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):