A century to Happy Valley

June 30, 2013

Berwick, PA to State College, PA

Today we rode our first century!! We were all kind of scared to reach the 100 mile mark and knew that the area around State College was going to be pretty steep. The day started out pretty foggy which made all of the fields really cool looking. Right as we left the host site, we came across two giant dinosaur creatures! Obviously we stopped to take pictures with them. 

The ride to lunch was relatively easy and my group was flying through the miles. The route was pretty much flat the whole way, which was a welcome break from the hills. All of us couldn't stop staring at the beautiful farmland scenery we were passing! Who knew middle of nowhere Pennsylvania was so beautiful. 

Lunch was in the town of Lewisburg, PA, the home of Bucknell University! In high school, I went there a couple times for swimming state championships so it brought back a lot of awesome memories. It was one of our trip leaders birthdays today as well, so a bunch of her family that are from Lewisburg came to lunch and brought water ice, a very welcome treat on a scorching hot day. After lunch I met up with my parents who had driven to state college the night before. Dad joined the group I was biking with and we headed towards second lunch. Unlike the first part of the day, the second part had a lot more hills. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face all day, a weird feeling for a swimmer. At second lunch (we get two lunch stops if the ride is over 90 miles or its over 90° outside), my group headed to a pizza place an devoured a large pepperoni pizza in minutes along with giant glasses of ice water. The rest of the ride was still relatively flat with a few big rolling hills here and there until we rolled into state college. It was super cool biking into a town that I've driven into more than a couple times. It was fun to finally recognize things that we were going by. Once at the church, my best friend from high school who goes to Penn State, Lara, came by and I got to hang out with her for an hour or two before she drove home. It was amazing to see her again!! That night I went out to dinner with my parents, brother, and my brothers friend. Will is living at Penn State this summer so it all worked out perfectly! Overall it was a challenging day biking the farthest I've ever biked in my life, but really awesome to do part of it with my dad, who killed it by the way!

Some struggles

June 29, 2013

Mt Pocono, PA to Berwick, PA

Leaving Mt Pocono today it was chilly and foggy. It was the first time I have worn my wind breaker this whole trip! The fog did make everything kind of cool looking though. Coming down and big hill, we saw a car with flashing lights and a huge group of Bike & Builders standing around with a car stopped midway into a turn into a flea market. When we got there we learned that one of the girls on the trip had had a collision with the car. Luckily she was alright, albeit some road burn and a little shaken from the whole thing. It was our first accident of the trip and the scariest part was that she had been doing everything she could to make herself visible to other drivers. We all took a breather at the wawa across the street to regroup. 

The rest of the day was filled with both steep and steady inclines that were almost always followed my amazing downhills. We have all learned very quickly what it takes to climb and it's awesome to feel yourself getting better and better at it. 

Going through some farmlands of PA, we found a farm that had a baby cow in a small pen right on the side of the road. We later met the owner and he introduced us to his donkey named Donkey and his giant turkey (that sadly didn't have a name). He told us that you must talk to your animals and eventually they will recognize his voice. The whole experience felt kind of like a strange petting zoo. 

After that there were more awesome hills with even bigger downhills and everything was so incredibly beautiful. 

When we finally made it to the town just before Berwick, PA, we found a giant chicken that was festively decorated for the 4th of July. Obviously we took pictures with it because it's the small things when you're biking across the country. 

First time as "sweep"

June 28, 2013

Port Jervis, NY to Mt Pocono, PA

As the title of this blog post suggests, I took my first turn at sweep today. Basically what that means is I and one other person are the designated last riders of the group. We are not allowed to pass anyone because we are responsible for making sure everyone makes it to the host site and nothing is left behind. In my head it meant taking it slow to stay behind everyone and getting to stop at all the places groups we run into have stopped. The day started off pretty cool with a visit to the Tri-State monument. This is the spot where New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania all meet. I think we may have gotten a picture with the wrong rock, but it was close enough. 

From there we made our way into New Jersey for a few hours. Almost immediately we ran into a group stopped for breakfast at a local joint. We joined them and as we were leaving the people working behind the desk informed us we were going the wrong way if we were headed to Pennsylvania. With their guidance, we realized that the cue sheet was off on the mileage and so we headed back down a giant hill and took a short cut to the bridge that leads into Pennsylvania. Getting to Pennsylvania was awesome! I can't believe we've already made it this far. We took a bunch of pictures with the state sign, waited for everyone to reach this point, and headed on towards lunch. 

