Not a Fan of Nebraska

Interesting fact about Plainview, NE: there’s a clown museum. I didn’t go… but I hear I didn’t miss much except a bunch of creepy clown stuff and a strange lady working there.

The day started off like no other day of my life up until this point, and I’m pretty positive no other day of my life will ever start off this way ever again. We had a nice 5am wakeup and by 6am were at the local bar for breakfast and bowling. Yes, this bar not only is open for breakfast every morning, but also has a bowling alley and tanning bed inside of it. We ordered our food and some people bowled while waiting for it to be ready. I ate a huge delicious breakfast, and sat around waiting for other people to finish since our food was coming out one plate at a time. I was not looking forward to getting on my bike and all, and stalled as much as possible hoping the time would not come where my butt would have to touch the seat, but eventually I was one of only a handful of people left and so set off on the 83 mile journey to Stuart.

Around mile 30 I was feeling pretty good, and wondering if it was possible that I had been hating my bike as much as I did this morning. There was s fossil museum we heard about from some locals where we had stayed the night before, and a few adventurous people decided to take the 7 mile (3.5 one way and 3.5 back) detour to check it out. It ended up being a great decision and probably the coolest thing I will see in Nebraska. About 12 million years ago ash from volcano eruptions in South Dakota traveled to Nebraska via winds, killing all the animals and also fossilizing their skeletons. They have been excavating the areas since the 1970s and have found fossils of all kinds of animal fossils like elephants, zebras, and hippos. It was so cool! They were even digging outside while we were there, and one of the geologist guys found a snake fossil, which he told us is like super rare. They thought it even might be a new species of snake that they found… so so cool. I can’t even tell you how awesome it was to see these fossils; definitely the best part of NE so far and the way things are going, I don’t see it getting much better.

After lunch the ride ended up getting tougher with winds and heat both increasing and civilization decreasing. We ended up getting into Stuart with a total mileage of 90. The people at the church were so nice, and one guy even chased down myself and another girl who were walking in the complete wrong direction to the local auditorium where showers were. He pulled up in his car and told us we were going the wrong way, then drove us to the showers; now that’s service (and it was so nice!). I talked to the nicest couple after dinner who were huge UN fans and we chatted about college sports and all kinds of fun stuff. Sleep came easy that night, and I woke up feeling positive about the ride to Valentine.

Valentine’s ride ended up being my hardest by far. It was an 87 mile ride that took so long. There were so many parts of the day that we were literally biking 10mph while going down hill. The headwinds were so brutal all day long and never quit. By the time we finally reached Valentine with its hearts on EVERY sign and place possible in the town we all just felt like flipping out slightly. People get loopy when tired on the bike, which is always quite entertaining though lol. My butt and body were hurting at the end of yesterday, and I wasn’t even sure how I made it into town, but some how we all just kept pedaling until we reached the church. They didn’t provide us with dinner, but one of the girls who rode in the van that day due to butt related injuries was nice enough to have dinner made for us when we all arrived. We had a salad bar and a taco bar and both were awesome. I was so exhausted I went to bed immediately after our group meeting around 9. Group meeting for the week or what we call our “Town Hall” meetings was interesting last night with a lot of talk about butt problems and saddle sores. We think it apparently may be spreading through the laundry and discussed experimenting with color safe bleach to try to better kill the bacteria that may be causing this epidemic… will keep you updated.

This morning I was not into the thought of riding my bicycle, again, for 93 miles. We were heading for Gordon, NE. Another long day… Brooke and I figured it out and after tomorrow’s ride and then our day off after that (finally) we will have average 86 miles a day over six days. The day actually turned out to be a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The sunrise and clouds this morning were gorgeous! The wind was bad, but not as bad as yesterday, and although it was still a long tough ride the company I had made it not so bad. The day actually started out really slowly since I stopped with a few other people to help a girl change her tire only to have it deflate immediately due to a bad valve on the new tube. We changed it again a second time and were finally off. By this point we were far behind everyone else, and that’s the way it stayed for the remainder of the ride. Unfortunaltey, a lot of riders ended up riding in the van today due to exhaustion and/or butt problems. I think the total number in the van today for either the entire day or part of the day was around 7 or 8. The van at one point had to actually go the church to drop people and their bikes off to make room to go pick up more people. My butt was crying a lot of the day, but it made it another ride and hopefully should last me until our day off after tomorrow’s ride.

