The first In-n-Out

August 21, 2013

Seligman, AZ to Kingman, AZ

Last night was insane. Most of us were sleeping in tents while others were on porches. Around 2am, the winds were gusting close to 30mph! The tents were shaking and looking like they were going to bend in on themselves. People hurridly scrambled to bring things inside before it started raining. Luckily everything survived through the night. In the morning I found the bikes like this. 

Mine is the one all the way on the right--the only one still standing! What a strong bike. It ended up falling anyway when we started to pick up the other bikes, but that's not important. Before we left Seligman to spend our whole day on Route 66, we stopped at a diner that had been recommended to us for its carrot cake. Needless to say, the carrot cake was delicious, albeit a bit dense and very large. 

Route 66 ended up being relatively flat from Seligman to Kingman, despite the fact that we descended close to 2000ft. Unfortunately for us bikers, the road was poorly paved so that almost the whole ride was bumpy. It's hard to ride on pavement like that for very long because it makes any part of your body that is touching the bike get all tingly and numb. It's almost painful! Luckily, as always in Arizona, the scenery was beautiful.

For much of the day, we were riding the white line of the shoulder because that was the smoothest part of the whole road.  Let me just say, trying to ride in a straight line was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  It reminded me of a balance beam, but luckily nothing too terrible happened when I "fell off" it.  There wasn't much going on on this section of Route 66 until we got to a small town called Hackberry. Pretty much all they seemed to have going for them was a very touristy general store that we all explored.  

We're getting very close to the Mojave Desert so temperatures are rising, especially as we descend in altitude.  By the time we reached second lunch, I just want to douse myself with my water bottle to cool off.  Leaving second lunch, we encountered a major head wind that lasted the last 20 miles of the trip. Luckily I had David to pace line with and we switched back and forth every mile or so.  Kingman is home to the most easternly located In-n-Out burger joint.  Lots of people on the trip were super excited about this and most everyone made plans to get there.  David and I headed there even before we went to the host site.  It was 4 miles past the hose site but completely worth it.  I got a burger "animal" style from the secret menu and I have to say it was pretty good for a fast food burger.  Fat Boy in Brunswick, ME will still always win though.  

Biking the 4 miles back to the host site post In and Out (which brought my total milage to 90 today!) I rode right into the sun setting in the West.  I can't believe in just 10 days we'll be on the Pacific coast watching the sun set over the ocean!

Tonight the teams competed in the second Olympic challenge--the Laundry Burrito.  Basically, every third day a group is responsible for doing all of the laundry.  We all put our laundry on laundry loops and then throw them on a large tarp.  The tarp is then folded into a burrito like thing and placed in the van and taken to the Laundromat.  Tonight the challenge was to see who could fold the burrito, put it and your whole group in the van, and then take it back out of the van without losing any clothes.  It was absurd how fast some of the teams were able to do it!  The stakes are high and the competitive fire is strong.

Let the games begin

August 20, 2013

Williams, AZ to Seligman, AZ

Today marks the start of our longest stretch of biking without a break the entire trip--8 full days! Thankfully today was only 42 miles and mostly downhil. Just as we went to get on the interstate, we saw a sign telling us the way to LA. It's scary to think that we're already that close! 

Casey, Kristin, and I all started riding together and were quickly our front. Just after a long downhill though, Casey got a semitruck tire staple in her tire causing a flat. As we changed it a bunch of people passed us. Back on the bikes though, we started to pass group after group that had also gotten flats. It was kind of like playing leap frog but with bikes and flat tires! The ride was relatively easy and very short. 

We got to Seligman, a town of just around 500 people, at 11:30. The earliest I've ever arrived at a host before. We explore the town, which turned out to be way more touristy than I thought it would be. It is a very proud Route 66 town, that the movie Cars is loosely based off of. There were lots of little touristy shops and we walked around for a bit until it was time to head to the host. 

We stayed at a campsite tonight so we had to pitch tents and make our own dinner. The campsite also had a pool that we all relaxed at before we started working. Most importantly though, tonight was the opening ceremonies for the ME2SB13 Chore Olympics. There's one week left that we get to pick which chore group we want and competing in "Olympic games" is how we're going to decide who gets what chore. It was super intense and teams really brought their A game. My team is currently in last place but there is no where to go but up!! On an unrelated note, tonight was the night of the full moon and at one point the moon looked gigantic just above the horizon while directly opposite of it the giant sun was setting. It was incredible. I stood there with a few people with our arms stretched out wide taking in the moment. No picture could have captured it. 

Week 5 Video

Bike & Build - Me2Sb13 - Week 5 from Daniel LaFata on Vimeo.

