Finally an update!

I am past half way done with my trip in terms of both mileage and time, so I figured it is a good time to update everyone on what I have been up to lately and what the bike and build life is like.

We are in Colorado Springs for the week working on a house with pikes peak habitat for humanity, paid for mostly with funds raised by the riders in my group. It has been really cool thus far participating in the building of a house from the early stages, starting with the finishing of the foundation. Today we started framing the house, and hopefully by the end of this week long period it will look pretty much like a finished house on the outside! To all of my donors, thank you so much because a large portion of your contribution is going toward the building of this house.

On July 4th, the first day that we were in Colorado Springs, we had the day off to explore. A group of about 13 of us decided to hike the Barr trail 13 miles to the top of pikes peak. Because Colorado Springs has almost daily thunderstorms on summer afternoons, we had to get started by 5am to make sure that we got off of the mountain in plenty of time. Because it would have been logistically difficult to get dropped off that early at the base of the mountain, we got dropped off at 10 on the night of the third and camped (maybe illegally) at the trailhead crammed into a tent meant for around 8 people, then stashed our tents and sleeping bags in the woods and got going in the morning. At about 9 am we arrived at Barr camp half way up the trail, which turned out to be one of the coolest places that I have ever been. It is a wooden cabin with small shelters positioned around it that is maintained by an awesome couple that has been living there year round for the past seven years. They operate it with a nonprofit organization selling snacks and drinks very cheaply to hikers and putting up guests that choose to stay over night. After about 45 minutes of r and r at Barr camp we continued on our way up the mountain. About three miles past Barr camp we came to the tree line, where gradually the trees became sparse and then nonexistent. This was really cool to me, especially because this is the first time that I have ever been at any sort of altitude or seen a tree line. Also around tree line, we all started to get a little bit loopy from both the lack of sleep ad the lack of oxygen. The last three and a half miles were as difficult as they were beautiful, and they confirmed the notion that the climb is always worth the view and the descent. After we got to the top, we took some pictures and put on some warm clothes because it was around 30 degrees cooler at the top. After a while, the afternoon storms began to roll in, so we decided to try to hitch hike to the bottom. Luckily, the first people that we asked had room for six of us, and gave us a ride back to the trailhead in manitou springs where we had lunch and waited for the van. It was one of the best days I remember having in a really long time! I will post again soon when I have access to a computer with more details, but tho is it for now. You're welcome Austin!

Rainy Day Updates

So I just downloaded the blogger app for my phone, which will hopefully get me to post in my blog more. Today I'm tired from riding 80 miles an coming into Hamilton Alabama completely soaked to Te bone so I'm just going to share a few pictures!

Bike and Build so Far

I haven't blogged yet partially because internet is scarce and computers are largely unavailable, but also because I have been too busy working on affordable housing builds, biking, and exploring different cities to have any time to blog. In this post, I will try to update all (or any) readers about what has generally happened thus far on the trip, and describe in further detail a few of the high points. I wish I had more time to describe everything in detail, but we just started a stretch of biking six days in a row, and I need to get to sleep soon so that I can wake up at 6 am again to clean up our host location and get back on the bike to head for Athens, Georgia.

After my grandma dropped me off at Orientation in Charleston, I spent three days with the 29 amazing other riders playing icebreaker games, learning how to bike more safely, and working on an affordable housing build. While we were supposed to have ridden at least 500 miles before the start of the trip, it became apparent very early on during orientation that almost nobody had actually done that, so at first riding was a little bit frightening. During our second day in Charleston, we had a shake down ride, where we rode 22 miles, which doesn't seem like a lot now, but ten days ago it seemed like a giant feat. On the third day in Charleston, we worked on a historical restoration of a house from the 1930s with Charleston's chapter of Habitat for Humanity in a house that had been gutted entirely and half rebuilt. It was especially rewarding because we got to work alongside Sandra, who had lived in the house since she was a little girl, and was the recipient of the rebuild. She was not shy about letting us know how thankful she was for our help. After those three days in Charleston we began riding, and began our routine of biking, sleeping, and biking some more with the occasional build day built in.

