8/6- Ash Fork to Kingman

Today I biked 112 miles from Ash Fork to Kingman, another stop along historic Route 66. 112 miles would mark the cycling leg of an Ironman, and also happens to be the most I've ever biked in a day. In many ways, today was the reverse of our day into Pietown in that we spent most of the day descending, as we finally came off of the Colorado Plateau, but very similar in that it featured a very strong headwind that made you doubt our 2,000 foot elevation loss for the day. The elevation loss was definatley echoed by the increase in temperatures, as today got hotter as the day wore on and as we lost elevation, reaching 95 by second lunch.

After arriving at our host location, Kyle and I sought some donation magic, and secured ourselves some free pizza at Pizza Hut after stocking up with some last minute stuff at the local bike shop, we were able to make it back to our host right before both a lightning storm and a dust storm hit Kingman.

For those planning on visiting me in Santa Barbara, I also found out that our big group dinner will occur on our arrival into SB on the 14th, meaning that I will be free on the 15th for any family that might show up.

Tomorrow we are biking another century into Vegas...

8/5- Grand Canyon to Ash Fork

Attention: Blog updated from Portales all the way up to Pietown, NM and then skipped ahead to Grand CAnyon and Today


Today we finally left the Colorado Plateau and spent most of the day retracing our steps from the Grand Canyon. Todays ride was mostly pleasant on some of Arizona's best roads we've encountered, and beside's getting a flat bringing my total to 8 for the trip, today's ride was otherwise enjoyable. Seven of the last ten miles was a 6% downhill.

While I've enjoyed our somewhat circuitous route through the Southwest because it has allowed us to see many interesting sights, and as much as I'm looking forward to Vegas, part of me wishes we kept our first objective of biking cross country in higher priority, as we could have probably been in Santa Barbara by now, if not close. As much as I've enjoyed this trip and the amazing experiences that it has afforded me, I feel as if I'm ready to return home at this point to deal with the life I've left behind these past eight weeks.

8/4- GRAND CANYON- DAY OFF!

8/4- Grand Canyon- DAY OFF!
Having been convinced that hiking from the rim to the river and back in a day was a foolish idea, I slept in late today (and by late I mean 6:30am), and spent the morning hiking the steep but shorter 3 mile round trip to Cedar Point, which featured over 1,000 feet of elevation change. Having hiked to Cedar Point, I felt that had I woken up at twilight and carried the proper amount of water and food I would have been able to hike rim to river and back in a day, although not in the con

Hiking Grand Canyon was insanely entertaining, and in the future I would like to spend several days hiking in one of the world’s most beautiful natural areas.

After returning from our scenic view of the canyon, I enjoyed a large meal of Huevos Rancheros followed shortly by a cheeseburger special before taking a lengthy nap. We spent the rest of the afternoon mostly taking it easy and wound up at the campsite right before a strong storm rolled through. The night was spent telling stories and toasting shmores around the campfire, and heading to sleep for our next leg of the trip which would put us in Vegas in three biking days...

7/28- Soccorro to Pie Town

Today’s ride was easily the most challenging of the trip. While I have made certain days difficult by self created challenges, finishing today’s ride was a challenge in itself, and left me with a huge sense of accomplishment.

The roads were decent, and the weather and temperatures were absolutely perfect for the entire ride, but the route visited the highest altitudes for the trip, featured a constant climb for 95 miles, and featured the strongest headwind we’ve encountered on this whole trip.

The ride could best be split up into four parts. The day started off with me riding with Sophie and Lindsay as we climbed over 2,000 feet climbing in the first 10 miles of the trip. It may have been the altitude, or the lack of sleep, or lingering effects of sickness, but I felt truly awful the first 35 miles of the ride as my stomach turned over several times. I struggled to keep my stomach in check, and mentally this had to be the toughest this trip has been since the mountains of PA.

After a lunch where I forced myself to eat, I found myself feeling slightly better and rode alone until I caught up to Lindsey. We rode together, surrounded by mountain ranges in the distance on every side of us as we rode in this barren flat that continued to slowly rise as wind pelted us with all of her fury. We rode until we reached the VLA (Very Large Array) that one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories consisting of 27 radio antennas in a Y shaped configuration that give the resolution of an antenna 22 miles across.

I spent the afternoon biking alone, fighting the strong head winds and my own mental battles, slowly watching the odometer increase. It seemed at time thats regardless of how hard I biked, I could not break the 9 mph barrier.... not fun. After feeling really good about my biking progress yesterday, today was definately a humbling experience, losing the battle to mother nature's fury.

I reached second lunch, a general store/diner in the middle of nowhere, and ordered another one of my usual large meals, a chili cheeseburger and fries, and homemade apple pie ala mode. This large display of food was made even larger when the waitress messed up my order and brought a plate of chili cheese fries by mistake. This did not prove to bea problem, as all the food quickly disappeared. I think as much as people on this trip enjoy eating, I think they enjoy watching the "spectacle" of me eating even more interesting. (I think anyone who has seen me eat knows exactly what I'm talking about).

Kyle and I left second lunch hoping to escape getting picked up by the van, as it was already close to 4pm after having already been up since 3:30 AM. We rode hard and were able to gain some semblence of speed as we continued our climb, aided by the presence of large trees that began popping up at our altitude. Looking behind us, we saw we were being hotly pursued by Jose and Jane, who looked to catch up to us. After what felt like a day of injustices, I determined they would not catch me and took off, continually putting on more distance on my two pursuers until I reached the Continental Divide Sign only two miles away from our host when I started my cool down, happy with the time gap I not only maintained but increased.

Pietown, NM was home to a total population of 60 people, and felt more like a hippie commune than an actual town. The people were all older and were incredibly nice and hospitable, and of course served lots and lots of delicious PIE!

Speaking to the locals, we learned of the interesting history of Pietown. Pietown started as a rest stop along the transcontinental highway, back in the day when cars needed to take breaks at the top of large climbs and dirt roads (although the dirt highway still remains). The founder of the town started out by buying cookies from the nearby second lunch stop, and sold them to weary travelers at the top of this climb. One day, the baker of the local town asked why he was buying so many cookies, and upon finding out he was making a profit on his cookies, refused to sell him any more cookies. Well this guy didn't know how to make cookies, but knew how to bake pies, and Pietown was born. It almost sounded like a tall tale, but this story sounded as good as any in explaining why there was a place called Pietown in the middle of nowhere, NM.

7/27- Corizozo to Socorro

Today I did not intend on going hard, but once I got started, I found myself pounding the pedals. Maybe it was the excitement of having internet this morning and being able to talk to Robert in China, maybe it was being inspired by Carlos Sastre’s impressive time trial yesterday to hold onto the maillot jaune, maybe it was my frustration with Kyle R.’s punishment, but I hit the first climb flying. Today’s ride featured two large climbs, the first one lasting 6 miles, and the second one lasting 11 miles and climbing over 3,000 feet. The beginning of the day continued to feature the rain and fog that had started since yesterday. The surrounding scenery (what could be seen in this dense fog), featured broken up black igneous rock spread over this fertile volcanic countryside. As much as pictures would be completely unable to describe the surrealness and beauty of this scenery, I even did stop to take a few pictures.

As much time I had spent to take photos and chat with a few riders, I enjoyed the solitude of riding alone in this beautiful scenery as I climbed at my own pace. Unlike yesterday, there was no tailwind to be found, and we would be fighting a familiar friend all day. I kept at a constant pace up the second mountain when I spotted a second rider in the distance, who could have been none other than Jose.

I know he saw me as well, as he was carefully monitoring my progress as I inched my way closer to his position. (I might take this time to say that while no official race had been declared, I have a pretty good idea of when Jose is slow pedaling, or when he was taking a day off, and he was doing neither). (I’ll also put in the disclaimer right now that I still know Jose to be a stronger rider than me in pretty much every facet of cycling, which only shows me how much I have to improve if I want to rock out Men’s Category B next year). With about 5 m separating us, and realizing he was caught, he pulled off and gruffly announced that I should ride ahead as he wanted to ride alone. That was a good thing, because that made two of us.

Pedalling ahead, I continued to put on distance, finally reaching the summit of the second climb and began the long 15 mile descent to lunch (the rest of the day was all one long downhill). I’ve always prided myself on my ability to lay down the hammer on slight downhills, which was a skill that was practiced at the RPM computrainer classes we did at Breakaway and displayed at the Penn State Road Race this year.

