West Virginia, Mountain Momma

So again, my apologies for it being so long (10 days?) since my last post. In the intervening time we basically rode our bikes through Appalachia, over some real mountains and often in intense heat. The mileage was high and between eating, sleeping, hydrating and biking, free time was hard to come by. I'm not going to go through a blow-by-blow like I usually do, but here's the gist of it.

I think I left off last time in Maryland. West Virginia was next, and it was by far the hardest state. Two days in particular stand out. One was only forty miles, but with some ridiculous climbs. It was hot that day, and I worked as hard as I could to finish before the heat of the day, managing to get done by noon. This one I rode alone (a no-no I later learned). When I stopped now and then and my bike stopped clicking and the wind in my ears went away and my breath caught up with me, there was this great zen feeling of being fully present, hot and sweaty though I was- just me, the bike, and the hills. The other day was truly ridiculous, probably the hardest yet. Ninety miles to Parsons, WV, but with about the same hill density as the fourty mile day. There were several times twhen I thought I wouldn't make it, but in the end I trucked through with two other guys (Kyle F. and Robert), each of us rallying the others on. Ten miles from the destination it started to rain hard, and this gave the three of us, sopping wet, to a nursing home up the hill. We waited out the storm here, rebelling in the towels, sugar and hot coffee showered upon us by Theresa the caretaker. The final six mile descent into Parsons through post-storm sun-pierced mist more than made up for the whole ordeal that was that day. It just kept going and going and going. Potentially the most fun I've ever had on a bike.

The rest of that week we spent traversing West Virginia, dipping up into Ohio and then back down into Huntington, WV for our first build in ten days, where we stayed in a crazy multilevel Methodist church and did some dirt moving and dry walling.

Next, it was onward into Kentucky. A few very long days, including a 117 day into Paris, KY, our longest ride of the whole summer. It was, in a word, haaaaard- the temperature approached our mileage (the Midwest is going through a record-breaking heatwave right now). The last thirty miles were surreal- we were all so exhausted, riding up and down these hills into the sunset, everything orange, with wheat fields unfolding on both sides. The dull pain and the beauty melted together, and it felt like we would be riding like that forever.

We finally got a much needed day off in Louisville, which I just spent tooling around town with a few people, hitting up some funky food establishments and seeing a movie (Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom- I highly recommend it).

Finally, we headed north into Indiana today. The ride was finally, mercifully, somewhat flat, which made for some fun, fast pacelining. We got to our church earlyish in the day, and one of the hosts was generous enough to let us use her home pool, which was a dream after the 100+ degree weather.

It's amazing how much profess we've made already (1200+ miles), and how much we've seen. The trip has been hard and uncomfortable at times, but the enthusiasm of the everyone we talk to about Bike and Build, host or not, is really energizing, as is the sheer fact that we're self-propelling ourselves across the effing country. Another highlight has just been getting to know my twenty-nine fellow riders- we are each other's only constant on this thing, and it helps that there are so many nice, genuine people.

And now here are some pictures. I'll let them speak for themselves this time.

Father's Day, Hersheypark

Blog time yet again! Last post left me going to sleep in Stroudsburg, PA, I think. A sixty-five miler to Schyulkill Haven followed. In my mind right now it was pretty uneventful, either because it was actually uneventful or (more likely) because it's getting to the point where all the days are blending together into one big fun crazy biking building blob. One thing I do remember is that several of us Pennsylvanian riders (and there are actually quite a few of us) had parents who drove out to meet us, either on the route itself or later in the day. One girl's (Jill's) parents brought a whole bunch of fresh fruit and veggies to our lunch stop- a welcome, nutritious change from the standard bagels and bananas.


This just happened to be Father's Day, and it so happens that my dad was able to come up to hang out that night and ride with us the next day. And get this: the bed and breakfast my dad stayed at, the only one in Schuylkill Haven, was literally right next door to the church house we were all staying in. And if this wasn't all coincidence enough, he needed to be be in the area anyway for a business meeting in Hershey, which was a stop on our route the next day! How 'bout that.

So that was a fun night in Schuylkill Haven (which, incidentally, is pronounced with an obnoxious Dutch accent) catching up with the old man, just walking around town and chatting. The ride to Hershey the next day was rainy and cold buta great way to spend Father's Day, albeit a little late, and the real, sit-down lunch at dad's hotel with our riding mate for the day, Kyle, was amazing. To cap it all off, one of the trip leaders got us free tickets to Hershey Park for the day. Two water slides, a roller coaster and a final ten miles later, Harrisburg was finally in sight.

