Hasta luego

So where did I leave off... Southern California.




















20Jul08 - Wenden, AZ to Blythe, CA - 66 miles
We started early to beat the heat, and surprisingly enough, it was raining all morning (in the desert!) It felt wonderful, and we arrived at "lunch" at 8:30am. We rode on I-10 (speed limit 75mph!) for 35 miles which was fine, except for all the flat tires. :-/ Once we crossed our final state line we stopped to swim in the Colorado River. Glorious. Then proceeded to Denny's where I consumed 2 pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast, and a large chocolate shake. Also glorious.

















21Jul08 - Blythe to Brawley - 90 miles
It was HOT. Lots of hills and I decided that in the last few days I don't care so much about doing life-long damage to my knees. So I push it. Luckily stayed in front of sweep (Suz and Dan Thomas) who were having a miserably hot day. Before 2nd lunch we were completely out of water and stopped at the only gas station for miles where a gallon of water cost $4.25 and the owner called us something very not nice for being stupid enough to bike through the desert. I'm pretty sure he's just grumpy for being 1 of 7 people to inhabit that God-forsaken place. Anyway, the water was delicious. At second lunch we grabbed a quick bite and booked it; the van was stuck in a sand dune and as I didn't have much energy left I decided I wouldn't be very helpful in trying to unbury it. For the last 15 miles I managed to grab on (and stay on) a paceline that was going about 22mph. Though I thought I would die, I made it, and treated myself to two Slurpees, a Gatorade, a bag of chips and two candy bars from the 7/11 that was so conveniently located next door to our church.

















22Jul08 - Brawley to Julian - 74 miles
The first part of the ride was flat desert. Then we started going uphill. We climbed about 4500 feet, the largest climb without a break we've done, though it was for the most part not that steep. However, it was ridiculously hot. Ben met us with the van and gave us ice and informed us that the church was actually 6 miles further than indicated on the cue sheet. More climbing. Finally made it into town and drank a strawberry milkshake and ate a pizza. The church was 1 mile downhill after that.

23Jul08 - Julian to El Cajon - 52 miles
People claimed that the last two days would be easy. I claim that they are liars. We started off on absolutely gorgeous roads, climbing through mountains. I felt awesome, climbing alone and kind of pushing it on our 1000-foot climb. Unfortunately the rest of the day was not downhill, but was made up of nice descents interrupted by torturous little climbs. I felt awful, but still made it to the church before noon. Hannah's amazing former boss allowed her to make us all enormous yogurt things at The Yogurt Pump. We had a meeting about the last day and the festivities to follow.


















24Jul08 - El Cajon to San Diego (La Jolla) - 28 miles + 4 miles to church
Last day. No one really wanted to leave the church, but Suz and I took the plunge. It ended up being a very strange ride through town with stop-and-go traffic. We hit pretty much every red light, which may have been an indication that someone did not actually want the day to end. The 30 of us met up a couple miles from the beach so we could all ride in together. We came to the top of a hill and saw the Pacific Ocean. Surreal. Riding onto the beach people were cheering for us, and I think the cutest moment was when Daven spotted his family, immediately dropped his bike and began hugging all his siblings. We then dropped our shoes and Camelbaks and charged to the ocean to dip our wheels and take numerous photos. Celebration followed with champagne (thanks Ana's family) and delicious food arranged by Dan Carmody's dad. Continued on to the church to clean out the van and trailer, and partied hard at Todd San Diego's (a Bike and Build alum) that night.


























25Jul08 - post-B&B day 1 - 0 miles :-(
Actually, I did ride my bike that morning. For some reason, could not sleep past 6:30am and so got up to go to an ATM to pay off all my debts, a bagel shop, and Starbucks. Talked for 2 hours with a guy who was really interested in Bike & Build. He was from Beverly Hills, teaches wealthy Jewish kids how to play tennis in Connecticut, and rides a foldable bike. Went back to the church to find most people still sleeping, some beginning to leave. Spent several hours trying to ship my bike. Finally succeeded, went out for dinner with some of the B&B crowd for the last time, and got prepared for my cab to pick me up and take me to the airport at 4am.


The trip is over. NC2SD08 is now only a thing of memories, of greatness, of 30 people gone back to their "real lives" ... who will always know that they were part of something amazing. After overcoming "the sickness" which claimed me over the last 5 days (luckily, AFTER reaching the Pacific Ocean) I was able to eat two Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches today in memoriam.

