Hello parents, friends, and well wishers,


Please see below for details about B2SB's arrival on August 14th in Santa Barbara.


Thursday, August 14, 2008


11:15 am - Friends & Family begin congregating on the beach / set-up lunch


11:30 am - Riders ride together from a staging area (a few miles from the beach) to East Beach (Link to Map), following the coast on Route 225.


12:00 pm - Arrival at East Beach. Lunch, tire dipping, and welcome celebration. Bike & Build will be contacting local television stations, radio networks, and newspapers to make this a press event.


The Magida family will be organizing lunch. If you'd like to help with lunch, please contact the Magida family at vtmagida@aol.com or 802-498-5620.


2:30 pm - Riders head to the overnight location at First Congregational Church, located at 2101 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. If parents are willing to help bring riders back to hotels, this will greatly speed up the showering process.


2:30 pm - 6pm - Free time to enjoy Santa Barbara!


6:00 pm - Group dinner at Left at Albuquerque restaurant , located just about a mile from the church heading south on State Street: 700 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA. Friends and family are welcome to attend.


Friday, August 15th, 2008


8:00 am - Build Day with Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County, open to friends and family. We'll be building at 3454 Royal Avenue, Simi Valley, CA 93065. To get there, take the Tapo Canyon Road exit from the 118 freeway in Simi Valley. This is a 70 mile drive, each way. We'll run one van shuttle, and rely on additional cars to transport the rest of the group.


5:30 pm - Host dinner and presentation at the First Congregational Church of Santa Barbara. Friends and family are welcome to attend. The trip is formally over at the end of this presentation.


Saturday, August 16th - Sunday, August 17th


Riders will have accommodations available at First Congregational Church until 12 noon on Sunday, August 17th. If you need to ship a bicycle home rather than taking it on the plane, please do so before the van begins driving back across the country.

Today began with a rare treat: wake-up time was the luxuriously late hour of 5:00am! We were camping out at the Grand Canyon, and the leaders decided that it would be such chaos to try to cook breakfast, take down the tents, and pack up all our worldly possessions in pitch darkness that we could break our usual rule of waking up 2 hours before sunrise and instead wake up half an hour before sunrise, when it would already be starting to get light. Fortunately, it was cool and overcast most of the day so missing the coolest riding hours of the morning was not a problem.



The highlight of the day came in the town of Wilson, around mile 60: the Pine Country Restaurant, home to several dozen different kinds of pie. In several waves about ¾ of our traveling circus passed through, and most indulged in a slice of deliciousness. Pies sampled included pecan, cherry-apple-blueberry, coconut cream, Dutch cherry, banana-chocolate-peanut butter, double butterscotch, and many more. The slices were each a sixth of a pie, and the cream pies were as tall as they were wide: in other words, big enough to feed three normal people, or a nice mid-ride snack for a Bike and Builder. (Erin did look a little queasy on her last bite of coconut cream, but the plate was clean when we left.)




From Wilson to Ash Fork was awesome and stressful at the same time: we lost 2,000 feet of elevation over less than 20 miles, but we were on I-40 and it had started to rain so the roads were slick and passing trucks doused us in gritty spray. Jorge and I took a break under an overpass at one point when the drizzle turned into a typhoon and several nearby lightning strikes were sighted, but after a few minutes we were back on the road for the last couple miles into the host.





--Jess R.

The day off (we were supposed to have a build day, but it was unfortunately cancelled) has been very good to us. After 7 straight days of biking across the Southwest, we were really due for a break, especially since we have been riding at high elevations and with some serious heat. Flagstaff was a great break, in addition to being a fun town. It is bike friendly, full of hippies/young people who like used bookstores and iced chai and seems to have planned all of its fun events for when we got here. Last night, Flagstaff welcomed us with an artwalk and an open-air movie in the park. Today has been spent wandering around the town, buying ridiculous outfits for our stay in Las Vegas (OH! WE RECENTLY LEARNED THAT WE ARE STAYING IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE HOTEL AND CASINO IN LAS VEGAS! ). Ahem.
Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was spent on our behind the scenes tour of Roden Crater. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/arts/design/25fink.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

This NY Times article will give you some idea of how cool this opportunity is. The crater is really an art piece on the scale of Stonhenge and (theoretically) just as durable. In person, the crater is even more unbelievable than the article indicates. My favorite part was a long dark tunnel that we gradually ascended to a hole of light. When we got to the top, we entered a round white room with a bronze staircase that opened out onto the sky. The view of the sky was fantastic and the entire experience gave me the impression that I had walked into heaven. It truly was surreal. The entire experience was bragworthy -- we were truly VIPs to be given the opportunity to see it at all. Setting off into the desert after Flagstaff is hard, especially since we have been treated so well.

Katie Poor

It was a fairly short day of riding, which was nice since it was the last of seven riding days in a row. Some people opted to take a 12 mile detour to see Meteor Crater, which they reported to be very impressive. I was riding sweep, so I arrived later to Flagstaff, but many people got in pretty early and had time to see some of the lovely downtown before showers and dinner. The local athletic club set us up in style, with ritzy showers and a hot tub, followed by a delicious dinner on the deck. We did some affordable housing curriculum, focusing on building incentives. This was our last AHC before we discuss grants. After dinner, we went back to the host church, conveniently located right downtown. Since it was a friday night, the town of Flagstaff was hopping, and it also happened to be the first friday of the month, which meant ArtWalk night. For this occasion, all the galleries in town open their doors, many with food and beverages, and have demos (the glassblowing one was really cool), and festivities last into the night. We went around to a bunch of them and enjoyed the art and the scene, made friends with some puppies from a local animal rescue, and checked out the shops. We had a few special guests hanging out with us, Paul and Smokey, and it's always fun to have new faces in the Bike and Build crowd. We all agreed that Flagstaff was surprisingly awesome, and we had a great night!

Charlotte

B2SB completely dominated the ride today while entering the time warp that is Houck Arizona. Today was an easy 89 mile day, a phrase that most of us would not have believed was possible a few scarce weeks ago. We are all getting our “cycling black belts”, in Skip’s words.
Today started off much like any other Bike and Build day with music but given that we were in a massive dome the light that usually accompanies the music was missing as we were not in control of the lights. Given the slow wake-up we got out of the dome as the sun was visible, a distinct sign of a slow morning when you get up two hours before sunrise. As today was my day to drive the van, I helped out/forced out the door some riders who were having a lazy morning. Once sweep left the host we headed off to the grocery store to buy propane. While there I noticed some hot dogs which at $2 for 8 were no doubt of the highest quality and so bought enough for the meat-eaters of the trip and some cheese for the veggies.

K-Rud and Angie made it to lunch at the same time as the van and helped us set up a stove to cook the hot dogs and boil the eggs, a plan made slightly more difficult since we are 7000 feet above sea level. Other riders showed up soon after raving about the fast roads and the downhills. People were excited to be done with lunch at 8:30 in the morning and everyone left lunch in good spirits, filled with hot dogs and the promise of hard-boiled eggs at second lunch. On the way to second lunch the few riders in the van gave me a bit of a hard time when we passed Kristi, my girlfriend, and Lindsay, my sister riding together, assuring me that they were talking about me. At second lunch everyone came in quickly as there were no towns or uphills in the scrub brush desert to slow them down. The rest of the ride into Houck was uneventful with the exception of our first taste of I-40 which went well except for K-Rud’s old tire completely shredding due to old age.
Houck is on the Navajo reservation which meant not only that there was fry bread and the required trip to go buy jewelry and food but that we were back on New Mexico time. This created much confusing as the time depended on if we were at the church (on New Mexico time) or at the store (Arizona time) so we settled on a Bike and Build time and ignored other clocks. We watched Step it up 2: the Streets, a cinematic classic and had Navajo tacos for dinner and went to bed early due to the long ride and early wake-up call the next day.

Kyle Magida

After the epic uphill climb up to the continental divide, the day out of Pie Town was full of sweet downhills and high spirits. The day started off like any other, with music, even though space was tight in the toaster house. Because of the tight quarters, we split up between the town meeting hall and the house so there was more room for all.


Since we were leaving pie town, most riders stopped by the Daily Pie Café to get one last delicious slice of Pie town Pie before their ride, which was marvelously mostly downhill. We had some pretty sweet downhills along the way and the Arizona sign was on one of those sweet downhills.


In Springerville, we stayed in a dome sports arena with artificial grass. Most people slept right on the grass to get the full awesome dome effect. It was Meg’s Birthday so we celebrated by having pancakes for dinner and going out for a late night pizza run.
Jess Leon

This morning we woke up bright eyed and ready to climb to the infamous town of pie. We all knew that by the end of today we would be at our highest elevation of the trip. What we were not expecting was a strong head wind in addition to an entire day of climbing. I think that it is safe to say that this was among the most difficult of our days. Although it was a very hard day it was also very beautiful, we spent the day climbing through mountain passes in areas where there are no homes or towns for miles.
Even though it was a difficult day there were some attractions along the road. The first was the Very Large Array, it is a series of radio telescopes in the middle of the desert. The second was that we crossed the Continental Divide at the very end of our day!

Now a little bit about Pie Town. We all have been talking about this town since the beginning of our trip, as a town named after pie we were all intrigued. Pie Town has a population of sixty people. The only way we really knew that we had entered a town was the small post office and a series of pie shops (which were all closed). As it turns out Pie Town is on the old transcontinental highway and there are hikers that stop here along their way. In fact the house that we are staying in, called the Toaster House by the locals, is a guest house of sorts for people on this type of journey. The Pie Town Community Coalition cooked us a fantastic dinner and provided a great breakfast for the next morning. They were a great group of people who are really dedicated to making their small town all that it can be. The Daily Pie Café also donated many pies to our dinner!


From Pie Town!
Kristi

If there were senior superlatives (like in high school) for states, New Mexico would hands down win best scenary, most unique, most diverse (both scenary and weather) and just overall my favorite state so far.


Seriously. And thats says a lot because the 8 miles in Kansas were pretty superb!


