more wild we started to call gimmes from 80 yards out. Regardless, we had a blast and wrapped up our outing with big malt milkshakes at the creamery down the road.

Since we were having so much fun running around town, I missed showers before they closed so I will be a very smelly person until we arrive tomorrow evening in McCook. I apologize to those sleeping around me.

Sweep tomorrow!

Note: Internet connection is very slow here so picture uploads will be at a minimum. My apologies.

Special Thanks to Paul Loschak for the delicious mail drop. Hope your Boston adventure is going well.

We're not out of Kansas yest

2008-07-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

Day 22 – Richmond, MO – 94 miles

Despite the long distance covered today, the entire team covered the distance swiftly and without much difficulty. We decided to break the ride up into smaller chunks with lunch and snack breaks at miles 40 and 70, so chunks of 40, 30, and 20ish miles. The decreasing mileage throughout the day was surprisingly effective at tricking ourselves into thinking that we were not in fact riding as far as we actually were. We stopped for lunch in the town of Brunswick, where the Missouri river runs through. We spent much of the day traveling along the Lewis and Clark Trail which was marked off by signs along the roadway, and there was even a marker for where they camped on June 3, 1804 right next to the river. The river itself was way over its normal high water mark due to heavy rains and was moving faster than nearly any body of water I have seen before. As we continued on after lunch we passed more of the flooding along the Missouri River and the Grand River. It’s amazing how many fields of surrounding farms are completely submerged. I can only imagine how much time it will take many of these areas to get back on their feet after this season.

In most of the areas I have spent time in, transporting freight via train is rarely used. Out in the Midwest however, we have discovered that the train industry is alive and kicking. We traveled most of the afternoon along a series of tracks and there would be at least one train pass us at least every 10 minutes, most of which were well over 100 cars strong.

We arrived at our host location just after 4 o’clock, and enjoyed a delicious potluck dinner put on by the congregation of the Presbytarian Church. After dinner Mr. Harrison, a local farmer, took Dustin, Colin, Scott and myself to see some of the large-scale farming equipment used in the corn and wheat fields we’ve been passing through. It was a great opportunity to learn a bit more about the agriculture-based communities we have been passing through in the past week.

Day 23 – Lawrence, KS – 100 miles

We awoke today to find cloudy skies threatening overhead and only half of our daily cue sheet taking us into Kansas City, MO. We rode through on and off rain throughout the morning, and reached our lunch stop at Epic Bike and Sport which was kind enough to open early to help service many of our bikes which are in dire need of tune ups. We stayed at this stop outrageously long b/c we were all soggy and tired from the mornings ridiculous ride. We received cue sheets for the second half of the ride at lunch which showed that we would be riding into another century day, so we hit the road about one-ish. Colin had a friend that was planning on meeting us in Lawrence so him, Matt and I decided to ride ahead of the group to get to our new host in reasonable time. We blew through downtown Kansas City and into the state of Kansas, stopping only once on our dash to Lawrence. About mile 85 Colin contacted his friend to find that he was unable to come that night anyways so we cooled our jets and took a more reasonable pace into the city, seeing as how nearly all three of us were bonking b/c we failed to eat along the way. We rolled into Lawrence just after 5:00 to find an amazing surprise waiting for us. We are staying at the Riverfront Marriot!!! Lawrence Habitat arranged for six rooms, six people per room, all donated for three nights by the Marriot. Everyone was ecstatic because we haven’t slept in beds in over a month. After a quick shower in which the water literally turned grey as it came off my body b/c I was so grimy from the rain, we rode over to Centennial Park where the Habitat chapter put on a picnic dinner for us. Due to the inclimate weather and long day of riding, several people had to get picked up by the van b/c it just wasn’t possible to complete all the miles. The evening ended with all of us passing out early in unbelievably comfortable beds. Thanks Marriot.

Build Day – Lawrence, KS – 0 miles

Our first Kansas build day took us back to the rooftops. The house we worked on had already been framed and trusses set, so our task was to put the plywood and tar paper on the roof to prepare for shingling. We spent almost the entire day swinging through the rafters (in the safest way possible of course) and testing our hammering skillz. I have become complacent in my hammering abilities it would appear and managed to bash my thumb pretty well, which is consistent with the theme of the team injuring itself only when not riding. We got more news coverage today when the Lawrence news team came and interviewed several riders. The article and two news blurbs that showed up on channel six can be found at:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jul/03/students_bike_lawrence_build_home/?6news

The evening took us to Johnny’s Tavern for some fantastic NY style pizza and then to the main strip through town, Massachusetts Ave. As this is a college town, there is more night life than we have seen since we left Rhode Island and likely the most we will see until we get much closer to the west coast, or at least Ft. Collins.