I am sweeping again tomorrow (always interesting). Thankfully it is a short day of only 47 miles so hopefully it won’t be too long or bad a day. At this point we are all looking forward to our day off more than anything and that will provide plenty of motivation to get to the host ASAP. Overall, we have come to a consensus that we all HATE Nebraska (except the two riders from here). The scenery for the most part sucks (don’t be fooled by the few good pictures I have posted), the wind is AWFUL, and it is driving us all to the point of insanity and delirium on our bicycles. One guy was even having a conversation with the state of NE today… alone. Telling it how much he hates is and how he will not let it get the best of him… Marita pulled up in the van and witnessed some of it. We are all looking forward to being out of this awful state, and would suggest no one ever ride their bikes from east to west across this miserable state.

Nebraska ~ Holler!

Yesterday was a super eventful and LONG day that ended in all of us completing our first century (wow) and also entering the state of Nebraska, two of our riders' home state (whoooo!). The day was hot, long, and hilly, but all around a good day. About 10 miles before our second lunch, myself and Marty unfortunately missed a turn and had absolutely no idea until we were eventually chased down by Marita in the van who regretfully told us we had gone 5 miles too far. So we turned around (what other choice do we have on this trip? lol). Those 5 miles of backtracking revealed to us that not only did we go 5 miles in the wrong direction, but we were also going slightly up hilll and into the wind. It was not too much fun, but at least the 5 miles back were slightly down hill and we had a tail wind haha.

We eventually made it back to the right road, and were greeted with a monstrous hill (great). From there we kept telling each other (but I think it was more to motivate ourselves personally) to just keep pedaling and make it to second lunch. We eventually arrive, after more climbing, and collapsed in the shade. After some food and fluids for energy we set off again just ahead of sweeps with everyone esle already gone. The first few miles were rough since we were already at mile 90 and we were joking about how hard it was to even get above 9mph. After the legs started warming up again I think my body went into such a focused state of mind and energy I didn't even know I had began to kick in. I was so in the zone and just kept pedaling. Marty would try to talk to me and my responses were one word answers until it got to the point that he realized I was not in a chatty mood haha.

We evetually crossed over the bridge into Nebraska (extremely busy bridge full of cars and semitrucks; no picture was taken beacuse I was more worried about my life) and Frannie's mom actually called and left me a message in the middle of my crossing the state line ;) Getting the the YMCA was really exhilirating and such an awesome feeling. Marty and my's mileage for the day ended up being 115.7 miles... brutal. I think everyone else was around 103 (still a century - we rock!).

It was kind of funny how after the ride everyone showered, ate, and probably 75% of us were comfy in our sleeping bags and alseep by 7:30. Exhaustion had hit us all hard. The YMCA we stayed at in South Sioux City was really nice though. Definitely one of the nicest we have seen to date, and I was a little sad to not have taken advantage of the steam room, pool, or hot tub. Sleep was my number one priority, and I was totally one of the people sound asleep before a lot of Americans have even eaten dinner (oh what B&B does to your body).

We woke up today at the usual 5am for a 77 mile ride to Plainview, NE. The first half of the ride was awesome. I rode with Brooke the first 40 miles and our amazing convos made the miles melt away. We stopped for lunch at a great spot found by Shira. There was a cute snack bar type of walk up window thing where you order food with picnic tables outside of it. We all ate food from the trailer and most of us ended up ordering ice cream, smoothies, fries, onion rings and other goodies from the place. The mango smoothie was so delicious, and really hit the spot on such a hot day.

