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.

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 Norfolk airport. I remember it being warm and humid as I stepped out of the airport with my bike box, my o uffel bag, helmet and handlebar bag to meet Brendan and Hailey. Brendan had come to pick up Hailey and me because we both came to the airport at the same time. It was around 11pm as we were driving back and there was a motorcycle pulled over on the side of the road by two cops. As we all turned to look, the car in front of us stopped short and Brendan ended up rear ending it with the new van that he had just spent a few minutes telling us how nice of a new van it was. I’m not going to lie it was fairly ironic, I felt somewhat bad though because Brendan had said that it was his first accident and clearly the new CUS van was not the ideal vehicle to crash. We got to the house that the church let us use and it was really nice.

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, Atlanta bread co and just overall eating really well for free. The best was outback though, it was such a fun time and we got to order beers. I got the purple haze which was delicious, the best part was since it was free we had no guilt about getting drinks or appetizers. I convinced everyone to get cheese fries instead of the blooming onion, funny enough it ended up having bacon on it and the blooming onion would have been a meatless alternative, you can win them all. Then the waitress ended up coming out, looking around and quite oddly placed a second tray of cheese fries down for us. Then later she came out and did the same thing with a shocktop beer, which Brendan did not want to drink so me and Barbara ended up finishing it. I ended up writing a little note on the receipt with Brendans number on it for the waitress because she was really nice and friendly and gave us free appetizer and beer and considering the meal was already free that was pretty awesome.

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 Alaska and help though he works with. Either way that guy is hilarious and quite the story teller as well as being charistmatic. He’s so quirky and easy to talk 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.

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.