Build Day Pt. 2 – Lawrence, KS – 0 miles

Today was a half day build so we were able to shingle the majority of the roof by around 12:30 working at a pretty quick clip. Roof work has been fun but exhausting because you are constantly making sure than you aren’t slipping down the slick saw-dust covered roof while trying to do whatever task you are assigned. Regardless, we were all happy to get our feet back on solid ground and the group walked back to the hotel to do any chores we had to get done before we resume riding, aka laundry and bicycle maintenance.

Since we had the majority of the afternoon off, some people chose to go check out the local “water park” (pool with a slide) in good 4th of July fashion, but I opted for the less exciting scholarly route of checking out the Kansas University campus. While riding across town in search of the campus I stopped to ask a studious looking gentleman if he could direct me towards KU. His response was that I should just go to the top of the nearest hill and I would find it. I may not be the greatest geography student ever, but I seem to remember Kansas as the pancake state so I was reasonably skeptical. Sure enough though I started to follow a gradual uphill grade which eventually became a veritable climb to the summit where out of the trees loomed the KU football stadium. The campus itself surprised me in the size and style of buildings, definitely not what I would have expected from Kansas. Maybe more barns with tables inside would have fit my prior expectations better.

We finished our July 4th celebrations by shuttling out to a reservoir that had a professional fireworks display presented at night. The show itself wasn’t that impressive but while we were waiting for it to begin we had an incredible view of the surrounding countryside where people everywhere seemed to be shooting off smaller-scale fireworks while behind us the reservoir was filled with boats sporting colorful running lights. The view was topped off by swarms of fireflies buzzing around us, almost seeming to be distant fireworks lighting up the night as well.

Looking forward to getting back on the road and seeing some serious pancake flatness,

- Sir Brenton David Finklea I Esquire

Missouri

2008-06-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

Day 20 – Hannibal, MO – 46 miles

Today we slept in (to 6:00 am), left late (9:00 am) and still arrived at the host location by 12:30 despite outrageous headwinds and constant on and off rain throughout the morning. We were able to see the full extent of flooding due to the severe weather as we crossed the Mississippi River and again when we visited historic Hannibal. The levies had been blocked up and sandbagged by the time we arrived, with all shops and landmarks outside of the city walls under several feet of water. Luckily there had been a flood back in 1993 that prepared the city for a future incident so damage done by the current situation is minimal. It has been very unique seeing the effects of natural disasters firsthand in our journey, much of it reminiscent of the hurricanes that hit the gulf coast a few years ago. I hope for both ours and the sakes of the local residents that we have seen the last of inclement weather, though I have a sneaking suspicion that we should be looking forward to many more wet rides in the near future.

While in town, we also stopped by the Mark Twain museum because apparently he grew up frolicking in the streets of Hannibal. Nearly every building and store is named after Mark (Samuel Clemens) so we experienced a little of America’s literary history along the way.

Day 21 – Moberly, MO – 68 miles

Today was a beautiful day through the surprisingly large rolling hills of Missouri. The first major road we traveled on was undergoing construction so we were able to frolic about on a double wide lane we had to ourselves for about 15 miles. Gotta love riding without worrying about 18-wheelers blowing past you. We enjoyed PB&J Time at Mark Twain Lake (big surprise there) around mile 34, and finished the ride by 1:45. We passed through the smallest town yet today, with a population of 44. Quite the happening place. We also passed by the towns of Paris and Florida. I like to see that town naming in the Midwest is as uncreative as possible. Our host for the evening is the Destiny Resource Center, and is an amazing paradise of games and even 3 showers on location. Definitely one of the most enjoyable stops yet. Tomorrow we push off on a 90+ mile day so its early to bed for the evening. Speaking of beds, it was brought up today that many of us have not slept in real beds in over 5 weeks. Kind of wild but I can’t say I have had any difficulty passing out every evening on the ‘ol Thermarest. Looking forward to a mattress come August but for now I am content in my evening cocoon.

Illinois

2008-06-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Day 17 – Effingham, IL – 100 miles

First Century ride!!! (100 miles in a day) It actually only took 98 miles to reach Effingham so a few of us went out and did some town exploration in order to reach our 100 mile mark. Good times.

Today was an excessively long day. The day began by blowing away a quick 20 miles because I was riding with the lead group and it apparently turned into a race so we were averaging speeds between 21 and 23 miles per hour. After an hour of the tom-foolery Dustin and I decided we were bored and so stopped on the side of the road to recollect some of the group and we headed off for PBJ time. We crossed the Wabash River into Illinois around mile 28 and stopped for picture time. One thing we’ve noticed in our travels across the Midwest is the love for President Abe Lincoln. Already three states have claimed Lincoln as their most famous resident: Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. The Lincoln-mania is to the extent that they all have Lincoln references on their state signs at border crossings.