The second half of the ride was fairly uneventful, but a struggle for me due to increasing back/shoulder pain of the course of the past week or so and it just seems to be getting worse, the heat, and some butt pain, which I am hoping is not turning into a saddle sore (but am sad to think it might be). Hopefully I will be able to take care of these things early and they won't develop into anything that may lead to me having to ride in the van. I will keep you updated.

We are styaing at yet another church tonight and they are giving us dinner and breakfast (always a plus). There's about 15 of us crammed into the very tiny single room Plainview Public Library right now using the computers or reading the newspaper. I think we have overwhelmed the very old, but very kind, librarian. Us making a spectacle and people staring... what else is new haha. This was an impromtu internet stop though so I do not have my camera with me and cannot post any pictures at this time =( I will add some next time I can.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Stuart, NE about 70 or 80 miles away. These back to back to back long days are starting to wear on us a bit. We are all already counting down the days to our second day off on July 14th... soooo close. We have already been promised by locals that Nebraska, which we are in for 7 days, is boring and full of fields and nothingness. I am hoping they are wrong.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome brother Josh! Sorry I can't be there, and sorry I didn't send a card, but I got super sweet postcards today so you can expect one in the near future. =)

Build Day in Carroll, Iowa

We left Clinton, Iowa with our route redirected towards Mount Vernon instead of the original Cedar Rapids due to flooding. The day ended up being about 80 or 90 miles and the entire way it was beautiful rolling hills. Unfortunately, one of the girls on the trip, Julie, had to be taken to the hospital that morning because her arm was hurting so badly from the night before when she thought it would be a good idea to participate in a Tae Kwon Do class (she’s a black belt) at the YMCA we were staying at. She was sparring with some 15 year old boy in the class who as she put it, was not in complete control of his limbs (haha), and he kicked her in the arm really hard.

This fiasco caused the van to have to wait with her at the hospital where they determined it was broken and had to cast her entire arm. =( This left the rest of us biking people for the day in the town of Lost Nation hungry and van-less. Yes, there is a town in Iowa called Lost Nation, and yes, we found it so we are not sure now if it is still lost or why exactly it is called Lost Nation since there were plenty of signs pointing out how to get there, but this is an entirely different story. Instead we all ended up at a Shell gas station where we had an impromptu lunch of purchased gas station food (mmm… yumm… crackers and cheese, tostino’s pizza rolls, burritos, chips, candy, ice cream, turkey sandwiches). The van was still an hour behind us at this point and we were starving with not many other choices. We decided to have a more formal lunch around mile 65 where we all got to sign Julie’s cast. Julie was in surprisingly high spirits, and even though she is a super optimistic and happy person in general who would probably look at this type of situation in a positive light, I feel that the pain killers they gave her at the hospital probably had a little to do with her loopy behavior =0 lol.

The next morning we had to say goodbye to Julie (we are now down to 29 riders, so sad) who is going home for a couple weeks and will hopefully be back to finish the ride with us once the arm is healed and cast is cut off. Marshalltown, Iowa was our place of destination for the 4^th of July and we were all sad to see Julie go, but excited for what our evening would hold. The ride once again, as is becoming a given in Iowa (my favorite state so far), was beautiful full of rolling hills, green green fields of never ending corn and farmland, and big blue skies.

Since our route was redirected to keep us from staying in our original destination city of Cedar Rapids because of the floods, we had to stay in Mount Vernon, but on our way to Marshalltown we did get to ride through part of downtown Cedar Rapids. The sight was so sad. It smelled bad. The flooding had destroyed so many of the houses. Nailed to every house were damage assessment papers which claimed the waters that caused the flood damage to be as high as 13 feet. We all literally stopped in the middle of the streets not knowing what else to do but stare. Household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, etc. littered the sidewalks and debris and trash was everywhere. It made me feel so bad that we couldn’t do anything to help. I felt terrible to just keep riding and not be able to stay and do something, anything, to help this community. This moment was, and probably will be, my low for the entire trip. It was a reality check I think we all sort of needed. It was a good reminder of our true purpose in this journey, and just how important the affordable housing cause is as well as general community service, helping people in need, and giving back to those who are less fortunate really is.