Reasons why:
-The landscape of New Mexico is SO beautiful. We went from flat desert outside Roswell to beautiful mountains. Today the beginning of the day was rainy, but it turned into a thick fog. It was like we were biking through clouds, as if we were care bears! And of the side of the road you could see some cactus as such, but it was kinda dream like with the thick clouds surrounding us.

-About ten miles in we went through a park called Valley of Fire. It had black, volcanic rock and thousands of years ago was a site for a lot of volcanic activity.
-Around mile 30 the skies totally cleared to reveal a bright, beautiful, blue sky. Later on in the day there were huge rolling clouds

-The last ten miles of the trip we turned right and caugh our second tail wind of the trip. It was fabulous to go about 20 mph without dying!
-As we were coming in to our host, we approached gorgeous mountains that had huge thunderstorms over them. Most of us avoided the rain...some (sweep) did not...


And these compliments of NM are well deserved...even in a state where half our trip got sick!!

~Allie





And the mountains are diverse as well, from green-covered to sandy with cactus. And NM used to have lots of Volcanic activity, -The weather has been hot, but it also cools down in the evenings. Its diverse but lovely. Two days ago we literally biked through clouds to clear skys. We also dodged beautiful thunderstorms and could see the storm and lightning from the distance. Oh, and I've seen two rainbows, one which was at the top of a mountain.

So today started on a down note for two reasons. Sophie wound up back in the ER still sick, while I woke up sick myself in the morning and felt fairly nauseous. I made the decision to take it easy while trying to cover the 90 miles in as little time as possible.


Today was supposed to be one of the hardest days of the trip, but thankfully fortune was on our side. While the majority of the day was spent climbing, our group made it to first lunch in record time aided by a tailwind that was caused by a tropical storm in the gulf. After fighting through 20 mph+ headwinds on several days leading up to today, today was almost too easy, even given my state of health. I spent the day biking with Kyle on the highway, and we set a good pace all day. We biked through Lincoln County, home of Billy the Kid and one of the most dangerous roads in America, according to President Clevland. While Lincoln County might have been in a state of anarchy in its hey day, I doubt it could compare to present day Philadelphia at times.



We also biked through the national forest where Smokey the Bear was rescued and made into a national celebrity. We took our own lunch break in the town of Capitan, homeplace of Smokey the Bear, and stopped at a diner to get out of the rain which began coming down in buckets. Still feeling ill and having eaten nothing since the night before, I forced myself to put down some food before continuing on.

The large elevation change and unsuspected rain left both of us freezing, and I was glad to see that the van caught up to us after our lunch break where I was able to retreive my arm warmers and rain jacket from the van. As a "grizzled" ECCC veteran, I was content with the arm warmers and while cold, realized Kyle needed my rain jacket even more.
After a few more miles of climbing, still in pouring rain, we encountered our best descent of the trip: 15 miles of downhill. Without even pedalling, our speed never dipped below 40 mph for the first couple of miles and it was a truly remarkable sensation being able to bike at the speed of cars for an extended period of time. It was also interesting to note how quickly things became hot again as soon as we lost part of the elevation we gained.

After reaching our destination, I took a lengthy nap which seemed to eliminate most of the sickness I was feeling. Having found my usual ravenous appetite, alot of our group sought dinner at one of the only two fine dining establishments in town, Elises, which gave us five free dinners. (They also agreed to boil water to make pasta for our group, as we forgot to buy propane for the camp stoves, and there was nothing in town.) Leader Kyle found most of our food, finding food donations from the two gas stations in town.
The day ended on somewhat of a down note, when one of our riders found himself in the van the next day for what was seen as unsafe riding behavior. I know the group leaders did not single him out as he felt, and I feel fortunate that I am just a rider on this trip that is not faced with making decisions that follow bike and build policy, even if they are unpopular regulations.

Today was a day that we had been waiting for all trip long. We finally got to
explore the curious little alien-obsessed town of Roswell, New Mexico.


Our first stop was the Alien Museum in the heart of town. The museum had many

displays about the history of UFO sightings around the world as well as
specific information on the mysterious alien encounters in Roswell itself. In

the museum we met a guy named EJ. EJ was originally from Marietta, Georgia,
which is coincidentally where I am from too. EJ claims to have seen an alien

landing in a power plant in Marietta when he was very young. Since then he has
been an avid believer in the fact that aliens have made contact with Earth. He

eventually made his way to Roswell, the alien capital of the country, and
started working at the museum so he could tell his stories. After the museum,

we spent some time perusing the many shops around town selling alien related
items.


Coincidentally, today was also the day the new X-Files movie premiered. Many of

us felt this was pretty awesome so we went to go see the movie in the later
afternoon.


SPOILER ALERT

Unfortunately, this particular X-Files movie had nothing to do with aliens. This
really surprised us, since most X-Files stories have at least a small part

related to aliens.
END SPOILERS


Afterwards we grabbed some dinner then quickly went to bed in preparation for

another early wakeup on our way to Santa Barbara

Oliver Khamky

Entering UFO Territory.


This was another one of those near-century rides: 96 miles from Portales to Roswell.


Between Portales and Roswell there was nothing too lively. We took route 70 the whole way making a few stops along the way. First lunch was in a "town" called Kenna, which really only consisted of a small gas station/general store/post office all in one. Jess R bought Native American made earrings and the people in the shop let us use the bathroom (the only toilet available for the whole ride). Second lunch was around mile 71 in another so-called "town." This one was called Acme and from what we could tell it may not exist at all. There may not have even been a town sign, although I'm told it's a dot on the map. There was a small abandoned-looking building next to where the trailer was stopped for second lunch. At that point in the day, it was just so hot that we just had to refuel, refill, reapply and roll out. No time to explore the Acme town center.


Sweep flat report:
Amol and I had a pretty good sweep day overall. Jane had what she called the flat from hell and by the time sweep arrived she, Dugan and Oliver had just finished with the flat. Meg had some flatting issues too, but they were early in the day and not so bad. About 4 miles from the host location Kristi also got a flat. This would have been awful, but at this point we had all snacked and hydrated in town, so it was a quick and cheerful change.


The landscape changed at some point on this ride from mostly green to desert vegetation and dry land. It was really good that we all got an early start because it was certainly hot by the end of the day. Also, New Mexico has well paved roads, so our butts are all thankful for that.


Once we finally got into town there were lots of stores and restaurants along Main Street. We had heard about Classics Frozen Custard, so of course, we had to try that out. Allie got us all ice cream tokens there as a donation. Thanks! Also along the way Lenny, Kyle, Lynn, Skip and others worked their donation magic. We got Peter Piper's Pizza, Cici's Pizza, Chili's, and KFC for dinner. So thanks to all of them for helping feed us. Sound glamorous? Just picture eating it in a squash court wishing for a clean utensil. But really, the food was great, and as we say, every dollar we don't spend on food can go directly to affordable housing.


After this ride, we all earned our day off in Roswell. I know lots of people are psyched for the UFO Museum.

Julia Kester

Hi to all the loyal B2SB readers,
A few quick notes from the road. First of all, thanks to the efforts of Julia Kester and Allie Kossoy we have been getting media attention from a lot of different outlets. The links to the stories are below.

Also, to any one who is coming to meet us in Santa Barbara and would like to help with lunch on the day we arrive Dave and Adrienne Magida have volunteered to coordinate everything for lunch, you can email them at vtmagida@aol.com. More details will follow about times and locations as they get determined.
Kyle Magida


http://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?S=8711508

http://myhighplains.com/content/fulltext/?cid=14221
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/072208/new_news4.shtml

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080716_11_A1_hWHEEL136056

This morning, we woke up to our final morning in Texas. After a
delicious breakfast of cereal, milk, and muffins, we hit the road.

Well, really, the smell of Hereford's 13 feedlots and 11 dairies hit
us. They don't call it "The Beef Capitol of the World" for nothing.


The 48 miles to lunch passed fairly uneventfully. Allie recounted the

last season of Gillmore Girls, which I'd missed, and I caught the tail
end of Kristi's life story. Right before lunch we crossed the state

line into New Mexico. There were two signs: the first, a dull green
"Welcome to New Mexico" sign, and the second, a much more impressive

mustard-yellow billboard proclaiming New Mexico "The Land of
Enchantment." So, we took two sets of pictures. At lunch we ate some

delicious sandwiches donated by the Subway in Texaco, New Mexico. Yum!


Ten miles later, in Clovis, we came across Joe's Boots: a western-wear
emporium claiming to carry 10,000 hats and 10,000 boots. Dani bought a

very cool black cowboy hat and Jess Leon scored some awesome cowboy
boots, which she strapped to her Camelback for the rest of the day.


After the boot store I rode with Lynn and we finally got around to

exchanging life stories. In Portales we stopped at the Sonic, the
first one I've ever been to! I had a delicious banana cream pie shake.


Then we biked the rest of the way to our home for the night, Eastern

New Mexico University, which was super exciting because not only did
we all get beds, but we all get our own rooms. As Kristi pointed out,

who knew that staying in a dorm would be so exciting?. After dinner,
the trip leaders held another medal presentation (thanks for the medal

in badassery guys!). Now I'm going to go sleep on my very own bed in
my very own room – it will be glorious.



- Emily Josephs

The ride today was not good for anyone. There was a strong headwind, a constant 2% uphill climb over 80 miles, and rough roads. People got in exhausted and looking forward to a build day the next day and to something even better that night.


One of our own, Jorge de la Garza was brave enough to attempt the Big Texan's 72 oz steak challenge. The challenge involves eating 72 oz (4 1/2 lbs!!) of steak along with a baked potato, a roll, 3 fiery shrimp, and a side salad in under one hour. Kyle Magida mentioned someone on his past trip attempting this feat the first week and Jorge stepped up to do it for us.


All 31 of us headed off to the Big Texan after dinner to support Jorge in his quest. The Big Texan was as gaudy as you'd expect it to be. Everything really is bigger in Texas. While we waited for them to get our tables ready we could entertain ourselves with slot machines, a gift shop, and a virtual shooting range. Finally, after a 30 minute wait or so we got our seats. After about another 15 minutes the challenge started.


