Days 1 - 6 of Riding

Hey everyone! OMG so it's been crazy past week or so. I am sitting at an internet cafe in Binghamton, NY so I am going to try to make this kinda quick... sorry.

We started our first day in Providence and rode what was suppose to be a quick 30 miles to Woodstock, CT and stayed at The Hyde boarding school. I was sweep (had to ride at the end to make sure everyone got there safe) and it ended up being a longer day than I thought. Three of our riders actually got extremely lost and ended up in Massachusetts (we were suppose to be heading towards Connecticut!). But in the end, we all got there. The heat was so bad the first three days of riding though, it was so awful. It was hotter up here than down in Miami! It was in the high 90s for a good four days or so and it happened to be our first days of riding. A lot of people were not used to riding in it, but I was ok for the most part.

Our hosts were really nice and provided us with a cookout dinner of hamburgers, hotdogs, etc. So far all our food has been provided, we havent had to cook, and it' s all been really delicious!

Day 2 we headed out of Woodstock for Granby, CT where we stayed at the First Congressional Church of Granby on their basement floor. Dinner was awesome!

Day 3 was probably my favorite day when we headed Kent, CT. It was so unbelievably hot and we had a nice 55 mile ride ahead of us. We were all near death and heat exhaustion when we came upon the Kent Falls. These waterfalls are supposedly really famous and people come from miles around to see them. They were gorgeous! I will post pics later, but forgot my camera. We all stripped down to spandex and sports bras and went swimming in th falls. The water was really cold, but felt amazing since it was like 97 degrees outside and we had been riding and sweaating for hours.

That night we stayed at the Kent boarding school on the gym floor. The only problem was the heat! It was so hot, I ended up dragging my sleeping bag out onto the football field and sleeping under the stars. They were so pretty and bright! it was also surrounded by rolling hillls all around and although I woke up a bit damp and dewy, it was totally worth it.

Day 4 we set off for Poughkeepsie, NY. It again was suppose to only be a 35 mile ride, but again people got lost. This is a common theme on the Bike and Build trips I am coming to see. We all get lost at least once a day. It helps when people write arrows in the right direction on the road in chalk that we all carry around in our camelbacks. This had been getting better over the days. I actually was lucky enough to not get lost that day since I was in the last group to leave and by that point we had realized they all took the wrong turn out of the school. So instead I went and got coffee in town, had coffee, chatted with some locals about B&B and our trip, rode back to the school and still peopel had not gotten back from riding the wrong direction. 5mins later they were there and i left with them.

We stayed at an Episcopal church in Pough. and they were extremely nice, as I am noticing a lot of people are. Again, we stayed on their basement floor. They fed us breakfast the next morning and we set off for Roscoe, NY. This was suppose to be a 70mile ride and ended up being 85! We got extremely lost, and the hills (or i really should call them mountains because they were!) were ridicuolous. The grade on some of them were so ridiculous that most people walked their bikes up a lot of them. I was determined to not get off and although I stopped to rest a lot, I fought hard and rode up every single hill (some at about 2mph). It seriously was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life and definitely the longest hardest day I've ever had on the bike. The leaders also apologized and claimed that should be like the hardest day we will have all summer. The day was about 11 hours long, 8 hours in the saddle (on my bike). It sucked really bad. By the time we arrived at the church I was shaking from hunger and exhaustion. Food was ready when we arrived and I ate more than I ever have. It was so so good. FYI... more then half of our group eneded up getting picked up by the van because they couldnt finish the ride and only a handful who did finish actually rode every mile and did not walk their bike up any hills (ME!!) I was so proud of myself after getting up like 10 miles of ridiculousness that when I arrived at the top surrounded by a gorgeous view I literally was overcome with emotion and accomplishment that I started crying... I know, it was emotional and crazy.

We actually got to stay at an Inn in the mountains and got to sleep in beds! it was amazing! I woke up feeling still tired, but had a great night's sleep. We had breakfast at the local habitat for humanity's restaurant that he owns in Roscoe. The pancakes were awesome. They filled me up nice and we set off for Binghamton, NY.

Today was a 70mile ride. I did not get lost and it really was like 70 miles. The only issue in the day was mountain biking for a good 5 miles. Apparently if we decided to not go on the dirt, rock, gravel road then it would have added another 10 miles to the trip. So we stuck it out with the gravel. We all arived at the First Congressional Church here and are sleeping on a basement floor once again tonight. We are actually staying here two nights since tomorrow we have a build day with the Habitat here. We are all VERY happy to get off our bikes for a day.

I will try to post more often! It's harder to find internet than I thought. I will try to come back to this cafe again tomorrow and post more/ picures. Last, I just want to say that one amazing thing about this trip is that I am starting to have hope again that there are a lot more good, kind and generous people out there than I thought. People have been so incredible kind to us wherever we go that it is so refreshing. Take care everyone and I will write again soon!

PS - the best part about going up hills/mountains is coming down. My max speed downhill so far is 42.7mps =) I got scared and hit the brakes at that.