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.

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.

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.

We stopped multiple times to love on animals- I made friends with horses and llamas (possibly alpacas...I can't tell the difference).

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+.

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.

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

WASHINGTON TO JEFFERSON CITY

Back on the Katy trail for an 78 miler, I rode with Frances this day which was awesome since we hadn't ridden together before. We talked a lot since the days on the Katy trail are easier because we can ride next to each other and there's no noise from traffic.

The Katy trail is awesome with no cars, and it's beautiful scenery riding along the Missouri River. This route was part of the Rails to Trails program, so we got to see a lot of the Missouri countryside.

Sweep challenge was to imitate an animal, so we're sloths. A man on a riding lawn mower saw us in the tree and said: "well now I've seen everything."

Jefferson City is pretty cute, we walked around and got ice cream and laid around the state Capitol and did flips.

First Presbyterian church in Jefferson City is awesome- they knew exactly what we wanted (Nutella, tacos, breakfast casseroles, fruit, bagels, EVERYTHING DELICIOUS) and were extremely kind and interesting to talk to.

JEFFERSON CITY TO SEDALIA

I rode with so many different groups this day I can't even remember. 88 miles, 2 lunches, lots of good conversation.

We got to explore Sedalia a bit and went to a thrift store and the bike shop, and I was on laundry crew this week so we went to a laundromat and Kevin spun me around in the laundry cart.

SEDALIA TO KANSAS CITY

This was a tough ride day. 97 degrees, 96 miles, headwinds, and rolling hills. Abram taught us some pace lining techniques with different headwinds, so Mike, Abram, Lauren and I started out pretty far ahead. We soon met up with Cam, Emily, and Kyle and we swam in what looked like a beautiful blue lake but turned out to be a dirty brown pond. It was completely necessary to cool us down though.

After second lunch was really tough as it was the hottest part of the day and the hills seemed to be getting steeper and more frequent, could have been the dehydration. You know this day was tough because only a few people went out while most of us stayed in at the church- we're staying at a mega church that has a whole game room so we played Just Dance 4 and watched Princess Bride.

DAY OFF IN KANSAS CITY

A day with no biking, or building? It was a strange feeling waking up on my own, without the lights being cut on and Liz yelling "wake up ya dummies!", and knowing I could sleep in as late as I wanted. Of course I woke up at 8 am, but that's sleeping in compared to the past 3 days of 5 am wake ups.

We went to brunch at Grinder's, where people got cheesesteaks but I got a fried goat cheese salad. We got to explore Kansas City which is awesome, they have a Plaza with a bunch of shops and we went to the art museum! I thoroughly enjoyed making fun of the contemporary art (I mean...I can do all of that).

The rest of the day was pretty lazy, we got to listen to some sweet banjo tunes (thanks Liz's mom!) and run some errands.

EFFINGTON TO GREENVILLE

With a short ride of only 51 miles, we arrived in Greenville before noon and had plenty of time to explore. The past few days we had been running into cyclists doing Race Across America, and we were actually interviewed at a gas station by the Italian video crew. It was crazy hearing about what they do- which is actually race across the country. The winner did it in 7 days and 22 hours!

Ben's parents graciously cooked us lunch and we all took our time under the shade of some big trees. When we arrived in Greenville, we made a failed attempt to find a pool to cool off in, but we did find a lake which was 1 million times better. It had a rope swing and we all swam and jumped off the rope swing and it felt perfectly like summertime.

Lydia purchased a ukulele which we have all been enjoying because so many people know how to play it and there are some extremely talented singers. We got to FaceTime with Celise which was freaking awesome but also really sad because we miss her so so much.

GREENVILLE TO ST. LOUIS

We started off the morning by waking up early and surprising Zach by standing around his sleeping bag and singing happy birthday, which we realized was incredibly creepy as we all looked like zombies and could not have been more off key.

The ride started off funky when Lauren got hit by a bird- this thing flew right into her hand and fell dead to the ground. Lauren is now referred to as Bird Killa. The coolest part of this ride was crossing the Mississippi! We thought we crossed it three times before we actually did, because there were three bridges and it was confusing. Yay for our 7th state, Missouri!

Our host in St Louis was the rec center at the University of Missouri St Louis, so we got to swim in the pool and use the saunas the whole weekend! We took the metro out to a bar called Schafly downtown, where we ate dinner and had drinks.

If you don't know what the city museum is: look it up. This place is absolutely amazing- it's an old high school they rehabbed into what I can only describe as an adult playground. Every floor has new things to climb, different live music, there are multi-story slides, a giant ball pit, and best of all: a Ferris wheel on the roof from which you get an amazing view of the city.

We played at the city museum all night-which included a giant game of ball pit dodgeball.

BUILD DAY IN ST LOUIS

We were awoken at 5:30 am to be shuttled for our build day at the Habitat for Humanity warehouse in St. Louis. At the warehouse, we basically constructed the house that will be transported to the site but couldn't be built on-site because of building code issues. We worked on framing walls, painting, and general warehouse maintenance. I worked with a man named Bob who was 82 years old and had worked with Habitat for years. He shared some really awesome stories, and was just as cute as a button.