Jorge entered the arena to a slow clap from the crowd. The task was explained to him as Bike and Builders and random strangers crowded the table in the center of the room to take pictures of the man who'd attempt such a challenge. One family even came back after going to Wal-mart to see how Jorge fared and to cheer him on. After tasting the steak and finding it to his liking the clock started and Jorge began. He kept a steady pace despite being distracted by the well wishers and interested parties. Several cheers were started by the spectators (us) as we enjoyed the food and the company. By half an hour in half the steak was finished. Jorge even kept eating while another challenger entered the arena and set to the task. That guy was struggling about 10 minutes in making Jorge look like a champ. When the clock hit 0, 63 oz of the steak was gone. Jorge did not win the challenge, but he made Bike and Build B2SB proud to call him one of our own.


It was the perfect end to a tough day.

Hilary Heincer

Today we were awakened at 4:30 am. The routine of waking up, packing, and eating breakfast ensued thereafter. Today we rode from Cordell, OK to Wheeler, TX which was a 78 mile ride. It was a fairly beautiful day just very hot. Everyone arrived to the host location in one piece and enjoyed the great air conditioning of the church. Once everyone has come into the church the pastor was gracious enough to take us to the high school to take much needed showers!
After showers everyone relaxed in this great church. There was a youth room filled with couches and a nice screen for our presentation!

Now before dinner down in the youth room a bit of hilarious activities began. The name of this activity was Sleeping Bag Wars!
Participants got into their sleeping bags and wrestled! The point of this game was to pin your opponent for 3 seconds off their knees. This was a great stress reliever for the trip in general and made everyone laugh!

After the festivities it was dinner time. There was delicious brisket and baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad and fruit. There were apricots and brownies for dessert with ice cream.
Today was a great day and a great ride here in the state of Texas!


Sincerely,

Angie!

This morning we woke up to an orange sunrise and an emotional goodbye from our host at the church we had stayed at. As I was standing outside of the church listening to the farewell, I realized that major theme of today would be the heat! The day was hot even before the sun had fully become visible in the sky. We began by riding 18 miles out of Yukon and into Union City, which was a small town with a couple lone stores and gas stations. From there we rode through Cogar and into Binger at mile 46 where we ate lunch. As we move westward, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we are entering desert lands. Leaving lunch, I saw a sign that told me it was 11:30 and already 103 degrees! The landscape is slowly becoming filled with red cliffs and canyons, tumbleweeds and even a cactus was spotted today! The heat continued and increased throughout the rest of the 85 mile day and all the riders stopped roughly every 15 miles to refill Camelbaks and water bottles. Around mile 75, as I was riding with Johanna, a friendly Golden Retriever began running along side us keeping pace with our 15 mph speed. He kept up with us for about 6 miles, as Johanna and I wondered what to do to keep him from continuing to follow us. Eventually, we stopped, and the pooch stopped with us. As he left, we were relieved, but slightly disappointed that we had not found Bike and Build a new trip mascot…

Since we get an extra two hours of sleep on build days the morning after routine always seems to go a bit slower. Leaving Tulsa was no exception but no one was concerned because we had a ‘short’ 67 mile day ahead of us. After our amazing host fed us breakfast, Pastor Dave joined us on our bike ride to Chandler. The addition to our Bike & Build family for the day added some spice to the ride. One of the highlights from the ride on Route 66 was seeing the ‘Shoe Tree.’ This tree is a roadside attraction that people have thrown their shoes on. There was a thrift store near the tree that a few riders wandered in to cool off. The woman working there said that she heard about us on the radio. We also made it onto the front page of the Tulsa World newspaper! During the day a woman rolled down her window at a red light and applauded Jess Leon and I. The media attention was great for Bike & Build to get the word out to Tulsa. It was also exciting for us riders to get recognized with honks of praise on the road. 
-Lynn

Day 35- Tulsa, OK (7/15/08)
This morning was glorious! The wake up music kicked off at 6:30! This is actually sleeping in for us.

Breakfast was a sequel to the delicious food fest that took place the night before. We had oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, and bagels all provided once again by Pastor Dave and the wonderful members of his church.
We arrived at the Tulsa Habitat site, which is actually an extensive neighborhood of Habitat homes and formerly a hot spot for dealing, and we divided ourselves up to work on different projects. I went to work building a shed. We started by leveling out the ground and placing cinder blocks for the base, using these muscles called biceps, we never use on the bike. By the time lunch rolled around we had hammered together the floor and four walls. The lovely ladies of Tulsa, including Karen, the mother of a Bike and BUilder on P2S brought cookies and fruit with our new favorite condiment "goober". LUnch was a hearty brisket sandwich with an awesome BBQ sauce. After stuffing our guts we got back to work and that's when the sun started really beating down on us. We were all fairly sweaty and tired when all of a sudden the reporters arrive from Tulsa World and Fox 25. They started snapping pictures left and right while we were like deer caught in the headlights, not that w!

e really minded. Even though we weren't looking our best, it was great publicity for Bike and Build.
By the end of our work day the shed had been completed and we had all put in a hard day's work. I was excited and quite jubilant over how much we were able to accomplish. This of course led me to get quite hungry so thank goodness we had such a good dinner at the local Catholic Church, The Church of the Resurrection. They provided delicious pasta and even better desserts that were decorated with flags that had either had a bike, a home, or various tools on them. They were great hosts and I can still taste the pineapple cupcake.

Overall, it was another successful build day for Bike and Build and I think everybody enjoyed their stay in Tulsa.

Meg Carley

Sixty-three miles….that’s nothing. So we rolled out of Vinita at the crack of dawn, or very nearly thereafter. I will avoid describing the breakfast in detail as it seems unnecessary. Anyways, the trip was very relaxed due to the short mileage. Our on the road highlight of the day was the discovery of a larger-than-life blue whale in a pond on the side of the road. Apparently, the aforementioned whale was an anniversary gift to someone from someone else and is now a tourist attraction. Due to the fact that our group is easily drawn to corny tourist attractions, we all stopped. As it turns out, the whale was thrilling, but the true excitement was the bungalow bathroom. Two toilets, a big and a small, with no dividers or curtains of any kind between them set the stage for many awkward moments and several hilarious pictures.
After the blue whale, we continued on our epic journey to Tulsa. Our first impressions were of slightly perilous streets that lacked sidewalks. It was really hot and everyone was grateful to arrive at the church and be greeted by Howard and Pastor Dave. After wonderful showers at the most luxurious YMCA thus far most people had a rare half-hour of downtime before dinner. I used this time to stake my claim on the coat closet, the perfectly sized sleep room for me. Dinner was potentially the best ever, a huge potluck provided by several church members, and created squeals of hungry delight all around the room. We were also able to give a presentation to one of our largest groups so far, which is always a positive step in our quest to spread the word about Bike and Build and affordable housing.

Following dinner and the presentation, my chore group, the laundry crew, left to take care of business. Luckily for us, there had been little rain in the previous three days so most of the clothes were dry and did not require us to wear gloves like last time. The Laundromat, however, left so much to be desired that it is hard to describe. The internal temperature was approximately 110 degrees, only half the machines worked, there was no change machine and we ran out of detergent. But not to worry, we remained dedicated and sweaty throughout the arduous task of laundry-washing and successfully completed our mission. I must say, we would have been lost without the help of the friendly men two doors down at Ryan’s Convenience Store, it was quite the hopping neighborhood establishment.
On one final note, during the route meeting in Vinita we began playing a game similar to Assassin in which everyone is given a target they have to “murder”. I “killed” Kyle in the first three minutes of the game when he walked unawares into an empty room. Sadly, the day ended with my murder by Jess Leon…in the women’s bathroom…where I was hiding to avoid losing the game.

Well, that about covers it, after that everyone went to bed, as we tend to do.


Peace out, Lauren Butterfield

Today has been dubbed "The Best Day Ever" and this is for a number of reasons. First, we traveled into Oklahoma via Kansas. And in Kansas we had an awesome time. Everyone rode together and did a group sprint for a mile and then most people went swimming in a nearby stream. The atmosphere was generally light and fun since the ride was shorter than the last few days. To make things even better a local Braum's in Miami, OK let us eat our food indoors so everyone had shade and AC as well as delicious leftovers. Lenny was able to hook up the group with some free chicken which was saved for later. Thanks Charlies!


The ride was fun and most people traveled in larger groups. The ride was without rainfall which was really nice. We arrived in Vinita, OK to find a very welcoming church with a delicious dinner spread and lots of AC. Vinita is home to two very interesting things: the childhood home of Dr. Phil and the world's largest McDonalds. Nobody found Dr. Phil's house, but we did check out the McDonalds. It was so big that it straddled I-44. Everyone grabbed a quick snack before heading back to the First Christian Church for dinner.


After dinner we did a presentation on affordable housing and then we had a great Affordable Housing Curriculum session. Amol, Lenny, Emily, and Oliver all did a tremendous job making the session interactive and engaging.





Overall, this was definitely the best day ever. We are excited about getting into Tulsa and getting to do another construction day.

Skip Burns

Breakfast consisted of instant oatmeal, orange juice, and whatever else we could find. Nancy Williams, our host from Habitat, brought us bagels and cream cheese from Panera, but there must have a been a slight miscommunication as this became lunch food instead. In any case, it was delicious. I was feeling rather energetic in the morning, so I started out in the back and rode with a bunch of groups for a short time as I caught up to them. Eventually, I decided to leave the big group out front to chase down Charlotte, who was way out front. Ahead of her were Lenny and Jose, but I knew I had no chance of catching them. For about ten miles, I chased Charlotte over rolling hills, catching glimpses of her in the distance when I crested larger hills or when she was climbing. We were all fighting a vicious headwind, which was also sometimes a crosswind, so it was tough going, especially when wind and uphill were combined. For a good portion of the morning, we were on a road (Missouri Route 96, among others) that had kind of a narrow shoulder and more trucks than I would have liked. The trouble with the big semi trucks, especially when they were coming towards us, was that when they pass, there's this huge gust of wind that both pushes us back and threatens to blow us off the road. Also, trucks are just so big that they're pretty scary when you're on a bicycle - I think the truck would win without noticing if it hit one of us. Most of the time, traffic is very courteous and moves to the other lane to pass us, but when there's oncoming traffic too, traffic gets pretty close to us if the shoulder isn't very wide.