I just missed averaging 20 mph over 40 miles, reaching the lunch truck in 2 hours and 7 minutes. It would be 29 minutes before Jose would roll by and about 110 minutes before the next rider would come through.

I know this sounds foolish when I’ve biked 5 hrs and averaging about 80 miles every day for the past 7 weeks, but I’ve had a legitimate fear of not knowing how much I’ve improved these past weeks, a very similar fear I had before the Rutgers Season Opener this year. Unlike the school year where I had a consistent training plan that had me work on different skills and relied on periodization, my “training” on this trip has been limited to the Eddy Merck training program of “ride lots”. I’ve tried to use this trip as more than a giant training trip, especially after learning my lesson after riding hard every day to Pittsburgh. I’ve stuck to my plan of talking to other riders and being social, while seeing everything our route has to offer and taking breaks to explore things and take photos.

After taking a 3 hour lunch break and updating my journal and playing lots of Queen, I took the rest of the day easy, and spent alot of it taking photos of other riders. A few shots are below:

Speaking of today’s route, we were within 12 miles of the first nuclear bomb tests that were conducted in the deserts. I know there is nothing out here, and the tests were held in the desert further south, but the landscape was truly breathtaking and it seems like a shame to pick this place.

7/26- Roswell to Corrizozo

Before recounting the activities of the day, I think it important to wish Katie a very happy second anniversary. I know there lay many challenges ahead of us, but so far things have worked out pretty well.

So today started on a down note for two reasons. Sophie wound up back in the ER still sick, while I woke up sick myself in the morning and felt fairly nauseous. I made the decision to take it easy while trying to cover the 90 miles in as little time as possible. .

Today was supposed to be one of the hardest days of the trip, but thankfully fortune was on our side. While the majority of the day was spent climbing, our group made it to first lunch in record time aided by a tailwind that was caused by a tropical storm in the gulf. After fighting through 20 mph+ headwinds on several days leading up to today, today was almost too easy, even given my state of health.

I spent the day biking with Kyle on the highway, and we set a good pace all day. We biked through Lincoln County, home of Billy the Kid and one of the most dangerous roads in America, according to President Clevland. While Lincoln County might have been in a state of anarchy in its hey day, I doubt it could compare to present day Philadelphia at times.

We also biked through the national forest where Smokey the Bear was rescued and made into a national celebrity. We took our own lunch break in the town of Capitan, homeplace of Smokey the Bear, and stopped at a diner to get out of the rain which began coming down in buckets. Still feeling ill and having eaten nothing since the night before, I forced myself to put down some food before continuing on.

The large elevation change and unsuspected rain left both of us freezing, and I was glad to see that the van caught up to us after our lunch break where I was able to retreive my arm warmers and rain jacket from the van. As a "grizzled" ECCC veteran, I was content with the arm warmers and while cold, realized Kyle needed my rain jacket even more.

After a few more miles of climbing, still in pouring rain, we encountered our best descent of the trip: 15 miles of downhill. Without even pedalling, our speed never dipped below 40 mph for the first couple of miles and it was a truly remarkable sensation being able to bike at the speed of cars for an extended period of time. It was also interesting to note how quickly things became hot again as soon as we lost part of the elevation we gained.

After reaching our destination, I took a lengthy nap which seemed to eliminate most of the sickness I was feeling. Having found my usual ravenous appetite, alot of our group sought dinner at one of the only two fine dining establishments in town, Elises, which gave us five free dinners. (They also agreed to boil water to make pasta for our group, as we forgot to buy propane for the camp stoves, and there was nothing in town.) Leader Kyle found most of our food, finding food donations from the two gas stations in town.

The day ended on somewhat of a down note, when one of our riders found himself in the van the next day for what was seen as unsafe riding behavior. I know the group leaders did not single him out as he felt, and I feel fortunate that I am just a rider on this trip that is not faced with making decisions that follow bike and build policy, even if they are unpopular regulations.

7/25- Roswell- DAY OFF!

Today was exactly the kind of relaxed day off I was in the mood for. After sleeping in to 7AM!, I left with a group of people and took public transit to Dennys, where another group of riders had organized breakfast for 15. After an awesome breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and hash browns, we walked across the street to a Hastings, where I was able to buy another pair of headphones that I had lost in Yukon, along with a copy of American Flyers for trip viewing, as it’s easily my favorite cycling movie.

Breakfast was soon followed by lunch, where Kyle and I had worked our donation magic into getting free Applebees. After another free steak, I was having quite the good day.

Unfortunately, the day would not end well for everyone, as our group was heading for the UFO museum on the bus and were at the entrance when Sophie felt violently sick and nauseous. I agreed to take her to the ER that was close to the Denny’s/Hastings that we were at before. I spent the rest of the afternoon there with her, where she was given an IV for dehydration.

After finally being released after taking an IV bag of saline for dehydration, Kyle picked us up and I managed to put down a large amount of food at Sonic, and then later at the Italian restaurant where Sophie ate. Besides just being hungry, I also wanted to put down as much food as possible in case I happened to catch the bug that was preying on our group.

7/24- Portales to Roswell

Today I may have outdid yesterday’s plentiful bounty of food. I wound up ridding a century ride seeking “donation magic” as we rode into Roswell, and I did not disappoint. I rode with Kyle, Big and Little Magidas, Sophie, and we had a lot of fun riding in together, although Sophie started fading badly later in the day. After we rode into Roswell, we were able to negotiate Dinner for 10 from KFC, 4 pizzas from Cicis, 2 pizzas from Peter Pan Pizza, Dinner at Chilis for 6, lunch at Applebees for 10 the next day, free ice cream from DQ, and $11 of donations.
Since we negotiated this cornucopia of food, the four of us, along with Charlotte and K-Po got to eat an amazing dinner at Chilis free of charge. As great as getting fed at the host locations every night, it was truly awesome to all be wearing normal clothing and enjoying margaritas, steak, and cheesecake with a small group of friends instead of feeling like you were fending for yourself.

7/23- Hereford, TX to Portales, NM- BIKE AND BARTER

Today was the coup d'etat of food donations, the grand daddy of them all. For a while, I've been one of the few to pull in massive food donations for the group, and I had always been left with getting 3 seemingly impossible things- free Sonic (supposedly only corporate and not franchised), free Chinese food (assuming a cultural and language barrier), and finally free gas for the van. Well today I pulled off the first two.
We woke up this morning and found out there would be no dinner at our host this evening in Portales, although we would have actual beds to sleep in at Eastern New Mexico College. I was told to work my "negotiating magic" by some, my bullshit sweet talking by others. The challenge for massive amounts of free food was on.

The first score of the day came in the form of Sonic, where me and Sofie both got free cheeseburgers and fries. Although I wasn't really hungry at 8:25 AM, it was the best cheeseburger I've ever eaten as I basked in the glow of victory and fatty foods.

The next score would not come until after crossing the border into New Mexico, where I secured more free subway for the group at the gas station/food mart place the van was at. Subway at this point has been somewhat easy to secure, but today may have topped all previous subway victories as I fed the entire group (which I havent been able to do since IN), and was able to get foot long sandwiches instead of 6 inch subs. Thats right, thats 31 feet of free sandwiches.

Right before leaving the town of Clovis that we were biking through, I saw challenge #2 (chinese food) present itself, and feeling quite lucky at this point, Sofie, Kyle R, Lindsey and I somehow communicated we needed free food for our group. Although not the best haul of the day, we got 5 pints of fried rice/ chicken chunks that made a tasty snack when the group got back.

Reaching Portales with still no dinner for our group, our fearsome foursome scored 12 pizzas from pizza hut, and then Sofie and I continued our food rampage by securing $20 of free ice cream from DQ. We also picked up a $20 donation along the way.

Total tally for the day:
2 cheeseburgers
2 fries
31 feet of subs
3 meat pizzas
3 vegetable pizzas
6 cheese pizzas
1 DQ ice cream cake
5 pints of chinese food
and a partridge in a pear tree (no not really, but it started sounding like it)

The ride itself was a relatively flat 75 miles and ride conditions were pretty nice as it never got too hot or windy. In addition we encountered some of the nicer roads weve seen in Texas (road quality has been pretty horrible the past few days and really gave the body quite a beating). It is very interesting to me how much the road quality can change between different counties, and every new county we pass through brings new surprises.

