BUILD DAY IN KANSAS CITY
Kansas City's Habitat chapter set up a whole event called Rock the Block in honor of our visit where they had volunteers work on several houses on the same block. It was awesome that they threw this event and we had a blast- we were mostly doing exterior painting and landscaping, and we got some media attention! The supervisors on site were impressed with the amount of work we got done and our dedication, which is really refreshing and rewarding.
Kansas City's Habitat chapter set up a whole event called Rock the Block in honor of our visit where they had volunteers work on several houses on the same block. It was awesome that they threw this event and we had a blast- we were mostly doing exterior painting and landscaping, and we got some media attention! The supervisors on site were impressed with the amount of work we got done and our dedication, which is really refreshing and rewarding.
Extreme house painting
We got some incredible news that Celise is coming back! After a few weeks of recovery, her shattered collarbone won't stop her from rejoining our team in Denver and finishing the summer with us. We are all incredibly excited to be 29 strong again!
KANSAS CITY TO LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Crossing into Kansas was supposed to be a 55 mile day so we made it a mystery ride. A wrong turn at the beginning of the route gave everyone about 16 bonus miles, but no one really cared because it was a beautiful day and we always enjoy our mystery rides.
Kansas is full of corn fields. We passed some giant hay bails and got to take some classic Bike & Build pictures, some more creative than others.
Flying through Kansas
I've never seen so much sky in my life- it was truly incredible how open and flat Kansas is, and this ride made me realize that I'm actually biking across the country- into the sky and past corn fields and loving every second of it.
Look at all that sky!
We stopped multiple times to love on animals- I made friends with horses and llamas (possibly alpacas...I can't tell the difference).
Feeding Andy
Funny haircuts
Escape attempt
When we got to Lawrence we explored the town that's home to Kansas University, so it had the typical college town street lined with shops and bars. The bike shop hooked me up with a new chain and bent my derailleur back in place, and we got ice cream before heading back to the host.
Jillian, a Bike & Build alum, hooked us up with tons of free food and took us to Free State brewery in town for some beers. Lawrence Kansas: A+.
Jillian, a Bike & Build alum, hooked us up with tons of free food and took us to Free State brewery in town for some beers. Lawrence Kansas: A+.
LAWRENCE TO MANHATTAN
This morning started out a little shaky as the van keys mysteriously disappeared in the night. Of course there's only one set of keys, so after we packed the trailer we had to unpack it and each dig through our bins to look for the keys. During this process, the alarm went off in the van, so everyone who was touching their bin at that moment had to take everything out before we found the keys in Arden's bin.
We finally hit the road about a half hour behind schedule, but the ride was easy with light wind and flat as a pancake. 83 miles into Manhattan, First United Methodist Church hooked us up with COTS to sleep on- what a treat! Living in the lap of luxury here.
After dinner the church set up a kind of forum on affordable housing and invited community members to come. Kyle gave a presentation on homelessness, and then a panel of representatives from AH organizations in Manhattan sat and answered questions. There was a woman from the public housing authority, the director of Manhattan's Habitat chapter, the director of a homeless shelter, and w representative from a community housing program.
The panel did a great job of introducing us to issues in affordable housing in Manhattan and prompted much discussion among us and community members on the causes of and possible solutions to affordable housing. This was a really cool idea and I learned a lot- there was a great turnout and it definitely brought us back to why we're doing this and I think inspired a lot of us.
Manhattan is also a college town, with Kansas State University as the biggest employer of the population. We went out to a similar strip of bars and had a great time dancing with our team at the Shot Stop, where the bartender had to call in back up on a Sunday night.
Taking over the Shot Stop
THE TALLY:
States: 8
Bonus miles: over 100
Houses painted: 4
Affordable Housing forums: 1
Fruit snacks consumed: 10 packs
College towns overtaken by Bike & Build: 4
Ranch bets* made: 3
Taco dinners: 7! So many tacos
*A ranch bet is when we make a bet and the loser has to take a shot of ranch, because ranch is the devil
States: 8
Bonus miles: over 100
Houses painted: 4
Affordable Housing forums: 1
Fruit snacks consumed: 10 packs
College towns overtaken by Bike & Build: 4
Ranch bets* made: 3
Taco dinners: 7! So many tacos
*A ranch bet is when we make a bet and the loser has to take a shot of ranch, because ranch is the devil
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