After lunch, I was sluggish from eating too much food, so I bounced back and forth between groups. Oliver, Sarah, Julia, and I stopped for a photo on/in a rather large wooden train play structure (for sale!) made primarily out of nicely finished, rounded 2x4's. A bunch more people arrived and we had quite a group of us clambering on it. When we got in, a bunch of people stopped at the library before heading to the church, so I managed to get a shower before a line built up. We had 2 showers (per gender), so a line quickly formed, but we've all gotten pretty good at taking quick showers after having quite a few days on the trip where we've had very limited capacity shower facilities. Dinner was delicious, featuring angus beef burgers, veggie burgers, baked beans, homemade fries, and amazing pies (apple and cherry, equally popular). Many thanks to those who provided for us, it was very much appreciated.


Since we were staying in the church's family center, there were several toys around, including four small (but sturdy) tricycles. Much hilarity ensued when we attempted to ride them with varying success. People with shorter legs (myself included) seemed to manage all right, but we still looked absolutely ridiculous.


And lastly, thanks to the Bicycle Specialists of Joplin who gave our riders a large discount on parts and helped fix a bike for free.


-Jane Wolcott

by Sophie Turrell


Today we headed off to the golf course in Springfield to help the Habitat chapter prepare for a publicity-garnering “blitz build.” A blitz build, in which one or a few homes are built within a short period of time (for example, two houses in two weeks), involves prefabricated parts and a lot of organizational legwork. We helped out by hanging rafters for the roof, which were to be covered with shingles later on that night. The Habitat men we were working with were nice Southern gentlemen who clearly had a good deal of experience, and it was inspiring to watch them work. They moved around the house like a SWAT team with their ladders and nail guns, hammering things into place twice as fast as it would have taken me and exchanging friendly banter the whole time. To motivate us as we lifted the rafters to the top of the structure, one of them even said “Yah!” like a cowboy spurring on his horse. The most rewarding part of volunteering, however, was meeting the homeowner, a peppy blonde woman who wanted us to sign the inside walls as a group and take our picture. She thanked us for helping, but truly it is us who should thank her and Habitat for letting us learn about the work they do.


After the build, we had a scrumptious dinner of donated burritos (second time this summer – thanks Chipotle!) and headed off to the Bass Pro shop, the largest outdoor sports outlets in the area. The sign over the store entrance said, “Welcome Hunters, Fishermen, and Other Liars” – and what a welcome it was! The mall-like building complex had an indoor waterfall, a giant fish tank, a Nascar go-kart course, and several departments in which we could shop to our heart’s content for clothing, knifes, guns, camping gear, boats, and amusing trinkets. Lenny, Katie, Lindsay and I put on as many pieces of camouflage as possible in order to blend in, and I think we succeeded in disappearing into the clothing racks. If any of us Bike and Builders come back with a thirst for deer stalking, you all at home will know that this place put the idea in our heads.


Thank you, people of Springfield – onward and westward!

After the craziness of the previous two days, today's ride was the fun and relaxing ride that I (and I'm sure many other riders) needed. We had a century in store for us, but the terrain promised to be more forgiving than the previous couple of days. As we head further west, the heat becomes a greater and greater issue, so we try and hit the road early. However, when we woke up in the morning, it was cool and foggy outside, and it proved to mostly be a pleasant day, weather-wise.


Because it was such a long riding day, we had two lunches planned; one around mile 35 in Hartville, and another around mile 75 in Rogersville. I rode by myself at a relaxed pace for most of the day. When you spend every waking and sleeping moment with 30 other people for 2 months, after a while everyone needs their alone time, and as Kyle M. puts it, "your only private time is riding time."


After first lunch, we rode through Amish country, and I followed behind a family in a horse cart for about half a mile before passing them. A few miles down the road, I stopped to take pictures of a huge field of hay bales, and the same family passed me. Once we reached the town of Seymour, however, I caught up with them again as they had "parked" the horse and cart at a McDonalds. I also took the opportunity to bike through the drive-in and get a small order of fries, something I've wanted to do since the beginning of the trip.


Right after the McDonalds, I turned onto US 60, which is a busy road with lots of truck traffic. Thankfully, there was a wide shoulder, but it wasn't well paved. I also noticed dark clouds ahead, and started to hear thunder, so I pulled off the road and took shelter at an abandoned gas station while it rained. Once the thunder stopped, I got back on the road, but while the thunder had passed, the rain started up again, and I got rained on for a few miles.


Not too long afterwards, I arrived at second lunch in Rogersville, only to discover that Lenny and Allie had scored us some food donations, and so we had a huge tray of spaghetti bolognese and some Subway sandwiches. Most of the food had been eaten by the time I arrived, but I still managed to have a delicious bowl of spaghetti, which was much more appetizing than the PB&J sandwich I had been expecting.


I left second lunch with Emily and Lynn, and we rode together for the rest of the day. The last few miles before Springfield had some awesome rollers--hills with short steep descents that let you build up enough momentum to fling yourself up the next climb without having to pedal much, or even pedal at all.


Once in Springfield, we showered at our host location and had a delicious dinner prepared by our dinner crew. We had salad, chicken, and an awesome vegetarian stew. Nancy, who was from the Springfield Habitat chapter, provided us with the groceries, and also gave a short presentation about the great work the local Habitat chapter has been doing, and about the work we would be doing tomorrow, at the Blitz Build. But that's another story, for whoever is doing tomorrow's journal entry.


-Jo Tong

I drove the van and planned the route for today. When I was planning the day's route, I noticed that we could either make it a 90-mile day over some potentially gravel roads, or a 100-mile day on bigger roads. I chose the former option. I thought I had warned someone of the potential for gravel, but apparently not. Riders rode 10 miles over a bad gravel road today in the rain, which resulted in about half of the ride being the van for some part of the day.


People were walking on the gravel; some people walked about five miles. Sweep was late, and I ended up having to get them using the van.


After the ride, we had a discussion about gravel roads. We talked about how to find them, why they are dangerous, and how to route around them. Hopefulle, gravel roads will not be an issue again.


We had an excellent time with our hosts in Houston. There is an active affordable housing effort. There was good food, a good number of community members, and a few youngsters. We gave a presentation, which was well received. This host had formerly hosted HBC rides, so they knew just what we needed.

Jose Soltren

Today we biked from Potosi, MO to Houston, MO. We departed from our “campsite” in Potosi (we slept in an unfinished house next to a cemetery and old church that could have been a set in The Crucible in order to avoid the thunderstorms) early in the morning and began our near-100-mile day in pouring rain. About 15 miles into the ride (which up to that point had been on beautifully paved roads), we hit gravel. Not just any gravel: fist-sized red chunks of rock littered the ground, mixed in with sand and smaller pieces of stone. In general, there isn’t any way to tell whether any given road will be a gravel one until we get there and look at it; as we began our assault on the gravel, we were unaware that we would not see pavement again for another 10 miles. The front group made a wrong turn and ended up getting re-routed, going an extra 10 miles of hills while avoiding the gravel (these riders did a century). Of the later groups, who were not re-routed, some managed to ride the whole way through the wet sludge. Others, unnerved by the constant fishtailing of our back wheels and flat tires, decided to walk as much of the road as possible. After trudging nearly 8 miles, dragging our poor battered bikes through the sand and rock, the van picked up a group of twelve or so of us and shuttled us to pavement. The remainder of the ride was thankfully uneventful. When we arrived in Houston (which is located in Texas County and named for Sam Houston, the founder of Texas who once spent one night in this spot in Missouri), we were greeted with hugely enthusiastic hosts who provided snacks (!) and even handed their car keys to some riders to shuttle people back and forth from showers at the pool. We were all truly overwhelmed by their generosity and were SO happy to sleep in an air-conditioned church!


Emma

Days off are always a welcome reprieve from cycling and a chance for
our crew to experience a new city. Each person derives a funny story

or great experience from a day trip into town. Last night seven of us
packed a five person tram as we ascended 630 feet to the apex of the

Gateway Arch.


Afterwards, we returned to our gracious host—the First Centenary
Church. Of all of our hosts, First Centenary had the most unique

character. Rather than a small town church with a very involved
congregation, this church seemed to serve primarily as a shelter and

bread line. I briefly ate amongst the impoverished and others with
drug addictions. Even a short dinner revealed so many of the problems

certain urban areas face.


Today, everyone took full advantage of the city. Erin Rice, Allie
Kossoy, Skip Burns and others went to the City Museum. Erin said that

the museum was "like being in someone's brain" while Allie enjoyed
climbing through wire tunnels. As Skip is the oldest member of our

traveling circus, he is obviously the least sophomoric and fervently
claimed that the adult ball pit—just like any other at McDonald's…but

larger—was the best part of the museum. Then he realized that the
model pterodactyl "was pretty sweet, too."


Katie Poor and Charlotte Morse-Fortier made a trip to the St. Louis

Zoo as did Jane Wolcott and Jose Soltren. Baby elephants were the
main attraction.


Emily Josephs went on an amazing driving tour of St. Louis that

highlighted old homes and a church from which people steal the slate
roof tiles.


Hilary Heincer—an incredible fellow Wahoo—Jess Leon, Angie Faulkner

and Jo Tong all went to the movies to see Wall-E.


Jojo Richlin spent time with her family who was in town and a variety
of riders made trips to the public library and to a high-end bike shop

called Big Shark to restock on tubes, lube and Chamois Butter (a
godsend).


Amol Jain, Lindsay Magida and I grabbed a snack at Union Station which

was a couple blocks from First Centenary. Amol ordered a veggie
Sammie from Quizno's. The employee, whose nametag read "McLovin."

said, "You Vegetarians have it rough. What are you going to do at the
apocalypse?" Amol replied, "Same thing as the meat eaters do, die.

