7/31/09
I feel as though it's going to be hard to do justice to the past few days with what I'm going to write. As you may or may not be aware of, our route reached Cannon Beach Oregon on July 29th. It's pretty crazy to think about how it's all over, I have officially been debriefed and honorably discharged of my duties as a leader of this group, I'm a free agent again! When Tony first got back from his tour of Bike and Build in 2008, the first thing I asked him when he came back was what he would give it on a scale from 0 to 100. He gave it a 97, meaning it got an A+ for a summer, after my own journey I have decided to give it a 98, a slightly higher grade. It was not perfect of course, but it was pretty righteous.
The last 15 minutes of biking we're fantastic. On our last day, we were going from Vernonia to Cannon Beach. I commented during route meeting in somewhat of a motivational moment that Cannon Beach was no longer our overall goal, it was our very destination today, it felt amazing to look at the cue sheet and the signs during the day and see it on there. But it was a beautiful ride through the much more beautiful half of Oregon, huge trees with moss and ferns, it felt as though we were in a jungle and it was very scenic. But on our last day, we were going to meet up just a mile or two out of town so we could all ride in to town together. I was sweep with Barb which means we were the last two to get in. This was ideal because I had an exhibition planned for right when I pulled in. I thought it would be more dramatic for me to pull in with everyone watching and waiting on me and Barb. So I pull in and I see all my family including Lynn, Bruce and the cousin Ben who were in the area visiting colleges as well as my parents, Kevin and Ashley, the latter two flew in while my parents have spent the past month driving west. It was perfect, I had talked to my dad several weeks before and had asked him to secure a mobile power unit, a pair of buzzer and a pair of sharp scissors and to make sure he had those ready to go for when I pulled in at the pre-beach meeting point. I pull in and immediately hop off of my bike and confirm that everything is ready to go and then I stand and address the audience, Bike and Builders and parents alike. I say, “It's the end of the trip and I'm feeling kind of crazy... I'm feeling like I'm going to do something crazy...” it was at this point Barb was supposed to say something along the lines of, “Did you hear that, he said he's going to do something crazy!” and she was supposed to start the chant that goes something like “DO SOMETHING CRAZY! DO SOMETHING CRAZY!” but at this moment Barbara was running around hugging everyone in sight not noting the commotion I had made. You wouldn't think it but because I had lot my accomplice in this shenanigan I was about to pull, I was like confused as to what to do there. So I was like, “...can you guys help me out?” and I started the cheer myself. Long story short, I cut my hair. Completely. The best part was the look, I had told nobody the entire trip about my plans except the leaders (just because I can't keep a secret to myself) and so when I was talking about doing something crazy and I was putting my pony tail up on the top of my head, I heard just a refrain of Oh nos. But when I felt the hair being cut by Ashley, the reaction was priceless. One great one in particular was Julie just saying “Oh my god what is happening!?” My dad took some video and threw it up on youtube so feel free to check it out. Either way, if you read my blog you get the inside scoop because nobody from home really knows yet so good sleuthing :)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
7/25/09
So a big thanks to the leaders from CUS 08 and their notes they've left for us because they have generated some excellent adventures. It starts out with our stay in Fossil, Oregon. A bustling metropolis of 456 people as of the 2000 census. We stayed in this tiny church that was famous for hosting cyclists, they even had stain glass windows that had depictions of bicycles riding up to the church (righteous) But the notes from last year mentioned that there was an excellent swimming hole that provided an excellent time for everyone on last years route.
We had a really nice late wakeup because that day contained our shortest ride of the trip consisting of only 31 flat miles to traverse. That day was alliance day, part of a spirit week that our sunshine chairs (Jenny and Christina) had helped spearhead. Alliance day p
retty much meant a boys vs. girls day. The day started off with a surprised water balloon attack on the guys. Us gentlemen were outside minding our own business and then the girls unprovoked come and attack us with water balloons. Fortunately for us, I had just filled up my CPS Monster X Super Soaker and gave a quick retaliation, ever since my parents brought that gun to Jackson it has served a very good job at drive by soakings, a necessity in this Oregon dry heat. After that I drove a quick one into Fossil (my van day) and talked to the lady at the church we were staying at making sure to inquire about the water hole that had been mention. As it ends up the hole was called Ash Hole because it had been named after the Ash Family Ranch, the previous owners of the land that was now public use land. First the girls because they were the first ones in and then I took a shuttle full of guys. This worked out well, because part of the deals of alliance day was that each group was supposed to give a gift to the other group. When I picked up the guys, they had a stack of McDonald's happy meal boxes. Let's just say our gift to the girls consist us cutting a hole in this box and then putting the junk in the box. We walked up together with our boxes in hand and gave the dance and part of the song that was made famous by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg, I think it was the best gift many of the girls had ever been given. Following that it was us just hanging around this refreshingly cool and deeper section of Butte creek. There was this big rocks that jutted in the middle of the stream, it was possible to climb up and get on top of it and jump off into a deeper section of the creek which several of us (myself included) decided to do. The best swimming hole so far on the trip with water at the perfect temperature and all to ourselves, the entire CUS route enjoyed a really exciting evening in the creek.
The next day also had a great stop thanks to the CUS of the past. It was mentioned that there was an orchard around mile 30 in Kimberly, OR. A town so small it doesn't actually have a population, just an elevation of a bit over 1000 ft. We went in the only building we saw, imagine a gas station that didn't sell gas,
just the kind of things you would find inside a gas station. The lady said it was just half a mile out of our way so we decided to chalk the turn for others behind us and went on up. On arriving we found it was between cherry season and peach season so there was not too much picking to be had, but they had tons of amazing things for sale. There was this “fully ripe” peach bin that sold peaches for 75 cents a pound, I bought 8 peaches for about 1.50 and they were hands down the best I had ever had. As well as that I picked up some homemade cheddar and a slice of peach and plum pie each. Not only is the best food we've had, but this orchard had several resident dogs who loved attention, I feel like we've been so lucky to run across so many dogs during this trip, they're the most friendly folk you meet on the road and are great because I can talk to my parents and friends on the phone or skype, but a long distance relationship does not work as well with dogs. The orchard also had a bunch of amazing lounge chairs with a nice overlook on the river that went through the orchard. It was hands down the most delicious and satisfying lunch to date.
While on the topic of excellent lunches, we had a few auxiliary lunches today to supplement the official B&B lunch. Mr. Phillips, the father of 
Brian Phillips also known as B-Money has started tailgating with our route. He pulled up yesterday in the classic VW mini Bus fully road trip equipped and today he followed our ride and acted as a fantastic second support van. In the picture it's not hard to guess who is the owner of the VW Bus. He stopped us mid climb before lunch to give us drinks and some food including cheese, red bull and many words of encouragement as well as info on the terrain ahead, when you're on a 9 mile climb and you hear that you have less then a mile left it's more beautiful than angels singing and harps playing. When we got to the top of the climb, we could see Mt. Hood looming many miles in the distance (look closely at the picture). I'm not going to lie when it was first pointed out to me I let loose a colorful phrase that started in “holy” because it was just that intense. We've been going through flat land and rolling hills and then out of no where this massive mountain looms in the distance with the peak of it being hidden in the clouds, it reminded me of a snow covered mount Doom. Barbara, who arrived at the top a bit after me use the exact same phrase and then described it as looking like heaven, not quite Mt. Doom but same idea. After the official lunch we had another stop with Mr. Money and his awesome van topping of the lunch count at 3, a CUS record and with a great vintage flare.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
7/21/09
I've been going back adding photos to older entries so feel free to look back on the older ones.
So lunch stops are great, something that everyone looks forward to in rides. But there are some lunch stops that have bonuses compared to others. To name a few, there was one lunch stop that had a bunch of picnic tables under some big trees near a river. The
best part was this bench swing, it was attached to the branches of the tree about 50 feet up so the swing could swing out like 10 feet above the ground. I ended standing up with the swing and walking back as far as I could to try and get it as high as possible and then let it go. I laid down and fell asleep in front of this river on a swinging bench, I don't know how long I slept but it was amazing.
I've been going back adding photos to older entries so feel free to look back on the older ones.
So lunch stops are great, something that everyone looks forward to in rides. But there are some lunch stops that have bonuses compared to others. To name a few, there was one lunch stop that had a bunch of picnic tables under some big trees near a river. The
best part was this bench swing, it was attached to the branches of the tree about 50 feet up so the swing could swing out like 10 feet above the ground. I ended standing up with the swing and walking back as far as I could to try and get it as high as possible and then let it go. I laid down and fell asleep in front of this river on a swinging bench, I don't know how long I slept but it was amazing.Another great surprise is finding fruit at lunch, there was the ride into Blackstone where lunch was at a picnic bench under a mulberry tree, I ended up eating more food from that tree then I ate from the trailer. Though the best was yesterday, lunch was actually at a gas station because out in the middle of no where there are not many great places to stop. But there was an apricot tree nnearby in someone's yard so people went over and started picking a few out of the overhanging branches. The guy game out and we talked to him a bit, he not only said we could take as many as we wanted but he got us trash bags and a ladder to help us along. Then while we were picking bags and bags of apricots there
was a train that passed. It's cargo was hundreds of train cars carrying the propellers or blades of those energy producing windmills and they were absolutely huge! I have a picture and if you look close, one of the blades takes up 3 train cars! I don't think I've ever even seen these windmills closer then a few miles so their sense of scale is lost on me, but it was very cool having a closeup view.
was a train that passed. It's cargo was hundreds of train cars carrying the propellers or blades of those energy producing windmills and they were absolutely huge! I have a picture and if you look close, one of the blades takes up 3 train cars! I don't think I've ever even seen these windmills closer then a few miles so their sense of scale is lost on me, but it was very cool having a closeup view.
Monday, July 20, 2009
7/20/09
So yesterday contained the most ridiculous ordeal of my life. We had a day off in Boise, Idaho a city that felt like it came out of no where. We had been going from tiny town to tinier town and then out of no where this huge metropolis shows up that is bike friendly and has all sorts of cool stuff. So I ended up waking up early on our day off because my internal clock refuses to let me sleep in, I'm just too used to 4 and 5 am wakeups. So John and I decide to find a disc golf course, we end up going to a course just a few miles away, a really nice one. Flat but nice pads and signs as well as really awesome pen drawings on the tables at several of the holes. We got back for that in time to tube the Boise River with about 20 of us, it goes near downtown and is very popular for floating. When we got there it was packed, it felt like a highway floating down the river because you could probably see 30 other floating devices at any point in time, but the river was wide and fast so you had some space. I enjoyed the relaxation of it, I ended up snoozing probably more then half the time. So pretty uneventful until this point.