Quick summary of the next two days: Tuesday was Harrisburg to Chambersburg, PA. A good route, about fifty-five, pretty flat with some rolling hills. Today though, to Hancock, Maryland, was kind of hell. Only fifty-seven, but it was 95+ degrees and very very hilly- apparently we rode over a few Appalachian peaks. Apparently we have more tomorrow, so I'm going to leave off here with some pictures. Among them (in no particular order): my eagle buddy, one of the big flowery welcome signs to Hershey, the Wildcat coaster at Hershey, Pete K. biking some free pizza he scored to lunch, the small town carnival we went to in Chambersburg, the goldfish someone won at said carnival, the state capital in Harrisburg, a tractor on a rural PA road and a group of us taking a rest in a miraculous air-conditioned ice cream shop en route to Maryland.

Sorry...

...it's been so long since my last post. It's been a whirlwind of ride days and build days this last week (four of the former and two of the latter). It's been all I can do to eat, sleep and stay clean when I'm not on the bike or at a build site, but I've finally got a little free time here at the First Presbyterian Church in Stroudsburg, PA to try and take stock of my first real week as a Bike-and-Builder.

When we last left off I was nodding off to sleep in Plainfield, CT after my first ride from Providence. The next day was a more or less uneventful ride to Middletown, CT (actually, not sure if was uneventful or I just can't remember anything...). I do remember that the church there was a little bigger, which meant more room for sleeping, which was good.

Next up was Danbury, CT, right on the border with New York State. This one was a tougher ride: it was 65 miles, had lots of hills (lots), and it started raining on us half way through. But the church we arrived at that night- the United Methodist Church of Danbury- made it all worthwhile. From the moment we arrived, peddling up the last hill as kids from the church ran alongside holding posters and cheering us on, we knew we were in for a treat. The place was huge and comfortable, with a big room for our bikes, a big dining room with all manner of snacks, and multiple rooms upstairs for sleeping, complete with air mattresses. The hosts themselves couldn't have been more genuinely happy to have us. They had pictures on the walls of previous P2C trips they had hosted, a tree and a plaque outside dedicated to Paige Hicks (the girl who died on a Bike and Build route, I think last year), and, best of all, the warm outdoor showers we cleaned ourselves in had been built by the church kids particularly for us. That night was one of unwinding, drying bikes, playing board games, and watching Summer Heights High (an offbeat HBO comedy that my trip leader Brianna whipped out- watch it, it's good). The following day was out first on-the-road build day, which meant a whole extra hour of sleep! My group ended up at a warehouse doing inventory for a local inventory for a local organization called Homefront. For about eight hours we took stock of all kinds of supplies, reboxed like with like and then wrapped them up on pallets. We also got a whole box of free disposable cameras that Homefront didn't need. Our trip photo pro, Pete, was very excited about this and was quick to have a roll developed to see if the long-expired film would have any cool effects (it kind of just looked shittier than usual... I think I'm going to stick with my digital. That night, just more hanging out with church folk, eating pasta on pasta on pasta and, for me, an unintended 2 hour nap.

Ok, so the next day was pretty darn hard. About 80 miles from Danbury to another Middletown, NY. On the way we rode over two bike paths, several highways and two mountains, and we crossed the New York border and the Hudson. Lots of climbing, and lots of grandeur. On mountain number two- Bear Mountain, I think, there was a little turn-off that went up to the peak. It wasn't part of the route, but a little sign next to it said "the tower is open- 2 miles." Curiosity piqued, three of us (Brianna, myself, and the resident bike expert/cool guy, Reed) went the literal extra mile up the switchback to see what there was to see. And it was worth it. From the viewing tower up top we could see for miles and miles, all the way to New York City. On the peak we also happened to run into two more of our own on the, Nev and Kyle. They had been in front of us but had decided to HIKE the four miles up to the top, having purchased bubble rap to pad their socks. Crazy people. Anyway, after lots of descending, a blocked off bike path and crappy directions, we finally got to our tiny church. That night was probably my first really bad time on Bike and Build- I was a little tired and irrationally angry after the long ride, and on top of that my laundry came back from the laundromat still wet, which pissed me off (wah wah). I managed to dry the stuff with this huge industrial fan that the church happened to have, but I ended up only getting like five hours of sleep, which made yesterday's 55 miler into Stroudsburg in the Poconos a sleepy one. Most people "went out" into town last night, but I just passed out at 8 (being the youngest on the trip, at 19, doesn't help either, but I was kind of happy for the excuse to sleep). And finally, today was another build day, another inventory day, just organizing stuff to get it ready to sell, apparently, to raise money for more useful supplies. I know that kind of thing is necessary, but I think I prefer actually working on houses. IRS just a little more fun to actually create something that you know someone will use, as opposed to rearranging stuff. Afterwards I stopped with some people at some little ice cream place, ransacked our trailer in search of some food that didn't contain either white bread or fructose or sugar or both, and I sat down to write the blog entry that I'd me web putting off. So there you have it, you're up to speed. I feel like I'm glossing a lot over with posts at this kind of interval, so I'll try to do it more often from now on.