Why? What would you do?"


"Nah man, we [carnivores] got cannibalism"


The point is that everyone found something to do that was fun and
often random. And from that, they experienced a bit of the St. Louis

flavor. As we continue our cross-country journey, it's great to have
a day off every now and then so we can truly get out to meet people to

learn about the character and state of our nation while trying and
seeing new things. I'm sure as we press forward, everything will only

get more interesting.

Kyle Rudzinski

So today we biked into St. Louis, Missouri. The state line between Illinois and Missouri was in the middle of the Mississippi River. Even though the state line was in the middle of a river there was still a sign at the crossing.
Today I was sweep with Katie Poor. We were biking from Salem, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri. One of our trip leaders, named Kyle Magida, decided to play a trick on us. Since we always have a topographic map on our cue sheets (they tell us where to turn and the directions to get to the next place), he instead used a topographic map of the Adirondacks, saying that this was the start of the Ozarks. The Adirondacks are very mountainous, thus the topo was very scary looking. We had a nice motivational speech by KRud to lift our spirits. It made everyone ready to tackle the long and hard day coming up. However, soon everyone realized that the terrain was actually quite flat while the topo said that we should have already gone up many large hills. The morning was fairly uneventful and a very nice ride. At lunch, in Trenton, Illinois, we met some cops. They hung out with us for about 2 hours and had a lot of fun talking and joking with us. During that time Jess Leon’s tire exploded, which in my opinion sounded like a gunshot (it was really loud), but the cops were not afraid at all. They hadn’t even reached for their guns, luckily showing that they knew more about how a gunshot should sound. Also the grocery store that we had parked at provided us with fresh fruit, some apples and peaches. Then came the afternoon, Trenton, Ill to St. Louis, Mo. The first awesome picture was of the world’s largest ketchup bottle. Katie and I took an awesome picture, where she was holding the ketchup bottle. This was a very cool sight and included a nice climb up a large hill afterwards. We continued and then got to eat frozen custard before heading off on our final 25 miles to St. Louis. Our ride through the end of Illinois was gorgeous. We rode on a bike path through the suburbs and when we got within 15 miles of St. Louis we could see the arch and the rest of the city, which then gave us an extra adrenaline boost. Next came the bridge over the Mississippi River. The state line between Illinois and Missouri was in the middle of the bridge and there was sign painted on the bike path. Because of the nice bike path we were able to stop and take pictures of the city and of people crossing the state line. Unfortunately it was very hot and no one really wanted to be outside anymore. After the bridge was the riverfront bike path, which had a very large wall between us and the river, so it didn’t really seem like a riverfront path although we were technically right next to the river. Also part of the path was closed because the Mississippi River had flooded so much. Later that day when people went up the arch they saw a lot more of the flooding and what it had done to the landscape. When we got into St. Louis we stayed at the Centenary Chuch, which is a church/soup kitchen. However we were showering at the YMCA down the street, which closed at 3:30 and many of us missed that deadline. So, about 10 of the riders went to shower at Allie’s grandmother’s retirement home. Some people, namely Allie, got to swim as well and were very happy about that. The night and the sunset were gorgeous and we walked around St. Louis and saw the arch.

Devon Roshan

Imagine yourself in the middle of farm country, roads straight as an arrow and not a hill on any side to shorten the view to the distant horizon. The sky above is brilliant blue and the fluffy white clouds hang in the still morning air. In short, a perfect day for a ride.


On days like this the miles just roll away; on days like this you feel like you’re flying. On sparsely-traveled country roads we can ride two abreast, and conversation makes the miles disappear even faster. On days like this lunch is at 10 am and the day is over by 1 or 2.


One of the highlights of the day was a Dairy Queen a few miles past lunch where a good two-thirds of our traveling circus passed through in staggered waves. (While Katie, Kyle and I were enjoying our frozen confections a local cycling enthusiast approached us to ask our opinions on cyclocomputers and bicycle GPS systems. We pretended to be much more expert on the subject than we are.)


The most fascinating part of the day was toward the end when we passed a pair of exotic animals in a fenced-in field. We dubbed them “zebra-donkeys,” since they looked (as you may have guessed) like a cross between a zebra and a donkey. They had stripes like a zebra, but on their torsos the stripes faded into a donkey shade of grey, as if there was a layer of grey fur on top of the striped fur. They were almost as interested in us as we were in them, coming over to where we were standing at the fence to snap photographs. They soon lost interest, however, and we soon returned to the road.


Unfortunately not everyone had such an uneventful day: two of our riders were involved in a minor crash which resulted in a trip to the hospital just to be safe. Fortunately, the worst casualty was a badly scraped elbow.


The day also held a pleasant surprise, as we had planned to camp in the Salem town square, but the First Christian Church offered us their facilities at the last minute. After showers at the town pool we spent the afternoon lounging outside the porch, reading and catching up on postcards. It was a relaxing end to a lovely day.


--Jess Robertson

It’s 5:30 AM on July 4th, and we are about to cross another state line.


While excited about the prospect of riding through our wonderful country on Independence Day, we certainly were not encouraged by the weather when we first woke up: rain, dark clouds, and fog. After cleaning up after a two-day stint in Bloomington (always a much larger task than cleaning up after a one-night stay!), we reluctantly got on our bikes, and tried to muster up some energy for the looming 85 miles. Though our half-day off in Bloomington was lovely, it made the pain and exhaustion of the past 1000 + miles even more apparent. Getting back on the saddle was not an easy task. My knees ached from the memory of four mountain ranges, and I was nervous that the morning would not be pleasant.


Fortunately, I had the pleasure of riding with some of the many lovely people on the trip, and we were able to make the day celebratory and light. Jess, Skip, Erin, Hillary and I spent our 6 hours on the bike trading “life stories”. We would literally spend an hour or so listening as one person explained their entire life, beginning with how their parents first met, or for some (like Jess), how their grandparents met! As we heard about Hillary’s triumph driving a bus at UVA, and Erin’s stint on a D-1 track team at Providence College, we casually put our rain jackets on, and then took them off again. The rain barely interrupted our ride.


Before we knew it, it was lunch, and then soon after, we crossed into Illinois. Of course, Jess insisted that we mold our bodies into the letters “IL,” and find some unsuspecting bystander to take our photo. While a kind elderly man agreed, there was some camera confusion, and ultimately we didn’t get the photo. We do have pictures, however, of each of us struggling to get into formation. Good enough!


We rode into Lawrenceville around 2pm, after passing miles and miles of farm land destroyed by the recent floods in the area. At dinner, we were fortunate enough to speak with some of the flood victims, many of whom have lived in the area for over 50 years. Their resilience and faith in spite of so much profound loss was truly inspirational. Bobby, a woman of 80 years, insisted that she felt blessed to be alive and well, despite losing all of her appliances, and suffering thousands of dollars in water damage.


Although we were invited to watch fireworks at a nearby site, we all retired to the Gas Lite Motel by 9 pm. As I fell asleep, I heard the sounds of fireworks, but alas, could not keep my eyes open long enough to see them! I realized that I had celebrated being American sufficiently well throughout the day.


Johanna Richlin

Bloomington, IN


Today we had a scheduled build day in Bloomington, so naturally, the second we arrived yesterday, our designated sleeping rooms literally exploded with thermarests, spandex, jerseys, and peanut butter jars, a sure sign that Bike and Builders are staying somewhere for more than one night. Since the local Habitat chapter couldn’t take all 31 one of us camelbacked volunteers at once we split into two groups, one for a morning shift, and the second for the afternoon. I went with the morning crew. Upon arrival we were further split into groups, one sent to demolish part of the Habitat office kitchen, another sent to the current build site to assemble walls, and I went to the Habitat Restore to sort through junk. The Habitat Restore is a bit like a massive year-round garage sale; living testament to the old saying One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Donated items, which often range in quality and condition from brand new to completely broken and utterly useless, are resold for less than market value and the profits go towards building affordable homes. The five of us met with our Restore liaison who then gave us individual titles with specific tasks. Meg and Lindsay became “Tetris Players I and II” meaning that they had to take all the junk in the back room and arrange it cleverly on pallets so that the pallets could be forklifted to the nearby warehouse and neatly stacked. Skip, or “The Rock” was assigned the very important task of moving cumbersome and heavy things, of which there were quite a few and ranged from washing machines, to heating units, to kitchen countertops. Kyle, deemed “Ye Who Is Not Afraid of Dirt” and Jorge “The Cleaner” dedicated themselves to the arduous project of clearing out the backroom, and moving unidentified objects, sometimes covered in filth and unrecognizable substances to their respective spots on the floor. I was given the honor of “List Maker”. She who takes unpriced objects of unknown provenance, use or purpose, and writes a detailed description of said object so that it can be somewhat arbitrarily priced and sold. It went a little something like this: Chairs made of wood, set of 3, scratched and dented, wobbly legs, olive green linen upholstery, torn, faded, and stained. Springs popping out the bottom, not recommended for sitting.

Our morning went by quick, and was made better by free coffee from The Farm, a local coffee shop and restaurant that buys all of its food from local farmers and uses only sustainable products, such as utensils made from corn and potatoes, and are technically edible (proven by Kyle who gnawed on a knife as he drank his coffee). The afternoon went by even faster, of course, since we had time off. There was so much to see and do in Bloomington, so much so that I can say I was entirely wrong about my former assumptions that there is not much happening in the Midwest. Quite the contrary, Bloomington is a diverse, eclectic, urban oasis amidst miles and miles of corn fields and farms, and I felt very fortunate to be able to spend an extra day here. We were also very fortunate to have a wonderful host, the United Methodist Church, who gave us a room with a kitchen, couches, and a big screen with a projector for watching DVDs, (we watched Breakaway, a cycling movie filmed in Bloomington, and Real Genius for all our MIT students). To put the cherry on a fantastically sweet day, we had dinner TWICE. In ordinary life, this may be excessive, but in Bike and Build life it is entirely appropriate, and often necessary. We were provided with pizza from our hosts, and also with Burritos from Chipotle. Now we go forth into the West fueled by a day of rest and free Mexican food.