Just before lunch, we ran into a long stretch of construction that was only allowing one lane of traffic to go through at a time. We caught up to the rest of the group here just as they were being let through. Since we were on bikes, we took a little longer than a line of cars would so by the time we got to the other side there was a loooong line of cars waiting to go through. A few people waved and one even yelled out "yeah bike and build!" It was funny to see everyone's faces as we passed. Lunch was along a creek, which was amazing. I almost wanted to take a nap it was so calming. Alas, there was no time for a nap and we headed back on the road, prepared to climb the hills to Mt Pocono, PA. 

Right out of lunch, we ran into a group playing bumper boats! It looked like a lot of fun--doing crazy things like that is what bike & build is all about. Not long after, we came to our first wawa of the trip! I didn't get anything but it felt like home. 

Up another hill, we ran into a group that had stopped at a HUGE candy shop. Putting my bike away, I realized that I didn't have my phone with me. After some retracing of my steps in my head (and using a friend's "find my phone" application, I realized I had left it at the wawa! My phone clearly didn't want to leave. I called the van and thankfully they went back and picked it up for me. In the meantime, the guy I was sweep with got a text from one of the directors if Bike & Build, telling him that the wawa had my phone in their safe. It was crazy to see how quickly the word had traveled! Waiting at the candy shop, I went in and treated myself to some of my favorites--gummy candies and giant smarties on a stick. Once my phone was back in my arms, we started our final stretch. I had heard that the final 3 miles were all uphill, and they were not lying. Slow and steady, with one stop for a back bend stretch, got us up that hill. That night we were provided dinner by the church we were staying at and it was by far the best meal we've had all trip. They were also super enthusiastic about what we were doing and taped us giving a presentation on Bike & Build to show the whole congregation.

This is my life

June 27, 2013

Poughkeepsie, NY to Port Jervis, NY

Today was our first day of iffy weather we've had all trip. The day started out overcast and really foggy, which made for an erie ride. After going through some crazy back roads around Poughkeepsie, we hit a milestone--crossing the Hudson River! Thankfully they have a walking/biking path so we didn't have to be with all the speedy traffic. Going up the bridge was freaking awesome. It was still pretty foggy and the metal walkway made it feel like we were going up the creepiest roller coaster ever. 

Once on the other side, the skies started to clear a bit and we started cruising past farm fields and pastures with cows in them. It's funny to think about how when most people think of New York they think of the city, when in reality most of New York is actually very rural and farmlandy. We stopped for lunch at what looked like a public park with picnic tables, but part way through lunch a car came down and asked to talk to whoever was in charge. Turns out we were in a park that only town residents were allowed to use and therefore needed permission to use. Luckily they let us stay and finish our lunch, but it was an interesting interaction. After lunch, we were supposed to get on a bike trail for a bit, something we all have started to look forward to because it means nice pathways and no cars to worry about. However, this pathway was A) impossible to find, and B) the worst kind of gravel that my hands and butt basically want numb. Once off the trail though, it was a relatively easy bike to the host site, with the exception of one of the longest hills we've climbed so far. It took everything in me to just keep pedaling and make it all the way to the top. About a half mile away from the top, we started seeing signs for trucks saying that for the next 4 miles they needed to be in their lowest gear...aka there was a 4 MILE DOWNHILL!! Words can't describe how incredible it felt. We took pictures with this statue at the bottom of it though if that gives any indication of what it was like. 

The showers we were going to use were a mile away at the Port Jervis High School. Considering we had just biked about 60 miles, walking 1 more didn't seem that bad. The best part of the whole walk though was stopping at the Port Jervis diner and getting wings and milkshakes! It's the simple things that make us happy on this trip. When dinner was ready at the host site, we had the pleasure of listening to a combination adult-student band that was practicing for a concert soon. Let's just say it was a concert only a parent could really love. Afterwards I gave my bike a thorough cleaning, getting my hands super greasy! 

Going to bed, it really hit me that this is what my life is going to be like everyday for the next two months. Just wake up, eat some food, bike all day--up hill, down hill, rain, sun, EVERYTHING--eat more food, update friends and family on what I'm doing, and good to bed. It's pretty awesome. 

Week One Video

A couple of the guys on the trip have go pro cameras that are either attached to their helmet or their bikes capturing some awesome biking (and non-biking) moments. They so have been documenting other parts of the trip as well. One guy, Daniel, has a friend that offered to edit and compose a week by week recap of our trip from the footage Daniel takes on his camera. This is the first week in video, enjoy!

 http://youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=n5pZ4VDveCU

The best day yet

June 26, 2013

Pittsfield, MA to Poughkeepsie, NY

Today we started our 7 day streak of biking with no build days or rest days in between. Up until this, we had only ever biked 3 days in a row! To start off the streak was an 85 mile day, the longest of the trip so far and a lot of people's longest ride ever, myself included. I headed out with a group of girls that I bike really well with and we were just cursing through the miles. There were some hard uphills, but they always seems to come with either a nice view, a nice downhill, or both. Biking out of the Berkshire's was absolutely gorgeous. It was by far my favorite scenery in Massachusetts (and not just because I was happy to be leaving them!). 