Here are some photos to illuminate the jumble above a little. Just the main highlights, with a few day-in-the-life shots thrown in (sorry they're not in chronological order; the Blogger app on my phone jumbles them up for some reason):

First Photo Dump

So here are some pictures from the last few days.

Among the samplings are scenes from our orientation church, our build site (where Bike and Build founder Marc Bush stopped by to give a little talk), the wheel dip, laundry doing, and a few odds and ends...

Day One (and some other stuff)

So right now I'm l in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Plainfield, Connecticut. A whole lot has happened these last few days, too much to go through everything, but here are the highlights...

So we arrived in Providence and I met everyone, leaders and riders, at St. Martin's Church (funny enough, my cousins the Langmuirs live three blocks away and have gone there for years). All really nice people, all seem genuinely excited to be doing this awesome thing. Ice-breaker games were played, safety presentations were made, generous meals prepared by church partitioned were eaten, parking-lot bike clinics were conducted, and bonding commenced. This past Saturday (yesterday) we had our first build day about four miles from the church (we rode there). We were working building a house from scratch- building framing, raising walls and all that. Very different from the refurbishment stuff I had been doing up in Vermont, but very fun in that it's even easier to see the impact you're having as the walls rise and a home takes shape. The foundation was already there, but by the time we were done, all the first floor walls were up- it's amazing what six motivated people can accomplish in six hours.

Sunday (today) began with the symbolic tire-dipping ceremony. We all rode to a boat club on Narraganset Bay and dipped our back wheels in the "ocean" to mark the beginning of the journey. Hopefully we'll be doing the same with our front wheels in the Pacific. My mom, dad, sister Anastasia, aunt Rynnie and cousin Meredith were all in attendance, and I feel really lucky that they all could be there. Lot's of photos, cheering B & B alums, and speeches from the stalwart B & B veteran/programming director Natalie and our leader Natalie. After some quick but heartfelt goodbyes, we were off!

We navigated some rough neighborhoods and rough roads on our way out of Providence, though before long the cue sheets led us to a smooth, hilly, scenic, highwayish road that took us all the way up and then down the forty miles into Plainfield. Along the way we stopped at a cool flea market and I bought a little stuffed-animal bald eagle on a whim. He just jumped out at me... you know, we're biking across the country, it's the national animal, 2+2=4. I think he's probably going to be accompanying me for the whole trip, either poking out of my backpack or bungled to my bike somewhere. The first of many out-there purchases, I'm sure.

We arrived at our host (St. Pauls's) at around 2:30- some earlier, some later. The hosts served us an amazing buffet of home-cooked dishes and just couldn't have been nicer. After dinner, a nap and a little frisbee, it was off to the laundromat for me and my chore group. I provably haven't mentioned this yet- the trip is divided into five chore groups, each of which has a different chore every week. This week my group's on laundry, which entails gathering 30 riders' smelly clothes on a huge tarp, folding it into a "burrito", throwing it in the van, driving the closest clothes-washing institution and washing said clothes. Not the most fun, but very necessary. After the laundry was back and sorted, everyone started settling in and I started writing, which has actually taken a little while because all I have is my phone... though that should be my biggest problem of the day.

I'm going to sign off now because we wake up at 6 AM tomorrow to set out for Middletown, CT. I'll be posting photos soon, both of the last few days and the days to come.

Overall impression so far: this is just a really good good thing all around. It's gonna be a great summer.

Orientation!

Hi all. For the potential hanful of you whohave been keeping up with this, I apologize for the lack of posts these last few weeks. Between being sick, having exams and packing to come home, it was a little crazy.

Anyway, I am currently in the car with my Mom, sister and bike on the way to Providence for my trip orientation! Can't believe it's all finally starting. Five months ago I never would have thought this is what I'd be doing all summer. Weird mix of excitement and apprehension right now... but mostly excitement. I'll post more as orientation continues and I figure out how to post photos from my phone (no computer for 2 months).

Thanks again to all of you who made this possible. It's stupid, but I've got to say it:

Let's ride.