We got to the church we were staying at and dinner was still hours away and I was hungry. Town was less than a mile away and a few of us decided to ride back in to get a snack at the Sonic we had seen. As we were sitting there eating, more B&B cyclists started to arrive (I was in the first group to arrive that day) and we called out to them to come join us. By the end, about half our group was there and as always we drew lots of attention and curiosity from the locals who for some odd reason can always tell we are from out of town lol.

Showers were also an interesting situation that day since it was the 4^th of July and pretty much any place that we would normally shower (schools, YMCAs, gyms) were closed for the holiday. Our only option was the hose outside the church so we all put on bathing suits, and although the water was freezing, it was actually really fun. Dinner consisted of an awesome BBQ that we made for ourselves using the grill outside the church. We all ate and once it started to get dark we shuttled over in our 15 passenger van to a local park that we heard was having 4^th celebrations and fireworks. The night was perfect, full of relaxing, fireworks, and as always great company. We all laid in the grass together, using each other as a pillow, and talked, laughed, ate popcorn, and waited for the fireworks to start. It was definitely a memorable 4^th of July, and one that was totally enjoyable despite the fact that we were all so far from home and friends and family. We really have become a Bike & Build family… so cute =)

The ride to Ames was a short day of only 40 miles. It was a great ride that we all flew through and arrived in town in time for lunch. The majority of us decided to splurge a little and eat at a great Chinese restaurant we found in town. The food was fantastic, cheap, and satisfied all of our cravings for Chinese food. The rest of the day was spent for most people either at the coffee shop, shopping and running errands, relaxing, napping, or at an awesome bike shop in town. It was a great relaxing day that everyone was needing after the few long days before.

The ride from Ames to Carroll was another long one coming in around 83 miles. For me, and I think for a lot of others, it was a pretty hard day. The wind was blowing and we were tired. I passed the time and miles on the bike talking to Marty (one of my favorite riding buddies on the trip) and playing the “would you rather” game. You basically come up with two horrible options, and make the person choose which one they would rather do. It provides miles of entertainment. After coming close to delusion and having to ride on that horrible US 30 once again for about 5 miles, we finally reached Carroll exhausted, hungry, and excited for our build day.

A handful of us 21 year old also went out for “the best margaritas in Iowa” (yeah, not saying too much and they weren’t that great) and had a fun night hanging out and playing charades and naming fun facts. The best part of the night was the ride back to the host site where we stopped along the side of the rode, turned off the headlights, looked out into the dark cornfields and saw thousands and thousands of fireflies all lighting up sporadically as far as your eyes could see. It was so beautiful… I can’t even describe it. We all sat there in the van in complete silence and in awe of just how perfect and magical that moment was. When I close my eyes I can still picture them twinkling in the field.

Today was the build day with the local Habitat for Humanity and I thought it was by far above and beyond our best build day. We got to frame and raise the walls of the house they are building! It was so much fun to have a hammer back in our hands and feel like we were being really productive. Seeing how much we accomplished in that one day, and basically starting with nothing there, and ending with the frame of a house complete was such a great feeling. Although I still wish we could have done something to help Cedar Rapids and all the people who have lost their homes there, it was nice today to feel like we at least made a difference in one family’s life.

Tomorrow we are heading into South Sioux City, Nebraska which the rumor mill is saying is over 100 miles away (maybe 110ish?). Goodbye Iowa… you treated us Bike and Builders oh so well and we will miss you. Hello Nebraska and what we are predicting to be more endless cornfields… But on a positive note, tomorrow we will all finally have completed our first century mile ride! Oh, and also according to the rumor mill, sometime in the next couple days we are reaching the half way point of our trip. Time sure has flown by, and although 30something more days of this trip seems like a long time, I have a feeling it is all going to slip by way too fast.

I am Officially WEST of the Mississippi River!