Until my next Bike & Build adventure...

Mas fotos

On our way to a baseball game in Little Rock, AR; crossing the Arkansas River.

















A pack of Bike & Builders in the streets of Little Rock.

















More cool wildlife.

















A pretty Arkansas road.

















Least populated town sign. A little disturbing that some classes at UF are 3 times this size...

















A roadrunner in Oklahoma.

















Lance and Suz showing off cool tanlines.

















Pretty Oklahoma sunset.

















A wild tarantula!

















Patrick and Dan Thomas show kids how to pump up their tires at a bike clinic.

















Um, yeah... Sometimes the windy plains can be a drag. So we amuse ourselves by posing on top of hay bales.

















Scary storms-a-brewing in Kansas.

















Cool grasshopper (or relative?) chilling on my bike.

















Bike riding shadows.

















Deer crossing.

















Riding through the Garden of the Gods.

















Pretty stream and snow-covered mountains.

















Blue Mesa Reservoir. Wow.

















Our second highest elevation, made possible by Clif Bar. Please ignore the outfit.. It was frickin freezing up there!

















Surrounded by Rocky Mountains...

















The cutest face in the world! Also known as: yellow-bellied marmot pup!

Arizona!

Well I have missed too many days of updating to give a day-by-day account. I will have to sum up.

We've completed all 10 of our Build Days, the last few being in Colorado Springs, CO; Durango, CO; and Prescott, AZ. Colorado Springs was one of the coolest sites, where we got to raise walls for a two-story house! The tallest wall I've ever helped build! Then in Durango I helped tar and prime a foundation, (I still have sticky stuff in my hair, despite much shampoo), put up waterproofing paper and others helped do flooring. In Prescott we did "landscaping" which really meant moving rocks around. I also helped build a rock wall to prevent erosion, which was pretty cool. Prescott Habitat provided us with dinner and we got to meet one of the families who will be getting a home. They also showed us a video about other families who have gotten Habitat homes, and I think it was a great way to end our last Build Day. We got to hear their stories and learn about the people we've been helping.

Arizona has surpassed my expectations completely. After crossing the Four Corners and the AZ state line, it took me about 10 minutes to realize "I was born here..." So I am of course a little biased in saying that I love this state. I was a little worried people would be completely miserable and unimpressed by the HOT, dry desert. But Arizona is so much more than that!!

We spent a couple nights in schools or churches on the Navajo reservation. The landscape was a little desolate, but the red sand and mesas are beautiful. In Kayenta we took a bus tour of Monument Valley, which was awesome. This was where Forrest Gump decided to stop running and go home. It was also filmed for the first scene of Back to the Future 3 when Marty McFly is escaping from Indians. Of course I was also excited to find some cool lizards.


















We also rode through the Grand Canyon, but this was unfortunately one of my least favorite days. It started off as a 57-mile ride, but we were told we weren't allowed to camp in the park and had to ride 90 miles instead. Although the views were beautiful, we got caught in a pretty nasty thunderstorm and ended up camping out in the rain. Luckily the next day was much brighter (and drier). Oh yes! And at our second lunch stop in the Grand Canyon, we were visited by a very strange-looking bug. (Mom, can you and Rylie identify this one?)




















The ride from Prescott to Wickenburg was one of my favorite. I had no idea parts of Arizona were so green! We had some really fun descents and chatted with a bunch of local cyclists. After descending about 3000 feet, we immediately felt the wall of heat.. 100+ temperatures in the hot desert which we'll surely be facing over the next several days. This is the part of Arizona that I know.. saguaro cacti everywhere! In Wickenburg my Aunt Julie, Uncle Marc and cousin Rachael came to see me too. It was so great to see family during this trip. (You can check out my wicked cool tanlines in this picture too)



















Tomorrow we cross our last state line--into California. Only 5 riding days left until rolling into San Diego. We've completed 3,203 miles; 10 Build Days; 3 Days Off... We are hard core!!

The Rockies!!!

Unfortunately I'm in a public library and do not have sufficient privileges to install devices and upload pictures into my blog. And what glorious pictures I have of Colorado... But I'll have to share them all with you later!