Peace and love from the road,


Erin Rice

The smorgasbord provided by St. Paul’s United Methodist Church was truly of epic proportions. Quiche, oatmeal, pancakes, and bacon were just a few things on the menu, which was prepared exclusively by the men of St. Paul’s. Apparently, they are quite the chefs. We were all a little slow to leave the hugs and pancakes of the congregation of St. Paul’s, but eventually rolled out to our next destination of Bloomington.
This ride, an 85 mile trip across Indiana, shaped up to be one of our first really hot days. We started out on the relative flats outside Rushville but moved quickly into the hillier area surrounding Bloomington. This being said, the ride was beautiful and the hills were truly hills and not the mountain ranges we encountered in the Northeast. Highlights of the trip included riding through Gnaw Bone, IN where I purchased a priceless keychain that reads “Yep, there really is a Gnaw Bone, IN.” Another feature of Gnaw Bone was the “Country-Gospel Music Church.” It seemed promising, but the heat influenced our choice not to linger. After leaving Gnaw Bone, we rode through Nashville and into Bloomington, a lovely and bustling college town that we were all excited to reach.

As some of the riders rode into Bloomington, a man ran out of a nearby building shouting “Welcome, Bike and Build!” He turned out to be a Bike and Build alum who welcomed us into Bloomington and made us all feel at home. The First United Methodist Church of Bloomington welcomed us with plush quarters, including a computer, couches, and a kitchen of our very own. While the rest of the group enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches provided by our gracious host, I went out on the town with my mom and grandma, who came down to treat me to a nice dinner. We went all out, including berry cobbler for dessert. Delightful.
Later in the evening, a group of us benefited from the nice evening and the relatively late wake-up the next morning to explore Bloomington, staying out until almost 11! I should note here that this is very late by Bike and Build standards. Even the “night owls” are generally in bed by 10 or 10:30. Exploring the town was a nice change, and the college town itself was bustling and lively. And then, of, course, we fell asleep quickly on the carpeted floors of First United.

Katie Poor

We had beautiful weather for biking, a godsend on a 96 mile day. We left Yellow Springs, Ohio, and biked through the beautiful, sunny, and cool morning. It was a pretty flat day, and an enjoyable ride through the end of Ohio. We crossed the state border into Indiana, stopping to take many photos with the signs. Unfortunately, we had our first day of accidents as well. In the morning, Kyle hit the back tire of the person in front of him and took a spill. He got some good road rash, but emerged largely unscathed, as did his bike. His helmet took the brunt of the damage, with an impressive crack that left his head (and scraggly beard) unharmed.


The other accident involved me and Jess. We were having a great day up until mile 92, just outside our final destination of Rushville. We were the last two in the paceline when she hit a hole, skidded and fell, landing mostly on her left side. She cracked her helmet badly and got some nasty patches of road rash, but her bike and the rest of her remained intact. Right behind her in the paceline, I didn't have time to steer around Jess when she fell. I hit her bike, flew (with bike) over her and landed, mostly on my hands, chin, and left knee. We both got off the road quickly and no cars came right away so we were lucky.


Long story short, I can definitely say that the good people of Rushville Indiana are some of the nicest around. People helped and took me and Jess to the ER, one woman from our host took me to her house to shower, helped me get all rebandaged when I couldn't keep my dressings dry, and sent me and Jess off with plenty of new first aid supplies. I have six stitches in my chin (and a beardlike huge bandage that makes everyone I pass look at me funny) and five in my knee, with only minor wounds elsewhere. The good people of the Methodist Church made us an amazing huge potluck dinner, after which we gave our now well-oiled presentation on affordable housing. The hosts were all very interested and supportive of the cause, and so helpful with everything we needed. Everyone is so amazingly generous to us, everywhere we go!

-Charlotte

So, for the first time in trip history, we actually biked and built in the same day! While this idea was intriguing, in practice it was actually quite trying. We awoke early and exhausted and biked to the build site, where we were introduced to the crew that works there daily. As we were being split into groups, the organizer informed us that the new nine house complex we were helping complete would house around 50 people, including 30 kids. While my eyelids were still dropping and my energy level was much below normal levels, I realized that we are part of something so much larger than any of us could ever imagine. In a month, 50 people will have new homes. The exhaustion will fade, and for many of us already has, but that memory and experience is with all of us forever.


After the building was completed, we began our 60 mile journey to Yellow Springs, a flat ride, but a long one considering we began at 1 in the afternoon. We rode past a lot of corn (shocking!) and then some wheat (again, shocking!), but it was beautiful and the sun came out and the clouds parted and everything was good. The group I was riding with came across a stray kitten that we wanted to adopt as the trip kitten, but were vehemently vetoed by both leaders and riders alike. Clearly they have no sense of adventure. We continued on our way and, finally, landed in Yellow Springs, ending another day in the glorious life of a Bike and Builder.


Lindsay Magida

It rained. Then there was sun; and then it rained. And then a little more rain. The epic journey of B2SB was not deterred from its goal of reaching Columbus a bit by the roving downpours although they did make the trip more interesting.
The day started out well with a massive and delicious breakfast supplied by Joy and the rest of the Christ United Methodist Church and we hit the road early making great time. I personally was excited as my friend from home would be passing us on his own cross-country trip, albeit in a car. Following some of Ohio’s rolling hills I ran into my friend and as he was leaving saw some ominous storm clouds in the distance.

Now Bike and Build, especially B2SB, will, and can, bike through anything but these clouds seemed a little larger and darker than just storm clouds. A group of us met up on the side of the road and I made the executive decision to avoid the lightening ahead (a bold choice I know) and to find shelter ahead. Unfortunately the hoped for shelter involving heat and food (Subway comes to mind) did not exist so 10 of us watched the storms roll by under an overpass. It was there that two of the group, who shall remain nameless, decided that it was more discreet to pee in the median where they were seen by both lanes of traffic than by the side of the road. In retrospect they claimed it was probably not the best decision.
After an hour under the bridge the lightening stopped and we ventured out into the rain which stopped after 5 miles. Lunch was uneventful and after lunch Oliver and I decided that we would try to out run the rain and go straight to Columbus. After a hill that was probably our steepest of the trip we hit some relatively flat ground. And then it rained. And rained. The terrain was pretty flat and when I was 15 miles away from Columbus I was able to see the skyline, teasing me in the distance. Fittingly, the sun came out for the last 10 miles and the end of the ride dried me out well.

Arriving at the host, I discovered that Amol had sweet-talked showers for people, which made everyone very happy. Sweep came in very late as Kristi and Sophie flatted one after another. Everyone still was able to enjoy a delicious Mexican meal provided by the host. The meal was supplemented by cake from Jane’s parents who met her for the day after her birthday. Even though we didn’t finish eating until 8:30 the night owls of the group volunteered to do laundry so we could build and bike the next day in clean clothes.
Today was a difficult day mentally for everybody and as a group we did amazingly and proved how tough every one of us is.

Kyle Magida

Saturday June 28th Ride into Newcomerstown, OH


Today we left our gracious host early in the morning and set out for Newcomerstown, OH. One perk of Bike and Build is that everyone helps out everyone else. People will stop if someone gets a flat tire or just needs a rest. We want everyone to be safe, which is why we have something called sweep. Sweep consists of two people that always ride behind everyone else. They make sure people don’t get lost and carry extra tubes and tires.


Today, sweep had a very eventful day: Since sweep must stay behind all of the other riders, we decided to take a break early in the morning by rolling through the drive through Burger King on our bikes. Two orders of cinnaminis later, we were content and ready to roll knowing that we were a fair distance away from the back of the pack. Just as we mounted our bikes to head out, we got a call from one of the riders that got lost. We were ahead of her! We made sure she was going in the right direction and waited for her to reach us. After biking for a while we met up with another rider who needed to get picked up and waited with her until the van came. All just a normal day until the weird starts- the other sweep was feeling that her pedal was acting weird so we stopped to take a look at it. Her pedal had fallen off the other day and it had been put on crooked in haste. To remedy this we tried to take the pedal off, but found out that we stripped the crank’s threads in the process. Luckily a kind cyclist rolled by and called her husband who came by with tools. After some engineering magic, and a long amount of time, the kind gentleman “fixed” the pedal to the crank.


The afternoon was equally eventful. After the van pulled away, the chain on the other sweep’s bike came off, and we struggled with is for a long while to get it back on. After a few miles of riding we got a call from some riders that fell on the road. They rode over some gravel and fell during a turn. Both riders were ok, just a little shaken. After checking over the riders and the bikes we determined all was right and started riding. A big hill came up and as one of the riders shifted to the “granny gear” her bike made a loud clanking noise and refused to move. We took one look at her derailleur and knew something went very wrong. Her derailleur exploded and was twisted in an awkward position. At that point it was late in the day and everyone else was into the host location, so the van driver decided to pick us all up and take us there.


A great end to the day is that it was Jane’s Birthday so we got to pick up a cake on our way back and celebrate with a good friend! Other riders had bought her a turtle hat and we all joined in to sing her a happy birthday.

