ALYSSA UPDATE!
Alyssa update: Alyssa's mother researched tandem bikes and found a guy that is going to custom build a tandem bike for her and her boyfriend Mark. It's really amazing and the price is a good deal. This is an amazing opportunity for Alyssa to complete the journey with us and I know she is very excited about it. I've asked all the bike and build crew to help with the cost by putting up $10 each to give to Alyssa's mother for the bike. If anyone who reads this wants at all to donate please
E-mail me at gotnospicejunk@mac.com and I'll send you her address. I appreciate everyone support, thanks!!
Share/Send
Cedar Rapids, IA
Total Distance: 86.3 Miles (Everyone else 96)
Ride Time: 5 hours 12 min
Avg. Speed: 17.2 mph
Max Speed: 34.1 mph
Bike: Again I decided to defy the group and ride my own route. It paid off again. The group ride was planned out by a local biker to avoid main roads. I wanted to get to Cedar Rapids the shortest route, so we took Rt. 30 again. It was Sara, Shay, Quinnen, and I. Lunch was at a place called Bakery Cafe. I had an amazing meal and we learned it was the oldest dinner on old Rt. 30, open since the 1840's We were going really fast aside from all the flat tires we got. Between Shay and Quinnen they got 8 flats, it was nothing they could do just bad tubes and bad luck, either way it slowed us down a lot. We got to Cedar rapids and found the church. They are having a pot luck for us and there are plenty of showers. It was a fairly hard day but we still did 10 less miles and there were a lot less hills which is always nice. (Yeah, there are hills in Iowa.) Early to bed tonight another long day tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Build: We are going to do a presentation tonight after dinner. We show a short video about the trip is self and then talk about affordable housing issues. I think it's the most important part of the trip and I think we should present more then we do.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Clinton, IA
Total Distance: 91.4 Miles (Everyone else 112 miles)
Ride Time: 5 hours 34 min
Avg. Speed: 16.8 mph
Max Speed: 30 mph
Bike: Today we got up a half hour early so we would all get in by our new designated finish time of 4 p.m. It worked out well, we were all packed and ready to leave by 7:00 am. The only problem was that there were no directions for the day. The computer was having trouble and it wouldn't print. Finally it worked and we left around 8 am. The directions went out of there way to avoid Rt. 30 based on last years trip notes which said it was a rough road with too much traffic. I also found out it would be up to 10 miles shorter. Based on that I decided to go on Rt. 30 and and, Sara, Quinnen, Amanda, Megan, Shay, Lauren did too. It was crazy but we thought it would be fun and maybe worth it. Boy was it! You can tell by the Total Distance above that we saved quite a bit of time. The whole morning we didn't stop at all, and when we decided to get lunch we found a really nice deli. I had an turkey and cheddar melt with salad bar, chicken noodle soup and a huge pickle. Vanilla ice cream with strawberries for dessert. Clinton is a beautiful town and we were fortunate enough to be able to stay at the YMCA. Tim the director was very welcoming and the youth group made us a huge spaghetti dinner. After dinner crazyness went down. The youth group challenged us to dogeball and a bunch of 10-18 year olds slaughtered us. We didn't stand a chance. We probably won 1 out of every 6 games. After that and my second shower Sara and I went down to the Mississippi to sit and relax, it was beautiful. Pictures next time I have a fast internet connection.
Build: The youth group was very interested in our cause and in bike and build. Hopefully there are a few that might do the ride eventually.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Utica, IL
Bike: Nope!
Rest: We slept in today, got up around 7:50 am. It ended up being a beautiful night last night, didn't even put the rain fly on the tent. This morning we all decided a diner for breakfast was a perfect way to start the day, so we all went to a place called the Pine Cone which is only about 7 miles away. Taking the van in two shifts we all made it there. The waitresses were happy to see us and very friendly. I ordered black coffee and a 2x2 which is two eggs any style, two french toast and home fried potatos. Best breakfast I've had in a long time. The waitresses were so excited about our trip they called the local newpaper who came down and interviewed us during breakfast. It's nice to get publicity once and awhile, it helps with the trips goal of creating awareness. As of now, I'm lounging by the pool, reading and keeping cool in this heat. Tomorrow shouldn't be too hard a day, we are going to Clinton, IA which is just over the boarder, across the Mississippi. Max 80 miles, which is short compared to what we have been doing recently. Based on the map it seems like it could be a decent size and fairly beautiful. Sorry I couldn't post recently.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Utica, IL
Total Distance: 100.8 Miles!!! aka Century
Ride Time: 6 hours 10 min
Avg. Speed: 16.10 mph
Max Speed: 33.5 mph
Temperature: 104ºF
Liters Drank: 8 of water 2 of Gatorade
Bike: Today was a very long day, obviously based on the miles you can tell. What we did was decide to skip a stop because they weren't very accommodating. So we did a little extra millage and now we will have a very much needed day off tomorrow. Today we left the church and headed out, it was already 83º out. During the morning Decotis had some trouble with her knees, so her and I rode together. Next thing I know she is telling me to speed up and when she takes lead she kicks it up to 23 mph. Lunch was at mile 48 and even had fresh water. After lunch the temperature jumped up to 103º Thats when we stopped about every 10 miles to sit in the shade and relaxed. We finally got to our destination and I had about 99 miles so I rode the extra mile to hit 100. We are staying at a fairly nice KOA that actually has trees and a pool. We will be here for two days which will be nice. Camp fire tonight, peace.