I'm a little sad I have been away from the action of Le Tour, as I heard the last 3 days in the Alps have been quite interesting as the main GC contenders sorts itself out.

90 miler tomorrow before a rest day in Roswell!

7/22- Amarillo, TX to Hereford, TX

Today I made an easy 50 mile day into a challenging 80 mile one. Heres how...

On a relatively flat day in Texas, I took a 20 mile detour with Kyle and most of the group to Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US (we'll be visiting the grand canyon in a few weeks).

We rode to the scenic outlook post where I witnessed some of the most beautiful natural wonders I've seen on this trip. For miles all one could see was carved out layers of sedimentary rocks that had been carved out by the flow of water for thousands of years.

After taking some time to take in what we were seeing, I heard there was a road down to the canyon floor that featured grades up to 20% and Kyle and I decided to take on this road.

While the 14% grade into Johnstown was certainly the most terrifying of this trip, this road was a close second with 7 switchback turns down the face of this canyon. I fully enjoyed taking the turns as fast as possible, and after reaching the bottom, Kyle and I decided we needed to tell others and repeat this awesome experience.

The climb back was somewhat enjoyable, and after convincing others to come with us, we went down a second time. Having seen the course for the first time, I had a pretty good feel for it, and took the turns even more aggressively at higher speeds. I really enjoyed being able to rip through these tight turns and decided at this point I would attempt this a third time, as I figured if i climbed fast enough I might be able to get to the top for the third time by the time the last person got there.

I took the hill up at race pace, and had my heart rate at probably the highest its been on this trip, reaching 194 bpm max. I do think this trip has significantly improved my climbing ability as well as my endurance, as I feel faster on climbs than I ever have before...I guess I'll have to leave it to the fall or even next spring when races start to know how far I've progressed.

Reaching the top, I took a short breather before barrelling down for attempt #3. This time I hit speeds up to 49.8 mph, which was pretty exhilerating. I know some people do hill repeats for fun, but I did canyon repeats today.

The rest of the day was somewhat tiring, although I did manage to draft the trailer twice, albeit for a short time.

Today definately goes down as one of my favorite ride experiences I've had so far.

7/21- Amarillo Build Day

Today we had our 7th build day. We painted the interior and exterior of this house for a Somalian family that had 14 children. This habitat house had a fairly large footprint, with 6 bedrooms, although there wasn't much else in the house other than bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. As many people were excited to get their hands dirty and paint, I spent a large portion of the day putting up the painter's tape so that our group's overzealousness at times was not counterproductive.
We also saw another Habitat house that was waiting for final inspection before move in. I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed in the floor plans of the building, which included a kitchen that opened up into another space, as there seemed to be alot of useless dead space in the kitchen enclosure, while cramping room in the living room/eating room/ whatever they would turn this into. The bedroom layout was also peculiar for its window placement and installation of a cable box, as there wasn't a good place anywhere in this master bedroom to stick even a full size bed. I'm not one to get snobbish about design decisions, but I saw these major overlooks as being really dumb and poorly thought out. ("dumbest thing I ever saw")

7/16- Tulsa to Chandler

(Today I had limited internet access at the local public library in Chandler...I won't have time to upload all of my journal entries, but I decided to start most currently and work backwards from there... I will load more photos and more entries at next available stop...it includes st louis, cracking my helmet, bike shops, riding on 20 miles of gravel, a build day in springfield, my aggravation with the group and certain people, and practicing mitch klipper economics by obtaining large harvests of food and paying nothing for it)

Today we rode a relatively flat 70 miles in beautiful biking weather (sun, relatively cooler conditions with a nice light wind). After helping Hillary fix a flat in under 10 minutes, I spent the rest of the day riding with Sophie and the pastor of Bethany Lutheran who rode with us until lunchtime. Lunch was fantastic today as I enjoyed the leftover brisket from yesterday's Habitat build. Today's route was all along historic route 66.

7/15- Tulsa Build Day

Today we had our 5th build day In Tulsa. We worked on installing the soffits and building the back shed for a habitat site. Local newspeople were there and many photos of us in action where taken (we would find out tomorrow that we were featured on the first page of the Tulsa World).

Lunch consisted of some of the best bbq food I've ever eaten, and I stuffed myself with four brisket and bbq sauce sandwiches. I also tried an oklahoma delicacy called goober that tasted very similar to uncooked cheesecake.

After showering at the local Y, we went to another church for dinner, and afterwards I spent time filling out leader evaluations.

7/14- Vinita to Tulsa

Today we visited the other city I researched for this trip, Tulsa, the second largest city in Oklahoma, home of the Tulsa race riot, and a city known as the Buckle of the Bible belt. Today was another short biking day (only 60+ miles!), sunny, and relatively flat riding on historic Route 66. I got a late start to the ride day after helping Kristi with some chain problems and spent the majority of the day riding at a good clip with Sophie who also hung back to help. Right before lunch we caught up with Amol, and he sealed the deal on securing group burritos from Taco Tico.

After holding a steady 19mph with Sophie post lunch, we arrived in Tulsa shortly afterwards. After going for a 20 minute jog with a few riders in preparation for the local triathalon when I return, we showered at a local Y and enjoyed one of the best prepared dinners at the church we were staying at.

Today also marks the halfway point of our trip geographically, and there is only a month until I return to normal life.

7/13- Joplin to Vinita

Today we rode to Vinita, Oklahoma, home of the world's largest McDonalds and birthplace of Dr. Phil. I rode my second sweep day of the trip with Hillary, who was very entertaining. Riding weather was beautiful and sunny, and while temperatures were hot, they were not oppressive and relatively dry. In short, today could not have been a better sweep day.

We rode from Missouri into Kansas for 12 miles and then into Oklahoma. Unfortunately since we were taking local country roads there were no state signs for either one.

I spent the better part of the day practicing riding without hands and chatting it up with Hillary. Before lunch the group found a river that we all swam in, which continued the otherwise pleasant mood everyone seemed to be in.

Right before lunch I made the day exponentially better by negotiating my way at some local chicken place to donate to the group fried chicken for the group, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, baked beans and biscuits and gravy. Since the van was located only a mile away, I created makeshift mussette bags for this abundance of food by employing what I learned in Bicycling magazine and tyed a plastic bag to each arm of the bag loaded with food and then tying these two arms together creating a way to carry the food to where the rest of the group was. (picture of my gluttony and pride in my hunter-gatherer status to be uploaded soon)

After arriving into Vinita and showering, we loaded up the van and visited the world's largest McDonalds. (It stratled the highway interstate). I decided to celebrate this by ordering the largest mcdonalds meal, and put down a Big Mac with fries and a coke.

I also presented my affordable housing curriculum project tonight

7/1- Yellowsprings to Rushville

Today we rode our second century, passed into Indiana AND passed over 1,000 miles for the trip.

I spend the majority of the day riding with Kyle R and Jose (amongst others) as we rode aggressively towards the state line sign. This time I was ready to use my Garmin to its full advantage in figuring out when to launch my sprint. Unfortunately, while the state line was defined by a road that ran right along the state sign, the state line sign started at the beginning of the second road that bisected it (To simplify this visually, I had to make a left from road 1 onto state boundary road 2 and then turn right at road 3 200 feet later. While beating Jose to the end of road one only to frantically look for a sign, he dived through the turn and took a narrow victory to the state sign.

After waiting for Kyle and then Jane and her father, we started again, when me and Kyle instinctively realized that today would be our chance to slap Jose’s ass and accrue 25 points to our contest (everyone else is worth 1 point, but since Jose is usually riding hours ahead of everyone, he is worth 25 points). We went for the doubletap, (for which we were successful), but in Kyle’s excitement he rode a little too fast and wound up in my back wheel and took a nice spill on the road. I was alrite, but he broke his helmet, cut through his chamois, and had some nice road rash to show for it.

After the excitement of the day, I rode with Kyle into town for the rest of the day, and were the first to get in, where we were met with great hospitality by our hosts. We also learned that Kyle was not the only one to take a spill for the day, as two of our riders had crashed after encountering a pothole and crashing, which required a trip to the ER. After getting a ride to the hospital, we waited for our two riders until they were released, and thankfully they were both okay for the most part.

