The last few days have been completely amazing. I now know the meaning of "Southern Hospitality" and I cannot get enough. This has to be quick because others are waiting to use the computer, but I'll try to sum up the awesome points.
We've biked a total of 100 miles; yesterday was about 65 and today 35. It has pretty much been flat and fantastic (despite the rain today). These great easy days may cause the mountains later to be a total shock, but at least we've all been able to ease into it. It's already becoming clear who the super ridiculously fast riders are (not me), some slower (but still a little fast for me) riders calling themselves "The Middles," and the rest pretty much break off into little groups and we all get to the host site in good time.
The last two nights we have had amazing dinners provided by the hosts. The town of Belhaven is absolutely one of the cutest towns I've ever seen... people opened up their homes to us so we could shower, provided us with tea (in good china!), more food than I could possibly take down in one sitting, and we chatted with the community and played games of ping pong, kickball, and knockout with the kids.
I couldn't be happier. I'll upload pics another day.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
First Road Update!
Day 2 of orientation in Nags Head, NC. We're being housed by the awesome folks at Nag Head Church, which can be slightly daunting when there are 30 of us with bicycles! But the church is really nice; some of us are sleeping in the nurseries and others in the chapel. Plenty of room.
Yesterday Emily (who picked me up in Richmond and let me sleep on her couch) and I arrived before 1pm, and everyone trickled in til about 2:30. We had check-in, did an icebreaker out on the sand dunes, had some meetings to go over stuff and painted the trailer. Sadly the trailer did not quite survive to the morning... The not-quite-dry paint dripped to the ground but this is soon to be remedied. Still looks pretty awesome.
This morning we went to Outer Banks Bicycle where Chip taught us a ton about bike maintenance. Then we got to go for our first group ride, about 22 miles around Nags Head. We were led by Jack McComb, pretty much the cycling expert of the Outer Banks. At 65 yrs old and after a recent surgery, this guy is still hard core. He plans to go across the U.S. for his 70th birthday, with a paceline that averages about 120 miles a day. If I'm half that cool at 70 I'll be happy.
Speaking of 120 miles a day, apparently the mileage listed online has been slightly changed. We now have 5 days over 100 miles, and one day (leader Scott is really proud of this one) that is 124 miles into Colorado Springs. Yowza... Can't wait. :-)
But I digress. So on the ride today we went to the Bodie Lighthouse and heard from John Gaskell, 92 years old, who has lived and worked at the lighthouse for decades. He has an autobiography out and given the brief time we had with him and the amount of extraordinary history we heard, I'm willing to bet it's worth reading.
After showers at the YMCA we are now waiting to have a big potluck dinner tonight. I'm on presentation duty tonight but as it's the first one, we're sort of playing by ear. Tomorrow morning we dip our wheels in the Atlantic and set off for Swanquarter.
Yesterday Emily (who picked me up in Richmond and let me sleep on her couch) and I arrived before 1pm, and everyone trickled in til about 2:30. We had check-in, did an icebreaker out on the sand dunes, had some meetings to go over stuff and painted the trailer. Sadly the trailer did not quite survive to the morning... The not-quite-dry paint dripped to the ground but this is soon to be remedied. Still looks pretty awesome.
This morning we went to Outer Banks Bicycle where Chip taught us a ton about bike maintenance. Then we got to go for our first group ride, about 22 miles around Nags Head. We were led by Jack McComb, pretty much the cycling expert of the Outer Banks. At 65 yrs old and after a recent surgery, this guy is still hard core. He plans to go across the U.S. for his 70th birthday, with a paceline that averages about 120 miles a day. If I'm half that cool at 70 I'll be happy.
Speaking of 120 miles a day, apparently the mileage listed online has been slightly changed. We now have 5 days over 100 miles, and one day (leader Scott is really proud of this one) that is 124 miles into Colorado Springs. Yowza... Can't wait. :-)
But I digress. So on the ride today we went to the Bodie Lighthouse and heard from John Gaskell, 92 years old, who has lived and worked at the lighthouse for decades. He has an autobiography out and given the brief time we had with him and the amount of extraordinary history we heard, I'm willing to bet it's worth reading.
After showers at the YMCA we are now waiting to have a big potluck dinner tonight. I'm on presentation duty tonight but as it's the first one, we're sort of playing by ear. Tomorrow morning we dip our wheels in the Atlantic and set off for Swanquarter.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Muchas gracias!!!
My flight leaves from Orlando in less than 2 days!!
Just wanted to thank everyone who has donated or otherwise supported me on this grand adventure. It means more to me than I can say to have the support of family, friends, former teachers, former neighbors, some people I haven't seen in years, and some people I've never met!