5Jul08 - Colorado Springs to Buena Vista - 103 miles
Sweep Day with Samuel and perhaps my most miserable ride. :-( At the beginning of the ride, Samuel asked if I'm a climber. I had to inform him that I am perhaps the slowest climber on the trip. (I continue to blame the 16 years I've lived in Florida!) Since Samuel is perhaps the fastest climber on the trip, I had the inevitable guilty feeling all day because he had to stay with me at the back of the pack. But, enough depressing storytelling! The day started with a ride through the Garden of the Gods, these beautiful rock formations with a nice road that goes right through. Plenty of bikers around and one birder who was going to let us look through his scope to see a rare find, but it flew overhead just as he lowered the scope for me. I don't remember much about the middle of the day except that there was a lot of climbing and I was in pain. It started to get a little stormy before second lunch, and we hid in the van until around 4:30. Luckily the last 15 miles into Buena Vista were an incredible descent, and we arrived just in time for dinner and shower at the host site. I passed out early on a very comfortable couch (one of the perks of being sweep!)

6Jul08 - Buena Vista to Gunnison - 85 miles
Another rough day on me. We climbed about 4000 feet to the Continental Divide = Monarch Pass = 11,318 feet! It was FREEZING up there! I had to keep stopping because I simply could not breathe, and Suz and Travis (who were on Sweep duty) kept catching up to me. They eventually stopped to have a snowball fight (yeah, there was snow up there!) and met up at the rest stop on the top of the pass. Angela had hot chocolate waiting for us... delicious! The rest of the ride wasn't so bad, and I was very excited to get into Gunnison. It's the only town on the trip that I've visited before, and it was really cool to be back where I went "into town" every week last year to take a break from doing research up in the mountains. We stayed in the high school, and I got pizza with Devon and Hannah.

7Jul08 - Gunnison to Ouray - 102 miles
Glorious day! One of my favorite days! We went though the Blue Mesa Reservoir which was one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen. Though it was a long day with three pretty good climbs, they were each only about 1000 feet, which was a good length. Suz and I would take them somewhat slower than most, but we had set out early and stayed ahead of most of the pack. And each climb was ended with my new favorite sign!! (wish I could post the picture of the sign with the truck facing downhill; it says "TRUCKS USE LOWER GEAR; STEEP GRADE NEXT 4 MILES") Yay for awesome descents! First lunch stop was looking out at an incredible lake surrounded by mountains. And Ouray itself was a pretty amazing town. Got ice cream and couldn't stop staring at all the mountains... When we talked to people in town and told them we were going to Durango, they laughed at us. Perhaps not the best sign.

8Jul08 - Ouray to Durango - 70 miles
Another awesome ride! Despite their laughter, we all finished the ride even though it included three mountain passes. The first was about 4000 feet up to 11,018 feet total. It took several hours, haha. And it was super super cold at first, since we set out early. The descent was kind of cold and not that fun. But the views... I can't quite get over the magnitude of the Rockies. There is also this smell which I'm not sure whether to describe as snowy mountain air, or just heaven. On the second climb which was less than 2000 feet but the steepest grade, I started to lose it when I looked down and was going 3.3 mph. But then... I spotted a fat yellow-bellied marmot on a rock near the side of the road! Since I studied them all last summer, I was very excited. Put down my bike, ran over to take a picture and check out the burrow, and found a litter of pups! Got a picture of one of them too. Then I was pumped, knocked out the rest of the climb, awesome descent, killed the third climb, and had my favorite descent of the trip (reaching a new top speed of 43.6 mph!) Finished the ride with Suz, Scott Shapiro and Dennis and we got Thin Mint Blizzards at Dairy Queen. Delicious! Unfortunately we also saw a local girl get into a bike accident near the drive thru, but we provided some first aid and she was ok.

10Jul08 - Durango to Cortez - 45 miles
Hooray for short days! We could've added 40 miles round-trip to go to Mesa Verde National Park, which might've been well worth it. But my legs enjoy a short day every now and then... There was some climbing but after that the ride was fairly easy and fun. Yet another stop at a Dairy Queen for yet another Thin Mint Blizzard. Awesome. Today was our last full riding day in Colorado!

one and a quarter centuries

So the ride into Colorado Springs! I neglected to write about it last time as I was still winding down from the traumatic, I mean, awesome 125 miles that I pulled off.

The church we stayed at the night before was incredible, getting up at 4am to prepare breakfast for us since we had to get an early start. We had a route meeting the night before, discussing how to avoid the dangers of putting your body through a 125-mile bike ride. (Hydrate, eat, hydrate, eat, repeat!) The "slower riders" (We know who we are :-)) were encouraged to set out early, so that Sweep (Dan Carmody and Ana) would finish the ride before dark.