The dinner that night was some of the best food we have had, and breakfast the following morning was by far the best food we've had so far. Rushville has been one of my favorite host locations so far as our hosts have had the perfect mix of great food, air conditioning and well wishes. (Also of special interest was the awesome inspirational non-denominational prayer the pastor gave us in the morning)

6/30- Columbus to Yellowsprings- Bike AND Build

Today we biked AND built.

We biked (in the rain) the six miles to the build site, which was located in the greater Columbus area. We were divided into teams and were split between 9 Habitat homes that were all in various stages of completion. I worked with Kyle, Jorge, Lynn, and Jane’s father Keith in one home. I worked on installing window sills, window trim, and installing baseboards around the home. In the process I got my first experience with a nail gun and circular saws, and also used a miter saw in cutting the boards to size. Our supervising contractor’s name was Dan, a huge mass of a man who was built like Hulk Hogan and had been doing construction longer than I had been born.

The ride in the afternoon was mostly uneventful, and other than some more rain in the afternoon, the ride was pleasant and the skies soon cleared up.

Some other highlights of the day included one of the church members offering to take us out for ice cream, which was awesome.

6/29- Newcomerstown, OH to Columbus, OH

Today it rained INSANELY HARD...3 separate times. Skies looked friendly in the morning, and I enjoyed playing catchup, eventually passing the first group as group leader Skip held steady to my back wheel. He quickly tired though, and we spent the rest of the morning riding at a conversationalist pace and chatting up a storm.

Skip decided to refill his water bottles at a gas station on the other side of the highway to leave more water in the coolers for those riders behind us, and after taking the off exit to get there, the skies began rapidly becoming dark and ominous. Lightning and more torrential rain ensued, which left me very fortunte to be hiding in a gas station and not out on the road. While we ride in the rain, we get the heck outa the way when its lighting outside, as it makes riding quite unsafe. After calling as many riders as possible to direct them to safety, we enjoyed some gas station food for lunch before hearing from riders who had ridden ahead that the skies were in deed clearing up. After waiting 10 more minutes, we decided to ride on.

Apparently this quick dry spell was only the eye of the storm, as just before we hit the lunch truck, it began pouring. Words can not describe how hard it rained at this point, as I can not even begin to describe how hard it was raining. It looked like, and felt like the rain you get during a hurricane, except perhaps with more rain. The rain droplets actually hurt as they pelted your skin, and visibility was limited to only a few feet in front of you.

I've ridden and raced in plenty of heavy rain storms, but I don't think I've ever come close to anything like this before. The Philly crit this year, the Men's A crit race in Philly in 2006, the hill hell ride I did with Adrian freshmen year where I puked on a bike can come close, practically every JV football game I played in 10th grade (with Elmont and Uniondale especially coming ot mind) could come close to estimating this level of rain, but nothing could match the intensity of this moment.

This was a moment that I had to embrace as being totally epic and one to remember. It was at this moment that I realized that even the worst day biking still easily beats the best day at work. I whooped and hollared my way through the rain as I passed riders, losing my voice again after having just finally starting to get it back after the chant of the day out of Johnstown.

About 20 minutes later, the rain slowed down, and eventually completely cleared up. The sun came out, the clouds disappeared, and unless you saw our group drenched and our shoes squishing on every downstroke of our pedals, you would have never known it rained.

Perhaps now is a good time to apologize for not taking more pictures on this trip, but at the same time following it up with the excuse of rain. It has rained more on this trip than I think I have ever encountered in three weeks, even for early spring, and this is rain that would destroy my camera instantly had it been taken out its protective map case bag that I keep in my jersey. During the rainstorm, we passed this giant building that looked like a picnic basket, but alas, no photos.

After riding in mostly pancake flat conditions for the majority of the day, we suddenly encountered an extremely short steep hill that was similar to "The Wall" in Manyunk, and left my back tire spinning and losing traction as I stood up to climb it. This was followed by mostly rolling hills that involved effort climbing.

At the end of this hilly road, a rider in the group discovered he had flatted. I volunteered to stay back with him as the front group rolled forward, and after unsucessfully patching his first tube, and then finally installing a new one, we headed on. After meeting up with a second group of riders, I decided to take a short break at a local Wendy's to refill my bottles and rest my knee which was aching by this point. I've noticed that the tendonitis tends to flare up after standing in one place for too long, so I'm going to try to spend time idling around on it, especially standing.

Another thing I've noticed is the wind picks up greatly around 1pm, and that riding into a strong headwind on a pancake flat road can be just as slow as climbing an 8% grade for 10 miles.I now understand why most tours leave from the west coast, as the midwest wind can severely aide/hamper ones efforts.

After my break I found myself on the road alone, when I noticed storm clouds assembling right in front of Columbus. With less than 10 miles to go, I figured I would do my best to beat this second storm. With my bum knee relegated to a dull aching pain as I churned it out in my big ring, I raced for our destination with the intention of beating the rain, but luck would have otherwise. The rain beganst anew, as I pedaled through, having pedaled passed a large suburban strip center and right after the on ramp for Clevland when suddenly I heard a large SHHHHHH from my tires.

Damn.

This would be flat #3 on this trip, and the third related to running over debris I could not see during blinding rain. It's also been the third large gash I've left in my rear tire, so at least I've made my flats count. It was sitting on the side of the road in this pouring storm situated about 2 miles away from any form of shelter that I first realized I had lent my tube out earlier in the day to someone who needed it. It was at this point that left me somewhat distressed, majorly edgy (I'm almost glad I had to deal with this alone), and in need of some quick ingenuity.

I might mention that at no point did I consider calling the van for backup, and it would have done no use anyways, as it was at least 2 hours away picking other riders up. On the trip we have something that some riders refer to as the "Effy" Club, which can be summed up as "Every F***ing Inch." Regardless of what gets thrown our way (knee pains, mechanicals, etc) its a source of personal pride to ride every inch of this journey. I don't really have an opinion on people who take off days, or who ride in the van, as this is their business and not mine, but the Effy Club is a personal goal to strive for that keeps you up when things aren't going your way.

I used my emergency shot blocks snack food on me that I carry for emergencies and used chewed up bits of shot block to help fill the hole in my tube that was then followed by glue and a patch (I used shotblocks as the glue was not setting on its own in the rain, and needed some assistance. I also used some more chewed up shot blocks to fill the gash in the tire, and backed it up with some of the wrapper to create a tire patch. Swearing like a sailor and still in a foul mood, I was able to install the tube, and proceed riding all the way until the church. I was so close at this point that had my craftiness not worked, I probably would have walked with the bike instead.

Meeting us at the church was Jane Wolcott's parents, who are awesome people (and apparently readers of my blog as well...who actually knew anyone read this thing!). Having calmed down and in an exceptionally good mood feeling lucky for just being able to ride in, I felt even luckier when one rider, Amol, was able to secure showers for us at the Ohio State Gym, which was lucky as our host only had one shower with bad water pressure.

After dinner prepared by the church (Mexican Food!! Hooray!! As much as I love Italian, diversity is the spice of life, and all of the food was quickly devoured with no leftovers. It was pretty late at this point, and after a group leader meeting, decided that our scheduled laundry day would be postponed a day.

This was totally unacceptable to me, who is a big fan of cleanliness. Handwashing our jerseys every day is alright, but shorts need a good washing or else health issues could prevail. It was at this point that as a late sleeper, I volunteered to do laundry with anyone else who would volunteer so that we could have clean clothes in the morning.

Finding several other volunteers, we went to the laundromat to find that it had closed. We had to go to 2 more laundromats before we found one that was open, and it wasn't until 11:45 after this exhausting day that I got to go to bed.

Not looking to the 5:30 wakeup tomorrow, but sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and just run with it....

6/28- Steubenville, OH to Newcomerstown, OH

“Two muffins are sitting in an oven. The first muffin says to the second muffin, “Man its hot in here” The second muffin says “OMG, a talking muffin”- Sofie Turrell

We resumed normal bike duties today, biking a full day before coming to Newcomerstown, OH.