Thanks so much to Rachelle Van Hollebeke, Grandma Barrow, Sarah, Steven & Andrea, Thrilla, Grandma Vi, Debra & Bret, Lucretia, Mrs. Mundy, Mr. Wurster, Mr. Abi-Nader, Dr. Rodseth, Mom, Aunt Julie, Nikki, Avocado, Jessica, Nicole, Drooble, and Grandma & Grandpa Hill. And many thanks to all my customers of The Bike & Build Bakery: Lynn, Stanley, Thomas, Amanda, Chelsea, Gregory, Angelo, Andrei, Gabe, Sara, Tracey, Sarah, Mom, Laurin, Shannon, Lauren, Shelly, and Taylor; to Lynn and Sara for letting me bank on their idea :-), and to Chain Reaction for all the discounts and helpful advice!
Some more work on my affordable housing presentation, deciding what songs to load onto my mp3 player, cramming everything (which is now at least neatly in piles) into my pack, writing down all the addresses I have for people I'm going to bombard with postcards, buying stamps, and I think I will be somewhat close to ready to go. It is 92 degrees F outside with a relative humidity of 43% (ok, I don't actually know what that translates to except that it is really really suffocating and hot). Which means I will have to get up super-early tomorrow to beat the heat for a quick run or bike ride.
Also, just started looking through everyone's pictures from Collegiate Challenge. I'll leave you with this one 'cause I thought it was pretty cool:
Just wanted to thank everyone who has donated or otherwise supported me on this grand adventure. It means more to me than I can say to have the support of family, friends, former teachers, former neighbors, some people I haven't seen in years, and some people I've never met!
Thanks so much to Rachelle Van Hollebeke, Grandma Barrow, Sarah, Steven & Andrea, Thrilla, Grandma Vi, Debra & Bret, Lucretia, Mrs. Mundy, Mr. Wurster, Mr. Abi-Nader, Dr. Rodseth, Mom, Aunt Julie, Nikki, Avocado, Jessica, Nicole, Drooble, and Grandma & Grandpa Hill. And many thanks to all my customers of The Bike & Build Bakery: Lynn, Stanley, Thomas, Amanda, Chelsea, Gregory, Angelo, Andrei, Gabe, Sara, Tracey, Sarah, Mom, Laurin, Shannon, Lauren, Shelly, and Taylor; to Lynn and Sara for letting me bank on their idea :-), and to Chain Reaction for all the discounts and helpful advice!
Some more work on my affordable housing presentation, deciding what songs to load onto my mp3 player, cramming everything (which is now at least neatly in piles) into my pack, writing down all the addresses I have for people I'm going to bombard with postcards, buying stamps, and I think I will be somewhat close to ready to go. It is 92 degrees F outside with a relative humidity of 43% (ok, I don't actually know what that translates to except that it is really really suffocating and hot). Which means I will have to get up super-early tomorrow to beat the heat for a quick run or bike ride.
Also, just started looking through everyone's pictures from Collegiate Challenge. I'll leave you with this one 'cause I thought it was pretty cool:
Friday, May 16, 2008
54 miles or so
Last year my brother and I discussed this crazy idea that we wanted to ride our bikes home. (Home=Mims, FL=about 140 miles from Gainesville). Once I decided I was doing B&B, this no longer seemed like a crazy idea. Except that my brother is a bit of a masochist, and wanted to do the whole ride in one day. (Estimating it would take us somewhere between 10 and 15 hours at an easy pace, with rests to eat/stretch, and possible catastrophes like flat tires).
Last week we decided there was really no better time, as we had some free time, I needed to get home and I wanted to do a long ride. My parents of course weren't cool with the idea unless we had a sag wagon, and my dad was happy to oblige. He came up to Gville to pick up all our stuff (including a cat, a dog, and a sugar glider) and gave us a head start; My brother and I left yesterday morning, did 37 miles until my dad caught up with us. Sadly, I had already shipped my awesome new bike, so I was riding my Specialized Sirrus. While this is a nice campus bike--flat-bar road bike hybrid-type thing--it is not exactly made for long distance or speed. It was a gorgeous day and I definitely enjoyed the scenery, but I decided I really had no problem not doing the full 140 miles home.
My brother and dad switched spots, my brother driving the truck 20 miles up the road to wait for us, my dad riding his super awesome (though few decades old) road bike, and me riding my mom's Trek (again pretty awesome, somewhat old). We cranked out the 20 miles pretty quickly, I got more experience drafting, and fell completely in love with riding a stretch of road I'm only used to driving. Going over a bridge, legs burning, lungs gasping, but eyes taking in the amazing view of treetops and blue skies. And it was even more rewarding because it got my dad back on the bike he hasn't ridden in far too long.
As for the rest of the preparations, I have gotten my finances in order and meeting the $4000 come orientation shouldn't be a problem. I am in the midst of packing up, labeling clothes, drooling over my sweet new camera and obsessing over my GPS that I just loaded all the maps onto for the summer.
Last week we decided there was really no better time, as we had some free time, I needed to get home and I wanted to do a long ride. My parents of course weren't cool with the idea unless we had a sag wagon, and my dad was happy to oblige. He came up to Gville to pick up all our stuff (including a cat, a dog, and a sugar glider) and gave us a head start; My brother and I left yesterday morning, did 37 miles until my dad caught up with us. Sadly, I had already shipped my awesome new bike, so I was riding my Specialized Sirrus. While this is a nice campus bike--flat-bar road bike hybrid-type thing--it is not exactly made for long distance or speed. It was a gorgeous day and I definitely enjoyed the scenery, but I decided I really had no problem not doing the full 140 miles home.