The morning after our day off in Pontiac I was cranky. We woke up at 5am, I did not get enough coffee at breakfast, and my bum was feeling so nice after the day off my bike was not looking too good to me. The great thing about this trip though is that I had not other option than to get on my bicycle and head to Peru, IL. So that is exactly what I did.

I rode about 10 miles and found a gas station along the road we were on. I stopped, got a cup of coffee, and sat outside where I talked to some curious locals about our trip. The coffee was awesome and did the trick of immediately breaking me out of my grouchy mood (I think that means I'm also officially a caffeine feind, but whatever). The day was perfect, the wind not so bad, and there was only 50 miles until our destination.

The ride was a beautiful one, and it left me wondering why I didn't want to get on my bike that morning. Once we arrived at the host site we all put on our bathing suits for a pool party being thrown for us at a Bike and Build Alum's gf's grandparent's house (try to follow that one). The house was perfect, the weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the company was as always fantastic. We all ate, swam, read, chatted, and lounged by the pool until dinner time when we went back to the church and enjoyed a pasta dinner. It really felt like at the end of the day that we hadn't even ridden earlier that morning it was so relaxing.

This morning we woke up once again at 5am (what we think is going to be the new wake up time to try and beat this brutal midwest wind) and set off for Clinton, Iowa. I was in a much better mood this morning due to the best breakfast we have had so far on the trip made for us by the cutest old church ladies I've ever seen in my life complete with three cups of coffee and I was ready to roll. The mileage was 81 miles with lunch around mile 45. I cruise to lunch with barely any trouble, had a great lunch full of wonderful leftovers and donated veggies from the Pontiac supermarket, and started pedaling once again for Iowa and rumors that we were going to be crossing over the Mississippi River.

After a windy and semi-dangerous 35 mile ride on a road under construction with no shoulder and 18 wheeler trucks whizzing past at uncomfortable speeds and closeness, the rumors turned out to be true (for once on B&B haha jk)! We did in fact get into Iowa, and then immediately biked over the monstrous Mississippi River, which I was thinking about it today and I believe today was the first time in my life I have ever actually seen the Mississippi River in person. It was so cool though! It looked exactly how they describe it in like the adventures of Huck Finn lol.

We are staying at the local YMCA in Clinton (on the Mississippi according to the town sign). The "teen club" here made us dinner and then challenged us to what we thought was a friendly game of dodgeball. Little did we know they were hustlers haha. They in fact are not just a teen club that does nice community service activities, but in fact they are also a competetive dodgeball team. After watching them warmup a bit I was scared and did not really want to play, but decided I needed to get over my fears and do it for Bike & Build! So we all got out there and got out butts kicked pretty good by a bunch of high school kids. I have never been so scared of high school kids in my life by the way... they throw those balls hard haha.

Tomorrow we were suppose to be going to Cedar Rapids, Iowa but the town was severly affected by the floods and our route hs been changed instead to another city. I am not sure where exactly we are going, but the rumor mill is saying that it will be about 80 miles away. Tomorrow's route meeting will tell all. The internet has been rather spotty by the way so that is the reason for no posts for the pretty long period of time. I am trying to post as much as possible and will continue to try my best!

Oh, if you guys are bored and want to laugh a lot, check out a blog of a Bike and Build route leader on the Boston to Santa Barbara route name Jose. We have officially incorporated into our morning route meetings a "Jose quote of the day" which displays just how ridiculous this guy is.

I have attahed the link to his blog below for your convenience... happy reading lol.

http://www.bikefleet.blogspot.com/

Pontiac, IL - Day Off FINALLY!

We had a tough few days leading up to this glorious day off in Pontiac, IL where I sit here writing to you from yet another lovely church full of lovely people feeding us and letting us sleep on our blow up thermarest mattresses and sleeping bags on their floor for free.

After Columbus we had a 75 mile day to reach Dayton, OH. I was riding as sweep that day with a cute blond girl from Texas on the trip named Hannah and we set off for a Starbucks the woman working at the Jewish Community Center gave me directions to. It was nice to see something so familiar since most days there are not too many chain stores or restaurants that we pass through our travels. We sat and had a nice cup of coffee and talked to a few regulars about our travels.