Build:
Ride on!
Share/Send
No internet tonight or tomorrow
No internet tonight or tomorrow sorry we are camping
Share/Send
Gilman, IL
Total Distance: 88.4 miles
Ride Time: 5 hours 14 mins
Avg. Speed: 17.8 mph
Max Speed: 28.0 mph
Bike: To day was hot! I passed a bank clock this afternoon and it clearly read 104ºF Towards the end I was getting the chills. Last time I checked that isn't good so I've drank a ton of water since then. We didn't hit 90 miles but I think tomorrow's ride is rumored to be 100 miles, a century is the correct biking term. Should be fun, hope it cools down though. Tonight we are staying in Gilman, IL we crossed into Illinois today. It's a super small town of about 1,800 people. The church we were staying at actually wasn't expecting us until Tuesday, but they are being very accommodating. We are actually staying at the rectory on Father John's floor. It's a very conservative area, and Father John was a little upset when both a guy and a girl were in the bathroom together. We apologized greatly, he seems better now. After dinner we went over to the church to hear a little bit about the history of the parish, and a short Catholic lesson. I listened respectfully and with interest. I actually learned how one becomes a Saint. No offense but it's not for me. To end he decided that the girls would sleep in the church and the guys would stay in the rectory, no mixing he commented. Night, I'm going to go snuggle up with Nate. Peace. Feel free to comment.
Build: In this area it's impossible to sell a house or land because there is no one moving into town, just out of town.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Lafayette, IN
Day off!
Bike: nope
Build: Today we split into three groups. One group did roofing on two women's build houses. The second did cleaning. Sometimes the chosen habitat families don't work out and they have to be evicted from the house. It's sad and Habitat continues to try to give them guidance, but it doesn't always work. It doesn't happen often though, Lafayette has only had to evict 3 families out of 120 since 1985. Pretty good. Anyway the pervious family had trashed the house and it needed to be cleaned. The last group, my group, painted. I never would have thought I would rather be cutting windows with paint, then riding a bike. Today it was a relief, and after yesterday I actually enjoyed painting all day in 95º weather. I'll put pictures up of everything we painted, it was quite a bit. Tomorrow I think we have about 80 miles which might not be too bad after a little rest. I was able to get my pedals fixed which is awesome. Alyssa went to the orthopedic doctor today and was put in a hard cast. She has two options: stay with us and wear her cast for 12 weeks or go home have surgery and be back in 3 weeks. But with the second option she doesn't actually know when she will be able to come back and it is probably much more expensive. We all are tying to support her, but she is very much bummed out as you can imagine. She won't be able to ride at all, and on a trip like this, thats horrible. We think and hope she will decide to continue on the trip with us, what a tough kid.
Build on!
Share/Send
Lafayette, IN
Total Distance: 90.25 miles
Ride Time: 6 hours 16 min
Avg. Speed: 15.15 mph
Max Speed: 32.7 mph
Bike: Today was a 90 miler, very, very hard. It was flat but no matter how you look at it 90 miles is quite a hall. Mentally knowing how far it was, was the hardest part. The worst part was when we rolled up on mile 22 and there was a bunch of people huddling around one girl. Neighbors were directing traffic and I busted out my first aid kit. Someone in front of Alyssa had crashed and she crashed into his bike. She flew over her bike and hit the road, hard. There was blood everywhere. When I got there it was mostly cleaned up. I tried to help by putting a clean gauze on a laceration that was above her left eye. Then I cleaned a little cut on her knee, applying a band-aid. The police came and then an ambulance. She ended up with a broken scafoid bone in her hand and a cut above her eye. She is fine and tomorrow she is going to an orthopedic doc to have another look. Alyssa is the strongest girl I know, she wasn't scared the whole time. The only reason she was upset was because she wasn't able to ride and had to go to the hospital. Very strong. The rest of the day went pretty well. We went the Lafayette Habitat directors house for gathered and watermelon. From there we headed 17 miles to the church. A few of us including me road around the parking lot in circles to get to 90 miles. Dinner, showers, sleep, in that order. Build day tomorrow, night.
Thanks everyone for the mail drops, they are really exciting to get and help take the edge of a hard day! Keep up the good work. If you want to send something there is a link in my link section.