I set out at 6:15am with three other riders, and we killed the first 30 miles. We were only passed by the 4 fastest guys on the trip, and made it into the first lunch stop early. After that, Suz, Lance and I rode together for most of the day. We weren't in the mood to join a slightly-too-fast paceline but went on our own and were making good time. Then... disaster! Not really, but I got my first two flat tires of Bike & Build! The roads were pretty dirty; the first flat was due to a piece of metal shrapnel, and the other due to a very sharp staple.

Dave caught up to us at a water stop around mile 60, and we all got sandwiches at Subway. Then we continued on to second lunch at mile 90, not too eventful, though my body was starting to register the fact that it did not want to be on my bicycle for too much longer... And then the storm came...

It started to rain and we were riding through mountains, with some lightning in the distance. We were told there was a shelter at mile 97 in case it got too bad. Unfortunately it didn't get too bad until mile 100. At that point, the wind was so awful we were getting blown around on our bikes (for some of the lightweights, they literally got blown off their bikes!) Even with red blinking tail lights, these were very unsafe riding conditions, and as there was nothing in the way of shelter around us, the 4 of us crawled into a ditch.

Now this ditch was muddy. It was cold. No. It was near FREEZING. A few trucks stopped to ask if we would like to sit in their trucks until the storm passed, but it is against Bike & Build policy to hitchhike, and while these may have simply been Good Samaritans, we were slightly nervous about crawling into the back of a stranger's truck. We decided to move even further down into the ditch, to block ourselves from wind. Then two more trucks pulled up, but since they couldn't see us, they apparently were just going to steal our bikes!! Luckily Suz scared them off and moved our bikes further down out of the sight of the road.

So the next hour and ten minutes were some of the most miserable of my life. The lightning was quite literally on top of us, and we were sitting next to a barbed-wire fence. To pass the time, we discussed how they would likely find our charred bodies next to our bikes. Then because we were convinced we were going to get hypothermia, we started playing "I went to the store.." and bought warm things. We huddled for body warmth and my legs and knees froze into a position that would make riding a bike somewhat more difficult. Near the beginning of our adventure in the ditch, we called Angela who was driving the van that day. Since most of the other riders were also caught in the storm elsewhere (some under a bridge, some fashioned a shelter out of tables and chairs, 4 large guys were standing in a port-a-pottie together) we were advised to simply wait it out. I'm pretty sure Lance also just failed to convey how awful our situation was. Had he properly explained that we were sitting in a ditch next to barbed wire with lightning on top of us and very near hypothermia, maybe the van would have picked us up.

Luckily, it did not, so we were victorious and finished our longest day. The storm calmed down and we decided to press on. Unfortunately since my knees and legs were frozen, crawling out of that ditch with my bike while shivering madly was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. That was followed by the coldest, most miserable descent of my life. That was followed by 8 miles of insane hills into Colorado Springs that seemed to come out of nowhere.

We arrived, followed shortly by sweep, at 7:45pm as the sun was setting, 13.5 hours after leaving the morning host site, and after 9 hours, 53 minutes of riding.

Then came the BEST shower and Olive Garden I have ever eaten in my life.

8 straight riding days...

Let me start off by saying that we are amazing. Even super cycling fanatics don't generally ride 8 days in a row, 675 miles, with no time for recovery. But, we did it. With very few incidents, lots of flat tires, and very little riding in the van. And lots of good stories.

25Jun - Bartlesville to Ponca City, OK - 73 miles
Horrible winds. Angela crashed and I couldn't get around, resulting in a controlled crash in which luckily only my hand was hurt. (and not badly, I will never ever ride without cycling gloves) Angela was a trooper; she got stitches in her elbow and had to drive the van a couple days extra, but she's been riding strong ever since. The group I was riding with (which included Sweep) found heaven 2 miles out in the form of root beer floats, french fries, chili dogs, shakes, etc. Nice hosts with delicious lasagna dinner.

26Jun - Ponca City to Cherokee, OK - 81 miles
More ridiculous wind. Kind of a miserable ride. Though all the girls did take some sweet pictures on top of hay bales. Ben treated us to the most delicious limeade ever at lunch. Found heaven at mile 60-something in the form of a really refreshing well drilled for "weary travelers." Amazing.