The fun truly began when we got our first tailwind of the trip around mile 35 and went sailing right past our turn. We realized our mistake 3 miles down the road when we stopped to ask for directions. I local offered an alternative route for us though, claiming it would shave “15 miles off our ride.” As you can imagine our excitement at hearing this, we called the van and told them we wouldn’t be showing up for lunch before stopping into the Illinois Café for a bite to eat. We were all treated to by far our best lunch of the trip by a woman named Sharon whom we talked with during our meal. Back on the road we faced a stiff headwind for the remaining 60 miles of our ride which left everyone feeling more worn out than we have since we left the mountains. We averaged between 12 and 14 mph on strait flat ground while drafting and riding as fast as we could because the wind was so strong. Never thought I would say it, but I’m looking forward to getting into the mountains so the wind will finally be held back.

Day 18 – Taylorville, IL – 64 miles

Today we continued our journey farther into the farmlands of the Midwest. The corn stalks are getting taller and I’m looking forward to seeing husks forming. The ride was shorter and wind milder in comparison to yesterday’s monstrosity, so everyone was excited to take it easy on the road. Therefore, several of us decided to stop about 15 miles outside of Taylorville at the sight of a bowling alley. Nothing draws looks more than six college students in spandex in a setting that would normally demand less aero-dynamic clothing. We naturally spent much of our time talking with other patrons about the organization.

Two games of bowling were played, each with a small wager on it. In the first round, the lowest scorer would have to sleep with his helmet on, and in the second round the losing team would have to be food slaves to the winning team for a day; aka make them PB&Js, fix plates at dinner, fill their water bottles in the morning. Needless to say, Dustin will have an unfortunate night of sleep tonight and thanks to my gutter ball in the 10th frame after two 150+ point games, my team will be playing waiter to the winners later this week. Sorry guys.

Back on the road, we found that there was a bike bath running parallel to route 29 for the last 15 miles of our trip into Taylorville. This made the remainder of our trip outstanding because it meant we could ride 2 abreast and carry on without always watching over our shoulders for motorists. Road safety has been a big topic for discussion with the group over the past weeks as we have found ourselves on some rather large roads that require us to constantly be alert for traffic and road obstructions as well. When preparing for the trip I envisioned the daily rides as a time when we would be alone with our thoughts, and a time to reflect on life. It is amazing however, how much thought and mental energy goes into the mere act of riding due to the other cyclists around you, traffic zooming by, and obstacles in your path such as road-kill. With diligence, we have been able to stay safe on the roads with minimal scrapes and bruises.

The YMCA we stayed at is definitely the nicest facilities we have seen so far on our trip. We got to cool off after our ride at the indoor swimming pool which may have easily passed for a water park, boasting such attributes as a lazy river, whirl pool, and even a serious water slide. Much of the team spent a solid 2 hours acting the same age as the 4th graders we shared the pool with, having an absolutely ridiculous time. The evening was topped off with dinner donated by a local pizza restaurant. Delicious.

Day 19 – Pittsfield, IL – 0 miles

We finally caught up with the severe weather that has been plaguing the Midwest. The team awoke this morning to the sounds of rumbling thunder outside our cozy YMCA. After our usual hour and a half ride prep, we were informed by the leaders that the storms were going to be too intense for the day and we would be shuttling riders to Pittsfield. Though many of us were keen to ride on in the rain as we had several times before, one look outside at the cracking lightning let us know that it would not be a wise choice to be the highest point on roads. Since the cargo van can only hold 15 of our 31 riders, the first group trundled into the van, and headed out for the next stop. Those of us left behind spent the next five hours running rampant in our YMCA wonderland. As we couldn’t continue punishing our bodies with 90 mile rides, we hit the weight room for a while, played some racquetball, and generally carried on in boisterous manner. Our rides finally showed up about noon so we loaded up the bicycles and headed to Pittsfield.

After dinner we had an event we like to call “Bike and Build Prom” in which we pumped some music into the dining hall of the church and had a pseudo dance party. We had bumped into three self-contained cyclists cycling cross country, so they joined in our shenanigans for the evening. We have met several touring groups on the road and it looks like it must be a completely different experience than what we are undertaking. It must be such an adventure to be on the road by your self with no planned stops, though the progress is much slower due to the heavily weighted bicycles laden down with gear.

Kentuckiana

2008-06-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

Day 17 - Bedford, IN - 84 miles

Today's ride was largely unremarkable with the exception of several "long-cuts" our group took while trying to find our way out of Louisville. We eventually made it into Indiana by crossing the Ohio river for the third time so far, into an area dubbed "Kentuckiana" by the locals. Apparently no one knows their way around this area, as motorists seemed to have a very difficult time pointing out a major highway to us that was only one street over. We eventually made it to our host for the evening which was an enormous baptist church in Bedford who was an increadible host considering they had been given three days notification before our arrival. After dinner, several of the riders took me out for a celebration of recieving test scores I was anxiously awaiting. We went exploring the town and met several interesting locals along the way. One man introduced himself as "Dallas, like the football team" but was ironically a Colts fan according to his head-wear.