Overall, the day was great. It included a stop at McDonalds where I got a delicious chocolate milkshake and witnesses Hannah eating her first Big Mac of her life (very entertaining haha). We then made it to lunch and set off once again for our final destination. Unfortunately, we missed a turn shortly after lunch and ended up doing an extra 10 miles on the day to make it 85 instead of the planned 75. The terrain has gotten pretty flat by now though and the wind was pretty comparable to what I am used to riding in back home in FL, so it was not too dificult a day for me and I actually really enjoyed it.

It's really cool the contrast between the colors of the extremely green fields, the golden parts where they gro wheat, and the huge blue sky... it really was a gorgeous day for riding and I was happy to be out there enjoying it all and trying to soak it up as much as possible.

Dayton was a great city to spend two nights in due to the overwhelmingly warm welcome we received from the church, local Habitat, and City of Dayton itself. After a delicious dinner provided by our hosts, a few of us snuck upstairs to watch the church choir during their rehersal. It was an incredible experience. The congregation is made up primarily of black Americans, and the choir was no different. They were all so full of joy and you could see how they put every bit of their soul into their singing. They all had beautiful voices that nearly brought me to tears during one song. It was really fun to watch them sing and dance and be so happy to live in the moment. I truly enjoyed listening to them.

The next day we had what I think was our best build day so far with the Dayton Habitat for Humanity. They have three lots they are currently working on in the same neighborhood so we were able to do a lot of different types of work from dry walling (which I am now an expert at if you ever need any help in that area) to more landscaping (aka manual labor) to pouring cement for the foundation of on the future houses. The Chief of Police even came to give us a speech and thank us for our work in Dayton. The media also showed up and taped the presentation as well as interviewed a few of our riders. We heard we made both the 7pm and 11pm local news, but never saw it. I think the leaders were trying to get a copy of it. It was a long day full of hard work, but it left us all feeling helpful and satisfied with our efforts.

We were more than rewarded when that night we went to the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball game. Habitat was kind enough to get us all tickets along with coupons for a free Dragons hat and $10 certificates that we could use to buy food with at the concession stands throughout the park. It was an awesome time that we all really enjoyed. Nothing gets better than summer baseball with some friends on a beautiful night in Ohio.

The next day we packed up for our ride to Hartford City, Indiana. We had our longest day so far ahead of us at 96 miles. Luckily the Chief of Police extended his efforts to us once again by providing us with a police escort out of the city. We not only had two officers on bicycles, but also had two police cars complete with flashing lights to stop traffic for us at red lights. It was probably one of the coolest experiences I have had so far on the trip. We seriously felt like we were in a parade or something with all the people staring at the spectacle we were making riding by. I asked the two officers on the bikes if they felt like riding with us the entire 96 mile day with promise of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, but they declined (though the sandwiches did sound tempting they admitted haha).

The rest of the day although long and at times fairly hard wasn’t too bad until the last 10 or so miles when the clouds became dark, the wind picked up, and it looked like it could start pouring down rain at any minute. We saw lightning and immediately pulled into the first place we could find cover, which happened to be a small car mechanic shop on the side of the road. We were really lucky it was there since there literally was nothing else around except for fields and houses and cows. As soon as we pulled up to the front door and were about to turn the knob to go in, a woman opened the door and ushered us in. At this point the thunder and lightning were terrible and no sooner than we got inside it started torrentially down pouring. The mechanics were really nice and let us stay there until the storm passed about 45 minutes later. The church we were staying at ended up being only a couple miles down the rode… we were so close to beating the storm, but yet so far.

The next day was an 80 mile ride to Lafayette, Indiana. This was a really tough day for me since I decided to go way to fast and push myself way too hard for the first 40 miles of the ride. After lunch, the second 40 miles were brutal and I was so tired that at one point without realizing how close we were to the church, I felt I could not pedal anymore into what we later heard were head on winds of up to 35mph, and I had to stop and take a rest for 15 minutes or so. The church was only a few miles down the road, but from confusion of road signs, we thought we still had like 10-15 more miles. I was very happy to see otherwise and collapsed on the floor when I got there never feeling more happy to be done with my day of riding. We actually had a tornado warning later that night where they made us all go into the bathrooms and wait for about a half hour before they told us it was safe to come out. The storms and weather has been pretty strange so far for our trip.