27Jun - Cherokee to Coldwater, KS - 90 miles
Sweep Day with Ben! Amazing tailwind (for a change!!) for the first 50 miles. We caught up with Hannah, Dennis, Emily and Lance in time to take pictures with the Kansas state sign. We had a "coast off" into lunch. (no pedaling, I didn't win. Lance used his rain jacket as a sail to let the tailwind push him). The rest of the day had pretty awful crosswinds, but Ben pulled me up a couple hills, and we again were rewarded near the end with ice cream, limeade, chips, etc. Jumped into Lake Coldwater and camped out. Woke up in the middle of the night when the wind decided to turn out rain fly into a sail and our tent nearly collapsed. Travis and Pat saved the day by removing the fly. Luckily no rain.

28Jun - Coldwater to Dodge City, KS - 83 miles
Tailwind for a bit, then an insane headwind, crosswind, I don't even know. I think we all agreed that Oklahoma and Kansas suck. Or at least, the wind does. Suz, Dave and I rode together and we made it in to the host site semi-early. Dinner crew came through with flying colors.. fajitas, spaghetti, etc.

29Jun - Dodge City to Garden City, KS - 54 miles
Awful wind again.. blah.. Suz, Dave and I played the licence plate/alphabet/"I went to the store" game several times while averaging 12mph, maybe less. We had a delicious meal provided and the guy from the local bike shop came to fix all our bikes. It was awesome!! He flipped my stem around which has done wonders for my arms/back/neck/etc. Who on earth put the thing on in the racing position?? Also had an incredible talent show.

30Jun - Garden City to Lamar, CO - 101 miles
Um, I don't quite remember this day. It was probably long, and there were probably a lot more versions of the alphabet game played with Dave and Suz. Rode with sweep again. Had a duet of "Yankee Bayonet" with Dan Thomas. I had been trying to teach Suz the lyrics all day but it's hard without the music. Oh yeah! Also tried desperately to find a Kansas lapel pin but they apparently don't sell them, even in the "Travel Info and Gift Shop" where they had collectible spoons, keychains, magnets, etc. Oh well. Took awesome pics of the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" sign too!

1Jul - Lamar to Rocky Ford, CO - 67 miles
Suz and I volunteered to be sweep and it was a really fun day. We became the 'Sweep Dream Team' with Dave, Lance and Dennis (sometimes Devon, but we were usually too slow for her). I stumped them with a bunch of riddles, which they eventually figured out. And we took super long breaks at Dairy Queen (Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzards! Yesss!) We also stopped in Hasty, Colorado where we chatted with the owners of Valley Grocery and told them one of our riddles. We promised to send a postcard from CO Springs with the answer. CommUNITY Presbyterian Church provided us with an awesome potluck.

So our 8th riding day deserves it's own entry, which I will hopefully write tomorrow on our Day Off. Others are waiting for the computer so that's all for now!

Century #1, standing in 3 states, etc.

Nearing the end of our Day Off in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We're onto 8 straight days of riding with scary mileage, but here's a summary of the last week.

20Jun: From Little Rock to Clarksville, Arkansas; Our first century! 105 miles and I think we all felt pretty great. I rolled into second lunch, looked down at my odometer, and couldn't believe I had already done 73 miles; just 32 more to the 1st Presbyterian Church where they took great care of us. I got the best soy chai latte ever at a local coffee shop and we had an amazing potluck. Debbie gave us hugs. Dr. Terry offered his chiropractic services for free. Marci invited us over to her house to set off fireworks. (I decided I was exhausted and just went to bed.)

21Jun: From Clarksville to Fayetteville, Arkansas; another long day at 91 miles. Some crazy people decided to do 9 more so they would have back-to-back centuries under their belts. We climbed through the Ozark Mountains and I decided the Appalachians did their job... a 2000-mile climb really wasn't that bad. :-) We were given free rein of the church and I enjoyed my own room complete with a tv and "The Polar Express" (I fell asleep after 20 minutes).

22Jun: From Fayetteville to Grove, Oklahoma; 74 miles, exciting bonus! Our route took us through the 3 Corners, I stood in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri (we biked in MO for 2 miles, adding a bonus state to my list of states visited). The ride was hilly and my legs and knees started to register the fact that they've been putting on a lot of miles... We had a ping pong table and got to have a cookout (with s'mores!) at a park thanks to our hosts.