On a typical bike day, we wake up at 6 am, eat breakfast, do our morning chores including cleaning up the host location, loading the trailer, and preparing our equipment, then have a route meeting wherein the trip leaders describe the route for the day, the expected weather, and when they expect to meet us for lunch. Next they hand us 'cue sheets' that have all of our turns for the day along with mileages so that we wont get lost, then send us on our way. We ride in groups of five or fewer, meeting up with the van about half way through the route for a lunch of leftover donated food, peanut butter, bread, and assorted fruit. While I thought that I wouldn't be eating enough during the trip and would be losing weight because of all of the biking, the exact opposite has actually happened. I have been eating so ridiculously well because of the generosity of our hosts that I have actually been gaining weight despite all of the bike mileage and additional workouts after our rides. The folks that we have been lucky enough to stay with so far on the journey have taught me the meaning of generosity, providing us with a place to sleep, and enough food to feed all of us several times. There have been times that we haven't even been able to take all of the food that they give us with us because of a lack of room in our coolers. After our bike trip each day, along with a few other particularly crazy riders, I have been doing core workouts to further contribute to my goal of getting in better shape this summer. After our core workouts, we either go to an off-site location to take showers, or if we are lucky we take showers at the host sites, then prepare for dinner usually around 6 o clock. After dinner we show our hosts a short video about bike and build, then tell them some information about the charity, its history, and its beneficiaries. After helping clean up from dinner, we have free time until lights out. Lights out is 11 on nights before ride days and 1 on nights before build days, so I am actually writing this post from another room while everyone else is sleeping. I can't describe how lucky I am to be surrounded by the people that I am; my entire group gets along amazingly well, and we all go out of our way to take care of one another, even though we have only known each other for less than two weeks. I already feel like I have a bike and build family, and I am excited for these relationships to grow as the summer continues.

I know that I wrote earlier that I would write about some specific stories from along the way in this post, but those will have to wait. Bed is calling and wake up is in less than 6 hours. In the mean time, please check out a couple of my fellow rider's blogs to see more details of what we have been doing and why bike and build is so awesome. Also look forward to some pictures that I will be posting in the next couple of days. Farewell for now from Hartwell Georgia!


Matt: http://mattsbikeblog.wordpress.com/

Gina: http://ginabargiachi.wordpress.com/

Headed Out!

Well here I am at the computer at 9am getting ready to depart on probably the craziest adventure of my life up to now. It really dawned on me for the first time last night when I was laying down to go to sleep, and realizing that it may be my last time sleeping in a bed until August 12th, and maybe even later. It dawned on me again this morning when I looked at the 18 gallon rubbermaid bin that had all of my clothes, bike accessories, and everything else that I plan on keeping with me over the next 8 weeks. I can't express how grateful I am to the donors that made this trip a possibility for me, and if you haven't gotten a thank you letter or email from me it is coming soon. I feel like I owe it to all of you and to myself to document this trip as well as I can so that you can see what your money is going toward, and so that I can come back and remember what is sure to be one of the best experiences of my life. I need to get on the road now so that I don't show up too late, but be sure to check in often and I'll try to update this as much as possible!

Life Update and Plea for Help!

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I have been keeping pretty busy in the mean time. Since my last post I got to watch Kentucky win the NCAA basketball championship live thanks to the generosity of my friend Nora. I also attended my last college classes, had my honors thesis accepted, went on my longest bike ride to date, and got a new brooks saddle to make such long rides a little more comfortable. In the mean time thanks to the generosity of many of the people around me, I have gotten much closer to my fundraising goal for the beginning of the summer. Of the $4500 that I need to raise to participate in Bike and Build, I have raised $3907. This is fantastic, but I'm not done yet. In this break between the end of classes and finals I have been catching up on thank you letters to all of the people that have donated and developing plans for more fundraising. I think my best bet will be to ride my bike on a trainer outside of a grocery store to try to actively raise some money but I also hope that I am able to raise some more funds through these online outlets. Remember that Bike and Build is a 501(C)3 non-profit, so all contributions are deductible against federal income taxes! I will post again this weekend after my finals (I have one on Thursday and two on Friday), so wish me luck and I'll write more over the weekend!

How Procrastion Makes Me Productive (sort of)

I'm sure that everyone can relate to this, but it's funny to me that I am most productive when I procrastinate. Let me explain; for that past four months I have known that I needed to get on fundraising for Bike and Build if I wanted to raise enough money to participate, but I have been mostly putting it off until recently because asking people for money makes me really uncomfortable. As the summer has drawn nearer, I have become more and more anxious about fundraising, and have become more and more productive in all other facets of my life. For example, where I would normally wait to do my laundry until I'm out of clean clothes and wait to do assignments until the day before they're due, when I would become anxious about Bike and Build fundraising I would rationalize putting it off further by doing these other things that were suddenly of the utmost importance.