Build: Lafayette Habitat has built 120 houses so far!!
Ride on!
Share/Send
Hartford City, IN
Total Distance: 86.7 Miles
Ride Time: 5 Hours 47 Min
Avg. Speed: 15.2 mph
Max Speed: 26 mph
Bike: The day started with a wonderful breakfast of french toast and eggs! Then I put my new pedals on and then tried them out. The only problem was that I couldn't clip out for some reason. I had to actually take me shoes off while someone held the bike, it was quite a feat. Well the police escort was leaving at 7 so I just rode as well as I could with out clipping in. The police escort was awesome!! Even bad ass! One cop car went first lights and all, and one followed. At every stop sign and red light he would just turn on his siren and we would ride though all the way out of Troy, 4 miles. So cool. I'll put up some pictures later, I took some while riding. After that I ride to fix my pedals again to no avail. I had to put the junky ones on and ride all day like that. It was a really long day. The only thing that happened between the police escort and Hartford City was a turkey farm, pictures will come later. The day was long and I'm tired, night. We also crossed the time zone line and hit 1000 miles!! Sweet.
Build: Reasons why housing is needed, Overcrowding: the number of people living in the house is greater than the total number of rooms in the house. About 6.1 million households live in overcrowded conditions.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Troy, OH
Total Distance: 73.2 Miles
Ride Time: 5 hours 3 min
Avg. Speed: 14. 7 mph
Max Speed: 27.7 mph
Bike: I would like to start by talking about a sad incident that happened two days ago on another cross country bike trip It's called the Habitat Bike Challenge which is through Yale.
Click Here for their site. A girl two days ago who was on that trip was hit by a car and died.
Click Here to read an article on it. It was a wake up call to us all and we all took a moment to realize the significance of it. This trip is something we all decided to do for ourselves and a great cause. But with it comes a lot of risk and challenges. Biking is dangerous and we all know that. I want to let everyone know that we do everything we can to make our trip as safe as possible. I also want to let everyone know, family and friends, that if something happened to me I would ask that the trip continue without interruption. If I had any request it would be that the trip still achieves it's goal. I just want to finish by sending my support to their trip and hope all else will be well.
Today, we had an 70 mile day and Lauren and I decided to be sweep again. It went pretty well until we hit some strong head winds, so we started a pace line. The visual stimulation is declining as the corn fields increase but it's nice to hit a small town every 10-15 miles. During the ride today my right pedal broke and I had to ride 4 miles with only one leg, pretty fun. I put a junky pedal on after lunch and once in Troy I had to buy new ones, which was kind of a bummer. The church we are staying at is amazing and they are very organized. We are even getting a police escort out of Troy tomorrow at 7 am, should we awesome!! I'll try to get some pictures. Probably read and get to bed early as we have an 80 mile day tomorrow.
Build: The county Habitat president came to dinner with us and spoke a little. He talked about how amazing Bike and Build is and how it really brings a lot of media attention to Habitat and increases the volunteer base. Tonight the local Fox news channel was here and they will also shoot some footage tomorrow as we are escorted out of the city. Another cool thing is that the local Habitat affiliate did a women's build. A women's build is when women build the entire house from design to roofing it. Men aren't aloud to help with anything. Because of their last women's build, a lady that had recovered from cancer ended up donating $7,500 to the Habitat affiliate because she felt that working outdoors on the women's build house had helped her overcome her cancer. I thought that was pretty amazing.
Ride on! Stay safe!
Share/Send
Columbus, OH
Day off!
Last night we ended up going to Lauren's relatives to have a small party around a bon fire. On the way there our 15 passenger van got a flat on the wonderfully cared for Ohio roads. It was pretty funny watching us try and change it. It was a huge beautiful horse farm. The house was gorgeous, beautiful woods all over. We ended up staying over there, cooking hot dogs, making smores, and swimming. In the morning they were nice enough to cook us breakfast which was one of the best yet.
Getting back to the church we all passed out for a nap. Tonight I think Eyton, who is Jewish, really want's to go to a kosher restaurant so a bunch of us are going with him out to eat. Later tonight I think Quinnen found a place that is going to teach us salsa dancing lessons, we'll see how well I do.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Columbus, OH
Total Distance: 53.0 Miles
Ride Time: 2 Hours 56 Min
Avg. Speed: 18.2 mph
Max Speed: 35.5 mph
Bike: Matt and I left today early because we wanted to get to Columbus as fast as we could. Boy did we fly. We got to lunch around 9: 30 am, had a quick bite to eat and left again. It was flat roads and beautiful out; sunny and cool. We arrived in Columbus around 11 am, not having anything to do, we just rode around and explored the city. Hunger set in and we ended up at a Wendy's because nothing else was open. Columbus is actually the location of the first Wendy's. After that we passed out on the Capital building lawn for an hour. It was pretty funny and when I get fast internet again I'll post some pictures. More people showed up and the church opened up. A bunch of us decided to go to the Columbus Museum of Art which is practically right across from where we are staying. It ended up being free on Sunday's so that was awesome. They had all kinds of art including a bunch of stuff I knew and learned about last semester in my art history classes. Tomorrow is our day off, so tonight we are going to this girl Lauren's relatives house near by for some R&R. Tomorrow will be catching up on sleep, cleaning, organizing, and keeping in touch with people. Happy Fathers day!! I also found an AOL disk and that should help with cell phone outages as I get farther west.