I get towards the end and I'm resting my eyes when I hear fellow bike and builders calling my name to tell me that we're at the drop off point. In my drowsy haste, I jump out of the tube and come over to the side. I get up to the top of the bridge and Mark and Kira are like, “What is that???” in reference to a white bag now floating down the river. I had bagged my wallet in a white grocery bag to keep it from getting wet and I had forgotten about it when I jumped out, it was now floating down the river at a very quick pace. I start running down the bike path to try and intercept it at one point I jump in but the river was probably 200 feet wide (which was depressing) and no sight of it, so I figured I needed to go farther down river. I am sprinting at this point to try and make up distance and I jump back in the river. I see something white floating down fairly quickly so I make a dash in the river to catch it. The water was moving fast and getting fairly deep quickly, by the point I reached my wallet I grabbed it and had a great moment of success but at this point I was approaching chest deep water with a quick current.
I realized I was about 30 feet away from a dammed area of the river that had the excess water pour over the top of it creating about a 10 foot waterfall on the other side. I pretty much go with the current into the dam, there were logs pinned against the dam so I held on to those and was able to sit up on top of them. Unfortunately these logs did not go the extent of the dam, only a short section in the middle. At first I tried to scoot along the logs but the water was going so fast underneath them it was impossible to get past the pour over sections of the dam, so after about 5 minutes of trying that I just sat and thought, I was stuck on this dam and no clear way for me to get off without going over this waterfall. It probably would have not ended in death, but definitely me getting banged up a bit. This is where the fun starts. So I look over and I see 3 people sitting a picnic table, just watching me and they wave. I give them the shrug of the shoulders look that goes something like, “I don't know what to do”. The guy with them says something like he'll try and help, he grabs a big long stick and starts to walk out. Maybe he thought I couldn't swim or something, because the river is very easy to walk through at most parts, but because of the dam it was very deep where I was (10+ feet) and the current was very strong, so after about getting 4 feet into the river he realized his stick idea was not going to help. Once they actually realize I was really stuck and not just sitting there, they tell me they're going to get someone. 5 or so minutes later a park ranger comes by on his bike, he comes to the area of the dam nearest me and asks me if I'm stuck. “Yes”, at this point it was my hope that he would grab a rope, throw it to me from up river and pull me into the bank, that was really all I needed, I got so much more.
The park ranger yells to me (over the sounds of the waterfall) that people are on there way. 10 minutes later I hear the sirens, I think to myself, oh man they called the fire department and I think a firetruck would be blowing this out of proportion. This is where it gets ridiculous, within 15 minutes we have 2 firetrucks come, 2 ambulances, about 6 police cars and the worst of all, I see a news crew with a camera setup on the bridge behind me. Because of all sirens going on there are onlookers everywhere, probably close to 100 people on the beach where the original 3 where, then people on the bridge with the police and the news team plus others crowding on the bike path where I came in. There were about 15 rescue workers now on the part of the dam where the park ranger originally talked to me. What was funny is they were really upbeat, probably trying to keep me from freaking out but I don't think my situation was perilous and they probably recognized the serious case of overkill that had happened on my behalf. Honestly, the only thing that is going through my mind is how crazy I must look sitting on the dam with who knows how many onlookers and rescue workers watching me, also it doesn't help that from a distance the water looks very placid. So one of the workers yells at me they're going to boat me out, I then see a police SUV with a boat trailer attached go over the bridge and though seeing yet another rescue vehicle get called in to top it up to 7 police cars just adds to my sheepishness I am glad to see an end in sight. They end up putting a Jetski in the water with a inflatable raft that is tied to the back via a rope. They then proceed to turn around and back the jetski in my direction letting the raft get close enough for me to hop o
n. The guy in the raft who was controlling it with a paddle looked like the perfect rescue worker. He had the most incredibly white teeth and a huge grin and intense blue eyes. This guy could have been a model and here he was coming to my rescue, how perfect to top it all off. After getting on shore all of the bike and builders had congregated on the side and gave me a very warm group hug. I talked to the workers and they were very nice and just wanted to get my info, they didn't cite me which is great, I probably would have died if I got a ticket for that ordeal. After that I got to go on my merry way.
And yes, we found the news story online, of course it's completely wrong but there is a great picture of me in it.
http://www.kivitv.com/global/story.asp?s=10753837
I made 3rd top story :D
So yesterday contained the most ridiculous ordeal of my life. We had a day off in Boise, Idaho a city that felt like it came out of no where. We had been going from tiny town to tinier town and then out of no where this huge metropolis shows up that is bike friendly and has all sorts of cool stuff. So I ended up waking up early on our day off because my internal clock refuses to let me sleep in, I'm just too used to 4 and 5 am wakeups. So John and I decide to find a disc golf course, we end up going to a course just a few miles away, a really nice one. Flat but nice pads and signs as well as really awesome pen drawings on the tables at several of the holes. We got back for that in time to tube the Boise River with about 20 of us, it goes near downtown and is very popular for floating. When we got there it was packed, it felt like a highway floating down the river because you could probably see 30 other floating devices at any point in time, but the river was wide and fast so you had some space. I enjoyed the relaxation of it, I ended up snoozing probably more then half the time. So pretty uneventful until this point.
I get towards the end and I'm resting my eyes when I hear fellow bike and builders calling my name to tell me that we're at the drop off point. In my drowsy haste, I jump out of the tube and come over to the side. I get up to the top of the bridge and Mark and Kira are like, “What is that???” in reference to a white bag now floating down the river. I had bagged my wallet in a white grocery bag to keep it from getting wet and I had forgotten about it when I jumped out, it was now floating down the river at a very quick pace. I start running down the bike path to try and intercept it at one point I jump in but the river was probably 200 feet wide (which was depressing) and no sight of it, so I figured I needed to go farther down river. I am sprinting at this point to try and make up distance and I jump back in the river. I see something white floating down fairly quickly so I make a dash in the river to catch it. The water was moving fast and getting fairly deep quickly, by the point I reached my wallet I grabbed it and had a great moment of success but at this point I was approaching chest deep water with a quick current.
I realized I was about 30 feet away from a dammed area of the river that had the excess water pour over the top of it creating about a 10 foot waterfall on the other side. I pretty much go with the current into the dam, there were logs pinned against the dam so I held on to those and was able to sit up on top of them. Unfortunately these logs did not go the extent of the dam, only a short section in the middle. At first I tried to scoot along the logs but the water was going so fast underneath them it was impossible to get past the pour over sections of the dam, so after about 5 minutes of trying that I just sat and thought, I was stuck on this dam and no clear way for me to get off without going over this waterfall. It probably would have not ended in death, but definitely me getting banged up a bit. This is where the fun starts. So I look over and I see 3 people sitting a picnic table, just watching me and they wave. I give them the shrug of the shoulders look that goes something like, “I don't know what to do”. The guy with them says something like he'll try and help, he grabs a big long stick and starts to walk out. Maybe he thought I couldn't swim or something, because the river is very easy to walk through at most parts, but because of the dam it was very deep where I was (10+ feet) and the current was very strong, so after about getting 4 feet into the river he realized his stick idea was not going to help. Once they actually realize I was really stuck and not just sitting there, they tell me they're going to get someone. 5 or so minutes later a park ranger comes by on his bike, he comes to the area of the dam nearest me and asks me if I'm stuck. “Yes”, at this point it was my hope that he would grab a rope, throw it to me from up river and pull me into the bank, that was really all I needed, I got so much more.
The park ranger yells to me (over the sounds of the waterfall) that people are on there way. 10 minutes later I hear the sirens, I think to myself, oh man they called the fire department and I think a firetruck would be blowing this out of proportion. This is where it gets ridiculous, within 15 minutes we have 2 firetrucks come, 2 ambulances, about 6 police cars and the worst of all, I see a news crew with a camera setup on the bridge behind me. Because of all sirens going on there are onlookers everywhere, probably close to 100 people on the beach where the original 3 where, then people on the bridge with the police and the news team plus others crowding on the bike path where I came in. There were about 15 rescue workers now on the part of the dam where the park ranger originally talked to me. What was funny is they were really upbeat, probably trying to keep me from freaking out but I don't think my situation was perilous and they probably recognized the serious case of overkill that had happened on my behalf. Honestly, the only thing that is going through my mind is how crazy I must look sitting on the dam with who knows how many onlookers and rescue workers watching me, also it doesn't help that from a distance the water looks very placid. So one of the workers yells at me they're going to boat me out, I then see a police SUV with a boat trailer attached go over the bridge and though seeing yet another rescue vehicle get called in to top it up to 7 police cars just adds to my sheepishness I am glad to see an end in sight. They end up putting a Jetski in the water with a inflatable raft that is tied to the back via a rope. They then proceed to turn around and back the jetski in my direction letting the raft get close enough for me to hop o
n. The guy in the raft who was controlling it with a paddle looked like the perfect rescue worker. He had the most incredibly white teeth and a huge grin and intense blue eyes. This guy could have been a model and here he was coming to my rescue, how perfect to top it all off. After getting on shore all of the bike and builders had congregated on the side and gave me a very warm group hug. I talked to the workers and they were very nice and just wanted to get my info, they didn't cite me which is great, I probably would have died if I got a ticket for that ordeal. After that I got to go on my merry way.And yes, we found the news story online, of course it's completely wrong but there is a great picture of me in it.
http://www.kivitv.com/global/story.asp?s=10753837
I made 3rd top story :D
Sunday, July 19, 2009
7/19/09
The Twilight Criterion was held in downtown Boise last night, my first professional race. They had professional womens and mens at night right at the beginning of the evening. Like I said this was my first bike race, but I don't think it will be my last. The way they're set up is they blocked off two full city blocks and race track was these roads around the blocks. The way the race is setup, they race for an hour and then after an hour, they race 5 more laps. It was fun watching the women seeing them blaze past, but then after the last 3 laps there were two that pulled away and the crowed started to get louder. The best was at the end on the last lap, we were at the middle of the straight aways so we could turn around and see down the street and catch a small part of the opposite side of the track. The women were neck and neck when they passed up, then we turned around to see how they were doing with only .5 laps remaining we waited and for a split second you could see two cyclist blast through the gap, one with a 5 foot lead on the other. The anticipation was felt in the air as everyone looked left and waited for them to turn the corner, it was neck and neck until the end and Kristen Armstrong who took first place for women's pro, her last race in America before she retires. No relation to the more famous Armstrong. The mens was even crazier, there were close to 100 riders and they averaged 30 mph speeds... for an hour. When the pack came by you could feel the wind. For most of the race they were a cluster, but for a few moments they were in a long pace line which was crazy. It looked like a huge snake slithering down the distance of the stretch. The finish was similar, it ended up two guys pulling ahead but this time they were neck and neck until the end, from our position which was fairly close to the finish line you could not even tell who won. Maybe if they make a track that has you going downhill the whole time I'll be able to pace 30 mph for an hour, until then I'll just take my time getting where I'm going.