Jess Leon

Friday June 27th
Pittsburg PA to Steubenville OH

Hello from Ohio! I feel a little bit of pressure to report the days activities in an informative yet entertaining way. We woke up this morning to a lovely rendition of Country Roads followed by the sleepy mumbles of tired riders. The day off yesterday was a wonderful rest for both our bodies and our minds but it was still hard for me to get up and out of bed! The ride this morning was made interesting by the complications of navigating through the city as many of us do not consider ourselves “urban riders”, but considering the early hour of the day the traffic wasn’t bad. Considering the climbing that had to be done to get into the city it was fair to expect that we would have to climb to get out of the city as well. We left in small groups to be safe in the city so there were gaps in the riding groups that soon got small with differing paces on the hills. I spent part of the morning by myself as I fell behind one group and before another, but was able to catch back up with the first group when Lauren got a flat (just her first of the day….she got two). So holding a good pace the group traveled westward, that is until we came across Andy’s Candies where we stopped for the most fantastic chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! Today was also an interesting day in that we crossed into TWO different states, around mile 32 we crossed into West Virginia and then around mile 40 we crossed into Ohio. I don’t think that I am alone in being excited that we are nearing the end of our mountain climbing. The past few weeks have been so very physically difficult, but they have also been very mentally challenging. Keeping a positive attitude about the riding is the key to success! So, we crossed the Ohio River and rode only a mile and a half into the state to the Westminster Presbyterian Church where we were greeted by a bountiful lunch of sloppy joes and pasta salad. Because today was a short riding day, only about 40 miles, we had a lot of downtime this afternoon. Most of us spent it cleaning our bikes after riding in the rain this morning. Some people went off to explore the town and came back wielding tee shirts displaying Dean Martin’s birthplace, which is apparently Steubenville and post cards of squirrel meat recipes. Then we had a bountiful meal of spaghetti and meat balls provided by the church, this was followed closely by a fantastic presentation by some of our riders to the members of the church. It just so happens that this church is trying to help get a local Habitat for Humanity chapter started, so maybe next year if the trip comes back through here we could help them build! So that is it I guess, time to get to bed for another day of riding tomorrow!


~Kristi Lee

Thursday June 26th Journal
Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA! We arrived at our first day off, which was well needed. I think many of us in the group were ready for a day off, after 6 consecutive days of biking. Most people slept in till 9 (I know, late right!), before heading off to explore the city. Emma, a native Pittsburgh-an, took a group to Pamelas- a fabulous diner with hot cakes and home fries. Other fun things to do: eating out (I had Greek food!), going to the bike shop, and many of us went to the science center and IMAX. They had some cool movies on the Alps and the Ocean. I saw the Alps movie and every time they talked about climbing a mountain I thought of our group climbing the Appalachians! Most importantly, I think this day was just about getting some rest and letting our bodies recover.


~Allie

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."


Total distance- 79.3 miles
Total Time- 5 hrs 30 min

Average Pace- 4:08/ mi
Average Speed- 14.5 mph

Max Speed- 46.3 mph
Avg Heart Rate- 112 bpm

Max Heart Rate- 171 bpm
Total climbing- 5173 feet climbing


Today was a relatively relaxing day, with the exception of the route we took, which for the most part was highly trafficked roads. After two hard days of riding, I was content riding with the front group for the majority of the day and we kept the pace deliberately slow and took frequent breaks. However, it was a muggy day, and the route to Pittsburgh was pretty hilly, so despite our best efforts it still wound up being a difficult day.


After arriving in Pittsburgh, I did some celebratory laps around Roberto Clemente Bridge and the 7th Ave Bridge, where I raced in a Criterium on Easter Sunday earlier this spring. I am pretty familiar with Pittsburgh having spent a summer here doing a "pre-college" architecture program at Carnegie Mellon, and was excited to spend time in the city again.


Pittsburgh also symbolized finishing what is supposedly the hardest leg of this trip, as we have biked through the Berkshires, the Poconos, the Adirondacks, and the mountains and hills of western PA all in the last two weeks. I went out with many people from the group to PNC Park, where we went to a local bar and celebrated finishing this difficult leg of our journey.

Lenny Klipper

If you ask anyone about this day, there is only one part that they are sure to remember – the ridiculously steep 14% grade downhill at the very end. But that single memory of around 2 minutes of the ride does no justice to what this day meant to us.
Yesterday was supposed to be the hard day. For most of us it was our first century (100 miles in one day). It was really hilly and tough, but we got through it and that was a huge milestone for us.

Today, we woke up sore, stiff, and mentally worn out. We also woke up with 80 more hilly miles to ride.
Our morning wakeup song, “Eye of the Tiger”, really set the tone for the day. Just like Rocky Balboa, we had already taken a lot of pain but there was still plenty left to get through. To make it to the end, we knew we needed to be inspired.

We kicked off the day’s ride with a special group cheer. Everyone chose a word that inspires them and we all yelled our personal inspirations together. Along the ride, we kept writing inspirational messages to each other in chalk on the roads. The messages ranged from the so-obvious-its-funny messsage “Keep Going”, to Obama quotes like “Yes We Can!” written by Sarah D., and all the way to the vague, yet still inspiring message from Kyle R. “Getcha Some!”.
The terrain involved some medium sized rolling hills (200-500 feet of elevation gain each) for the first 40 or so miles which took us to our lunch stop. Right after lunch, we had the opportunity to climb right up a mountain (around 1700 feet of elevation gain over around 8 or 9 miles).

Which brings us to the afore mentioned final downhill. We usually love going downhill. We saw signs for a long 14% grade downhill, which sounded like a lot of fun. It would have been had we been on a large road with a wide shoulder and gentle turns. Instead, we were on a narrow two lane road with no shoulder, plenty of traffic, and lots of sharp turns with an abundance of trees making them hard to spot in advance.
This downhill road had an automobile speed limit of 25. Personally, I was unable to travel any slower than 35 mph even though I was holding my brakes at every opportunity, due to the steepness of the hill. Anyone bold enough to sneak a look away from the road on the way down got to see a beautiful view of Johnstown from above. Depending on who you ask, whipping around hidden corners at 10 mph over the speed limit was terrifying, exhilarating, dangerous, or some other combination of extreme feelings

In the end, we all made it through alive and well. We shared our inspirations and helped each other on what most of us consider the toughest day of the trip so far.
We sleep well, knowing we have yet another tough 80 mile day tomorrow.

Oliver Khamky

Journal entry June 23


Our first century ride. Well for some of us anyway--the rest of us made it to about 99 miles. It's hard to muster up the energy for another mile just to make the number, but some did. The ride was from Berwick to State College, PA. Jose had told us that this would be one of the hardest rides of the trip, but other than the length, the general consensus was that we have had harder rides.


Along the ride there were a bunch of notable things. Towards the beginning of the ride there was a mountain lake beach where a bunch of people decided to stop and go swimming and have a snack. We rode through Amish country and saw several people traveling by horse and buggy. We saw lots of farm land and laundry lines too. There were also lots of signs pointing us to Penn's Cave which when we finally got close turned out to be a $13 50 minute tour of a cave, which the group I was with decided was not worth the time and money. Apparently this part of Pennsylvania has lots of caves and caverns. Another stop along the way was at mile 95 when Skip's friend, Sarah set up an iced tea stand and served us homemade iced tea made from mint in her garden and energy cookies with nuts, seeds and chocolate chips. We also went on her rope swing into a small creek she has running behind her house. What a great roadside refresher! Next stop--Meyer Dairy for ice cream. Then finally to Clay's place at State College where we were staying. Riding 99 miles was tough, but it was really great to complete our first century ride!


Showers at the YMCA. Dinner was at Clay's house. The food was great because it was different from everything we had had so far on the trip. We had sweet and/or spicy chilly and some sort of curry soup which was also really good. It was a little big cramped with 30 of us in a college apartment, but it was cozy and we were all thankful to Clay and his housemates for having 30 of us over for dinner. After dinner Kyle introduced the butt slap game which will commence after Pittsburgh. Points for safe butt slapping and 25 for Jose's butt. Only on bikes, only when safe. Those are the general rules.


Sleeping was at Clay's place and 10 people went to his neighbor and friend Chris' place. Both hosts were cycling team members and really great to us. We also want to thank their housemates for putting up with so many extra people in the house and being so friendly and hospitable.

I struggled a bit with this journal entry because today seemed very routine: we woke up in Mt. Pocono, PA, rode sixty miles to Berwick, ate dinner, and fell asleep. But then I realized how crazy it is that this kind of life – what we to call the traveling circus -- has become routine to me over the last two weeks.


First of all, there are the mornings. Mornings in Bike and Build are an exercise in controlled chaos. We awake at some ridiculous hour (5am? 6am?) to the strains of Skip Burns’ favorite band, the Dropkick Murphies. We pull our heads off our woefully thin pack pillows and survey the chaos around us: 31 people sprawled on 31 thermarests amidst 31 peoples’ overflowing duffel bags, all scattered across a gym floor. It’s a little overwhelming.


What always amazes me is how things come together over the next hour and a half. We role up our sleeping bags, thermarests, and pillows. We change out of our PJs and into our ever-flattering matching spandex. We role, fold, stuff, and squish all of our things into our bags and all of our bags into the trailers. We cram around the two or three available sinks to brush our teeth. We fill our water bottles and camelbacks, pump our tires, slather sunscreen on exposed body parts and chamois butter on unexposed body parts (for the uninitiated, chamois butter saves lives).


This morning we were lucky enough to receive breakfast from a wonderful woman named Rebecca who fed us quiche and muffins in her restaurant up the street from the church. And then, after stuffing our faces, we were off.


Today Lenny and I rode sweep, which means we rode behind all of the other riders, making sure that everyone got in safely before us, and stopping to help fix tires or solve any other problems that emerge on the road. Luckily, there weren’t many problems for us to fix – Lenny had the only flat tire we encountered – and we made it across the Susquehanna and into Berwick safely.


That evening we were treated to dinner at the Berwick firehouse, thanks to Jane’s aunt and uncle. After dinner, we invaded the fire station next door, where the firemen showed us their trucks (I’ve never seen so many dials and buttons in one place!) and their sweet hovercraft, for river rescues. They even answered all of our questions, like: do you have a fire pole? (no) and: what’s the coolest fire you’ve ever seen (a ribbon factory which burned for three days). After that, it was back to our host to fall asleep on our thermarests on the gym floor, before beginning another crazy day of the traveling circus of Bike and Build.


- Emily Josephs

The overcast skies and showers of the past few days finally dissolved into warm,
sunny weather that survived through the evening. It seemed that good providence

shined upon us: the 57 mile route described on the cue sheet translated into 57
miles of riding (unlike yesterday's 60 mile ride that turned into a 70 mile,

delightfully hilly adventure); we had milk at breakfast (a welcome upgrade to
the water and hot chocolate mix I ate my cereal with the previous morning); and

the group more generally possessed a soundness spirit that allowed us to face
the day's climb to Mt. Pocono, PA (mostly) unfazed.