I'm sure thats it is obvious from past posts, but I feel so fortunate to be spending my final college summer with some absolutely outstanding people. It takes a unique person to be excited about undertaking such a project and I don't think we could have ended up with a better group.

Day 18 - Linton, IN - 46 miles

Another short day was enjoyed by the riders this morning. We were able to wake up late (6 am) and enjoy an enormous breakfast courtesy of the baptist church congregation. The ride was quick and without issues, most riders arriving around noon at the host for the evening. Linton is a small town but large enough to be "Wal-Mart worthy" so we have spent most of the remaining day exploring. Word on the street is that the Colts football team may be making a guest appearance at the Freedom Festival that is going on. Not sure what the festival is all about but I will assume the approaching fourth of July holiday. More word on these exciting events if I make it out of the library before the dinner bell is wrung, but for now I am camped out working on grad school applications. Fun.

Plaid, Mint Juleps, and Horse Racing

2008-06-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Note: For those of you looking for friends or family in photos posted on this blog, clicking on the photos enlarges them to a size that will allow to do discern more readily the identity of helmeted cyclists.

Day 16 – Louisville, KY – 86 miles

First day riding sweep. “Sweep” is the term given to the two riders designated each day to ride in the back of the group carrying spare supplies and medical equipment in case of any accidents or tire issues. My sweep partner for the day was Elizabeth, and we had ourselves a great time since we had no choice but to stay behind. We kicked off our ride with a brunch stop at a coffee shop in Georgetown, KY which was a delicious change to the traditional oatmeal, cereal, and peanut butter we have on most mornings. We met up with Tony and Sam very soon after our stop because apparently they decided to eat breakfast at a restaurant about 100 ft down the road from where we stopped. Our motley crew rode the rest of the morning into the state capital where lunch was held on a hill overlooking the capital building. Very scenic.

In order to stay behind the pack we took a post-lunch stop at a fairly sketchy “Fun-Park” where they had mini-golf and go-carts. We chose too take a few laps on the go-carts and enjoyed the unusual sensation of accelerating without exerting ourselves. We ended up patching three flat tires over the course of the day and fortunately our skills as first responders turned out to be unnecessary as everyone arrived in Louisville safe and sound.

First day off tomorrow!

Day Off – Louisville, KY – 31 miles

Notice first of all, that somehow on a day off we still managed to rake in 31 miles according to my odometer. Allow me to explain:

We all woke up this morning after an amazing 10+ hour sleep feeling better than ever. We enjoyed a brief breakfast before giving our noble steeds (bicycles) their well-due 1000 mile tune up. There is nothing like riding a perfectly tuned machine that runs silently along the streets and changes gears exactly when you want it to rather than getting stuck in highest gear on a 30% grade hill. Such an even is less than exciting.

We jumped on our bikes and took to the street around noon in search of Churchill Downs, the legendary horse racing track. After seeing more of Louisville than we bargained for and meeting many locals asking for directions, we arrived at a track that was truly larger than life. It was a beautiful place and we were fortunate enough to get free admittance thanks to Matt’s gift of gab. Three races later and $4.80 richer in Jesse’s case, we left the Downs to find a looming storm. We practiced our speed skills, making back the gym in record time, just as the clouds opened up.

We had planned on catching a baseball game as well, but it got rained out so we satisfied ourselves with playing silly games in the gym. Back on the road tomorrow but only for 5 days of riding before another day off near St. Louis, MO. Can’t wait!

1000 Miles!

2008-06-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Day 14 – Portsmouth, OH – 45 miles

Today was a fantastic day on two wheels and off. As can be noted by the mileage above, it was a very short and leisurely ride. Note: I still can’t believe I can call 45 miles “short and leisurely” but I guess its all relative. Anyways, conditions were perfect. Mid – 70s temperature and clear blue skies. We did not have cue sheets today so we rode the first portion as an entire group of 30 cyclists and eventually turned to reading chalk marks left on the road for directions left by the van. We took route 139 south through Ohio and saw some outstanding countryside on a fairly quiet road. We even stopped for delicious milkshakes halfway through and enjoyed the laid back attitude of the day. The group rolled into the church around 12:30 regardless of our slow pace and so theres only one thing to do after a day of riding, and that’s get back on the bikes and go exploring. So we spent the next few hours zooming about the city which had some great murals along the levies next to the Ohio River. Looks like we are almost ready to enter yet another state early tomorrow morning: Kentucky! Home of…. KFC I assume.

Two more days of riding until our first day off! I don’t even know what to do will all that time. Maybe I’ll go for a ride…..