The Twilight Criterion was held in downtown Boise last night, my first professional race. They had professional womens and mens at night right at the beginning of the evening. Like I said this was my first bike race, but I don't think it will be my last. The way they're set up is they blocked off two full city blocks and race track was these roads around the blocks. The way the race is setup, they race for an hour and then after an hour, they race 5 more laps. It was fun watching the women seeing them blaze past, but then after the last 3 laps there were two that pulled away and the crowed started to get louder. The best was at the end on the last lap, we were at the middle of the straight aways so we could turn around and see down the street and catch a small part of the opposite side of the track. The women were neck and neck when they passed up, then we turned around to see how they were doing with only .5 laps remaining we waited and for a split second you could see two cyclist blast through the gap, one with a 5 foot lead on the other. The anticipation was felt in the air as everyone looked left and waited for them to turn the corner, it was neck and neck until the end and Kristen Armstrong who took first place for women's pro, her last race in America before she retires. No relation to the more famous Armstrong. The mens was even crazier, there were close to 100 riders and they averaged 30 mph speeds... for an hour. When the pack came by you could feel the wind. For most of the race they were a cluster, but for a few moments they were in a long pace line which was crazy. It looked like a huge snake slithering down the distance of the stretch. The finish was similar, it ended up two guys pulling ahead but this time they were neck and neck until the end, from our position which was fairly close to the finish line you could not even tell who won. Maybe if they make a track that has you going downhill the whole time I'll be able to pace 30 mph for an hour, until then I'll just take my time getting where I'm going.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
7/18/09
Stanley Idaho, population 100. Let's just say it's not the social scene that attracts people here, but there are definitely attractions. We have been talking to people on the road and they've been mentioning the sawtooth mountains a lot and how stunning they're supposed to be. The whole ride into Stanley I was waiting for them, I kept asking bike and builders around me if we thought we had hit them yet and I kept coming to the answer that maybe they're ahead. We were in a canyon and it was beautiful and the terrain surrounding us was very nice, but not striking. So when we're going along and we finally roll into Stanley and pull up to ou
r campsite. It hits us, there are the sawtooths, you can even see the many little points on each ridge that give their namesake appearance, and yes... it was stunning. It was the best campsite view I had ever seen. So later that evening, Jen mentioned to me that they were people playing ultimate on a field nearby. I looked over and saw a sight for sore eyes, a pickup game of ultimate. I wasted no time and ran on over quickly making friends and being put on a team. Looking around at the group I noticed there seemed to be very little continuity between the age groups, there were kids from 10 years old up to guys who looked to be in their upper 20s. As it ends up nobody actually knew more then a few other people, it seemed to be just a random group. Some were work friends, some were family in town at a nearby lake, some people just showed up like myself. Either way it was excellent, after ultimate I taught everyone in and out as well as I was taught a new game of tiger tag, an excellent rendition of the classic. I just remember a moment as I was laying down (part of the game of tiger tag) and I was looking around. I was here with 25 people I had never met before but yet was having a blast with people half my age and some quite older then me. Nobody knowing each other, but here we are in lush grassy field in the middle of this gorgeous mountain valley in Stanley Idaho. An excellent moment of Bike & Build. The excellence didn't stop there, two things came with that night, the stars and the cold. As the sun started to set it was a gorgeous sunset with amazing colors only made better by the nearby mountains. After the sunset as the light faded over the horizon, the stars just went from good to better to amazing. There was no moon that night and not a cloud in the sky, about an hour after the sun went down the milky way became visible in the night sky, it was breathtaking. I remember seeing the milky way two summers ago near the Grand Canyon on a road trip and it was my goal to see it again during Bike & Build, up until now we have had some good nights for stars but our local galaxy had not made an appearance yet and it finally did. Check it off the list!
Then the cold settled in, nothing like camping and being able to see your breath in the morning, I woke up thankful for every piece of thermal gear I owned. Fortunately it warmed up quickly, many opted to find shelter until it warmed up but I decided to keep going. Laura, known for make seldom stops also decided to not wait around and wanted to make headway in the 90 miles we had ahead of us. It was a brisk morning and we passed a sign that said Ponderosa Scenic Byway and it smelled like christmas, beautiful pine forest for miles and miles. Then we saw signs of a previous fire, there had been a huge forest fire in 1989 and now it was was a lot of short vegetation but there were the these burned trunks shooting out of the ground all along the steep hills surrounding us and it went on for miles and miles, I can only imagine the flames that came from this fire. There was a sign that showed details of how a firestorm was created in this fire, that there was enough fuel and fire that it developed it's own weather patterns. There was a column of fire that was hundreds of feet high and created 30-40 mph winds upwards that would have embers float miles away which is why the fire was so difficult to contain, intense. But it made for some really cool scenery. The best part of this was the Payette River, we followed it most of the day though pine forest and pine forest remains. The water was a intense color of blue and was very nice. We came to a point where there were some rapids and a hot springs that emptied into the water. We were on the wrong side for the hot springs but we jumped in the cold section and it was very brisk but exactly what we needed in the heat. I ended up falling asleep on a rock for I don't know how long and then we woke up and headed on into Idaho City followed by the best root beer float I had ever had.
Stanley Idaho, population 100. Let's just say it's not the social scene that attracts people here, but there are definitely attractions. We have been talking to people on the road and they've been mentioning the sawtooth mountains a lot and how stunning they're supposed to be. The whole ride into Stanley I was waiting for them, I kept asking bike and builders around me if we thought we had hit them yet and I kept coming to the answer that maybe they're ahead. We were in a canyon and it was beautiful and the terrain surrounding us was very nice, but not striking. So when we're going along and we finally roll into Stanley and pull up to ou
r campsite. It hits us, there are the sawtooths, you can even see the many little points on each ridge that give their namesake appearance, and yes... it was stunning. It was the best campsite view I had ever seen. So later that evening, Jen mentioned to me that they were people playing ultimate on a field nearby. I looked over and saw a sight for sore eyes, a pickup game of ultimate. I wasted no time and ran on over quickly making friends and being put on a team. Looking around at the group I noticed there seemed to be very little continuity between the age groups, there were kids from 10 years old up to guys who looked to be in their upper 20s. As it ends up nobody actually knew more then a few other people, it seemed to be just a random group. Some were work friends, some were family in town at a nearby lake, some people just showed up like myself. Either way it was excellent, after ultimate I taught everyone in and out as well as I was taught a new game of tiger tag, an excellent rendition of the classic. I just remember a moment as I was laying down (part of the game of tiger tag) and I was looking around. I was here with 25 people I had never met before but yet was having a blast with people half my age and some quite older then me. Nobody knowing each other, but here we are in lush grassy field in the middle of this gorgeous mountain valley in Stanley Idaho. An excellent moment of Bike & Build. The excellence didn't stop there, two things came with that night, the stars and the cold. As the sun started to set it was a gorgeous sunset with amazing colors only made better by the nearby mountains. After the sunset as the light faded over the horizon, the stars just went from good to better to amazing. There was no moon that night and not a cloud in the sky, about an hour after the sun went down the milky way became visible in the night sky, it was breathtaking. I remember seeing the milky way two summers ago near the Grand Canyon on a road trip and it was my goal to see it again during Bike & Build, up until now we have had some good nights for stars but our local galaxy had not made an appearance yet and it finally did. Check it off the list!Then the cold settled in, nothing like camping and being able to see your breath in the morning, I woke up thankful for every piece of thermal gear I owned. Fortunately it warmed up quickly, many opted to find shelter until it warmed up but I decided to keep going. Laura, known for make seldom stops also decided to not wait around and wanted to make headway in the 90 miles we had ahead of us. It was a brisk morning and we passed a sign that said Ponderosa Scenic Byway and it smelled like christmas, beautiful pine forest for miles and miles. Then we saw signs of a previous fire, there had been a huge forest fire in 1989 and now it was was a lot of short vegetation but there were the these burned trunks shooting out of the ground all along the steep hills surrounding us and it went on for miles and miles, I can only imagine the flames that came from this fire. There was a sign that showed details of how a firestorm was created in this fire, that there was enough fuel and fire that it developed it's own weather patterns. There was a column of fire that was hundreds of feet high and created 30-40 mph winds upwards that would have embers float miles away which is why the fire was so difficult to contain, intense. But it made for some really cool scenery. The best part of this was the Payette River, we followed it most of the day though pine forest and pine forest remains. The water was a intense color of blue and was very nice. We came to a point where there were some rapids and a hot springs that emptied into the water. We were on the wrong side for the hot springs but we jumped in the cold section and it was very brisk but exactly what we needed in the heat. I ended up falling asleep on a rock for I don't know how long and then we woke up and headed on into Idaho City followed by the best root beer float I had ever had.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
7/16/09
So the parents found a way to intercept Bike & Build, once again. First time at Jackson and now on our way from Idaho Falls to Arco. My dad took my non B&B Bike and decided to trek with us, though not the most scenic ride, it was picked because due to it's flatness. Alas, I'm shocked he didn't want to take Teton Pass with us, which ended up being more then
10% and getting closer to 13%. It was really fun getting to ride with the pops, telling him stories of what we've done so far. He got a taste of the daily life, including a lunch stop with the (in)famous PBJ sandwiches and Gatorade. Along this trip in the desert, where we didn't see a living thing the whole day and not a single building for many many miles. The land was completely flat except for a few out of place looking mountains that just dotted the landscape, my personal favorite being one that had intense looking switchbacks leading up to the top. It made we wonder, what was the mountain doing in the middle of the field and why would someone bother to make a road to the top of this mountain. Speculation led to a wizard inhabiting the top of the mountain. But further down the road was a nuclear reactor, it was listed as a national historic site for being the first electricity producing nuclear reactor in the world. We had heard that it was a good stop during the ride, so I made a point to stop by it. From outside it looked like a tiny building, but once you went in it was pretty huge. Some of the highlights of our self guided tour was the control room, it was exactly as it sounds. Millions of dials, levers, buttons and lights, all labeled with jargon that sounded straight from Star Trek, the best of them being a huge red button in the middle of the dash board labeled something to the extent of “main reactor shutdown”, I'm guessing the panic button. Then we continued on and saw the Mark IV core which was the housing where the actual nuclear energy was released and then channeled throughout other parts of the reactor. It was amazing, because at this point this is when the Star Trek references were just too much. The font on the the core itself just 
looked like something out of the Next Generator, and the fact that it was the Mark IV, what a great name. Then we went to the room where the core was stored, the main reaction chamber. The picture is us looking out of the chamber, you can see Courtney and Kira melting through 3 feet of glass. It might not sound terribly exciting, but getting to hang out in a underground (nice and cool) nuclear power plant was an excellent way to break up the ride. It made for lots of sweet pictures just because there were so many gnarly looking pieces of machinery and equipment.