Build: Read Sara's entry for today, it has some cool information about a Habitat related experience she had today.
Click Here.Ride on!
Share/Send
Gambier, OH
Total Distance: 63.9 miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 3 min
Avg. Speed: 16.15 mph
Max Speed: 40.2 mph
Bike: Today was very interesting. Nate, Matt and I left fairly early, before the group. We flew through the morning and eventually came to a town called Berlin, OH which was a small little tourist town. We decided to stop and look around. After chaining up our bikes we headed to a old fashion soda shop. They had ice cream sodas, phosphates, and even Coke like back in the old days. Here are some pictures. I asked the lady what my parents would have got when they were kids and she said Ice Cream sodas so I bought a Vanilla Ice Cream soda, it was really good and wish they were still around. After that we headed over to a salsa store where they had free samples!!! The salsa were amazing but we also tried some hot sauce. It was super hot, they only let us sample it on a tooth pick and after I licked it off I started coughing cause it was so hot. What we tried was only a fraction as hot as there prized item.
The Source hot sauce. It had a page long warning on it and was a $100 for 1oz. Insane! To calm our burning mouths we each bought a half pound of fudge to bring with us, it was so good. Once the burning stopped we got back on our bikes and headed out.
Lunch came soon enough and we were pretty full so we didn't stay long. This is when things got interesting. At the top of a hill I got a flat tire. Shouldn't be a big deal, I changed it but got another right away. After changing it we headed down hill. I looked down and my tire was bulging, then it blew. The actual tire ripped and we needed the van to get another one. The van was still at lunch so we knew it would be awhile, but it was a really long time. It took so long we decided to take matters into our own hands. We decided to stuff my tire with grass and just keep riding. It's a trick that works if you do it well. We didn't do it well, but it sure made everyone laugh as I rode down the road with grass flinging out of my tire.
Here are the pictures. and
Here is the video.We finally got to Kenyon College and it's awesome!! We are staying in a dorm with beds, bathrooms, and showers!! We will sleep well tonight!
Sorry about the long post and the three posts all today, internet is and will continue to be more selective. Like I said I'll try to get AOL working which should help with the problem. Thanks for reading!!!
Build: Habitat Rules!
Ride on!
Share/Send
Dover, PA
Total Distance: 80.25 miles
Ride Time: 5 Hours 39 Min
Avg. Speed: 14.5 mph
Max Speed: 37.1 mph
Bike: Today the weather was beautiful. Cool and partly sunny. The beginning of the day was pretty easy. But then Ohio kicked my butt. The hills were short and little but very frequent. At the top of one hill I actually collapsed into a farmers field because of exhaustion. Rich and I almost hit a deer which would have been bad but also cool to be able to tell people you hit a deer on a bike. We had to do 80 miles today which was pretty hard. But we got it done.
A week ago I bought some smoke bombs and have been planning on pranking Amanda, on of my leaders. So today at lunch I stuffed 3 blue smoke bombs into the grill of the van. I lit them on fire and then went around the van and told her l thought something was wrong with the van. She looked over and the face she made was priceless. She finally figured it out and I ended up getting a piece of pizza in my face. Regardless it was worth it.
My cell phone is not working any more so I think I'm going to have to switch to AOL soon, we'll see how it goes. I'll post todays and put up more pictures later tonight.
Build: Habitat for Humanity International is located in Americus, GA
Ride on!
Share/Send
Youngstown, OH
Total Distance: 55.4 miles
Total Time: 4 hours 13 min
Avg. Speed: 13.6 mph
Max Speed: 42.0 mph
Bike: Rain, rain, rain. Thats how the morning started. A few of us ended up going to see Batman Begins, which was pretty good, but we didn't get back until 1 am. So we were pretty tired. That same bunch of us decided to be sweep today and we had to wait until everyone had left before we did. So we ended up that the whole first part of the day we were cold and wet. I couldn't even see cause of the rain, and my legs were sooo tired. It was a long first part of the day. We finally came to a town so we stopped and had some coffee. But as soon as we were back on the road we were at the trailer for lunch. We ended up sitting in the van with the heat blasting. Luck was with us though because after lunch it had warmed up a little and the sun came out. We were all in better moods. We went over to a house that looked abandoned and on the way out of the driveway I skidded out and fell over. It wasn't bad except it looked doofy. Anyway, we finally made it into Youngstown and thats where the build part comes in.