Day 15 – Paris, KY – 93 miles

Another long day was in store for us when we crossed the Ohio River for the second time. We entered Kentucky and had a moderately hilly day of riding with several great points to it. First of all today my odometer hit 1000 Miles!!!!! We stopped just before our 40 mile lunch break on the top of a Kentucky hill and did a small dance in front of a very confused local’s house. We explained our excitement to the startled lawn chair jockey, chalked a proclamation of achievement in the road for the rest of the team, and coasted the last half mile into town for Peanut Butter and Jelly Time.

Around mile 67, we stopped at a service station along route 32 in KY and talked to the folks working there. We ended up spending 45 minutes talking to the residents about their town, received a decent donation for the organization, and even got a reporter from the local newspaper to come out and take pictures for an article on us. We eventually rolled into Paris where we took up residence at the YMCA for the evening and got 14 Pizzas donated for dinner. An amazing day of donations I must say.

While riding today I began making a list of themes I’ve noticed for the summer. I will post new ones periodically but so far two of them are:

Being Chased by Dogs: Apparently bicycles give off a sound any dog in a 20 mile radius can hear, telling them to run after us. Nearly every rider has been chased by this point and it is occurring on a daily basis. A good point about heading west however, has been that the farther west we go, the smaller and cuter the dogs get. Today’s ride was marked my chauauas and Pomeranians running along fences and out into the road to try and get us. Cuteness unmatched anywhere.

Public Urination: When you are on a bicycle for seven hours a day, you find you need to excrete regularly and at inconvenient times. Thus we have come to take after a pack of dogs, roaming the countryside and marking our territory. Incidents on this matter vary but I’m sure we have surprised more than one motorist. As a side note, today I mastered urination while riding a bicycle. A small victory but a victory nonetheless. This process allows a rider to relieve himself without stopping a group to answer the call of the wild. Just make sure you are at the back of the line before you attempt this.

Winds from the West

2008-06-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Day 13 - Wellston, OH - 80 miles

Another fantastic day as far as the weather is concerned. We spent our first 30 miles on a fairly large highway due to one of the back roads we were supposed to take being closed so we decided to test our speedster skills and made it to Peanut Butter Jelly Time in short order. Scenery along route 681 through the countryside was beautiful with mostly rolling hills, definitely not what I had expected from Ohio. Speaking of being in Ohio, I need to keep my mouth shut and not mention being a Florida Gator until we're out of the Buckeye State as I learned yesterday speaking with some locals. Sounds like there are still a few sore spots after the last two national championship showdowns.

After PBJ Time, we got back on the road and the winds let loose. We traveled another 30 miles at an average of about 11 mph on flat ground because of the ferocious winds. Its so frustrating because even though you should be able to go close to 20 mph in a pack in those conditions, it feels like everyone is riding with their brakes on. You just can't seem to make any headway. Despite the conditions we still rolled into town around 3ish and were given a tour of the town on the way to showers by the host at Trinity United Methodist Church. The town used to be a coal mining community, but when the mines were closed the community dried up.

Not many photos were taken today so I'm putting up a few of my favorites from so far. Enjoy.

Ohio We Go

2008-06-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Day 12 – Marietta, OH – 94 miles

Let me preface this by saying that today was not supposed to be a 94 mile ride, however thanks to a few detours we took we set a new long-distance record. I can’t believe it was only 6 miles short of a century (100 miles) ride. Anyways, the day was absolutely perfect in both weather and terrain. Mostly level terrain through the beautiful West Virginia mountains gave us some outstanding sights to see while cruising through the cool shaded roads. We were chased by everything from dogs to billy goats but most escaped unscathed. The day ended crossing the mighty Ohio River and entering the town of Marietta. Everyone is so tired that we will probably all be out cold by 9:00.

Physical Update: Everyone is finally becoming acclimated to the daily grind of being on a bicycle. Joints and back are still sore but most issues are under control with proper icing and care. My muscles do not feel like they’re going to fall off each morning when I wake up as long as appropriate stretching is done, though after today I’m sure I will be feeling it in the morning. Personally, back pain and knee pain are the only lasting problem outside of the epic battle against saddle sores. No one is free of the horrors that meet our backsides due to 6+ hours a day in the saddle. I’m hoping that as time continues, supporting muscles will strengthen and neither will be much of an issue. Until then, Advil and stretches are the name of the game.

Town Hall meeting is tonight. This is when everyone is allowed to voice their opinions about the group and how we have been doing as a team. I think so far we have been able to establish outstanding team dynamics, with minimal disputes between riders. Our fearless leaders have been doing an excellent job with the thousand jobs that are left to them.

Shout outs:

The ‘Rents back in Tampa: You guys are the best. Thanks so much for all the help you’ve given me, not to mention the delicious goodies on mail day. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you both. Can’t wait to see you in August!