23Jun: From Grove to Bartlesville, Oklahoma; 75 miles, we got a late start due to some stormy weather. I was one of the first to leave and decided that adrenaline helps a lot. Despite some nasty headwinds I pushed pretty hard, mainly because I was convinced the clouds all around me looked like they could form a tornado at any moment. (Don't worry, Mom; if there were really tornadoes the leaders wouldn't have let us leave :-)). I ended up being one of the first to get in to the church because other groups left late, got lost, got flats, or had minor paceline incidents. The Church of Christ had a bunch of signs to greet us, as well as homemade cookies, popcorn, lemonade and fruit waiting for us.

24Jun: Day Off in Bartlesville; Last night had a birthday/bachelorette party for one of the riders on the trip. Started off at a bowling alley and continued at our host site. Kind of amazing. Slept in this morning, ate a delicious breakfast, and we had our first truly successful bike clinic. About 15 kids from a camp here brought their bikes and B&Bers talked to them about what we're doing, how to take care of their bikes, helped them pump up tires and clean chains, and went for a ride with them around the parking lot. I rode into town with Dave and Suz to go to the bike shop, check out the Price Tower and art museum, and run a couple other errands.

Long week ahead so it's time for bed! More photos coming soon.

Arkansas!

Somehow I'm only managing to find time to post once a state, and the states will only start going by faster... But here goes!

We've now biked over 1200 miles and have crossed our second state line into Arkansas. Unfortunately I missed one day of riding between Sweetwater and Dunlap, TN due to some crazy spider bite/chemical burn??? I ended up going to the doctor, who was this awesome guy who has done an Iron Man in Florida and one in Canada. We chatted about biking the whole time he fixed me up, and all is well now.

I was sweep on our first 90+ mile day with Ana when we went into Savannah. It was a lot of fun hanging back and stopping to eat watermelon, trying on some Amish bonnets, saving a turtle, etc. (I've now helped three of them to the opposite side of the road, but I've lost count of the number of squished ones I was too late for.)

We had two days of building in Maryville, TN and a day off in Memphis. We actually stayed in Germantown, but went into Memphis for a night of fun. After 7 days of biking in a row, it was a much needed rest! Then we rode into Arkansas. We had to walk our bikes over the bridge to cross the Mississippi River for fear of getting flat tires. (The group I was with still managed to get 2!) We're all getting pretty good at changing them though...

The terrain quickly changed from mountainous to flat. Our ride from Memphis (actually Germantown) to Brinkley, Arkansas was 87 somewhat miserable miles of flat, rough roads with a whole lot of nothing to look at, as well as some serious headwind. But I crawled into bed right after dinner that night, and had an awesome 68-mile ride into Little Rock to make up for it.

We're building here in Little Rock for two days, then its on to our first century!

The Mighty Mississippi.

Tennessee Baby!

So much has happened since my last post... Internet is a luxury and usually I'm too exhausted at the end of the day to update this thing anyway. But here's a (hopefully) quick summary:

We've biked a total of 663 miles, give or take a few. Today we arrived in our second state--Tennessee!! After climbing about 8000 feet, I was expecting an enormous, colorful "Welcome to Tennessee" sign to triumph in front of. Unfortunately the sign was small and not very colorful...













Over the past few days we have climbed some serious mountains. I've decided spending the majority of my life near sea level has wreaked havoc on the fitness of my heart, lungs, and legs... But for every intense climb (one was 10 miles long...) I'm usually rewarded by a crazy awesome downhill (top speed is currently 40.7 mph!) and some amazing views. We were on the Blue Ridge Parkway the last few days, and pictures cannot do the mountains justice.

Yesterday we had our third Build Day in Asheville, NC. I got to build with Mountain Housing, a local affordable housing organization that serves the county. It was great to learn about an organization other than Habitat since that's the only experience with affordable housing I've had. We built this awesome ramp to make the house more accessible. I got to use a really big drill. :-)

Other than that, I continue to be amazed by the generosity of our hosts and the interest people have in what we're doing. And it's so hard to believe that the 30 of us have only known each other for 2 weeks. I'll leave you with a glimpse of what we do in our spare time...

An intense game of Around the World Ping Pong.

Ballet practice.
Go-Karts in Wake Forest, opened especially for us.

Emily and Ana (and Ben) helping me test out the underwater features of my awesome new camera.