Moving so after a fun ride to Arco, we moved on to to Challis, population 900. The host was amazing, giving a great dinner with included a fantastic Quinoa dish which is a vegetarian favorite since it has so much good protein. But then after filling up, I realized they had amazing desserts so I ended up getting a second dinner in sweet, but it was so good. The best part of this host was Diane Wetherbee, she was a local church member who helped provide some of the dinner. But she invited us to her house out on the outskirts of town where she lived. About 10 of us decided to go and we all got in the back of her truck and rode out to her place. Upon arriving, we were attacked by 7 or 8 super friendly dogs. I seriously have never seen so many dogs come out of nowhere. It was awesome, it was almost a dog overload. Then we went inside and she showed us how she made cheese from the milk that she got from her cows. So we proceed to the backyard already impressed by the dogs and the cheese, and there are 4 day old baby goats, cats, chickens, and cows. We all ended up getting to milk penny, a somew
hat nervous but friendly enough goat. It was pretty amazing thinking that I had drank plenty of milk in my day but never actually retrieved any of it myself, it was an awesome experience. But we decided just milking in to a pan was not enough, we had to go a step farther. Dan had the idea of getting some fresh milk straight from the source, so he did it. He milked some milk right into his mouth and said it was fantastic. So we all jumped on the fresh milk train and after a short while, we all had gotten some nice fresh milk right from the goat, delicious. We ended talking to the son for awhile, he told us how they raised cows and butchered the cows themselves. I was really impressed, the idea of getting all your eggs, milk, cheese and meats from your own backyard is a pretty legit way to do it, maybe I'll see if I can get a milk cow in my apt next year.
So the parents found a way to intercept Bike & Build, once again. First time at Jackson and now on our way from Idaho Falls to Arco. My dad took my non B&B Bike and decided to trek with us, though not the most scenic ride, it was picked because due to it's flatness. Alas, I'm shocked he didn't want to take Teton Pass with us, which ended up being more then
10% and getting closer to 13%. It was really fun getting to ride with the pops, telling him stories of what we've done so far. He got a taste of the daily life, including a lunch stop with the (in)famous PBJ sandwiches and Gatorade. Along this trip in the desert, where we didn't see a living thing the whole day and not a single building for many many miles. The land was completely flat except for a few out of place looking mountains that just dotted the landscape, my personal favorite being one that had intense looking switchbacks leading up to the top. It made we wonder, what was the mountain doing in the middle of the field and why would someone bother to make a road to the top of this mountain. Speculation led to a wizard inhabiting the top of the mountain. But further down the road was a nuclear reactor, it was listed as a national historic site for being the first electricity producing nuclear reactor in the world. We had heard that it was a good stop during the ride, so I made a point to stop by it. From outside it looked like a tiny building, but once you went in it was pretty huge. Some of the highlights of our self guided tour was the control room, it was exactly as it sounds. Millions of dials, levers, buttons and lights, all labeled with jargon that sounded straight from Star Trek, the best of them being a huge red button in the middle of the dash board labeled something to the extent of “main reactor shutdown”, I'm guessing the panic button. Then we continued on and saw the Mark IV core which was the housing where the actual nuclear energy was released and then channeled throughout other parts of the reactor. It was amazing, because at this point this is when the Star Trek references were just too much. The font on the the core itself just 
looked like something out of the Next Generator, and the fact that it was the Mark IV, what a great name. Then we went to the room where the core was stored, the main reaction chamber. The picture is us looking out of the chamber, you can see Courtney and Kira melting through 3 feet of glass. It might not sound terribly exciting, but getting to hang out in a underground (nice and cool) nuclear power plant was an excellent way to break up the ride. It made for lots of sweet pictures just because there were so many gnarly looking pieces of machinery and equipment.Moving so after a fun ride to Arco, we moved on to to Challis, population 900. The host was amazing, giving a great dinner with included a fantastic Quinoa dish which is a vegetarian favorite since it has so much good protein. But then after filling up, I realized they had amazing desserts so I ended up getting a second dinner in sweet, but it was so good. The best part of this host was Diane Wetherbee, she was a local church member who helped provide some of the dinner. But she invited us to her house out on the outskirts of town where she lived. About 10 of us decided to go and we all got in the back of her truck and rode out to her place. Upon arriving, we were attacked by 7 or 8 super friendly dogs. I seriously have never seen so many dogs come out of nowhere. It was awesome, it was almost a dog overload. Then we went inside and she showed us how she made cheese from the milk that she got from her cows. So we proceed to the backyard already impressed by the dogs and the cheese, and there are 4 day old baby goats, cats, chickens, and cows. We all ended up getting to milk penny, a somew
hat nervous but friendly enough goat. It was pretty amazing thinking that I had drank plenty of milk in my day but never actually retrieved any of it myself, it was an awesome experience. But we decided just milking in to a pan was not enough, we had to go a step farther. Dan had the idea of getting some fresh milk straight from the source, so he did it. He milked some milk right into his mouth and said it was fantastic. So we all jumped on the fresh milk train and after a short while, we all had gotten some nice fresh milk right from the goat, delicious. We ended talking to the son for awhile, he told us how they raised cows and butchered the cows themselves. I was really impressed, the idea of getting all your eggs, milk, cheese and meats from your own backyard is a pretty legit way to do it, maybe I'll see if I can get a milk cow in my apt next year.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
7/12/09
So today we conquered the might Teton Pass, 10% grades for several miles, the steepest climb yet. I really enjoy th
e big climbs because everyone get so pumped for it and everyone waits at the top, then we have sweet celebration with the whole troupe included. On the descent our boy John hit 55 mph, though I kept it at a cool 50.6, my personal highest speed yet breaking 50. A ton of fun, but the real blast was yesterday during our day off at Jackson, I called around several rafting companies looking for a good group rate and Dave Hansen's Rafting came through and gave us a good deal. Our time was locked in at 3:30 on the snake river. We were going to get the white water tour with our raft guide, T-Bone. Originally we had it set up that we were going to have two 8 person rafts for the 15 of us, but in a miscommunication we ended up getting one 16 person raft. At first I was bummed for that since everyone wouldn't get a chance to paddle. But as we went down the river it was a lot of fun having a boat with all of our group in it, it became the party boat on the river. There was a moment when I got to sit on the front of the boat, he said you couldn't really do that with an 8 man raft because you need all the paddlers so by having an bigger boat I was able to be the figurehead of our Bike & Build Boat, and of course we had a session of going bananas. (I'm in the top right)
So today we conquered the might Teton Pass, 10% grades for several miles, the steepest climb yet. I really enjoy th
e big climbs because everyone get so pumped for it and everyone waits at the top, then we have sweet celebration with the whole troupe included. On the descent our boy John hit 55 mph, though I kept it at a cool 50.6, my personal highest speed yet breaking 50. A ton of fun, but the real blast was yesterday during our day off at Jackson, I called around several rafting companies looking for a good group rate and Dave Hansen's Rafting came through and gave us a good deal. Our time was locked in at 3:30 on the snake river. We were going to get the white water tour with our raft guide, T-Bone. Originally we had it set up that we were going to have two 8 person rafts for the 15 of us, but in a miscommunication we ended up getting one 16 person raft. At first I was bummed for that since everyone wouldn't get a chance to paddle. But as we went down the river it was a lot of fun having a boat with all of our group in it, it became the party boat on the river. There was a moment when I got to sit on the front of the boat, he said you couldn't really do that with an 8 man raft because you need all the paddlers so by having an bigger boat I was able to be the figurehead of our Bike & Build Boat, and of course we had a session of going bananas. (I'm in the top right)
Sunday, July 05, 2009
7/5/09
So theres a group of us who are currently sitting in the Steaming Bean in Steamboat Springs, CO. It's the day after the 4th of July and we're waiting for the cattle drive through town at 10 o'clock. Apparently they're going to herd a lot of cattle right through the middle of town, I'm not sure why or what is the reason, but everyone is really interested to see what this piece of local culture is about. Another reason is we're having our first camping outing tonight, it's hard to believe we've managed to get close to 3000 miles across the united states and this will be our first night camping. When I was doing research on this town I was looking at google maps and I was stunned to see how tiny it was. The campsite we're staying at is part of the city park, and it has a drop box that runs off the honors system for payment so I'm thinking this campsite might seriously just be a plot of land on which to put a tent and nothing else. But Steamboat has been awesome, UMC provided an awesome BBQ for the 4th of July with veggie burgers included and they were fantastic.
It seems as though we've hit the end of the Rockies, but though they are over with they are not forgotten. Some of the most majestic rides I had ever been on. Three out of the past four days
have consisted of long hard climbs the whole day that just wind everyone but they always end up with a amazing descent into the town we're staying in. There is no better way to end a ride then to not have to pedal the last few miles, by far the most memorable was Trail Ridge Road. This was the day that many people have been anticipating, I personally had been anticipating this for the whole trip. Just a little fact, trail ridge is the highest paved road in the United States and it goes right through the heart of the Rockies. During this whole ride we were climbing up mountains to the point we were actually riding through snow and you could see a herd of elk and of course snow top mountains behind every turn. Though the scenery was one of a kind which made for amazing pictures, the best part by far was the group dynamic that day. Generally people separate into groups based on the speed they want to take that day so we very seldom have a big group riding together. But on the day of trial ridge, the front groups decided to wait for the later groups at the visitor center. It was so fantastic because even
though it was one of the most physically demanding days with the climb and the altitude every person made it and when sweep (the safety caboose who stays in the back) rolled into the visitor center everyone went nuts. Babs drove up with the van and started blasting music, people were dancing, the bananas cheer made appearances as well as a beautiful stretch/meditation exercise led by Aaron. It was the first time the entire group was together on the road. Then, after all that climbing, it was finally time for the payoff. The decent on trail ridge was nothing like I had ever experienced, it was downhill switchbacks for 13 miles, I think I averaged well over 30mph without even pedaling. During this whole time, you could see beautiful mountains and forest in the background, very awesome. One more thing about Trail Ridge, the people we're so awesome. Generally drivers are less then friendly to cyclists, we've seen our fair share of mean drivers, but it Trail Ridge was an escape. This w
as the first time that drivers we're encouraging us as they were driving by, I got more thumbs up and encouragement from cars on Trail Ridge then I've gotten this whole trip. One guy even leaned out the window to point out a bunch of elk up on the hill to our left and then say some encouraging words, thanks dude.