Some of the highlights of the day:

- I rode with the front group most of the day, enjoying mostly rolling hills (AND MORE RAIN...HOORAY!!!)

- Kyle and I played the ass slapping game during the morning, singing the Jaws tune and laughing our heads off. The game, which started in Pittsburgh, involves using your right hand to tap a riders left butt cheek that you are passing. There are many strategies to this game ( whose rules are much more complex then are worth writing of) which includes 1) starting later in the morning so the opportunity to pass more people arises, 2) stopping to chalk routes which creates the same opportunity within a smaller group of riders, 3) riding close to the yellow line which prohibits riders from getting near you, 4) calling car back to get riders riding together to single up, etc... Everyone's butt is worth 1 point, with Jose being the exception as he is worth 25 points. He has promised anyone who gets him to be in a "world of unpleasantries". Kyle and I are not phased.

- Right after passing a statue of a giant giraffe, we met two MIT students biking across country for the fun of it on mountain bikes, although they were closer to their destination than we were, as they were biking from LA to Boston.

- Ohio has ALOT of corn...acres, and acres and acres corn

- That night we participated in the town parade which celebrated Cy Young, who was born in Newcomerstown on this day. We met the local state senator and won $20 in the parade for the best dressed bikes, which sounded like a donation to me.

- The church also had set up a movie for us at night, and I got to watch Semi-Pro with Will Farrell, which I thought was really funny.

6/27- Pittsburgh to Steubensville

Today we biked from Pittsburgh to Steubensville, OH. Along the way we biked through West Virginia, bringing the total number of states we have biked through to 6 (Massachussetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio)

The day started off in typical fashion, with rain, and no sun to be seen. It's incredibly strange to be receiving this much rain, as we are biking from east to west, so we are apparently running into successful weather front after weather front that brings more rain every time. While I'm one to enjoy riding in the rain, this is actually becoming quite bothersome, as it means it becomes essential to clean ones bike every day, and it means spending 10 hours a day in a wet shammy, which after doing this for two weeks is somewhat of a health concern. This rain was also annoying because it was slow and steady versus the torrential downpour that I've become used to, and that made cycling almost a surreal environment.

West Virginia and Ohio mark the start of states I have had little to no experience with, which very much excites me. Originially slated as a 100+ mile day, the trip leaders moved around the schedule before the trip started to give us an "easy" day before normal mileage would pick up again (the extra mileage would be picked up biking and building the same day in Columbus, OH)

Today was a relatively short day, with substancial climbing, especially leaving the city of Pittsburgh. I was extremely thankful for the shorter day, as my back and knees were in considerable pain throughout the day, and I'm not sure I would have finished the day had it been a century day.

Riding into Ohio involved taking one of 3 dangerous highways over bridges, so we called for a police escort for the front group of riders who arrived to a prearranged checkpoint. Riding in a police escort was awesome to say the least, like riding in a presidential convey (just without the president and stretch limos part)

We stayed at the Methodist church in Steubenville, which was incredibly kind to us, although it featured one of the hottest nights in a non air conditioned spaces that I can remember to date.

Other noticeable things about the day was webchatting with my family and Katie, who were sharing a Shabbat dinner together. Seeing all of their faces made me a little homesick for probably the first time on this trip.

Today was also the first day that I've noticed the beating that my bike has taken so far. It has practically rained every day so far this trip, which is not great for the bike. Rain is the bike's enemy, as it causes all of the working components on the bike to rust and pick up road grime, which further grinds down the components. The bike has also taken a beating from my little spill, getting stacked next to other bikes all the time, breaks on the road, and just normal wear and tear from riding almost 1,000 miles at this point

6/26- PITTSBURGH- DAY OFF!!!!

Today we had an off day in Pittsburgh, and boy did I need it. After two weeks of some of the hilliest and hardest riding I have ever done with no rest days, my body was reeling for rest. I woke up with my lower trapezius muscles screaming in pain, and after getting breakfast at the diner across the street, I hobbled back to the church where I tried a do-over of the morning and went back to sleep. A few more hours later, I re-awoke feeling slightly better, but still extremely sore.

After getting my wash done, I received letters from our second mail drop. The Ingber family, Dave Miller and my grandparents had all sent me letters/postcards which I was extremely appreciative of. Thank you all for your well wishes.

I spent the afternoon at the Carnegie Science Center with Lindsey, Allie, and Kyle, who have quickly become some of my best friends on this trip. We saw an Imax movie about the Alps, which made the climbing we did in western PA sound tame compared to the one mile verticle cliff found on the Eiger, the Alp's tallest and most treacherous climb.

We also saw the aquariums on the third floor that made me miss my goldfish, my goldfish, and crew very much, and a huge train set on the second floor that reinacted the Pittsburgh area in the 1850-1920 time period. We met a retired gentleman who gave us a whole tour of the entire train table, and even took us in the back room where he showed us "The Little Engines who couldn't". He also gave us a small donation for the cause, which was really nice.

The night was spent biking to Andrew Werner, who is still being architortured this summer at CMU, as he takes business classes for his minor. After biking to his place, we went out to dinner at Panera's in Squirrel Hill, which brought me back to my days in CMU precollege, where taking the 58U or 61C to the Waterfront or Giant Eagle seemed liked a really far distance. I was getting set to bike back when torrential rain and thunderstorms ruined such plans, so Andrew drove me back to the church.

Having climbed substancially the last few days, I figure I'd leave you off with this quote from former Tour Rider Jonathan Vaughters, now race diretor of Garmin/ Chipotle-

"That brings me to the key question, again: Why do people want to climb? Climbing, at its very core, is just a simple and hearty battle against gravity. The basic law of nature that oppressively pins us to the earth seems to be the one we feel the greatest need to fight against. Perhaps, then, this is why we are always trying to climb? Whenever we climb, we are proving that we can take on a force greater than ourselves. We’re pushing against something that holds us down. It’s the fight for freedom, freedom from the oppressive laws of nature as laid down by that rather aristocratically named gentleman, Sir Isaac Newton. We all know humans have a long and volatile history with the pursuit of freedom. Climbing is just a facet of this same fascination with being free.

With this noble and never-ending battle between gravity and the human race permanently underway, it would only be logical that when the greatest invention known to man, the bicycle, came into existence, the first thing we would want to do with this mechanical marvel would be try to climb hills with it. "

The full article on climbing, which I highly recommend can be found at http://theclimb.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/ready-to-edit-and-post-expert-advice-from-jonathan-vaughters/index.html

6/25- Johnstown to Pittsburgh

"Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."

Total distance- 79.3 miles
Total Time- 5 hrs 30 min
Average Pace- 4:08/ mi
Average Speed- 14.5 mph
Max Speed- 46.3 mph
Avg Heart Rate- 112 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 171 bpm
Total climbing- 5173 feet climbing

Today was a relatively relaxing day, with the exception of the route we took, which for the most part was highly trafficked roads. After two hard days of riding, I was content riding with the front group for the majority of the day and we kept the pace deliberately slow and took frequent breaks. However, it was a muggy day, and the route to Pittsburgh was pretty hilly, so despite our best efforts it still wound up being a difficult day.

After arriving in Pittsburgh, I did some celebratory laps around Roberto Clemente Bridge and the 7th Ave Bridge, where I raced in a Criterium on Easter Sunday earlier this spring. I am pretty familiar with Pittsburgh having spent a summer here doing a "pre-college" architecture program at Carnegie Mellon, and was excited to spend time in the city again.

Pittsburgh also symbolized finishing what is supposedly the hardest leg of this trip, as we have biked through the Berkshires, the Poconos, the Adirondacks, and the mountains and hills of western PA all in the last two weeks. I went out with many people from the group to PNC Park, where we went to a local bar and celebrated finishing this difficult leg of our journey.

6/24- State College to Johnston, PA

"Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in three moves"

Total distance- 76.5 miles
Total time- 5 hrs 7 minutes
Average pace- 4:01/ mi
Average speed- 14.9 mph
Max speed- 45.6 mph
Average heart rate- 131 bpm
Max heart rate- 184 bpm
Total climbing- 5845 feet!!