Kristin: Congrats on becoming the first ever Dr. Finklea! I wish I was getting out to San Diego before the move but I will still come to visit over on the east coast. Who knows, maybe the forces of fate will put me in a grad school near DC. Hope you're enjoying your last months as a californian.

Madame Mannix: Keep up your great work in NYC. Get pumped b/c MCATs come out in about a week! Miss you so much.

Fantastic Four of Apt 144: My stuff had best not be taped to the ceiling when I get back. Keep things real in Gainesvegas.

Conley the Canadian: When are you getting back from saving the world in South America? Hope your travels have taken you to some exciting places. I will be at the airport in spirit.

Christopher Obera: Hope you have been learning awesome German things to teach me in the fall. I want to learn to say more than “Here is the couch.” Be prepared.

Shane’s Mom: Glad you’ve been enjoying the blog. Shane and I seem to find ourselves riding together most days so many a pictures should feature the man himself.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

2008-06-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Day 10 - Parsons, WV - 76 miles

Today we left Maryland and entered the great state of West Virginia, aka "The Mountaineering State." The state lived up to its name and gave us a long day of essentially gradual uphill grades with a pretty serious 5 mile climb around mile 30. Definately the longest climb so far but the views from the top were fantastic and lunch was enjoyed at the summit. As a side note, it was decided that 9:30 in the morning is too early for "lunch" so we've coined our first stop as "peanut butter & jelly time" (see the Buckwheat Boys 1990's smash hit song). The ride wrapped up with an amazing 5.5 mile downhill that we all took at an average 40 mph. Thats what our rides are all about. We did not have shower facilities, so bathing took place in a river right besides the church we stayed at for the evening. The town of Parsons was very small, and we learned from talking to residents at the laundramat that there was a terrible flood in 1985 that basically wiped out the town and it hadn't been able to recover ever since. You could definately tell from the shambles that many of the buildings were in which is a shame because the landscape was just phenomenal. Best luck to the town pulling things together.

Day 11 -Weston, WV - 58 miles

We continued into the heart of West Virginia today on one of the more notable rides yet. Firstly, conditions stunk. We left the church around 7:30 am and it began pouring down rain about a half mile into the ride. Keep in mind that the temperatures were in the range of 55-60 F. While this was a nice change from our recent heat streak, it was still uncomfortable riding in wet shorts. However, I am greatful for the rain because it led us to one of our greatest stops yet of the trip thus far. At about mile 6, we were completely soaked to the bone when we saw one of our leaders, Amy, flagging us down from the front porch of a house just off the road so we pulled a U-turn and ran in for cover. Enter Crazy Ed. We don't actually have any conformation on the name of the house's resident so we decided to call him crazy Ed. Ed was one of the friendliest people I have met on our adventures and we spent a solid half hour with him hearing his unique opinions of the world. For a complete list of what Ed was for and against, please contact me at a later time as this is absolutely hilarious and has made for some of our most ridiculous jokes. After the rain began to slow we took to the streets again and finished out a relatively short day in good time. As an interesting evening adventure, many of the riders went to check out the old insane asylum in town which is claimed to be one of the most haunted places in america, and was featured on the television show Ghost Hunters.

Back on the Streets

2008-06-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

Day 8 - Knobsville, PA - 71 miles

The concesus for today was not a terribly difficult ride. We put nearly 40 miles behind us before we took a lunch break at a delightful small cemetary on a hillside. Views were gorgeous as per usual. We ran parrallel to a ridge of mountains for most of today, which eventually curved into our path and so we had no choice but two tackle two passes before we ended up in our lodging for the evening at Ye Olde Campgrounds. This was quite a camping experience as it decided to rain right after we set up tents, but we managed to stay mostly dry hanging around the pavilions. An awsome game of ultimate frisbee was enjoyed by many of the riders and there was even a small bluegrass band that was playing in one of the pavilions nearby. Luke and Paul made a great fire for eveyone to have smores at, though I sadly say I missed this because my Floridian tendencies kicked in when I saw the fireflies come out. Shane and I spent the next hour or more running around in a field like little kids trying to catch the fireflies which tended to stay in the deeper bush. Overall everyone had a blast being outside for the night instead of another church sanctuary.

Day 9 - Cumberland, MD - 75 miles

Today we took it off road. Our cue sheets (the daily directions leaders hand out each morning) were slightly difficult to navigate though that is understandable b/c leaders are expected to plan routes that keep us off major roads for safety purposes so it is a challenging task. We therefore ended up rolling along a gravel and mud road through the foothills of blue ridge mtn before bursting from the foliage back onto the summit road for a 2 mile climb to the 2200 ft top. The scenery along the road today was beautiful again and the temperature wasn't too bad either thanks to a cloud cover for most of the day. The unfortunate downside to this was that about 2 miles from our host for the night, it began to pour so we took shelter on someones front porch until we decided it wasn't letting up and rode in the rain. In the final mile of the ride, Colin popped off his chain which then bent out of position, so we spent the evening trying to fix that only to find that the new chain we put on was too long. Looks like he will be starting tomorrow's ride on Amy's bike because it is her day to drive the wagon.