So theres a group of us who are currently sitting in the Steaming Bean in Steamboat Springs, CO. It's the day after the 4th of July and we're waiting for the cattle drive through town at 10 o'clock. Apparently they're going to herd a lot of cattle right through the middle of town, I'm not sure why or what is the reason, but everyone is really interested to see what this piece of local culture is about. Another reason is we're having our first camping outing tonight, it's hard to believe we've managed to get close to 3000 miles across the united states and this will be our first night camping. When I was doing research on this town I was looking at google maps and I was stunned to see how tiny it was. The campsite we're staying at is part of the city park, and it has a drop box that runs off the honors system for payment so I'm thinking this campsite might seriously just be a plot of land on which to put a tent and nothing else. But Steamboat has been awesome, UMC provided an awesome BBQ for the 4th of July with veggie burgers included and they were fantastic.
It seems as though we've hit the end of the Rockies, but though they are over with they are not forgotten. Some of the most majestic rides I had ever been on. Three out of the past four days
have consisted of long hard climbs the whole day that just wind everyone but they always end up with a amazing descent into the town we're staying in. There is no better way to end a ride then to not have to pedal the last few miles, by far the most memorable was Trail Ridge Road. This was the day that many people have been anticipating, I personally had been anticipating this for the whole trip. Just a little fact, trail ridge is the highest paved road in the United States and it goes right through the heart of the Rockies. During this whole ride we were climbing up mountains to the point we were actually riding through snow and you could see a herd of elk and of course snow top mountains behind every turn. Though the scenery was one of a kind which made for amazing pictures, the best part by far was the group dynamic that day. Generally people separate into groups based on the speed they want to take that day so we very seldom have a big group riding together. But on the day of trial ridge, the front groups decided to wait for the later groups at the visitor center. It was so fantastic because even
though it was one of the most physically demanding days with the climb and the altitude every person made it and when sweep (the safety caboose who stays in the back) rolled into the visitor center everyone went nuts. Babs drove up with the van and started blasting music, people were dancing, the bananas cheer made appearances as well as a beautiful stretch/meditation exercise led by Aaron. It was the first time the entire group was together on the road. Then, after all that climbing, it was finally time for the payoff. The decent on trail ridge was nothing like I had ever experienced, it was downhill switchbacks for 13 miles, I think I averaged well over 30mph without even pedaling. During this whole time, you could see beautiful mountains and forest in the background, very awesome. One more thing about Trail Ridge, the people we're so awesome. Generally drivers are less then friendly to cyclists, we've seen our fair share of mean drivers, but it Trail Ridge was an escape. This w
as the first time that drivers we're encouraging us as they were driving by, I got more thumbs up and encouragement from cars on Trail Ridge then I've gotten this whole trip. One guy even leaned out the window to point out a bunch of elk up on the hill to our left and then say some encouraging words, thanks dude.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
6/24/09
So we just finished our last day in Kansas, I'm not going to lie, it was a lot better then I thought it would be. The impression that I had about Kansas was that it would be the flattest land I had ever seen with incredibly strong wind blowing so hard that if we stopped pedaling our bikes would blow backwards. One person went as far as to describe it as a sort of purgatory on earth I am glad to announce that Kansas is in fact no t hell on earth. It has been super hot, but it has consisted of a constant landscape of rolling hills which are awesome for cycling. You can get momentum going downhill and then use that to carry you back up to the top for the most part, though sometimes the hills are a bit longer and require a bit of effort to get up them. What's interesting is what people will do to help the hills go by, some people sing songs or do math problems in there head, one person went as far as to count trash as it passes by in the road. One game that we played today was that you talk about a topic for 1 miles and then at the next mile, you start a new topic. A good way to pass the time especially if you get some good topics, what's really fun is when you start talking about people's most embarrassing moments and they're forced to share.
Jumping back a bit, the ride into St. Louis was really awesome. We started in Greenville, a really cool host where they had an electric drum pad that Steve and John went crazy on, the best way to describe a drum pad would be like a keyboard compared to a piano. You can have any sound associated with each pad so you can have a typical drum sound or you can have crazy techno sounds or silly sounds, and since those guys are really good drummers they could make some really funky beats. This place also had a grand piano and the most intimidating saxophone I had ever seen. It had a silver mouthpiece and with an acrylic reed with the largest reed spacing I had ever seen. The only way to make noise was the wail into the thing, when I picked it up and gave it a blow it was really loud and a lady came out of the office and gave me a look so I quickly stopped that. We also played disc golf in the front yard, there are several of us who have been wanting to get some disc golf in but no courses have really showed up so we had a makeshift one in the lawn which was fun. Since then we've managed to find two disc golf courses, both in really tiny towns. One being in Clay Center, KS and it was 9 holes with the average hole length being about 100 feet and the baskets looked homemade. But it was a lot of fun because we had been playing to bike pumps before that, Justin managed to get a hole in one as well which was amazing. He launched it and I remember thinking to myself, wow that's looking pretty good and then you hear the ring of the chains and it was a celebration. Then a really good one in Beloit right next to the pool, a full
So we just finished our last day in Kansas, I'm not going to lie, it was a lot better then I thought it would be. The impression that I had about Kansas was that it would be the flattest land I had ever seen with incredibly strong wind blowing so hard that if we stopped pedaling our bikes would blow backwards. One person went as far as to describe it as a sort of purgatory on earth I am glad to announce that Kansas is in fact no t hell on earth. It has been super hot, but it has consisted of a constant landscape of rolling hills which are awesome for cycling. You can get momentum going downhill and then use that to carry you back up to the top for the most part, though sometimes the hills are a bit longer and require a bit of effort to get up them. What's interesting is what people will do to help the hills go by, some people sing songs or do math problems in there head, one person went as far as to count trash as it passes by in the road. One game that we played today was that you talk about a topic for 1 miles and then at the next mile, you start a new topic. A good way to pass the time especially if you get some good topics, what's really fun is when you start talking about people's most embarrassing moments and they're forced to share.
Jumping back a bit, the ride into St. Louis was really awesome. We started in Greenville, a really cool host where they had an electric drum pad that Steve and John went crazy on, the best way to describe a drum pad would be like a keyboard compared to a piano. You can have any sound associated with each pad so you can have a typical drum sound or you can have crazy techno sounds or silly sounds, and since those guys are really good drummers they could make some really funky beats. This place also had a grand piano and the most intimidating saxophone I had ever seen. It had a silver mouthpiece and with an acrylic reed with the largest reed spacing I had ever seen. The only way to make noise was the wail into the thing, when I picked it up and gave it a blow it was really loud and a lady came out of the office and gave me a look so I quickly stopped that. We also played disc golf in the front yard, there are several of us who have been wanting to get some disc golf in but no courses have really showed up so we had a makeshift one in the lawn which was fun. Since then we've managed to find two disc golf courses, both in really tiny towns. One being in Clay Center, KS and it was 9 holes with the average hole length being about 100 feet and the baskets looked homemade. But it was a lot of fun because we had been playing to bike pumps before that, Justin managed to get a hole in one as well which was amazing. He launched it and I remember thinking to myself, wow that's looking pretty good and then you hear the ring of the chains and it was a celebration. Then a really good one in Beloit right next to the pool, a full
Monday, June 22, 2009
6/22/09
So it seems like after my posts about being so happy that I've been writing so much, I proceed to take a several week break from actually writing anything down. Oh well, I'm been managing to get lots of good pictures, a few of peoples pictures have been surfacing on facebook (B&B website) but I don't think I'll ever actually get around to posting any of mine until the end of the trip.
Current we're in the heart of Kansas, during our first lunch we were 14 miles south of the geographic center of the US which is really cool to think about. It's pretty fun to think about all of the states we've passed through now. Kansas is not nearly as bland as I've heard it to be, sure it's not exactly a bustling metropolis but we've got lots of nice parries to go throug
h and so far it has been not very flat at all, lots of nice rolling hills which at the top of them you feel as though you can see for 10 miles which is really cool.
So I have some catchup to do, so I'll just starting jumping around writing about whatever comes to mind. But in Bloomington the home of the University of Indiana, when we were coming into town they had this great fountain at the edge of campus. We all proceeded to jump in or ride in, whichever you prefer, for a nice cool down. I've decided that jumping in fountains are just the best way to end (or start) a ride. I highly suggest everyone give it a try sometime. But in Bloomington Jen had mentioned about how there was a quarry that was well known from a movie called Breaking away, I had heard of neither the quarry of the movie but apparerently it's a famous cycling movie. Either way I knew that we had to visit the quarry and it being only 5 miles away, we were going to ride since the van was in use for laundry. On our way we ran into some college aged looking guys on bikes and we stopped them asking of they knew where the quarry was, they mentioned that they were on their way so we just followed them which is really good, because it was a fairly complicated route to get there.
After parking the bikes and walking and talking with the locals, we finally walked on to it. It was pretty amazing, I would uplo
ad a picture but unfortunately I took a lot of pictures during the trip in raw format which is going to require some work to get them in a nice .jpg format. The best way to describe it was imagine woods, that have a huge block cut out of the ground going down about 80 feet, on one side was a bunch of loose rock that you could climb up or down to the water that had filled the bottom of the quarry. The water was a really cool color of blue, I believe due to mineral deposits of the rock in the quarry, but it was very scenic. What this was known for in the movie was the characters jumping off 35 foot cliffs into the water below, we even saw the exact spot where they had jumped. So we proceeded to jump off our selves. I was so excited to, it was definitely the highest jump I had ever taken before, I'm not going to lie. Right before I went off the edge I had a very big “oh sh!t” moment where I questioned where all my rationality had gone, but 2 seconds I had hit the water and it was amazing. The water was brisk but very refreshing and a sense of accomplishment. Everyone ended up jumping off, some required more convincing then others but everyone went eventually.