Today was quite easily one of the most difficult, yet enjoyable days of the trip. Today was an exhausting day for me after the punishing pace I set with Jose yesterday. The route featured 5,500 feet of climbing over 80 miles and featured a large 2,000 foot climb that averaged 8% grade for the majority of it. This climb is one of the two large climbs used in the Tour de Toona held every year. I started the day by riding with Clay and Chris, the former and current presidents of Penn State Cycling who hosted us last night our hosts from Penn State, for the first ten miles, and then chased the lead group of riders before lunch. I took a substancial lunch break giving people at least a half hour to ride at their own pace before chasing again.

At the top of the first large climb, I rode through a field of wind turbines that were spread throughout the mountain chain and harvesting the energy of the wind to produce energy. Having never been so close to one before, I was amazed at the scale of these massive rotating fins that cut through the air with a large whooshing noise.

The final descent was a nerve wracking 14% downhill grade that featured lots of hairpin turns. I took my descending skills to new levels by only lightly feathering the brakes twice during the entire descent (until the bottom), which was terrifying to say the least. I was actually quite surprised I didn't break the 50 mph barrier, although the strong head wind may have had a part to do with it.

Johnstown, PA is situated in the river valley between the mountains of western PA. It is perhaps best known for the "Great Flood" of May 31st, 1889 that occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed 14 milesupstream that flooded the city and led to the deaths of 2,209 people as a result of the flood and subsequent fires that raged through the debris. The city definately appeared depressed, and a quick Google search showed that in the 2003 US Census Data showed that Johnstown was the least likely city in the US to attract newcomers.

We stayed at the YWCA where we enjoyed another great meal of pasta and meatballs. Later that night, one of the group leaders Kyle also showed me how to use De Lorme Topo today, which they use to determine our route every day. I'm very interested in the capabilities of this program in creating new routes for riding in Philadelphia.

I am very much looking forward to the needed break in Pittsburgh, and after two days of hard riding, plan to take tomorrow as easily as one could for riding in Western PA.

6/23- Berwick to State College

"Penn State Cycling- We got bigger cogs than you" - cycling sticker quotes

Today could have been called Bike Hard with a Vengeance. After riding at the speed of slow yesterday, today I rode hard with Jose all day. We didn't stop for either lunch break and rode fairly hard the entire day, powering through the flats at 27 mph and taking every hill at tempo pace. Today's ride featured mostly rolling hills, with a long gradual sustained climb that lasted about 6 miles and covered over 1,000 feet of elevation change before switching to rolling hills before rolling into State College.



Total distance- 93.7 miles
Total time- 5 hrs, 20 min
Average pace- 3:25/mi
Average Speed- 17.6 mph
Average heart rate- 133 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 171 bpm
Total climbing- 4232 feet

Jose is an extremely strong rider, and surprisingly strong at climbing given his larger build. For almost the entire day, I stayed tightly on his rear wheel, reaping the aerodynamic benefits of drifting. We rode 99.4 miles into State College (my garmin kicked out for a while which explains the distance differences, and yes, we were .6 miles from completing a century and didn't care enough to go the extra difference to claim riding a century)

We stayed at Clay Chiles' house, the former president of Penn State Cycling, and the coolest racer in the ECCC. Clay is one of my favorite people to see every weekend in the spring, as he is a consummate teammate, a confident and experienced racer who isnt afraid to take pulls at the front, and one of the nicest guys I know. I was sad to see his back yard no longer held a mini bike race course, but was happy to meet his girl friend, who was extremely nice.

We arrived at Clay's house around 2:30, which would have been much earlier had neither of us gotten a flat, or Jose not gotten repeated calls from a newspaper reporter looking to do a story on Bike and Build. Still we we arrived several hours before the next group of riders and decided to ride into town where I consumed some delicious Sticky Buns at "The Diner", a local delicacy, and consumed a Qdoba Burrito, in a freaky flashback way to the Penn State Criterium race held this year.

The knee and cleat issues were fine, but apparently I did not do as good a job as I thought I had on shifting, and was forced to use the tension adjusters on the cables to adjust my bike on the go. I actually took my first crash today, when a lapse in timing led to me crossing wheels with Jose and taking a small spill that left me fine but my bar tape a little scratched up.

6/22- Mount Pocono to Berwick

Total Distance- 57 miles
Total Ride Time- 4hrs, 30 minutes
Average Pace- 4:44 /mi
Avg Speed- 12.7
Average Heart Rate- 113bpm- The largely accepted convention for exercise is anything above 120 bpm
Max Heart Rate- 175 bpm
Total climbing- 3145 feet

Today we rode from Mount Pocono to Berwick. The route was fairly short (51 miles), with a few medium climbs and some nice descents. Today was my first day riding sweep, whose job it is to stay behind the last rider. After the freedom of riding at my own pace the last few days, today was painfully slow. Katie may still not realize how happy I was to see her yesterday, as just thinking of her visit kept me sane for the majority of the day. She also left with me with an anklet bracelet with little eyes on it to keep me safe, which was another nice reminder of her visit.

This terrible, no good, horrible day started off the same as every other: substancial rain coming down in buckets. However, today would be different, as in the downpour I ran over something substancial that left me with my first flat, my first of the trip. A day after losing the beard off, I would lose the tire flat standoff contest as well.

I tried keeping my frustration and edginess down to a minimum, as I continued to have knee and foot hotspot pain all day, which I believe came from continued cleat issues. The day progressed slowly but at 4:15 pm, almost 9 hrs after leaving in the morning, we arrived at our host destination.

After cleaning my bike, showering and eating, I was rewarded for my day's efforts, when Jose gave a clinic on derailleur shifting and how to fix them. While extremely informative, I was still a little unsure on fixing my own bike. I have always been scared of trying ot fix my road bike, as I have usually had things dialed in perfectly, so I purposely screwed up the shifting on my own bike so that I was forced to teach myself limit screws and cable tensioning. Finally, many hours later I found myself able to fix front and rear derailleur issues on my bike. This is quite exciting for me, as this is a valuable skill that I can now use on my own bike or for Penn Cycling members.

I will say I have a lot more respect for the riders who come in later every day, as they are spending alot of time in the summer heat and spending a lot more time in sweaty shammys. Many of them are riding just as hard as I am for their own skill level, except they are our there for several more hours working their hardest, which makes their efforts that much more commendable.

6/21- Port Jervis to Mount Pocono- SURPRISE!!!

"I hate Chuck Norris. He's not that tough" -Katie

Today started out as one of the worst days of the trip, and definately wound up the best. I woke up exhausted after not sleeping enough (again!), to find out 2/3 screws on my cleats to my cycling shoes were completely stripped, causing the annoying moving cleat problem that has sporadically popped up during the trip. Thankfully when we were in Pittsfield at the old school bike shop, I took several bolts instead of just one; however, these bolts were already packed in the bag in the trailer. I was able to dig my bag out and fix the shoe problem.

By the time I had done this, the group had rolled out, and had already locked up the church that still had my bike inside it. Without any keys, I had to jump a fence, a wall and crawl through a window to get into the church and get my stuff.

Lastly, my knee has been somewhat bothersome the past few days, and I've been experiencing hot spots in my shoes which has been extremly painful. Once I got moving and found myself in a rhythmn though, the knee stopped hurting as much, and I've dealt with the foot issue by moving my cleat back.

Ride Details
Total distance- 60.51 miles
Total ride time- 3 hrs, 47 minutes
Average speed= 15.9 mph
Max speed= 40.3 mph
Total calories= 3917 calories
Avg heart rate= 133bpm

The ride, which was mostly flat until hitting a monster climb at the end, started to get much better at lunch time, when Kyle, Skip, and I were able to get the local Subway to donate 31 six inch subs of any sandwich we wanted for the group to eat at lunch.

However, it wasn't until after the massive climb and arriving at the church we were staying at that night that the best surprise of the day presented itself: Katie! After tricking me into believing she had to babysit today and would be unable to come visit me on the one weekend day that was close enough, she had called the main office to find out where we were staying, and called Jose to find out as much route information as possible. On the way up the monster climb, Katie had left several neon signs waiting for me, which was so thoughtful and well thought out. I found her waiting in the parking lot for me, with razor and shaving cream in hand.

Needless to say, I am officially out of the beard off contest. Aftering showering up, we drove to the nearby city of Stradsburg where we walked the town and had dinner together before coming back and hanging out with the group before Katie had to leave.