Build: We came in though a part of town that was really run down and was in desperate need of decent housing. None of the houses I saw were suitable for people to live in and it really had an effect on me. It would be a great place for Habitat to have an effect on. Hopefully there is a strong affiliate here and they are making progress. I also how this trip creates enough awareness to get people moving and into action.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Franklin, PA
Total Distance: 75.33 Miles
Ride Time: 5 Hours 1 min
Avg. Speed: 15.33 mph
Max Speed: 43.0 mph
Bike: I slept so well last night, the campground was amazing, long soft grass and it cooled down a lot! I usually go to sleep sweating, gross but true. We packed up fairly quickly and headed out. We weren't sure about the directions and we ended up taking a dirt road for about 6 miles. Road bikes aren't really made for dirt roads and as a result I got a flat. Right when I started changing it, it started to pour. Thats how the day went. We would be riding and it would just start pouring. Yesterday, we started fully utilizing the power of the pace line and it's been awesome. The first way you can tell is by my increased average speeds. It helps take the edge off the really hard days and it just feels bad ass when 5 people fly though towns 6 inches from each others tires. Toward the end of the ride it really started pouring, but we were following a river so it was really flat. The church bought us 30 pizzas which was perfect, usually there isn't enough food. I'm really tired now and the church's room we are sleeping in has an awfully plush carpet. There is discussion of Batman though, I'll let you know.
I put that Frank Lloyd Wright
house picture up, sorry it's not very seamless I forgot to load Photoshop onto the laptop.
Build: In families whose rent exceeds fifty percent of their income, their are 4.5 million children.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Twin Lakes Campground, PA
Allagany National Forest
Total Distance: 72. 69 Miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 54 min
Avg. Speed: 15.16 mph
Max Speed: 42.7
Bike: Today was a nice ride we went past a house that I recognized as a Frank Lloyd Wright house. But it ended up being build by Lynn Hall who Frank studied with. I was pretty impressed with my self for recognizing it and remembering the style. I'll put pictures up tomorrow if I can.
The church we were supposed to stay at canceled on us. When that happens, or when no one wants to host us we camp. It was a beautiful site, there was even a pond to swim in and hot showers. A thunderstorm came in but it was right after dinner and we all just ended up going to a pavilion to sit around a fire.
Build: Sixty-nine percent of Habitat homeowners surveyed reported increased earnings after purchasing a Habitat home!
Ride on!
Share/Send
Coudersport, PA
Total Distance: 45. 93 Miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 38 Min
Avg. Speed: 13.45 mph
Max Speed: 45.5 mph
Bike: Today Sara, Laruen and I were sweep. We were the last ones to leave Wellsboro and the last ones to arrive in Coudersport. It was an awesome day though! We really took our time and relaxed, stopping often to enjoy the route. We started by going to a little coffee shop in Wellsboro. Next was a tourist gift shop that had everything under the sun. Sara and Lauren bought matching necklaces, they were like two high school girls in the store. All I got was some fudge and smoke bombs :-) Great for pranks later in the trip. We almost stopped and went on horse rides but they only had 2 day and 1/2 day trips, too long. The hills weren't bad they were very gradual so we could handle them pretty well. Our last stop bought us to a logging museum which went into great detail about logging and how it was preformed before modern times. They even had an outside walk though tour which had a sawmill and trains in it. Directly after the museum was a huge hill at the top was a sign that clearly stated it's altitude, as if we didn't know. Coudersport is a sweet town, very small but some amazing buildings. I posted more pictures on my picture site.
Click here There is also the picture of Matt chasing the porcupine which is and was really funny. I also added thee photo link under my link section so you can access it anytime.
Build: 5.1 million American families have "worst-case" housing needs, forced to pay more than half their income for housing, endure overcrowded conditions and/or live in houses with severe physical deficiencies.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Towanda, PA
Distance: 67.37 Miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 51 min
Avg. Speed: 14. 11 mph
Max Speed: 45 mph
Bike: Billy Kern a friend from Ithaca rode with us today, which was really fun. We actually rode through his really small town, what are the chances. He was like our own personal tour guide along the trip. The morning flew by and next thing you knew we had done 40 miles and were at lunch. We had a small lunch and keep moving. Down the road Sara's tire went flat and some guy stopped to help. He also told her and Jess a different way to go to the camp ground. We took that road and ended up being the first ones there, it was a huge short cut and an amazing road. It was a very small road that ran parallel to the river. The trees even covered the road giving us ample shade. I guess our short cut also cut out most of the hills which was awesome. A lady and her daughter decided to have a huge picnic for us which was awesome! We had burgers and dogs. After dinner they also hooked us up at the local theater with $3 movies. It was one of those really old theaters, balcony and all. We saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith which wasn't too good aside from Angelina Jolie was hot. We get to camp tonight, 5 to a tent. It's a nice night, in a nice campground right along the river. Tomorrow will be hard trip with lots of hills, should be a blast!