As the end of the semester has drawn closer, and I have started to realize how little time I have to complete my honors thesis before my oral defense on April 16th, I have become more and more anxious about the amount of work I have left to do in such a short amount of time. Because my honors thesis is my capstone in both of my majors as well as my writing intensive, both of which are Tulane requirements, I have to complete it to graduate in May. I even stayed at my house in New Orleans during spring break last week so that I could work on my thesis instead of going to the beach like most of my friends. Despite my self-imposed house arrest and increasing anxiety, I ended up getting almost nothing done on my thesis. I was instead extremely productive in preparing for Bike and Build, starting a blog, sending fundraising letters and emails, starting training, and even making a fundraising video, in what was almost as much of a diversion from my thesis as it was a necessary fundraising push for Bike and Build. Because I've done everything that I can rationalize at this point for fundraising in light of my thesis, and laundry no longer seems like a worthy diversion, I guess I need to stop blogging and start working. Just don't judge if you catch me at the library in swim trunks.

First Training Ride and Related Stories.

This is my first real attempt at blogging, but I think considering all of the adventure that I am in for over the next several months, this is the best way to keep my friends and family updated on what is going on with Bike and Build and with my life. Because this blog is all about my experience with Bike and Build, and this is my first blog post, I will catch everyone up on what I have been doing so far to prepare for my trip.

First and foremost I have been fund raising and thinking about fund raising, because to volunteer with Bike and Build I have to have raised $4500, and asking people for money puts me way out of my comfort zone. I have sent countless emails and letters, spammed my facebook, had family members spam their facebooks, and I have plans to make a fund raising video. I am also looking for additional fund raising ideas, so if any of you have ideas please don't be shy about letting me know. Because of the generosity of the 24 people that have donated thus far, I have raised $1530 of the required $4500.

Because I reached the $1000 hurdle a couple of weeks ago, I was allowed to order my new Giant Defy 3 road bike. After many days of waiting and wishing, and after spending the better part of last Thursday refreshing the UPS package tracker website, to my delight my bike finally arrived. I didn't waste any time putting it  together with the extremely helpful and detailed instructions from the nice folks at Bokoo Bikes in Minnesota, however in my excitement I forgot probably the most fundamental rule of knife safety: always cut away from yourself. While cutting the last zip-tie holding the bike's frame together with the front wheel, I cut toward myself to be sure that I wouldn't cut the tire, and instead accidentally stabbed myself in the face just below my right eye when the zip-tie finally broke. After three solid minutes of freaking out with my roommate Aleya about whether my eye was okay and bleeding on the floor, we decided that we should go to the urgent treatment center to get the wound stitched. After two hours of self pity and reminding myself that most of the lessons that I learned when I was seven are still applicable today, I was back home with my wound glued shut. Obviously immediately upon returning home I finished putting the bike together and took it for a short test ride, because it was already too dark to go on a "real" ride.

The cut under my eye; it looked a lot worse on friday, but mostly it was just scary close to my eye.

Finally yesterday, after all of the craziness of the SEC tournament, and visits from some awesome friends, I got on my bike with my clip-in shoes, spandex, and all for my first 'real' bike ride. I was initially pretty worried about using clip-in pedals for the first time, because it seems pretty unsafe to me to be attached to a bike that is traveling up to 25 miles per hour. After a few miles of riding very carefully and making sure I knew how to get un-clipped when I needed to, I got the hang of it. I ended up riding down the levee trail from Orleans Parish into Jefferson Parish and back for a total of 29 miles. Although the levee trail is really the only place in New Orleans to bike, it was breathtakingly beautiful, and full of other cyclists. I ended up having a great ride, and I am really looking forward to continuing training for bike and build, then riding from coast to coast! 

Self-pic in my cycling get up for the first time

 

Video that I took from my bike on the levee trail 

I'm sorry for the ridiculously long post, and I promise that the next ones will be shorter! The primary purpose of this blog is to update friends and family while I am on the trip, but I just wanted to catch everybody up on my pre-trip progress. I have also been doing some 'sweat equity' with the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, however this post has already gotten out of hand, so my next post will be all about that! I guess that I should stop blogging and start getting some real work done! Again if you're able to donate, you can go to my rider page at: http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/5768 and click the "donate" link just below my picture. Keep checking in for more posts!