A monsoon build day

August 19, 2013

Build day in Williams, AZ

This build day was our second to last build day of the summer!  How has that happened already?!  We got up way earlier than normal for a build day--5:30--because it is currently monsoon season here in AZ as we experienced hiking out of the Grand Canyon two days ago.  We split into two groups and set out to go paint the exterior walls of two different houses through the Brush of Kindness program in Habitat.  I started the day by scraping loose paint from the trim of the windows and doors so we could paint it the new gray color.  I painted for a little while, but then I was recruited for taping plastic up to shield windows and doors from the paint sprayer.  I worked with Daniel to complete this project and we shared a single small step ladder.  It was pretty hilarious to watch us both try to be up on the ladder--one person holding up the plastic and the other taping it to the trim.  We joked that we were in "Couples Construction" all day and it made the hours fly by.  Unfortunately, the rain came early around 11:30 so we had to stop for a little while we waited to see if it would pass.  During this time we all crammed into the van and our lunches showed up.  So nobody had to get out of their cars, the guy drove right up next to our van and handed the bag lunches across the windows like a drive through.  It was pretty amusing.  

The rain eased up for a little while, but ultimately we didn't get much more completed which was a bummer.  When the storm turned into one of the scariest thunder and lightning storms I've ever experienced, we decided that we should probably call it quits.  After showers, I explored the town of Williams with Casey and Jeff for a bit before dinner.  It's a really cute touristy town along Route 66 with lots of little shops.  The big news of the day was that Ellie came back from the hospital today!  She's up and walking with a cane and a back brace, which is amazing! She's so positive and we're all happy she's back.  It's hard to believe we're all going to be going separate ways in a few short weeks!

Sunflower Patches

August 18, 2013

Grand Canyon, AZ to Williams, AZ

We started today with a group photo at the rim of the canyon.  We did our team cheer there too.  It was a pretty unbelievable start to the day.  

Today, for the first time all trip, we backtracked on the road we took into the Grand Canyon for a little over 20 miles.  It was a really strange feeling going by the same things we'd gone by two days earlier but in the other direction.  I was riding with the group I had hiked the canyon with.  We all were feeling it in our calves despite how in shape our legs are.  I guess we don't use our calves as much biking.  The ride was short and lots of small, gradual hills.  Unfortunately, Arizona has had the worst drivers we've experienced by a LOT.  A few days ago riders had bottles thrown at them from moving cars while going up hills, one girl even got ranch dressing squirted all over her from a passing car.  Today the cars were passing absurdly close to us even though there was more than enough room in the other lane to go around us safely.  It's really frustrating not being able to do anything about things like that.  We all talked about how we wish there was more about road bikers in drivers ed classes and more bike paths so we could be out of drivers' ways entirely.  I rode most of the day with Ella V and we had some great chats the whole way there.  About 10 miles out, we stopped to play around and have a photo shoot in a patch of wild sunflowers on the side of the road.  It was so much fun!

We made it to Williams in great time.  Although we're staying at a church, the showers were at host family houses.  After Ella V and I were done showering, we sat around and talked with the couple whose house we were at for almost an hour!  They were awesome and I had a very meaningful conversation about teaching and my plans for getting into teaching. It's great to be able to interact with locals in all the different towns we go through.  They really make the stays there memorable.  

The Unbelievable Grand Canyon

August 17, 2013

Day off in the Grand Canyon South Rim

OH MY GOSH!!  I know already that this post and pictures will not do our day off in the Grand Canyon justice, but I'll try.  To start the day we got up and watched the sunrise from the rim.  It was absolutely breathtaking.

A good group of us had initially planned on hiking all the way to the Colorado River at the bottom, but as the morning got later and we still hadn't even found the trail head yet, we decided to do a different trail that would take us to a plateau.  A lot of other people on the trip had already decided that they would hike the Bright Angel Trail, so they were ahead of us when we started.  We started the day around 6:30am and were definitely not the first on the trail.   The view from the top was incredible and I couldn't believe that we were actually going to hike down into it.

The path down is maintained so we cruised down the first few miles, trying to divide our time between looking down at the path and looking up at the amazing site all around us. It was remarkable how quickly the switchbacks took us down into the canyon.  Looking up you couldn't even tell where the path was that you were just on, but looking down you could see the levels of switchbacks that took you down into the canyon.