Build: 13% of the American population is below the poverty line. A huge majority of their expenses are for housing that is usually not decent.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Pictures are up!!
Click here and book mark it!I went to do laundry cause it's my groups turn and they had a wireless connection that way fast enough to post pictures, so there is the site. Probably won't be able to update anytime soon. Okay peace!
Share/Send
Scranton, PA 2
Bike: Not today!
Build: We woke up around 6 am to a semi cloudy day. We wouldn't be riding today an that was wonderful, after yesterday everyone needs a break.
We went a little south of Scranton to work at a habitat restore. A restore is a place where contractors can get rid of stuff for free. For example, if someone wants their kitchen redone a contractor takes out all the cabinets and sink, etc. Normally they have to pay to get rid of it, but Habitat will pick it up and bring it to their restore. There they clean it up and re sell it for a profit. The general public can come there for building supplies at a discount. All the money made is then used for Habitat houses or expenses. They are very successful and help raise a lot of money.
We just moved a bunch of stuff around and took it easy. The best part was we were able to break a lot of glass windows in a dumpster! Tomorrow we ride again and head on to Seattle! Billy is going to ride with us as well as Vaughn's Aunt and Uncle who are also bringing us to a buffet tonight, sweet! Good day.
By the way if you want to send me and or Sara mail we would love it! Even just a note of encouragement! You can click on my link to the left call Send me Mail to read how to do it. Thanks!!!
Build on!
Share/Send
Scranton, PA
Distance: 71.46 miles
Ride Time: 5 hours 29 min
Avg. Speed: 13.42 mph
Max speed: 42.3 mph
What a day. After yesterday I thought I had hit the hard part. I thought that maybe I had pushed my self as far as I could go and that from there on out things would get easier. Boy was I wrong. Riding isn't easy, Pennsylvania isn't easy either, together they are very hard. The day, like others, started normal. Nice morning ridding along. We start by going the wrong way a little, not too big a deal. The morning ride is hilly but not unbearable. After lunch we are all feeling good and set out, I wanted to beat the rain which I new was coming. We finally get on Rt. 6 which is the road that will take us directly into Scranton. Long hill after long hill we ride along slowly eating away at the milage. Next thing I know I'm getting on West 6 and going by Business 6. But it seems to be a highway and I question our directions. Calling the leader he tells me that I should take Business 6 so I do. I ride back up and meet with Mark. A storm comes and we pull over to a gas station to wait for the rain to let up. The sun comes out and we continue on. Town after town goes by and there seems to be no end in sight. We catch up with another leader and then the next thing we know we are on Interstate 81. We had to ride 2 miles and then get off an exit with a closed shoulder. Really scary don't tell my parents. We called the leader to make sure no one else made the same mistake, no one did.
It seems like another storm is coming so Mark and I pull over again at a store. We ask for directions and they tell us the easiest way is to get on the expressway which will bring us right into Scranton. A girl working there even called her dad for directions. We get on the expressway and all hell breaks loose. It's starts to pour like crazy. We ride on, stopping at off ramps to cross and stopping at onramps to cross. 2 exits before ours Mark gets a flat. As we change it on the expressway all I see are lighting bolts behind Mark in the distance. We continue on until our exit and eventually find our way to the housing. What a day! Billy Kern met up with us and we went out to a bar for a much needed drink.
At least 5 or 6 people broke into tears today, it was just one of those days. People all said riding across the U.S. would be hard, but this is amazing. We are all so much closer and I loved every minute of it!
Build: Not today, rest is needed.
Ride on!
Share/Send
White Lake, NY
I don't have my bike computer with me so I can't put my stats up, I will next chance I get.
Bike: Today was the hardest day yet. It was supposed to be only 57 miles and it ended up being about 70. The hills were insane, and the heat was unbelievable. It was the first day that we all asked ourselves why exactly we are riding across the country on a bike. Right when your body tells you you can't go farther you have 20 miles to go. This morning was wonderful, I was even saying that it was the best day. The morning was beautiful we rode though a lot of parks and even stopped to dunk our feet in a waterfall. Stewart and I took a side road because we wanted to go to a winery but when we got there it was closed. After lunch is when things went downhill. To top it off right before we got to where we were going a huge thunder storm came in and Sara and I had to pull off the road till it passed. After the storm the roads were really steamy an it was amazing to see. We finally got to the church and had dinner. After dinner we went to where the original Woodstock was, they are actually building a huge music theater. I'm tired now and will be going to bed, bye now.
Build: Habitat has affiliates in over 80 countries around the world!!
Ride on!