With tomorrow's promise of West Virginia (the mountaineering state) climbs, I feel it is time to reflect on the hardest part of daily uphill battles: the mental game. It would seem that everyone is capable of riding a bike up a seemingly impossible hill as long as they have the proper gearing. The entire challenge comes in making yourself believe that you can do it and that you don't need to stop halfway just because your legs are burning from exertion. I've only stopped on a hill once so far and oddly enough it was a relatively short climb. My problem is that I let myself think that I couldn't make it when in reality had I just slowed my pace and taken deep breaths, I could have made it without a hitch. I realized this as Dustin, Matt and I reached the top of a grueling 30 minute mountain climb in which we were telling stories to take our minds off the physical distress. As long as you are in control of your own thoughts and can block out the little voice thats telling you to quit and go home, anything is possible. Then again, after tomorrow I may be singing a completely different tune. Mountains here we come.

Saddle Sores and More

2008-06-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

Day 6 - Reading, PA - 74

Two roads categorized today's ride. Firstly, the day began with back to back mountain climbs. While the area of road only stretched about 5 miles, it took the majority of the group around 45 minutes to get over these obstacles. This is because at times we would bottom out around 3.5 mph and could probably be passed by things like snails and slugs. Eventually we all crested the top though, and I managed to hit a new top speed of 47.4 mph. After an afternoon of not so difficult hills, we then finished the ride about 2 miles from our host destination with an ascent of "hill road." This strip of pavement at about a 60% grade it seemed, took us forever to climb because we adopted the switchback method of sweeping back and forth across the road to make the climb less steep and actually ridable. Tired and out of breath we coasted into town just in time to avoid a ridiculous hail storm that caused a necessary pick up for many of our riders who did not make timely arrivals. Everyone was so tired than many were asleep by 7 pm and didn't wake up until the following morning for a 6 am wakeup call.

Day 7 - Harrisburg, PA - 56

An absolutely awsome day of riding over mostly flat terrain and several notable stops. The morning began rough when we saw on our directions to bear a right onto 422. Little did we know that there was an Interstate 422 followed by a business 422, so we merged onto the big road and made it a full exit before we decided that we should be around 65 mph whizzing cars. We got off and re-routed ourselves back to the proper 422 where we made great time to the 30 mile lunch break by a dairy queen (Ice cream breaks will be a major theme of the summer) and so we hung out for about an hour before the support van showed up. The van was late because it had to get food since the previous night's storm stole a cooler and a tub of food in the choas of collecting people and their bikes. Regardless, after dinner we made another 15 mile trek before we arrived at HERSHEY PARK!!!!!! Awsome. Colin tried to talk a security guard to letting us get into the park for a free coaster ride, but we were redirected to Chocolate World where we proceeded to make a scene on the automated tour of the pseudo-factory. We consumed far too much chocolate samples and jumped on our bikes for a final few miles and arrived in town about 3ish.

Later in the evening we were treated to a great picnic at the local park by a pair of families who had children that were Bike and Build alumni. While there I was shown up at shuffle board by a 6-year-old, played an awsome game of kickball, and learned how to double-dutch from a couple of cheerleaders from the local high school.

Note: Double dutch has become the new past time of P2SF. Anyone who wants a Dutch-Off is welcome to bring the competition.

Build Day - Harrisburg, PA

Today the group was split into two teams, one working on renovating a new headquarters for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, and the other setting trusses on a two-story house down the street. I have never had the nerve-racking opportunity to help set and secure trusses (the big triangular structures that make the roofs of houses slanted) on 20* foot ladders, but it was quite an experience. I wouldn't say I am afraid of heights, but swinging a heavy hammer around at such heights definately got the blood pumping. It was an awsome experience to help set the framework for the house, which many of our builders had never had the opportunity to do. Overall and awesome afternoon and everyone is excited to hit the road in search of our next build site.

Medical Update:

Saddle sores finally appeared on day 7 of riding after back-to-back days wearing the same shorts due to an issue with the trailer being unable to bring our gear to the Stroudsburg host. I believed them to be a myth but was proven wrong. For those of you unfamiliar with saddle sores, it is the equivelant of daiper rash because of being in wet and rubbing spandex 8-10 hours a day. Muscles are sore but slowly become accustomed to the rigors of daily riding. Many people have met the horrors of back, neck, wrist, and knee pain due to repeated stress, but luckily I have been able to avoid any major issues in any of these areas, with only minor knee problems. Icing and advil will continue as per usual. As a side note, advil should totally sponsor Bike and Build, as we are keeping them in business single handedly.