Bright Angel has a few different water/rest/bathroom stops along the trail at various mile markers that we stopped at for snacking and refilling our waters.  At the second stop a few people turned back and 7 of us continued on.  The hike was amazing becauseg

fvvvc you had a different view of the canyon both in front of and behind you at every level of the trail.  When we got to the Indian Garden, one of the trail checkpoints, we ran into the earlier group that had just turned around.  We had already come about 4 miles and it would be 4 miles back up the canyon.  We debated for a few seconds whether to turn around or to keep going and we quickly decided to keep going.  For most of our morning hike we had wonderful cloud cover that kept the temperature down so we weren't dying of heat yet.  The 1.8 miles out to the plateau were over a flat desert meadow and then it let you out onto a rock plateau that overlooked the Colorado River.  The river was probably about 1000ft below.  We spent a lot of time out there soaking in the views and the unbelievableness of where we were.

For about 20 minutes we were out there by ourselves--it was unreal.  None of us wanted to leave but we knew the longer we waited, the hotter the 6 miles would be that we still had to climb to get out of the canyon.  Walking back, we were looking at the canyon thinking, there's no way we're climbing out of that!  

It was about 100 degrees walking back to the canyon and starting to climb.  We stopped at every water stop and refilled/snacked/rested.  We kept each other going by continually telling stories, switching the topic every now and then.  As we reached the final checkpoint on the way up the canyon, about 1.5 miles from the top, the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and it began to rain.  Before we knew it, the light rain turned into a torrential thunderstorm!  It was amazingly intense--we couldn't keep from watching the lightning strike inside the canyon.  It was kind of scary but also awesome at the same time.  By the time we made it to the top, the winds had picked up considerably, the rains were coming down harder and horizontal, and the lightning seemed to be right on top of us.  Inside the canyon, the thunder echoed off the walls making it sound even more menacing.  

When we finally made it out, we ran to the lodge that was at the top of the rim and went to their restaurant to warm up and eat some real food. We all could not believe the unreal timing we had had all day.  The cloud cover in the morning, the plateau to ourselves in the sun, clouds coming back, and then getting to experience the canyon in the rain before it get really bad.  Getting back to the campsite, it was hard to describe to people what they missed out on when they turned around 1.8 miles from the plateau, but we realized they would never understand so we didn't even try.  That night we had another bonfire and sat around enjoying everyones company.  Camping, despite things getting a little wet, was a real success and a lot of fun.  I definitely want to come back to the Grand Canyon and do the full hike to the bottom.

Made it to the Grand Canyon

August 16, 2013

Flagstaff, AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

WE RODE TO THE GRAND CANYON TODAY!!!  I've always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but never in my life did I think the first time I would go I would get there by BICYCLE from MAINE!  The entire day is kind of a blur because all I was thinking about was getting to the Grand Canyon as fast as I could.  I rode with Jeff and Casey so we kept a pretty good pace and the scenery was the same amazing mountains as they have been for the past few days so I didn't feel like I was missing anything too big by going fast.  

The sweepstakes for the day was the best practical joke.  The leader that was driving the van had sent a group message letting us know that there was a big surprise for all of us up ahead, which most likely meant a long downhill.  However, I thought it would be funny to use our chalk to write SURPRISE in the middle of absolutely no where so people would think that that was the surprise.

It actually fooled quite a few people.  One person called Chris, the van driver, to ask what was the surprise at this spot.  Another group got so into reading it and looking around for something that two people accidentally crashed into each other.  Luckily they were going slow enough that no one was hurt though.  I felt pretty accomplished in my practical joke playing skills considering it would have fooled everyone except the one rider that was ahead of us.  About 1 or 2 miles out of lunch, I realized that my tire was going flat.  Luckily I was able to ride it to lunch just fine, but then I had to change it there.  I never found what caused it though, which was very frustrating.  After lunch it was a straight shot of 22 miles to the IMAX theater where we were meeting the van to get shuttled in to our campsite.  To get into the park on bike would be $12 per person whereas we could pay $25 for the van and then go in and out as many time as we would like.  Casey kept getting flat tires and initially we thought we could just keep pumping air into it, but we realized that it really needed to be changed.  Finally, we got to the IMAX theater and waited for the van to arrive.  When the van got there, we piled in with a few of our bikes and headed into the park.  Chris took us along the rim of the trail so I got to see just a teaser of the canyon.  We spent the next couple hours pitching the tents and starting to make dinner for everyone while they shuttled back and forth both people and bikes.  It's so hard to believe I'm in the Grand Canyon right now!  A group of us actually took the van back to Flagstaff around 8pm to go see how Ellie was doing.  Turns out she needed surgery so she had that this afternoon and was on bedrest for the next couple of days.  It was really great to see her and I think she really enjoyed the company.  We miss her so much.  Please continue to keep her in your thoughts for a speedy recover and return to Bike & Build!