Share/Send
Pougkeepsie, NY
Distance: 34. 51 (short but not easy)
Ride Time: 2 Hours 39 Min
Average Speed: 13. 41 mph
Max Speed: 50.1 mph
Bike: Kent was beautiful this morning, cool and calm. The mist and clouds were lifting from the storm the day before. We left CT as we rode over a covered bridge in the middle of the woods. NY wasn't too welcoming with HUGE hills. The day was short though and it was nice to arrive, shower, and have time to relax. We are doing a bike clinic tonight which should be fun, because it's for kids. There isn't much to do to their bikes but it will be cool to hand out with them. Everyone has been so generous so far, especially with food. We are saving a lot of money which in turn goes to the house. The church we are staying at is pretty big, they actually have separate services for 7 nationalities. The bike clinic went really well today. A bunch of the neighborhood kids came and we lubed their bikes, adjusted their seats, and patched their tires. It was cool seeing them ride off all fixed up. I am not sure what else people want me to write on here. Either comment or E-mail me if you have any questions I can answer about the trip or affordable housing. I would love to hear from people who are reading the blog.
Build: This summer the 200,000 house will be built by Habitat for Humanity world wide, thats amazing considering they were formed in 1975!
Ride on!
Share/Send
Kent, NY
Kent, CT
Total Distance: 57.15 Miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 40 Min
Average Speed: 12.64 mph
Max Speed: (before lunch) 50.8 mph (after lunch) 52.3 mph (now I have a new record to break)
Bike: Today was killer. I don't know why but it seemed a lot harder. I thin it's cause there were tons more hills. Both up hills and some amazing down hills as you can see by my max speed :-) The trip was fun, we stopped at a post office and talked about the trip with someone. It was good to get the word out. Finally at the end we made it to Kent falls. Not really falls at all compared to Ithaca but still beautiful. It was nice to wade around in the cold water. On our way out Sara's parents pulled in and met up with us. We rode the 5 more miles into Kent and went to the Kent School. It seems to be a private boarding high school. As we got there a crazy storm was approaching and we had to try to get everyone stuff out of the trailer before the rain hit. The van went to pick up anyone that was still riding. We went out to a wonderful dinner with Sara's mother and father which was a perfect way to end a hard day. Highlights of the day were as follows. I hit 52.3 mph which was really cool, trying some unprocessed cows milk that was bought from some farmer who sells it. (Tastes like butter, but it's amazingly good!), and finally dinner. They school obviously didn't have internet and I am going to bed at 7:30 so keep an eye out for pictures and more posts. Sorry, I probably freaked everyone out by not posting. If I don't post once and a while don't worry, if I don't post for a month worry.
Build: It's estimated that 9,900 of Rhode Island's rental units have physical defects, including: Rodent infestation, lead exposure, faulty wiring, inadequate heating systems, plumbing problems, and lack of major appliances.
Most of our money from this trip goes to fund one house in Rhode Island.
Ride On!
Share/Send
Ill post soon, didnt have
Ill post soon, didnt have the net.
Share/Send
West Granby, CT
Distance: 56.7 Miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 10 min
Average Speed: 13.98 mph
Max Speed: 46.2 mph ( I want to break 50 before Seattle!)
Bike: Today was long and hilly. The morning was beautiful, cool and sunny. Amazing. Everything was going really well until Sara fell. There were railroad tracks that were in disrepair and she skidded out in the sand. She was a little shaken up but okay. Another girl slammed into the back of another kid and cracked her helmet in a few spots as well as bending her tire. She went to the hospital and received a clean bill of health. Speaking of which I need to call and make sure I have health insurance tomorrow :-) The rest of the day was fun, we actually had to ride though Bradley Airport to get to Rt 20 which was pretty funny. We rode right by the terminals and stuff.
Tonight was awesome. We are staying in a beautiful church and they gave us pot luck dinner. I've never eaten so much in my life. They were very excited and interested in our trip which was nice.
Sara's parents are going to come visit tomorrow I think. That will be awesome. I saw my parents yesterday and hers tomorrow, so much love! After Pennsylvania it will be pretty lonely. I tried to post pictures today but the connection with my cell phone is too slow. Tomorrow I think we are staying at a school so they may have high speed internet.
Build: After dinner we did a presentation on Habitat for all the church members. A huge part of our trip is creating awareness so every-time we stay somewhere we try and do a presentation and include local facts so the people we speak to can relate. I want to try and bring up as much habitat facts and information as I can. People always seem to overlook that and just ask questions about the bike trip and how we go about it. I want to focus more on the building and how much affordable housing is needed all over the US. Thats the main reason I'm on this trip and the one thing I feel really strongly about. It's' easy to bike, not easy to eliminate affordable housing.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Pomfret, CT
Pomfret, CT
Distance: 37.75 Miles
Bike: We started out by going down to the ocean and dipping our back tires into the water. i should put some pictures online tonight. Stephanie, a friend of mine who went to Ithaca and did her own bike trip awhile back came to see us off. It was awesome seeing her and having her there, she was as excited as we were. We then went to go to see the Habitat house that was built with last years bike trip money. Pretty awesome.