The first 40 miles of the route were relatively flat with a brief stint through

New Jersey before we entered Pennsylvania. A few miles before lunch, we passed
a pond with bumper boats. Kyle R. and I discussed how sweet it would be take a

few boats out for a spin, but the powerful influence of nearby food compelled
us to look away and ride the road out to lunch. Another group of riders rolled

into lunch a little later all chatty about the free bumper boat rides that
Allie managed to finagle out of the guy running them. This was certainly

enviable, but by then I was enjoying my sandwich too much to be overly jealous.
Nonetheless, I know who I'll be riding with the next time we pass bumper boats.


It turned out that Allie was not the only one with talent enough to get

donations to Bike & Build. Skip, Kyle R., and Lenny combined their
astonishingly good looks with an inescapably persuasive elevator pitch to get

us all free Subway sandwiches for lunch. Free things are always good because
the less money we spend on ourselves, the more money we can donate to the

affordable housing cause. Thus these three brave men proved to be not just the
generous benefactors of our PB & J weary stomachs but also the affordable

housing heroes of the day.


We set out from lunch with renewed vigor and enthusiasm, ready to take on the 10
mile, 1400 foot climb to the top of Mt. Pocono. Towards the bottom of the hill,

Skip stopped at a traffic light about four feet to the left of the curb. I
quietly rolled in to his right, my left hand extended for what was to be a

rather spectacular slap to his bottom. The force with which my hand met his
bottom startled even me and sent my bike slowly tilting towards the right over

the curb. The problem is that I always unclip my left foot at stops, so as my
bike went leaning over to the right, my right foot remained firmly clamped to

the pedal, and I went down onto the grass embankment most ungracefully. The
slope of the grass by the curb was steep so that even after I fell sideways, my

helmeted head functioned as a pivot around which my bicycle rotated and flipped
over once more. The entire routine was painless, and my only regret was that so

few were fortunate enough to witness it.


The ride up Mt. Pocono was slow and painful but by no means undoable. Riders
that had passed ahead scribbled encouraging remarks on the road with chalk to

help us up the climb. Among my favorites was "Remember... Jose drove,"
referring to Jose's easy ascent as the day's van driver. For historical

accuracy, however, it should be noted that upon reaching the host, the United
Methodist Church, Jose immediately jumped on his bike and rode up and down Mt.

Pocono twice, averaging close to 20 mph. Some people are just sick -- or
awesome.


Although Mt. Pocono was definitely a trying hill, we for the first time

succeeded in having enough energy for some post-bicycling activities. We played
minigolf (which rapidly devolved into an argument between Lindsay and Kyle R.

over whether one could legitimately use the side of one's foot to direct the
ball) and watched a movie (Grandma's Boy). Both were great but ultimately

yielded to every Bike & Builder's favorite pastimes: food and sleep. The United
Methodist Church graciously provided us plenty of floorspace for our Thermarests

and plenty of pasta for our hungry bellies, making the night's rest a glorious
affair.


And so another day of cycling draws to a close, and we look forward with both

excitement and apprehension toward the hills that await our legs and the
experiences that await our persons. Goodnight.



Amol Jain

June 20, 2008


So, it’s very interesting that I’m writing the journal today, since I didn’t do most of the ride today. I did a little over 22 miles, but just about everyone else did 65-70 miles. We went from Poughkeepsie, NY to Port Jervis, NY. The highlight of the ride (which I did get to do) was crossing the Hudson River via the Newburgh Beacon Bridge. The bridge is hundreds of feet above the river, which I thought was pretty cool, but apparently freaked some riders out. The river was really pretty, especially for those of us not accustomed to seeing mountains all the time, because it was bordered by mountains and lots of greenery. The bridge was over two miles long and, according to Jane, the actual river was just over a mile wide. It was sweet. Also really awesome is that the bridge has suicide hotline phones and the national hotline number posted all over, so that’s awesome. I’m all about suicide prevention (very literally, that’s what my field of study is), so seeing bridges that aren’t afraid to put those things up really rocks (many are afraid it will give people the idea to jump, or ruin their picturesque bridge). Anyway, back to Bike & Build…
There were lots of reroutes and turns and problems with the cue sheet today (thus the 65-70 mile range, depending on how lost people got). Ah, the joys of small town America and roads not actually connecting to each other. Everyone got in safely, though, and there was only one really serious climb into the town of Port Jervis at the end of the day (or so I’m told).

We were hosted by Drew United Methodist Church in Port Jervis. They prepared an awesome dinner for everyone; some people went into town for ice cream, and we all just generally hung out and had a good time. A lot of people went to bed early, and some of us played an epic game of Taboo in the dining room.
My day went a little differently from everyone else’s. And, since I’m writing the journal, you all get to hear about it! I was riding sweep today with Jose. Everything was going okay, except my knee was bothering me from a fall I took on our day into Poughkeepsie. And then the pain got worse and worse until my knee felt like it was on fire. At this point, Jane had hung back with us, and Jose, Jane, and I decided it would be best for me to get in the van since the pain was getting worse and my knee was swelling. Devon was already in the van, so she and Kyle picked me up and we dropped off lunch for everyone. I decided at that point that I should have someone look at my knee because then I might get the go ahead to ride on it, so Kyle dropped Devon and me off at a community clinic. The doctor there said that it was probably ligament or tendon problems, but recommended an x-ray just in case. Since we no longer had the van, we had to walk to the hospital to get the x-ray done (uphill, in the rain-I’m not kidding), but they couldn’t do an MRI because the machine was already closed for the day and the orthopedist had already gone home. So, nothing’s broken, but we have no idea what’s wrong with it. Then, we had to wait hours for the van to come back and get us, so we went to CVS (not uphill in the rain this time) and got an ACE bandage and ice pack for my knee, but there’s only so much time you can spend at a CVS. However, there is not only so much time you can spend at a Family Dollar with a $15 budget to buy awesome stuff for communal trip use. We got a Nerf football, candy, cookies, a Frisbee-type flying disc, bubbles, an Optimus Prime kite (I <3 Transformers!), and a whoopee cushion. It was epic; we spent so long choosing everything we wanted and narrowing down our choices to fit our budget. However, at this point we were starving, so we decided to have dinner at a little Italian restaurant next door called Nonna’s. We got to choose the food we ate (and pay for it, but whatever)! I had a salad with homemade dressing, bread, and eggplant rollatini. Devon had baked manicotti, salad with house dressing, and bread. And, of course, lots of water for hydration. It was amazing. We got a picture of our “date.” At that point, that van was finally back to pick us up, so we rode back and met up with everyone else. We shared out Family Dollar finds with everyone (minus the whoopee cushion-that will be saved for pranks) and got caught up on the day. So, overall B2SB rocked today. Most people had a pretty solid ride, with a few unexpected miles. They got some presents at the end of the day, though, so hopefully that helped. We had an awesome host and dinner, and everyone is exhausted and ready for bed!


-Dani Jahn

UF ’07 (Go Gators!); TTU ’12 (’13? Whenever…)

Today was a build day. We worked with the Habitat Chapter in Newburg, NY. Instead of building things, we did a lot of moving. We moved bricks from the backyard of a house because the city requested there return and then we moved furniture donated from Sacred Heart University into a warehouse. The neat thing was at lunch when the former president of the chapter told us why we were doing what we were doing. The chapter had to get the bricks back to the city and the furniture will be sold in the Habitat restore when it opens next month to raise money for future projects. While the work may not have been as fulfilling as putting up walls it was stuff that needed to be done. How often can people round up 31 spry young youth to do the heavy lifting or the projects that just require a lot of hands?

The Newburg chapter was pretty well put together and they have big plans for the future. After lunch at a local church provided by Habitat, a project leader took us by the two houses they built in the beginning of June in a blitz build. They put up the houses in 5 days. We were given a tour inside and I am continually amazed at the quality of Habitat houses. The outside had to conform to the historic codes of the city and they were really nice.
Overall, it was a day with a lot of hard work but I think all of us came away excited about the chapter and glad we could help them out. We made dinner (the first time we’ve had to all trip) and just relaxed at the school we were staying at.

I think all of us enjoyed the day off for cycling although we went to bed just as early as the night before.
Hilary

Hi everyone!


My name is Angelina Faulkner but Angie for short. I am one of the riders on the B2SB route. Today is Wednesday June 18th a week after being together as a group. We woke up at 5:30 this morning in the YMCA in Pittsfield, NY. It was a great morning and we got out in pretty good time to start our long 82 mile ride to Poughkeepsie, NY.
There were a few cute shops around town and many of the riders took a stroll around and went shopping. Then we were off on the road! It was somewhat of a hill type of ride but it was a gorgeous ride none the less. We were very lucky to ride along the Hudson River. The trees were amazing! We also could see the Catskill Mountains and that was beautiful.

Along the route we also passed an extremely large chair! We all took this opportunity to take a photograph. The neat thing about the Chair was it was not even a mile after we crossed the New York Border! Than it itself was something we all loved to see. The road mark that we left Massachusetts and crossed over into a new state made our efforts that more important. It reminds us that this is not just a one day thing but we are dedicating our summer to this amazing cause all throughout the United States.
After getting through the tough day and a few showers we made it into Poughkeepsie, NY in one piece! All the riders did well and made it through the longest day on this trip up to this point. We got to our destination and began settling in. The dorms in this private school also included 15 beds so every rider would switch the next night. Once everyone was in Jose, one of the trip leaders introduced his mother to our riders. She was a really great woman and had a lot of good things to say to us about what we are doing.

For dinner the crew arranged for Chinese food! This dinner was delicious and everyone was grateful and surprised once what was for dinner was announced. After dinner people relaxed and watched TV. It was a very good and productive day. It was soon just bedtime. This day was eventful and we made great mileage. Until next time!


Sincerely,
Angie!