I know that Katie knew I was surprised and really happy to see her, but I don't know she knew how happy I was to see her. I still feel like a million bucks a couple hours later, and several people have commented on how I seem to have a noticeable extra spring in my step. Seeing Katie after not seeing her for two weeks reminded me of how special a girlfriend I have, and how lucky I am to have her.

6/20- Poughkeepsie to Port Jervis

"Chuck Norris tears cure cancer. It’s too bad, because Chuck Norris doesn’t cry"

Today we rode from Poughkeepsie to Port Jervis. Except for a few wrong turns due to faulty cue sheets, we spent a rather uneventful day biking the 57 miles to Port Jervis. Whil e there was a good chance of rain, and overcast skies, the weather held out and was probably one of the hottest days weve had so far. I spent today biking with as many groups as possible again, trying to be social. I would spend time in the back, talk, then try to catch up to the next group up the road. This became increasingly difficult as i made my way to the front, as the faster cyclists were obviously at the front, making the time differences between each group getting progressively larger.

random stuff-

Yesterday we spent the day at our second build day, where we moved bricks almost all day. I spent a considerable amount of time at night fixing bikes, which has apparently become another unoffocial role on the trip. I'm really happy that people are willing to trust me with their bikes, and my own repair skills have vastly improved, but some nights I'm really exhausted and just want to sleep.

I was elected chore captain of our group, which was a nice honor to get from my peers.

The beard off contest has become increasingly annoying, as I'm feeling quite scruffy and have to fight the urge to shave several times a day. I want to last to at least State College, and maybe even to Pittsburgh. I feel like I look like Curious George as my facial hair is as long as my hair at this point.

I developed a sty in my eye during the last couple weeks at studio, and it still has not left, even with repeated hot towels being applied to it. I think it wants to come along for the ride to Santa Barbara, so I've named it Stan the Sty.

I don't know what I weighed before the trip, but I weighed in at 182 today, so if anything I've GAINED weight on this trip so far. Since I don't think I've over eaten at all, I hope this is regaining muscle mass back after a long layoff.

Tomorrow's ride to Mt Pocono features two state line sprints (NJ and PA), and a massive climb at the end...since I will be riding sweep the day after, I'm looking to take tomorrow hard.

Mail Drop... because there may be more to life than PB & J

So I forgot to tell everyone the mail drop information if they wish to send me mail along the way.

The next 2 mail drops are in Pittsburgh on 6/26 and Bloomington, IN on 7/3

For Pittsburgh- Packages/letters should be sent to
Bike and Build
Attn: Leonard Klipper
General Delivery
700 Grant Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

and for Bloomington-

Bike and Build
Attn: Leonard Klipper
General Delivery
206 E 4th St
Bloomington, IN 47408

6/18- Pittsfield to Poughkeepsie

"Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding"

Today we crossed our first state sign, crossing into NY shortly after leaving in the morning. Unlike normal group rides where people usually sprint for town lines, our trip only bothers sprinting for state lines (well at least some of us anyway), which I think is pretty sweet. Jose easily took the sprint as he was able to make the early jump by using his Garmin 705 to tell him where the state line was. I would say that was cheating, but since I had the same information available to me (although I didn't know it), I can't really cry foul.

Total distance= 78.6 miles

Total riding time= 5 hrs 10 min

Average speed= 15.2

Average heart rate= 121 bpm

max speed= 41.8 mph

Total calories burned= 4555 calories

Today's ride was somewhat of a blast from the past. We biked past Bard College, where I had the ECCC President's meeting this fall to figure out the race calendar. We also biked into Vasser where we went for easterns 2 years ago.

After the excitement of the state sprint which was at mile 9, I kep the rest of the day fairly easy, and instead focused on riding with as many different groups as possible. While the mileage was more then we've done to date, the 80 miles passed by quickly, as there was mostly rolling hills that amounted to little over 3700 feet of climbing. However, what made the day challenging was the large number of people, myself included, were more then a little beat up after the climbing of the past two days. I never thought I'd be looking forward to getting off the bike so much for a build day tomorrow.

The ride consisted of only one major climb that I can remember now that I did several times to encourage various groups of riders to get up the climb. We wound up having to take a dirt road for about two miles in NY that included a pretty steep downhill (this is where the cyclocross skills came in handy, as I was ableto makepeoplealittle less jittery going down by coaching them to shake out their arms and keep their weight over the back wheel, etc..) The weather was mostly pleasant until we had more torrential rain for about 10 minutes in the afternoon. As much as I enjoy riding in the rain, the rain is starting to get annoying, as I've had to clean my bike and drivetrain every day except once so far this summer.

We are staying at the Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, where I'll have a bed one of the two nights we're here. We were given money by Vassar (Chris Webber's alma matter) to buy food, so we bought Chinese food to break up the monotony of Italian pasta dinners. We were also able to get laundry done, and I was able to avoid having my chore group have to go to a laundromat.

I spoke to Katie today for a good amount of time today, which was really nice, because it's usualy pretty difficult to find any private time in our travelling circus of 32. While I'm definately having a blast here, I'm definately missing her. She seems to be doing extremely well with her new job (she has her own assistant!), although I imagine they are expecting a lot from her to give her all of these benefits. Unfortunately, she isnt able to visit on Saturday, so I'll most likely be seeing her when I return. The one benefit of this is the beard off can continue (we've slightly changed the rules so that its not how well we grow in the beard in, but who can last the longest).

We've also had other unofficial contests, such as last rider standing to go without a flat. I'm one of the few in the group to not get a flat yet (I'm fully planning on making it to Santa Barbara without a single flat). For those in the group who have had a flat (or several), some are counting how many they get.

6/17- Amherst to Pittsfield

“Today's climbs are the result of Chuck Norris descending somewhere else”

Today was some of the hardest riding I've ever done. Exhausted from the previous two days of hard riding, I was hurting a little bit today, but apparently not enough to go head to head with Dave Miller, Jane Wolcott, and Jose the "Soul-Train of Pain" Soltren. It was another extremely hilly ride, with another 4,000 feet of climbing in 51 miles and grades reaching up to 17%. The ride today might have better been a collegiate road race instead of touring ride on a sixty two day bike trip. Although there was supposed to be thunderstorms, the weather actually held up quite nicely, and we enjoyed some of the best weather of the trip so far with moderate temperatures and mostly sunny skies.

I think had I been fresh, today still would have been very difficult, as the climbs were long sustained efforts that took alot of perseverance. The ride also featured some fantastic descending that we were able to take at the 45-50 mile range.

I've been utterly amazed and inspired by the rest of the group so far. While I was a little nervous about the group at orientation, people have been unbelievably positive. What they might lack in physical strength they have more than made up for in heart and determination the last few days. There has been no complaining about the difficulty of the terrain or the constant rain we've faced every day, but rather upbeat attitudes all around.

We stayed at the YMCA in Pittsfield, where we found showers and open access to their pool. We ate dinner nearby at a meal provided by one of our group leader's former scout master.

6/16 Fitchburg to Amherst

Today featured some real intense climbing for 50 miles. There was the threat of heavy lightening storms all day, so ratherthen taking an easy day, I went all out in an effort to beat the rain. I managed to beat the storms that wound up not occuring until much later, but wound up soaked again in some heavy torrential downpours shortly after lunch.

Total distance= 51.7 miles
total time= 3hrs 16 minutes
Average pace= 3:48 mile
Average speed= 15.8 mph
Max speed 42.7 mph
Total calories= 3422

Today featured over 4,000 feet of climbing, although thankfully the last 5 miles were all downhill. I had fun attacking our first day in the Berkshires, riding tempo/race pace up every steep hill we encountered.

We arrived in Amherst, where we stayed at the UMASS Hillel, showered at the local UMASS gym and ate a meal at a bike and build alums house.

Some interesting sights/stories from today:

Everyone has named their bike in the past week and I've renamed my bike Chuck Norris instead of its former name of "race bike", because its orange and it kicks ass.

I had an amazing slice of pizza in the town of Amherst at Antonios- Mariachi pizza which consisted of guacamole, black beans, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese

We were supposed to stop for lunch at this town about halfway. The "town", if you can call it that, consisted of a church, post office and some sort of store, although there was not a single person out midday on a monday, which was extremely creepy. It actually reminded me of
the story from the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

I was able to pick up a pair of gloves at the local bike shop in Amherst, along with a washer for my cleat that hopefully will get me to Pittsfield, since one of my bolts and washers fell off today.