The funniest thing was at a stop light, not far out of the city a guy in his truck asked what we were doing. "Riding to Seattle!" we say. "Haha, awesome. No really what are you doing" he says. So crazy!
On the road I looked over and saw a family on the side waving and yelling like crazy. I then realized it was my family. They even had lunch with us at the half way point. Thanks guys!
Today was our first day and boy was it hot. I drank 5 liters of water on the way. It took us about 3 hours.
Once we got to Pomfret I was hear home and it felt good to be somewhere familiar. Josh and Betsy came and met us at the church which was also really nice. Thanks you two! I went over the the Rectory school which is a private school across the road and convinced them to let us use their locker room for showers.
I am sooo tired I could probably fall asleep now, 5 pm. I'm not sure how long I'll keep up this blog posting cause I can't post until 9 pm when my cell phone is free and I want to be sleeping by 8, haha.
Build: It was really nice seeing the house today. $65,000 from last years trip went into the house and thats an amazing amount. The family was so happy that we stopped by and it felt good to see thats where our money goes. The street used to be one of the worst streets in Providence and now it's completely turned around. In part to the 4 habitat houses. Thanks to everyone that gave me a donation, don't worry your money will go to an amazing cause!
Ride on!
Share/Send
Left at 10;30
Left at 10;30
Share/Send
Providence, RI
I am slowly working on my layout and it will look something similar to what's below. I will talk about biking and the fun I'm having but I also want to put something about the cause. Why I'm on this trip, and how it's affecting other people.
Distance: 17.2 miles
Bike: Today was awesome except for the 6 am wake up call, but I will slowly but surely adjust and in no time I'll be asleep by 8 pm and up by 5 am.
We made our way back to Brown's center green for a first aid talk from an EMT on bike injuries and then a talk from a professor on group riding. Very informative and helpful.
Sara, Laura, Stewart, and Vaun went on a nice ride down a bike path that goes along the water. Very beautiful and it was nice to get back on my bike for a ride.
Tomorrow we get up early go to India Point Park for press opp and to dip our back tires in the Atlantic Ocean!!! We really are going from sea to shinning sea! We will be there around 8:30 am for anyone that wants to go. 10:30 am we head to Putnam, CT Represent!
Build: Yesterday, the president of the Providence Habitat affiliate came and spoke. I would like to share a story he told that really moved me and helped me realize even more that what we are doing is very important.
As a Habitat affiliate finds families for the houses they go and interview at the current house to really see that there is need for a new one. The man walked in and this adorable girl about 5 years old came up to him and he innocently asked if he could see her room. She was happy to show him. Grabbing him by the finger she led him into the kitchen. She opened the doors below the sink and pointed. There lay a tiny mattress. There is a need. Everyone in the world should have decent housing and thats why I'm riding my bike across the U.S.
Ride On!
Share/Send
Providence, RI
Distance: 3 Miles
Weight Before Trip: 204 lbs.
Today, after some fun driving around Providence we found everyone else. First impressions...Awesome!! Everyone seems really cool and the group seems like it's already clicking. We did orientation all day which was good and gave us a better idea of the trip and the more I learned the more excited I got. I have so much to say but I'm not sure what to write.
Tomorrow, we have a few bike clinics: bike maintenance and bike riding. A short ride and some free time. I didn't take any pictures I was trying to socialize. Everyone thought it was weird that I brought a power adapter until they realized there wasn't enough outlets to plug in 29 cell phones :-)
I'm going to try to get a map to keep track of where I am but it probably won't happen, just visualize or go to
maps.google.com Enough for now. I'm going to try to send post cards to everyone so keep an eye out.
Ride on!
Share/Send
Hampton, CT
I will start naming my posts as the city or town I'm in at the time. I am going to try to put how many miles I did each day and how long it took me. Of course this is all just talk and we will see what really ends up happening.
Sara and I leave to go to Providence, RI tomorrow at noon. We have to be there by 2 pm but I want to get there early in case. We have two days of orientation and then on Saturday the 4th we ride to Pomfret, CT.
Pomfret is only 20 mins from my house and I will try to send a post via my phone with the time of departure from Providence. It should only take us about 3 hours max to get there. Tentatively, we are leaving around 10:30 or 11 am. We will be staying at the Christ Church and we will arrive via RT 44. So if anyone in the area wants to greet Sara and I feel free ;-)
I'm nervous, excited and exhilarated to begin this journey. I know that it will be very hard and I, as well as my relationship with Sara, will be tested. I also know that I don't think there is anything we can't do, especially together. I look forward to everything, even the hard parts. In the end there will be only strength.
Share/Send