So while I'm on jumping into water stories I'll talk about one that happened out of Washington, MO so a few weeks later. Tony Bell came and surprised me t
hat morning in washington to come ride with us which was really awesome, Tony is the guy who first told me about bike and build and here I am in some church in a random town in america right in the thick of my own Bike and Build adventure. It was nice chatting and during our ride we decided that it was important we find a good spot to jump in a creek, about 25 miles in we found it. There was a bridge with a pretty large looking creek below it so me and Tony decided to get in. Tony got in first and I told him to check the depth below the bridge and he did saying it was too deep for him to touch the bottom, so I proceeded to jump off the bridge through the metal supports. Justin, another rider came up behind us and walked up to the top of the bridge to see how that looked for jumping off. After decided it was a good decision, several of us walked up and then after a few moments of hesitation we all jumped off. Here is a snap of it, quite the blast. Probably for the next hour more riders filtered in and proceeded to jump off, I'm sure B$ jumped off with everyone twice. It was a lot of fun because I think almost everyone in the group did it and really enjoyed it. Some after more convincing and some with none at all. Good times :)
So it seems like after my posts about being so happy that I've been writing so much, I proceed to take a several week break from actually writing anything down. Oh well, I'm been managing to get lots of good pictures, a few of peoples pictures have been surfacing on facebook (B&B website) but I don't think I'll ever actually get around to posting any of mine until the end of the trip.
Current we're in the heart of Kansas, during our first lunch we were 14 miles south of the geographic center of the US which is really cool to think about. It's pretty fun to think about all of the states we've passed through now. Kansas is not nearly as bland as I've heard it to be, sure it's not exactly a bustling metropolis but we've got lots of nice parries to go throug
h and so far it has been not very flat at all, lots of nice rolling hills which at the top of them you feel as though you can see for 10 miles which is really cool.So I have some catchup to do, so I'll just starting jumping around writing about whatever comes to mind. But in Bloomington the home of the University of Indiana, when we were coming into town they had this great fountain at the edge of campus. We all proceeded to jump in or ride in, whichever you prefer, for a nice cool down. I've decided that jumping in fountains are just the best way to end (or start) a ride. I highly suggest everyone give it a try sometime. But in Bloomington Jen had mentioned about how there was a quarry that was well known from a movie called Breaking away, I had heard of neither the quarry of the movie but apparerently it's a famous cycling movie. Either way I knew that we had to visit the quarry and it being only 5 miles away, we were going to ride since the van was in use for laundry. On our way we ran into some college aged looking guys on bikes and we stopped them asking of they knew where the quarry was, they mentioned that they were on their way so we just followed them which is really good, because it was a fairly complicated route to get there.
After parking the bikes and walking and talking with the locals, we finally walked on to it. It was pretty amazing, I would uplo
ad a picture but unfortunately I took a lot of pictures during the trip in raw format which is going to require some work to get them in a nice .jpg format. The best way to describe it was imagine woods, that have a huge block cut out of the ground going down about 80 feet, on one side was a bunch of loose rock that you could climb up or down to the water that had filled the bottom of the quarry. The water was a really cool color of blue, I believe due to mineral deposits of the rock in the quarry, but it was very scenic. What this was known for in the movie was the characters jumping off 35 foot cliffs into the water below, we even saw the exact spot where they had jumped. So we proceeded to jump off our selves. I was so excited to, it was definitely the highest jump I had ever taken before, I'm not going to lie. Right before I went off the edge I had a very big “oh sh!t” moment where I questioned where all my rationality had gone, but 2 seconds I had hit the water and it was amazing. The water was brisk but very refreshing and a sense of accomplishment. Everyone ended up jumping off, some required more convincing then others but everyone went eventually.So while I'm on jumping into water stories I'll talk about one that happened out of Washington, MO so a few weeks later. Tony Bell came and surprised me t
hat morning in washington to come ride with us which was really awesome, Tony is the guy who first told me about bike and build and here I am in some church in a random town in america right in the thick of my own Bike and Build adventure. It was nice chatting and during our ride we decided that it was important we find a good spot to jump in a creek, about 25 miles in we found it. There was a bridge with a pretty large looking creek below it so me and Tony decided to get in. Tony got in first and I told him to check the depth below the bridge and he did saying it was too deep for him to touch the bottom, so I proceeded to jump off the bridge through the metal supports. Justin, another rider came up behind us and walked up to the top of the bridge to see how that looked for jumping off. After decided it was a good decision, several of us walked up and then after a few moments of hesitation we all jumped off. Here is a snap of it, quite the blast. Probably for the next hour more riders filtered in and proceeded to jump off, I'm sure B$ jumped off with everyone twice. It was a lot of fun because I think almost everyone in the group did it and really enjoyed it. Some after more convincing and some with none at all. Good times :)
6/3/09
Wow, I’m actually doing a decent job of writing things down it seems. Hopefully this trend can continue. Right now I’m sitting at lunch, it’s my day to drive the trailer and we’re going into Cincinnati, the road seemed ok for the first part but have turned very busy and are crowded with strip malls which are much less pleasant then some of the more secluded mountain passes. So the host we had last night have been by far the most generous with donations, they donated cases of peanut butter and jelly, granola bars, snacks and the funniest of all was 2 huge boxes of hair products and lotion, everyone was able to stock up on conditioners and moisturizers but we were forced to leave a vast majority of it behind. I don’t know if bike and build has ever had such a generous hair product donation before, if so that would be impressive. We have lots of nice leftovers from dinner last night included lasagna, more fruit then is comfortable to lift by yourself.
Wow, I’m actually doing a decent job of writing things down it seems. Hopefully this trend can continue. Right now I’m sitting at lunch, it’s my day to drive the trailer and we’re going into Cincinnati, the road seemed ok for the first part but have turned very busy and are crowded with strip malls which are much less pleasant then some of the more secluded mountain passes. So the host we had last night have been by far the most generous with donations, they donated cases of peanut butter and jelly, granola bars, snacks and the funniest of all was 2 huge boxes of hair products and lotion, everyone was able to stock up on conditioners and moisturizers but we were forced to leave a vast majority of it behind. I don’t know if bike and build has ever had such a generous hair product donation before, if so that would be impressive. We have lots of nice leftovers from dinner last night included lasagna, more fruit then is comfortable to lift by yourself.
June 1, 2009
A new month of the trip, exactly 2 left. Today we entered Iowa making the total number of states that we have traversed to 2 now, pretty exciting. The cue sheet for today had a million different directions and made for some confusing turns but everyone did a good job chalking directions and we talked to plenty of locals for help. I learned that it’s called a “crik” and not a “creek” in this territory. Ohio is a nice change of pace from the mountains, it was an easy rolling day with only a handful of hills and mostly flat spans of land which were still very scenic. Right before lunch, we came across a great lake that seemed perfect for jumping in. I’ve enjoyed the idea of jumping in any bodies of water we run across, weather it be the Atlantic ocean, a river that we were passing over or now this new lake. Jumping in was great, the water wasn’t too cold and it was a great cool down. I was able to convince a few other riders to jump in with me. Then we had a nice lunch of cheese sandwiches a few miles later. Though during the last 5 miles there was a pretty intense climb, kind of like a last ditch effort at spoiling our ride but we went right up it and finished up nicely. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot of climbs and 75 miles, so not quite the flat 50 miles we did today but I guess they all can’t be easy.
I think I’m going to sleep outside tonight, over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to sleep outside whenever the weather will permit. I think I’m going t
o try and sleep outside tonight, even though ti’s a 30% chance of showers I think I’m going to try it, maybe sleep under and an awning. I did once at the farmhouse we stayed at in marlington, Aaron came to me with a stroke of genius and mentioned sleeping in the trailer so we did. We had the back of the trailer open and just slept under the stars, it was awesome. It rained during the night but we managed to stay dry in our nice vehicle. It was nice being able to be in the rain and listen to it without actually getting wet and sleeping in the fresh air. Speaking of Marlinton there was some fun activities before we went to bed that night, the girl we stayed with had a 20 gauge shotgun that she showed us how to use and let us play with. It was really entertaining seeing a bunch of city/suburban kids get so worked up over shooting a really low
powered shotgun. She mentioned that her dad got the gun when he was 8 years old, even though we looked like a bunch of dorks it was still a blast. The absolute best part was the next morning, Mark, our host came into the room while we were all doing our morning routine and he sets down what looks like a pair of rollerblades with large plastic ovals on the bottom. I immiediately inquire if what I'm looking at is a pair of moon boots and he responded that they were. So I grab them up right away and start lacing. I jump up and probably get a good 2 extra feet then I normally would, the best way to describe them would be like walking on a trampoline but on any surface, amazing. I feel that Bike & Build has opened me to so many new things, moon boots now being one of them, I need to get me some of those.
A new month of the trip, exactly 2 left. Today we entered Iowa making the total number of states that we have traversed to 2 now, pretty exciting. The cue sheet for today had a million different directions and made for some confusing turns but everyone did a good job chalking directions and we talked to plenty of locals for help. I learned that it’s called a “crik” and not a “creek” in this territory. Ohio is a nice change of pace from the mountains, it was an easy rolling day with only a handful of hills and mostly flat spans of land which were still very scenic. Right before lunch, we came across a great lake that seemed perfect for jumping in. I’ve enjoyed the idea of jumping in any bodies of water we run across, weather it be the Atlantic ocean, a river that we were passing over or now this new lake. Jumping in was great, the water wasn’t too cold and it was a great cool down. I was able to convince a few other riders to jump in with me. Then we had a nice lunch of cheese sandwiches a few miles later. Though during the last 5 miles there was a pretty intense climb, kind of like a last ditch effort at spoiling our ride but we went right up it and finished up nicely. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot of climbs and 75 miles, so not quite the flat 50 miles we did today but I guess they all can’t be easy.