My brother and dad switched spots, my brother driving the truck 20 miles up the road to wait for us, my dad riding his super awesome (though few decades old) road bike, and me riding my mom's Trek (again pretty awesome, somewhat old). We cranked out the 20 miles pretty quickly, I got more experience drafting, and fell completely in love with riding a stretch of road I'm only used to driving. Going over a bridge, legs burning, lungs gasping, but eyes taking in the amazing view of treetops and blue skies. And it was even more rewarding because it got my dad back on the bike he hasn't ridden in far too long.
As for the rest of the preparations, I have gotten my finances in order and meeting the $4000 come orientation shouldn't be a problem. I am in the midst of packing up, labeling clothes, drooling over my sweet new camera and obsessing over my GPS that I just loaded all the maps onto for the summer.
Shipping la bicicleta
The bike is shipped! Chain Rxn boxed it up for me at an over-50% discount, and I found the nearest DHL shipping center that is incidentally right down the road from my apartment. Thrilla (AKA Camilla, the coolest person in the world) drove me all over Gainesville and calmed me down to make a rational decision about shipping it. Ended up being under $40, and it may even arrive today!
Um, I fly out of Orlando in 4 days... Whoa...
Um, I fly out of Orlando in 4 days... Whoa...
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Stuff
Things are gradually coming together...
I biked about 48 miles on Sunday (including a stop at an amazing orange stand... pretty much the best oranges I've ever eaten. I realize this is yet another awesome perk about biking through Florida) and 32 miles on Monday. I decided to rest today as my neck was hurting something awful. :-/ I decided some adjustments combined with more dedicated pre- and post- ride stretching should do wonders.
I am almost completely geared up. I bought my Armadillos (tires that are not supposed to get flats. Unless you run over a nail as Lynn demonstrated on our Sunday ride) and told my bike shop not to install them. I want to get a little more TLC between me and my bike, which may result in me spending several frustrated hours trying to install tires that would prolly take the bike shop 10 minutes. I found out I don't really need spokes, so now just waiting for one final order from Amazon and I should be good to go!
I am still trying to figure out shipping... I am really paranoid about letting my new baby (who still does not have a name :-/) out of my sight... If I go the "GUARANTEED to be there on said day" route with insurance covering the cost of my bike, it will cost somewhere in the realm of $100-$200. If I go the "cross your fingers and pray to the gods that our Estimated Date of Arrival is correct" route it will cost me under $40. Soo... yeah. In advance, I am really sorry Pastor Rick if my bike graces your church's doorstep too early!
Affordable housing research due tomorrow! Hopefully 11:59PM tomorrow is acceptable! I found a coupla websites that have pages and pages of useful information related to my topic. Now it is a matter of looking through it all and deciding what is most important. I couldn't have asked for a better topic: "Relationship between affordable housing and homelessness." It's riddled with all sorts of controversial things that tend to come up and stuff I've been really curious about since my involvement with Habitat.
And finally, just bought my plane tickets from the end point. So that clinches it--I will be making it to San Diego!! :-)
I biked about 48 miles on Sunday (including a stop at an amazing orange stand... pretty much the best oranges I've ever eaten. I realize this is yet another awesome perk about biking through Florida) and 32 miles on Monday. I decided to rest today as my neck was hurting something awful. :-/ I decided some adjustments combined with more dedicated pre- and post- ride stretching should do wonders.
I am almost completely geared up. I bought my Armadillos (tires that are not supposed to get flats. Unless you run over a nail as Lynn demonstrated on our Sunday ride) and told my bike shop not to install them. I want to get a little more TLC between me and my bike, which may result in me spending several frustrated hours trying to install tires that would prolly take the bike shop 10 minutes. I found out I don't really need spokes, so now just waiting for one final order from Amazon and I should be good to go!
I am still trying to figure out shipping... I am really paranoid about letting my new baby (who still does not have a name :-/) out of my sight... If I go the "GUARANTEED to be there on said day" route with insurance covering the cost of my bike, it will cost somewhere in the realm of $100-$200. If I go the "cross your fingers and pray to the gods that our Estimated Date of Arrival is correct" route it will cost me under $40. Soo... yeah. In advance, I am really sorry Pastor Rick if my bike graces your church's doorstep too early!
Affordable housing research due tomorrow! Hopefully 11:59PM tomorrow is acceptable! I found a coupla websites that have pages and pages of useful information related to my topic. Now it is a matter of looking through it all and deciding what is most important. I couldn't have asked for a better topic: "Relationship between affordable housing and homelessness." It's riddled with all sorts of controversial things that tend to come up and stuff I've been really curious about since my involvement with Habitat.
And finally, just bought my plane tickets from the end point. So that clinches it--I will be making it to San Diego!! :-)
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