88 miles to Gilman, Illinois was the last of our really hard days. This day was the hardest of the entire trip for a bunch of people on the trip. I definitely thought it was hard, but for me personally a couple days in CT and PA climbing the mountains was way harder. I think just the combination of three 80+ mile days in a row and the strong head winds all day left people cursing Mark Bush’s name (the originator of Bike and Build; why did he think it was a good idea to ride east to west against the winds?). We all made it though (plus there was our first time change when we crossed the Illinois border) and we were greeted by a girl on the trip’s parents who are Korean and made us an authentic Korean BBQ dinner. The food was amazing! Homemade dumplings, grilled veggies, rice, and much more was provided and it was all so delcious and a great change of pace from the food we are normally fed on B&B. It was a real treat that everyone really appreciated.

Thankfully, the ride to Pontiac, Illinois was only 44 miles. I had a great day of riding! I rode a lot of it alone which was a nice change. Since it was so short, and the weather was so beautiful it gave me a good amount of much needed alone time to soak up the sun, scenery, think about a lot of different things, reflect on where I am currently at in my life, and sing songs to myself. I really enjoyed my day of pedaling =)

Pontiac is also where we had our first real complete day off (1 of 3 for the entire trip). I woke up this morning and went out to a great breakfast with some of the greatest new people in my life. We laughed, recapped the events from last night’s trip to the bar, and enjoyed the great food, coffee, and company. The rest of the day I spent cleaning my bike, watching a movie, eating, and napping. It was a much needed day of rest and recovery that we all were so happy to have. Tomorrow we are off once again though on our bicycles for Peru, Illinois. Although it is a short only 50ish mile day, we are getting up at 5am to leave an hour earlier in hopes of arriving early in Peru. I Bike & Build alum from the Central US route last year lives close by and is throwing us a pool party =) Should be a good time. As much as we all loved our day off, I think we are all refreshed, anxious, and more than excited to get back on our bicycles and keep on pedaling.

I’m still in awe sometimes of where I am, and the fact that I have ridden my bicycle here. From talk at the bar last night, I am pretty sure we are well over 1,200 miles of riding so far and about a third of our adventure is already over…. Unreal.

92 miles to Gambier and Then a Beautiful 52 to Columbus

Hope everyone enjoyed my guest blogger who posted before this one about our build day with Rebuilding Together in Akron. I literally wrote one sentence and then there was a van about to leave for Wal-Mart that I ran to get it leaving my blog still up on Marty's computer who I was borrowing to write. He took it upon himself to write his version of my blog, which I later was too tired to finish and allowed him to post haha.

Anyways, the build day was pretty good. It's always so nice to have a day off for your butt... trust me, it needs the rest after being on a bike seat for hundreds of miles over the course of days. The house we helped out on belonged to a really sweet 82 yr old woman and we did a variety of tasks around her house including cleaning out her basement (and moving a very heavy fridge from the 50s), some landscaping, and painting. Overall it was a great day, and Marty was not lying about the amazing box lunches we were given that did include a very tasty mint. He was also not lying about my taking a nap while waiting for the van to come pick us all up... hey. there are two things I am learning from this trip and that is I am very tired and very hungry pretty much all the time and yet complain about it all never since I'm having such an amazing time =)

That night it rained and thundered all throughout dinner time, which we didn't mind one bit since we were inside and happily eating all the delicious food prepared for us by our host. After dinner the rain finally stopped and a gorgeous full rainbow appeared in the sky. We all went outside and stared at it for a really long time. It was so bright and clear it seriously looked like it wasn't even real... it was so cool. The sky and clouds were also really beautiful and we all enjoyed the view and each other's company until it started getting dark and decided to go inside to get to bed since we were doing 92 miles the next day.