I think I’m going to sleep outside tonight, over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to sleep outside whenever the weather will permit. I think I’m going t
o try and sleep outside tonight, even though ti’s a 30% chance of showers I think I’m going to try it, maybe sleep under and an awning. I did once at the farmhouse we stayed at in marlington, Aaron came to me with a stroke of genius and mentioned sleeping in the trailer so we did. We had the back of the trailer open and just slept under the stars, it was awesome. It rained during the night but we managed to stay dry in our nice vehicle. It was nice being able to be in the rain and listen to it without actually getting wet and sleeping in the fresh air. Speaking of Marlinton there was some fun activities before we went to bed that night, the girl we stayed with had a 20 gauge shotgun that she showed us how to use and let us play with. It was really entertaining seeing a bunch of city/suburban kids get so worked up over shooting a really low
powered shotgun. She mentioned that her dad got the gun when he was 8 years old, even though we looked like a bunch of dorks it was still a blast. The absolute best part was the next morning, Mark, our host came into the room while we were all doing our morning routine and he sets down what looks like a pair of rollerblades with large plastic ovals on the bottom. I immiediately inquire if what I'm looking at is a pair of moon boots and he responded that they were. So I grab them up right away and start lacing. I jump up and probably get a good 2 extra feet then I normally would, the best way to describe them would be like walking on a trampoline but on any surface, amazing. I feel that Bike & Build has opened me to so many new things, moon boots now being one of them, I need to get me some of those.
Monday, June 08, 2009
6/8/09
We finally crossed into IL, it’s crazy because we’re going to be in St. Louis in 2 days from now the home town awaits. I am once again driving the van, it seems like the only moments when I have enough free time to write things is when I’m waiting on riders for lunch during my van days so I’m glad I at least have that.
Cincinati was a lot of fun because of the build day, it’s always nice to have a chance to rest and do some building. Of course it’s custom to always go out before a build day and Adam, one of the former program directors of Bike and Build offered to give everyone shuttles to downtown Cinci. Got to see some of the local hotspots which was a lot of fun.
Two days ago on our way into Bloomington we stopped by a tiny town called Nashville. It was really interesting because it was meant to feel like a Christmas card and was very tourist oriented. Something I always enjoy doing is stopping and getting ice cream at our lunch stops, but this town had probably 10 different places to get ice cream so it was quite the dilemma trying to pick which one. When we finally did I got my banana split and it was amazing, and though I’ve only gotten banana splits so far (with the exception of one boston shake) I feel as though I might start adventuring towards new types of ice cream. After ice cream, we got pizza, not exactly the most ideal lunch for a bike ride but we only had 20 miles after that.
We finally crossed into IL, it’s crazy because we’re going to be in St. Louis in 2 days from now the home town awaits. I am once again driving the van, it seems like the only moments when I have enough free time to write things is when I’m waiting on riders for lunch during my van days so I’m glad I at least have that.
Cincinati was a lot of fun because of the build day, it’s always nice to have a chance to rest and do some building. Of course it’s custom to always go out before a build day and Adam, one of the former program directors of Bike and Build offered to give everyone shuttles to downtown Cinci. Got to see some of the local hotspots which was a lot of fun.
Two days ago on our way into Bloomington we stopped by a tiny town called Nashville. It was really interesting because it was meant to feel like a Christmas card and was very tourist oriented. Something I always enjoy doing is stopping and getting ice cream at our lunch stops, but this town had probably 10 different places to get ice cream so it was quite the dilemma trying to pick which one. When we finally did I got my banana split and it was amazing, and though I’ve only gotten banana splits so far (with the exception of one boston shake) I feel as though I might start adventuring towards new types of ice cream. After ice cream, we got pizza, not exactly the most ideal lunch for a bike ride but we only had 20 miles after that.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
5/31/09
Today I was sweep with Alicia and it could not have been a better day for it. The church we stayed at was amazing, we were at St. Johns church which gave us an amazing dinner of vegetable Alfredo and it was fantastic, best dinner I have had yet. Though the lasagna at the church in Virginia beach was amazing as well. But this morning we woke up and did the morning thing of packing up the trailer and cleaning up the area we were in. St. Johns provided a full breakfast which was just icing in the cake after the dinner last night. As the sweep team Me and Alicia ended up getting some coffee beforehand after everyone else left to give them a bit of a head start, a nice wake me up as well as a chance to hang out and talk.
We took highway 60 all of the way into Huntington and even though it was a busier road, it was really not too bad of a ride. During lunch there was a dairy queen and I picked up a large dipcone, something that was a stample of my childhood that I felt the desire to revisit.
Generally sweep does not get in too early just because they’re the last ones to come in, fortunately I lucked out and we ended up getting in around 3 pm which is one of the earliest finish times we’ve had in awhile. Upon entering the church facility I felt as though I had stepping into a lavish hotel, this was by far the nicest church I have ever seen. It was 6 stories tall and was centered around a large atrium, each floor looked into the atrium and had many hallways and small rooms that were interconnected with many stairwells. I’m pretty sure there were 100 staircases in this building. I know this because I spent the first 20 minutes looking for my bag, coming in late I didn’t see where everything was unloaded, everyone I asked seemed to have already found their stuff and settled in. Regardless I didn’t mind searching around, I felt as though I was in a labryth of sorts because I was constantly finding new rooms and lounges each turn I took, I was impressed just by the sheer scale of the building. For dinner we had a great fried potato dish along with salad and pasta which was most enjoyable.
Tonight we played Psychiatrist, it’s a really fun group game that is always hilarious. Essentially you have a group and you sit in a circle of some sort and the idea of the game is that you act like the person next to you. You have a sucker “psychiatrist” who does not know this and is trying to figure out what is wrong with you. They do this by asking questions to the person, but they don’t know that the person they are asking questions to is answering as the person next to them. Some people guess it really quick and some don’t, but either way the impersonations can be very good and have the whole group holding their sides while the psychiatrist is standing there dumbfounded because they can’t figure out why everyone is laughing. But that was what happened this evening, quite a few good impressions, it’s made easy by the fact that we have some characters in the group and they always are easy to impersonate. It started off with 5 of us and after about 3 hours or so we had managed to get almost everyone in the game, each time bringing in new people who didn’t know the trick yet. Even though this group has only been together 2 weeks, it feels so much longer. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to feel like at the end of our trip, how long it will seem that I will have known these people yet how quickly the summer will have passed. Tomorrow we’re going into Ohio which means we will have traversed 2 states already which is starting to feel a little crazy that we’re really biking across the united states and we’re making some serious headway.
Today I was sweep with Alicia and it could not have been a better day for it. The church we stayed at was amazing, we were at St. Johns church which gave us an amazing dinner of vegetable Alfredo and it was fantastic, best dinner I have had yet. Though the lasagna at the church in Virginia beach was amazing as well. But this morning we woke up and did the morning thing of packing up the trailer and cleaning up the area we were in. St. Johns provided a full breakfast which was just icing in the cake after the dinner last night. As the sweep team Me and Alicia ended up getting some coffee beforehand after everyone else left to give them a bit of a head start, a nice wake me up as well as a chance to hang out and talk.
We took highway 60 all of the way into Huntington and even though it was a busier road, it was really not too bad of a ride. During lunch there was a dairy queen and I picked up a large dipcone, something that was a stample of my childhood that I felt the desire to revisit.
Generally sweep does not get in too early just because they’re the last ones to come in, fortunately I lucked out and we ended up getting in around 3 pm which is one of the earliest finish times we’ve had in awhile. Upon entering the church facility I felt as though I had stepping into a lavish hotel, this was by far the nicest church I have ever seen. It was 6 stories tall and was centered around a large atrium, each floor looked into the atrium and had many hallways and small rooms that were interconnected with many stairwells. I’m pretty sure there were 100 staircases in this building. I know this because I spent the first 20 minutes looking for my bag, coming in late I didn’t see where everything was unloaded, everyone I asked seemed to have already found their stuff and settled in. Regardless I didn’t mind searching around, I felt as though I was in a labryth of sorts because I was constantly finding new rooms and lounges each turn I took, I was impressed just by the sheer scale of the building. For dinner we had a great fried potato dish along with salad and pasta which was most enjoyable.
Tonight we played Psychiatrist, it’s a really fun group game that is always hilarious. Essentially you have a group and you sit in a circle of some sort and the idea of the game is that you act like the person next to you. You have a sucker “psychiatrist” who does not know this and is trying to figure out what is wrong with you. They do this by asking questions to the person, but they don’t know that the person they are asking questions to is answering as the person next to them. Some people guess it really quick and some don’t, but either way the impersonations can be very good and have the whole group holding their sides while the psychiatrist is standing there dumbfounded because they can’t figure out why everyone is laughing. But that was what happened this evening, quite a few good impressions, it’s made easy by the fact that we have some characters in the group and they always are easy to impersonate. It started off with 5 of us and after about 3 hours or so we had managed to get almost everyone in the game, each time bringing in new people who didn’t know the trick yet. Even though this group has only been together 2 weeks, it feels so much longer. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to feel like at the end of our trip, how long it will seem that I will have known these people yet how quickly the summer will have passed. Tomorrow we’re going into Ohio which means we will have traversed 2 states already which is starting to feel a little crazy that we’re really biking across the united states and we’re making some serious headway.
5/21/09
So it’s the end of the first day of riding of our trip. I arrived last Friday at leader orientation around 10 pm in
We went over a lot of logistics and things to do, went shopping and BJs wholesale which had the most sketch store front I’ve seen in awhile resembling an abandoned warehouse. We ate really well, eating a chilis, outback,
The next thing that comes to mind is when the riders arrived, it was so interesting finally seeing the people in real life who I had only seen in pictures and talked to briefly in emails. Everyone seems very interesting and very excited to be here, its clear that we all have something very much in common and are genuinely interested in each other.
Yesterday was one of the most interesting days of summer yet. It was the day before we leave and I think it all started with me feeling as though I was connecting with everyone. I was connecting with people and having fun. I kind of picked up slack lining and got to talk to people about disc golf, apparently quite a few people love disc golf. The real thing about yesterday was the dinner and presentation to the church that hosted us for orientation, I felt such an overwhelming sense of something that I can’t quite describe. It was not until I was telling a room of people what were trying to do and seeing the movie, I felt so inspired! That is the word. Though not terrible original I feel that word is a full embrace of the emotions that I had. When each rider stood up and said what they were most excited for it was so good to hear everyone talk. I felt that a lot of peoples personalities came though in even just a few seconds of them talking about themselves. When Mark talked, he has such an moving talk about how he was going to move back to
Today I’ve told you a little bit about with the route meeting. We went to the beach and the police officer gave a speech to us before we dipped the tires. After we dipped the tires I had someone hold my bike, I had previously made sure I removed everything that I didn’t want to get wet from my pockets. I then while everyone was dunking their tires proceeded to run into the ocean and dive over the first wave I saw. I had my helmet on and everything, unfortunately little did I realize that I had only about a foot of water until I hit ground and did I hit ground. It’s good I had my helmet on but I really jarred my head. I’m not going to lie, my neck is a bit stiff. But it was totally worth it.