Days in the Saddle

2008-06-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

Days three, four, and five have not been an easy task for most of us riders. Conditions have ranged from cold and rainy to blazing hot and dry above 100 degrees. I will recap as quickly as possible as I have only been able to get about a 10 minute internet access card at the local library.

Day 3 - Danbury, CT - 65 miles total

Hills and more hills. Today was probably the most challenging day for any of the riders. The hills did not break and it was in a pretty intense heat. On the brightside, I hit a new personal high speed on the hills at 44.0 mph. Let me tell you, there is nothing more invigorating than plunging down a hill on a bicycle at those kinds of speeds. A group of five of us were riding together when Dustin blew a flat so we stopped to find an awsome rope swing into a local river which we took about 45 minutes to enjoy.

Day 4 - Middletown, NY - 75 miles total

Best views so far on the trip but we difinately hit mountains. The highlights for the day included an awsome 4 mile downhill bomb that we took at an average of 35 mph. Past West Point and followed the Hudson River for a while, getting some unbelievable views. Heat was intense and we ran into some afternoon storms, but we only had about ten miles left so we pushed through until we arrived in town. We missed the shower hours at the local YMCA so the fire station across the road was kind enough to let us use there showers. Needless to say it had three very shiny golden poles that we begged and pleaded to slide down, but to no avail. Maybe next time.

Day 5 - Stroudsburg, PA - 65 miles total

Great day of riding. We arrived by 1 pm b/c there was so little distance to travel. There were only two difficult sections at the beginning and end of the trip, with the majority of the trip traveling through a beautiful park running along a river (the name of which I've forgotten b/c I don't update the blog often enough. I rode with self proclaimed team "Finklea and the Jets" and we actually lived up to the name, holding between 18 and 25 mph through the majority of the park. We must have really eaten our wheaties this morning because everyone had some extra get-up-and-go. Because of our fast pace, we made it to the host location by 1 pm where the host was kind enough to drive all of us

-Brent

Hills

2008-06-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today we became cyclists. Not a group of only-ride-when-its-pretty-outside-or-we-feel-up-to-it cyclists. Real cyclist. We started our day at the chipper time 0f 6:30, waking up at St. Paul's Church. I am on trailer crew this week and so it was my duty to help load up for the day. When I exited the church around 7am, I found quite a heavy rain staring me in the face. This was not the case at 7:45 when we suited up and hit the road for the day. Cloudy and overcast, but at least no rain.

The first hour went without a hitch, and we put close to 20 miles behind us. However, as we approached what we thought to be our turn, a fellow rider named Molly came riding by in the opposite direction to tell us that the directions were wrong and we had missed our turn.

Day pretty boring so far? Cutting to the good stuff.

15 minutes later, our group of about 7 riders found ourselves huddled in a auto shop's garage while we ask yet again for directions while a torrential rain soaks our bikes waiting outside. Not just a drizzle, rather a storm that would make Florida in the spring time proud. Needless to say such a obstacle would not dissuade eager cyclists such as ourselves, we took to the streets in the 60 degree downpour, for quite a "damp" jaunt through the town. After another half hour of riding we took shelter outside of a dairy queen, where the van met us w/ delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in conditions that our leader described as "near hypothermic."

Post-lunch and getting colder still, we decided that there was no other choice around it, we would have to finish the last 30 miles in our sopping jerseys and spandex. Then we found the hills. These are what I would have probably considered "mountains" as I was able to achieve a top speed of 41.6 MPH down the side of one. I used to think 27 gears was way too many for a bicycle, but I see now that it is not nearly enough.

Moral of the story is that we tackled some pretty mean obstacles today, saw some beautiful scenery, and gained some serious confidence on what we can get through. While we were greasing our chains and cleaning off the muck, all most of us could say was "I can't wait to hit the road again tomorrow."

Cheers,
Brent

On The Road Again

2008-06-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

First day of riding has finally arrived! The day began with a ceremonial "wheel dip" in the Atlantic Ocean which was actually a small boat dock at an inlet near to the university, but salty Atlantic water nonetheless. Big news as even NBC news showed up to video the ceremony so keep your eyes and ears peeled. We then paraded off through downtown providence using a rough estimation of directions to the open road. We finally made our way to US-14 where we spent the majority of our 37 mile treck getting to Plainfield, CT. The town is small and quaint but we had an amazing showing from the church we are staying at show up to a delicious cookout. Prior to the cookout we taught a bicycle safety class to some pip-sqeaks from the church, followed by an amazing field day of running amuck in the church yard. Overall an awsome first day and feeling great with minimal soreness. Day two here we come!

At the Wheel Dipping. Woohoo Atlantic!

Excited cyclists milling around w/ past riders and family.

Shane crossing an awesome causeway halfway through our ride.

We strongly considered picking up a team mascot.

Peace out Rhode Island.

Hellooooooo Connecticut!