The day started at 5am when the alarm went off (we decided to start an hour earlier that day since it was going to be such a long day mileage wise and there was also a prediction of afternoon showers). The first twenty miles or so went smoothly with some rolling hills, but nothing too difficult. About five or six of us stopped to use a restroom around this time and when we were getting ready to hit the road again one of the girls I was with noticed a man lying on the ground across the street from where we were. She said it looked like he was having a seizure or something and that she thought she saw him shaking. She started walking towards him and I'm not sure why, but something in me just told me to run over there. So I made someone hold my bike and took off running over to the man.

I was the first one to get to him and immediately noticed the pool of blood around his head. He was laying on his back and he was breathing heavily, but his eyes were closed and he was not responding to anything we were saying to him. I called 911 (the first time I ever have in my life) and calmly explained to the operator that we needed an ambulance. There was a bike on the ground by the man and it looked like he must have fallen off it and hit his head. The ambulance showed up in a few minutes and they managed to get a bandage on his head, put a neck brace on him, and took him to the hospital where he would probably going to have to have stitches. The whole encounter was really scary and definitely shook me up for a lot of the day, but in the end I felt like everything was ok and we helped someone who otherwise may not have gotten the help he needed.

The rest of the ride was interesting since we were officially in Amish Country. It was pretty crazy to see these people rolling around in their horse drawn carriages and funny hats and beards. The scenery was really beautiful though. Who knew Ohio was so green! We got to have two lunches since it was such a long day. We have what they call a 90/90 rule: if the temperature is over 90 degrees or if the mileage is over 90 than we get two lunches that day =). Although feeling pretty tired before the second lunch, getting that food and gatorade in me gave me what I needed to finish the last 20 miles pretty hard. The last 10 or so we rode in the rain, but at the end of the day it felt so good to arrive.

We stayed in Kenyon College's dorms and it was soooo nice to have a bed! They even gave us sheets and towels so we didn't have to use our sleeping bags or quick dry towels (they feel like you're rubbing your body with felt lol). We made our own dinner since no dinner was provided to us... pasta (which they burned and set off the fire alarm and the fire dept. came to turn it off hahaha) and cake and ice cream for dinner. I was so exhausted and slept really soundly in my nice dorm room bed.

This morning we woke up to our cue sheets saying we only had 52 miles to ride to Columbus. We were all in good spirits about that after our long almost century ride yesterday. The college provided us with breakfast at their dining hall and it was AMAZING. The ride was beautiful and fairly uneventful (which isn't always a bad thing lol) and I arrived in the first group at the JCC where we are staying tonight. We all decided to go swimming in their outside pool with water slides! It was really fun to swim and hang out and see everyone's horrible spandex tan lines haha. We also played a modified version of the game "Marco Polo" by simply changing the words. The person who was "it" would say "Bike" and we would all respond "Build", it was pretty funny and the lifeguards on duty got a good kick out of it.

So far I am having an unbelievable time on this trip... it's so hard to describe just how awesome it is. One thing that's really funny though is just how much you start to appreciate the simple things in life being on Bike & Build: Eating, sleeping, showering, a good cup of coffee (or some mornings any coffee lol), friends, amazing scenery, and the sun shining on you while riding along and singing a good song with your cycling buddies... does life get any better?

Rebuilding Together in Akron, OH

Today we had a build day in Akron with Rebuilding Together. I worked in the basement clearing out a smörgåsbord of dusty belongings accumulated over the past 50 years. I think I was getting a reaction from the dust, so After lunch i switched to scraping lead paint (obviously the better job.) Lunch, however, was very enjoyable. Box lunches complete with after dinner mint and moist towelettes were provided. I was able to fit in a short nap after building, utilizing one of my coworkers as a pillow ( a trend I am quickly learning to love)

P.s. Jess sends her love, but she was at Wall-Mart and/or sleeping/eating all day.
this was written by her pillow.

Oh and we are riding 92 miles tomorrow