By the time we made it to lunch at mile 45, we had already entered Connecticut, left Connecticut, and entered New York! We were kind of hoping that lunch would be in Connecticut so we could say that we had breakfast in Massachusetts, lunch in Connecticut, and dinner in New York, but lunch was about less than 5 miles into New York. 

After lunch, I set off with the same girls again and we kept on cruising through the miles. There was only one big hill that came our of nowhere and seemed to never end, but once you got to the top it felt like you could see everything. 

After that we just chipped away at the miles and made our way into Poughkeepsie. We had woken up an hour earlier than normal, 5am instead of 6am, so we got to the school we were staying at relatively early. It felt amazing to have done an 85 mile ride and feel o great while doing it. We're starting to feel like we're getting stronger now, which is super cool! The best part about the school we were staying at was that we all got our own beds! First time on the whole trip. Not only was it way more comfortable than the thermarest, but it meant we didn't have to pack up the thermarest in the morning. The second best thing was that it had a cable TV. We spent the next 2-3 hours watching Tattoo Nightmares and resting on the couches and chairs. It was amazing. Just before dinner though, I got back on my bike an headed to Vassar College to see the campus where both my grandma and aunt went to college. It was. Beautiful campus and so much fun to bike around!

I think it's pretty cool that this route just happened to take me by both of the colleges were my grandparents attended as well as where my brother is currently attending. Plus, we basically started where I went to college. Sorry mom and dad, upstate New York doesn't sound like a fun detour. After dinner, we all sat down as a group and worked out a team charter--basically things we want to define us as a group. For example, we talked a lot about respect, communication, and patience to name a few. It was a great conversation and I think it will really help shape the kind of culture we want to great as a group for the next two months. To end, some great news we found out today is that on our day off in Pittsburgh we will be going to the Pirates vs Phillies baseball game!!! Could not be more excited!

Build day in Pittsfield, MA

June 25, 2013

Build day in Pittsfield, MA

We started our build day by walking to an overgrown lot just a few minutes from the church we were staying in. From there, we broke into assigned groups that had been decided the night before and some people left to go to a different site to do some roofing while others went to help out at the ReStore picking up and dropping off different things. The rest of us, including myself, stayed at the lot and got to work clearing out weeds and overgrown bushes to the property line. It was pretty fun hacking away at bushes and it was satisfying to see how cleared up things got when you remove a big branch or two. There were also a lot of random things that people found while clearing out the lot. Most notable were tires. We found at least 12 of them! Other found objects included box springs, a shopping cart, a plastic slide, a brick fire pit, and a marihuana plant. Yes, we found marihuana. The girl using the weed walker actually chopped most of it down without even realizing what it was. Guess that shows you how the lot was being treated before we got there. I was really ready to find a dead body the next branch I moved (luckily that didn't happen though). 

The homeowners were on site with us, which was really cool. Having them there helped to put what we're doing into more perspective and to give it greater meaning.  After the day was done, I was really impressed with all the work that we had accomplished. That night it was my chore groups turn to do everyone's laundry. What this entails is everyone puts their dirty laundry on a closed loop and places it on a tarp. We then take that tarp to the nearest laundromat in town and basically take it over for about an hour. While it was going, we all waited and busied ourselves with reading, writing, or in my case, needle pointing. When we brought it back, we realized that we had left a whole load in the washer so I went back with one other person and transferred it to the drier. While we were waiting we made up games to play with the extra quarters we had. Inspired by the game show Minute To Win It, we challenged each other to do different things with the quarters in a minute or less. For example, we had one minute to spin a quarter and stop it still standing with one finger three times in one minute. It was a great way to pass the time albeit maybe not the most pleasant noise for the other laundry goers to listen to. As we're playing, this guy who has been sitting near us comes up and asks if we could watch his phone that was plugged into the wall or a bit while he ran up the street for something. We kinda smiled at him and he walked off. Well, our laundry finished up about two minutes after he left and we were left standing there with our done laundry wondering if we should wait for this guy to come back, if we should just leave it, or even if we should pass off the responsibility to someone else. Not sure what to do, we sat down and decided we would wait 5 minutes and if he wasn't back by then we would leave. Luckily he came back with I the next two minutes, but it felt like we were on the show What Would You Do and the host was going to pop out of no where asking, "So you waited for him to come back even though you're laundry was done and you didn't even know the guy...why would you do that?" Overall it was a fun first night of laundry despite our minor slip up.