6/15- Andover to Fitchburg

Before the official ride report, I think it's important to wish my dad a happy father's day. Without his hard work and dedication to our family, I would not be fortunate enough to be enjoying the benefits of this trip.

Total distance (on my garmin, not on the whole time)= 40.6 miles
Total time 2:36:48
Average speed- 15.5mph
Max Speed- 33.6 mph
Total Calories- 2796

Today we rode 45 rainy miles from Andover to Fitchburg. By the time we were on the road in the early morning, it was not only raining, but pouring. Thankfully the group was in pretty good spirits and we had a really good time riding on some beautiful suburban/country roads that also featured the first climbing weve encountered.

I happen to love riding in the rain, as I think it reminds me of collegiate cycling (especially the Philly crits in 2006 and 2008), so I was uber excited to be on the road. It's very liberating to ride regardless of what mother nature has thrown our way, rather then staying indoors.

The weather made me ride a lot faster then I might have otherwise, as by midday the weather had cleared up and by then we were just cold and wet. We reached our host destination of a Unitarian Universalist church by 2pm, but had to wait several hours before the van arrived, so I took the time to clean my bike and show other people how to do likewise, and participated in another one of our group leader sophie's eight minute ab sessions (Although advertised as "the best eight minutes of your life", I would argue otherwise)

I am on laundry crew this week, so after showering we collected everyones dirty laundry and went to the local laundromat so that we all have clean clothes for the next 3 days. Hooray for clean clothes!

On a totally unrelated note, the Garmin 705 is again paying major dividends not only for its amazing routing and mapping information (today I was able to reroute the group when one of the roads we were supposed to take was in fact a dirt road), but also for its announcement that in 2009, it will work with the Saris Powertap.

Tomorrow features 51 miles of hilly climbing to Amherst with more heavy rain likely....

6/12- First Build Day

Today was our first build day. After having a scrumptious breakfast provided by the Webbers we were driven out to the build site in Lawrence, MA. The site most of us worked on featured 3 houses, two of which were double residences. Last year, they had previously been nearing completion on one of the houses and close to finishing the others when a fire burned down the entire nearby area, and the family who had put in 500 sweat equity hours and had already ended their previous lease had to then scramble to find housing.

Construction began anew this may on all 3 houses. One group worked on assembling the framework and constructing the rafters of one house that had already had a fully built two stories, while my group worked on framing and lifting walls today. I spent a good portion of the day nailing studs and then plywood to those finished stud walls. By the end of the day we had put up the long side and the back walls of the house, while the other group had nearly completed installing the roof rafters.

The volunteers we worked with were all really nice and extremely informative. Mike was a computer consultant who became involved with Habitat ten years ago when his wife was sick of him watching college football on Saturday and professional football on Sunday. (He still watches professional football, but only sometimes watches college ball now). Arthur was a retired CPA who joined Habitat to keep busy and to support the affordable housing cause. Tony worked in I-Banking and was the on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of Miramack Valley.

There were many interesting things I learned today about the building site. Its one thing to see a built house without sheet rock, but quite another to see how things are constructed part by part. Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was how uneven the building material was. In architecture, we are used to planing any wood we use until it is level and straight. Today we somehow took 2x4s that bowed every which way and made them square and level, which seemed to be an art in itself.

Pictures of raising a wall

1st real day

Today was the first day of our trip. After another awesome breakfast prepared by the church, (I really think our group is starting to get spoiled), we traveled about 20 miles from Revere to Andover, home of Chris Webber, the former program director who was killed 15 months ago crossing (walking, not riding) the street in NYC.

We first traveled the few blocks to the beach in Revere, where we participated in the ceremonial wheel dipping ceremony in the Atlantic Ocean. We then rode the first 10 miles or so in neutral groups of 8. After a while we were let loose and allowed to ride at our own speed, which was a very welcome feeling after feeling somewhat trapped these first few days.

Today we will be staying at a private Middle school, and eating at the Webber's home for dinner. After arriving at Pike Middle School, I headed into town to pick up a few things from cvs, and find a post office to mail a father's day card.

The Garmin 705 that my parents bought for me is turning out to be an awesome piece of equipment that will serve me well this summer. Every morning I am able to wirelessly receive the route from Jose's Garmin, and am able to get turn by turn directions as well as a highlighted map that lets me know when upcoming turns are coming up. Perhaps the best advantage of the new Garmin is its ability to get me back to the host location after riding into town to look around as I did today.

As a totally unrelated note, the males in the group have started an unofficial mustaccio bashio and beard-off simultaneously (our excuses for not wanting to shave). In a few days my facial hair may be as long as the hair on my head which will be interesting to say the least.

Tomorrow features our first build day and I'm looking forward to physically aiding the affordable housing crisis.

random thoughts from days 1 and 2

some of these thoughts have been brewing in my head for the last week or so, others are more informative of my trip so far.





1. Hair-
So after getting to orientation an hour early on Tuesday, I was told to do something for an hour, so me and Katie went to Salem to see a reinactment of the Salem Witch Trials. Afterwards, she wanted to get a cup of coffee, and I used the opportunity to get a serious haircut. As Katie said when she first saw me, "I leave you alone for 5 minutes, and this is what you do?" The haircut is definately a little severe, but most of the day its under my helmet or a hat anyways, so its actually helped me stay much cooler in the non airconditioned church we have been staying at for orientation. In addition, I also shaved my legs (very silky and smooth), also to keep me cooler in my process of reacclimating to heat 24-7.



2. Bike Accidents-
in the last couple of days, several of my friends from Philly have been involved in bike accidents involving other automobiles. Some of them, like Brenton Schwartz, wound up "lucky", and wound up with only a broken bike. Others, like Tyler Bauer, wound up physically hurt (I haven't heard any new updates, but I know he broke his hip in 4 places and is probably done with racing for the summer). Charlie from Temple was hit earlier this spring, along with a guy on the Penn Team. Either someone really hates Temple Cycling, or people just really need to start paying better attention to cyclists around them.

3. Bike deals-
www.Chainlove.com
check it out, one item offered at a time for insanely discounted prices until it sells out

4. Team Type I- A teammate at Penn is racing across America on an eight man squad for the second year in a row as part of RAAM. Last year, his team finished in 5 days, 15 hours

4. Orientation- The better part of the past 2 days have been spent doing orientation type stuff
It's been boring getting through alot of this stuff, and I'm quite surprised that for alot of people this is new information to them. Something that is particularly frustrating to me is that some people give wrong information, regarding bike maintenance and repair, which leads to bad habits. Othertimes people give more information than people want to hear or can handle at that moment, which is equally as unproductive.

5. Shakedown ride- Today we went for a dress rehersal of our first 20 mile ride to Andover tomorrow. Rode along the shore in the beautiful town of rever for a nice 15 mile spin. Tomorrow will also be a neutral day meaning we go slow, but after that I'm free to ride whatever speed I wish, which will thankfully be faster than the 10 mph average speed we set today.

6. Generosity- I'm beginning to realize how big a deal this ride is to many people. So far we've been treated to some excellent meals complements of the church that has graciously hosted us, and after the group leaders gave their presentation today, you could see how important this trip meant to one of the pastors and his wife. The wife told us how what we were doing was what was right in America today, which was few and far between everything else going on the world at this moment.

I also got to spend time today after everything with one member of our group who has all of $10 to her name for the entire trip, yet felt the need to come out on Bike and Build and help others. This incredible invidual has been self supported her entire life, putting herself through school and clearly working extremely hard between her four jobs and being a full time student. She wanted to do this trip after hearing about it because as she said " I may have ten dollars, but there are many people who have even less than me, so I guess I should consider myself lucky and look to help out." This kind of talk really makes you think of how fortunate I've been my entire life, where I havent had to worry about my next meal, or where I'd be sleeping the next night.

I'd love to write more, but theres an 11pm curfew that I'm running periously close to breaking, so I must be headed off to bed (the fact that I'm an architect major, and never get sleep apparently carries no weight here, as they are pretty stringent on the rules.) I'm not quite done, but Ill finish up tomorrow and write about tomorrow's adventures, if I get internet access that is.