I made this cue sheet for this first ride, at the bottom I had put important numbers and at the very bottom I put “looking for a good time: Brian 636-328-6367” and I had enjoyed that. Aaron called me during breakfast and that was enjoyable, I’m glad people liked it. But the ride was intense, at first it was really bad with a one lane bridge that was under construction that we had to ride over. But it then started to clear up until we got to the military highways. There were a few turns that judgment calls had to be made and I did it, then 30 people would follow behind me. I was feeling so nervous that things would go wrong or that I would make a mistake, but it all ended up working out. I feel that this first day just threw us in to being a leader. Having to deal with slow riders, chore groups and confused riders I felt as though I was able to step up and take responsilbity really well and I feel as though I’m keeping things very sociable. I’m trying so hard to not to put myself above others and just help them do what they need to do.
Friday, May 29, 2009
5/29/09
So this is my second entry, hooray for not making this a one night stand journal. Today we arrived in Summersville West Virginia, it’s funny because even now I feel as though I’m writing about the and trying to remember exactly what has happened in these first 8 days of the trip. It’s hard to believe we’re already a week in, though there is so much more to go I feel as though it’s going to be very hard to say goodbye to the people I have met.
The past 3 days have been tough uphill climbs, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. 8% grades for up to 3 miles. I remember the first was when we were on our way to the skyway drive a scenic highway where we ran into Lee.alumni who knew tony from CUS 08 and was really friendly. An Me, aaron and david were struggling to the top of the most intensive hill I had ever climbed to that date. It was foggy and hard to see, we were on the granny gears the whole way up but it was such a relief when we made it to the top. The highway was amazing with so few cars during the whole ride the only downside was that it was cloudy the whole day, we would approach a lookout and see nothing but pure white. It’s too bad because I can only imagine what kind of view lay on the other side of those clouds. There were a few moments during the day that we were able to see breaks in the cloud, I got a picture in front of the first one with johns camera and I hope to send that to friends and family as a good portrait kind of shot that shows me on top of a mountain. During the next day on our way to Marlington we came onto an amazing lookout on top of a mountain. This day I felt that CUS had the most comeradry I’ve ever seen, everyone including myself would cheer people up the hill as we saw them approach our position on the top. There was a lookout where we hung out for at least 20 minutes getting plenty of group pictures and having lots of fun making sure to include a banana cheer. I feel that this was a highlight of the day, getting to that top and cheering everyone along to make it.
Today on our ride to Summersville, we had some tough uphills that included a construction area that we were forced to go through an 8 percent grade while cars waited for us to approach. Then we continued on to the gulley river and stopped at that bridge, it was so big it felt like a lake. I haven’t been to that river since I went with the Larsons, Brandon and steve’s dads friends. So one of the most random things happened to me on that bridge. There was this car that slowed to a stop next to us on the bridge, the man in the car said nothing except let his dog bark at us as he was waiting there. I went up and petted the dog and looked at the guy to say hello, but he didnt look at me, just kept looking forward as his dog was chilling out the back window having me pet him. The car behind him honked and he started to drive away. It was so strange mostly because the guy didn’t try to talk to us, he just looked forward and let his dog bark at us as I pet it. Then he drove off without saying anything, it was definitely an interesting interaction. Then there was a interesting fellow at lunch who is hard to describe. He told us he played the spoons and proceeded to hit them together with out anything resembling rhythm. He then told a “joke” that went something along the lines of having us ask him to if he could make a Turkey sound, then he would proceed to gobble and then pretend to shoot a turkey and then look at us as though expecting a reaction of laughter. It was really funny but not so much for the wittiness of the joke. He also helped direct people to the lunch spot which was really nice, though the van was visible from hundreds of feet down the road, I'm sure his signaling helped people not to miss lunch :D I think my favorite part of the day was as we were going on a downhill through dense forest, out of no where everything opened up into this valley. The best way I could describe it was as though we were on a bridge that had mountain on either side and nothing below us, it felt as though we were flying, It was the most amazing moment of riding I have had yet. I let go of my handlebars and let my arms out as though I did have a moment of flight, even though it was just a moment of 40 mph on a bicycle down an amazing hill, it felt as though it was more, probably because of the toil that was the uphill climb to make it to that point. It’s moments like those that make it seem so worth the climb.
I feel as though my brain isn’t functioning, I’m trying to recall great moments from the previous week but already it’s hard to recall specific things. We went to good times tonight, a bar in Summersville where the Cat Daddys were playing. There were about 10 of us who went, the lady at the front checking IDs didn’t make me pay. Just a side note, the lady at the deli counter of the grocery store gave me quite the look down when I went in today to get my fried potatoes with jen, the older lady working at the counter commented that she should “keep her mouth closed” maybe it was the spandex. But at the bar, there was this goofy band and they played a few songs, I tried to get people to dance but that is harder then it sounds. I got a few but it was a lot of fun, when most of the group left around 1030 or so I was able to get the remaining 5 or so to get up and dance for the last song. Aaron, Dana, Mark (who danced with two townies at the very end) and myself and Steve, a good time was had.
It’s one week in and this trip is proving to be amazing, I’ve having so much fun while meeting new people and having more new experiences then I can handle. I feel as though life is a process in which we try and constantly expose ourself to new ideas and new concepts. Maybe some not as much as others, rather then saying this is what all thing maybe I should rephrase and say this is what I hope for myself. I think Bike & Build has been so much learning by being forced to improvise everyday while keeping some sort of sanity and predictability in it. It’s so much being thrown in it it’s almost too much to handle. I can’t believe I have spent so much time preparing and thinking about how this trip is going to be, and that it’s already a week into it. I have so much behind me yet so much more ahead.
Banana splits during lunch are always good.
So this is my second entry, hooray for not making this a one night stand journal. Today we arrived in Summersville West Virginia, it’s funny because even now I feel as though I’m writing about the and trying to remember exactly what has happened in these first 8 days of the trip. It’s hard to believe we’re already a week in, though there is so much more to go I feel as though it’s going to be very hard to say goodbye to the people I have met.
The past 3 days have been tough uphill climbs, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. 8% grades for up to 3 miles. I remember the first was when we were on our way to the skyway drive a scenic highway where we ran into Lee.alumni who knew tony from CUS 08 and was really friendly. An Me, aaron and david were struggling to the top of the most intensive hill I had ever climbed to that date. It was foggy and hard to see, we were on the granny gears the whole way up but it was such a relief when we made it to the top. The highway was amazing with so few cars during the whole ride the only downside was that it was cloudy the whole day, we would approach a lookout and see nothing but pure white. It’s too bad because I can only imagine what kind of view lay on the other side of those clouds. There were a few moments during the day that we were able to see breaks in the cloud, I got a picture in front of the first one with johns camera and I hope to send that to friends and family as a good portrait kind of shot that shows me on top of a mountain. During the next day on our way to Marlington we came onto an amazing lookout on top of a mountain. This day I felt that CUS had the most comeradry I’ve ever seen, everyone including myself would cheer people up the hill as we saw them approach our position on the top. There was a lookout where we hung out for at least 20 minutes getting plenty of group pictures and having lots of fun making sure to include a banana cheer. I feel that this was a highlight of the day, getting to that top and cheering everyone along to make it.
Today on our ride to Summersville, we had some tough uphills that included a construction area that we were forced to go through an 8 percent grade while cars waited for us to approach. Then we continued on to the gulley river and stopped at that bridge, it was so big it felt like a lake. I haven’t been to that river since I went with the Larsons, Brandon and steve’s dads friends. So one of the most random things happened to me on that bridge. There was this car that slowed to a stop next to us on the bridge, the man in the car said nothing except let his dog bark at us as he was waiting there. I went up and petted the dog and looked at the guy to say hello, but he didnt look at me, just kept looking forward as his dog was chilling out the back window having me pet him. The car behind him honked and he started to drive away. It was so strange mostly because the guy didn’t try to talk to us, he just looked forward and let his dog bark at us as I pet it. Then he drove off without saying anything, it was definitely an interesting interaction. Then there was a interesting fellow at lunch who is hard to describe. He told us he played the spoons and proceeded to hit them together with out anything resembling rhythm. He then told a “joke” that went something along the lines of having us ask him to if he could make a Turkey sound, then he would proceed to gobble and then pretend to shoot a turkey and then look at us as though expecting a reaction of laughter. It was really funny but not so much for the wittiness of the joke. He also helped direct people to the lunch spot which was really nice, though the van was visible from hundreds of feet down the road, I'm sure his signaling helped people not to miss lunch :D I think my favorite part of the day was as we were going on a downhill through dense forest, out of no where everything opened up into this valley. The best way I could describe it was as though we were on a bridge that had mountain on either side and nothing below us, it felt as though we were flying, It was the most amazing moment of riding I have had yet. I let go of my handlebars and let my arms out as though I did have a moment of flight, even though it was just a moment of 40 mph on a bicycle down an amazing hill, it felt as though it was more, probably because of the toil that was the uphill climb to make it to that point. It’s moments like those that make it seem so worth the climb.
I feel as though my brain isn’t functioning, I’m trying to recall great moments from the previous week but already it’s hard to recall specific things. We went to good times tonight, a bar in Summersville where the Cat Daddys were playing. There were about 10 of us who went, the lady at the front checking IDs didn’t make me pay. Just a side note, the lady at the deli counter of the grocery store gave me quite the look down when I went in today to get my fried potatoes with jen, the older lady working at the counter commented that she should “keep her mouth closed” maybe it was the spandex. But at the bar, there was this goofy band and they played a few songs, I tried to get people to dance but that is harder then it sounds. I got a few but it was a lot of fun, when most of the group left around 1030 or so I was able to get the remaining 5 or so to get up and dance for the last song. Aaron, Dana, Mark (who danced with two townies at the very end) and myself and Steve, a good time was had.
It’s one week in and this trip is proving to be amazing, I’ve having so much fun while meeting new people and having more new experiences then I can handle. I feel as though life is a process in which we try and constantly expose ourself to new ideas and new concepts. Maybe some not as much as others, rather then saying this is what all thing maybe I should rephrase and say this is what I hope for myself. I think Bike & Build has been so much learning by being forced to improvise everyday while keeping some sort of sanity and predictability in it. It’s so much being thrown in it it’s almost too much to handle. I can’t believe I have spent so much time preparing and thinking about how this trip is going to be, and that it’s already a week into it. I have so much behind me yet so much more ahead.
Banana splits during lunch are always good.
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