ST LOUIS TO WASHINGTON

Missouri is a lot cooler than I thought. Besides the Mosquitos, we give Missouri an A- (the minus is for the constant itchiness I'm currently feeling from about 12 bug bites). We got to ride on the Katy trail today, and it was only a 50 miler so it was a mystery ride!

The Katy trail was beautiful and I loved being away from cars and on a bike/ped only trail. We stopped in a town called Defiance where they had a bike shop and some other cute places, and some boys tried out a tandem bike.

Tally:
States: 7
Rooftop Ferris wheel rides: 1
Bouncy balls taken to the face: like 9
Mark Twain themed items: SO MANY, IT'S LIKE HE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON TO EVER HAPPEN TO ST LOUIS
Comments on my tan lines: 2
Beers pace lined: 3

COLUMBUS TO BLOOMINGTON

We found out at 9:15 the night before we ride to Bloomington that our host can no longer accommodate us, so we're forced to take a last resort which is cramming 30 people into Mike's 2 bedroom apartment. Thankfully Mike goes to school at Indiana University and still has a lease on his apartment there, and is nice enough to allow 27 of his stinky teammates to crash for the night.

The ride to Bloomington was a mystery ride, and my group was Cam, Kevin, and Liz (Cam was convinced that Liz and I rigged it to be together but it was truly fate). We stopped in Nashville Indiana, a cute little tourist trap with expensive art galleries, coffee shops, and candy stores. A bunch of us went into the Daily Grind coffee shop, and the manager told us he was waiting for us to roll through (apparently CUS kids have been going there for years).

We shopped around a bit and found a sock store where they legitimately only sell socks. Liz and I bought dinosaur socks:

When we arrived at Mike's apartment we went in for some hose showers and turned it into a slip n slide. Jack got really into it and came out with scratches on his stomach from pokey grass.

Since this host was not a church, beers were consumed outside and the night was full of drinking games and story time. This is when we discovered there was no AC; imagine sleeping in a small apartment with 27 other people and no AC. I fell asleep with a bag of ice on my face.

BLOOMINGTON TO TERRA HAUTE

I have one word to describe this ride: an adventure. Okay that was two words. But this ride was seriously the craziest since Doomsday. All was normal up until lunch, and then after lunch we took a turn into a gravel road which lasted almost 10 miles. I felt like I did a full body shake weight work out.

What were the next 5 turns on the cue sheet? MORE GRAVEL ROADS! We started to think that everyone had re-routed and we were the only ones out there on the road less travelled (literally- at one point we were riding on tire tracks in the mud). We were convinced we would be the last to the church if we even made it back alive.

After this ride, I realized how much fun it is to get lost. The adventure was thrilling and hilarious, and we still made it to the host first where the lovely church ladies have us yogurt and fruit. They showed us an awesome fountain on Indiana State University's campus, and since there was only one shower at the church, we went full-on homeless style and showered in the public fountain. This shower was one for the charts, and although we got some stares from passers-by, we had a blast. No regrets, best shower ever.

TERRA HAUTE TO EFFINGTON

Today we time travelled an hour into the past and into the state of Illinois. The morning ride was beautiful and easy, so we took it slow and played would-you-rather and similar games. Incredible discovery of the day: A BABY DEER! Bambi came to us fresh out of the womb, and was the cutest nugget I ever did see:

After heartfelt goodbyes to Bambi, we travelled on to encounter a river (realistically it was a stream) that we forded and then more gravel roads.

It's cool to see our team really closing the gaps in our riding speeds, we all got in within two hours of each other today on a 75 miler! Pizza for dinner of course.

Tally:
States: 6
Hose showers: 2
Slip n Slides: 1
Smelly people crammed into a 2 bedroom apartment: 28
Sweaty nights slept only on my therms rest: 1
Naked miles: 3
Public fountain showers: 1
Miles ridden on gravel: ~25
Rivers forded: 1

Our team slogan is: Ranch is the devil, pancakes for life! A quote from Cam and therefore the name of this post.

St John's church in Charleston runs a program called Manna Meal where they feed the homeless breakfast and lunch 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We got to eat with these folks at these meals which was awesome meeting new, interesting people and bringing us out of our Bike & Build bubble.

From Charleston we went to Huntington West Virginia, where we stayed in a really nice church and watched Kindergarten Cop on the flat screen TV. I successfully DM'd 2 dozen donuts and Dixie bars for everyone!

PORTSMOUTH OHIO

PORTSMOUTH TO GEORGETOWN, OH

Zack did the most ridiculous dance to hype us up before our ride this morning, the only way I can describe it is a velociraptor on crack. The forecast for the day said scattered thunderstorms, but what awaited us was so much better. A TORNADO!!

It started pouring just before lunch and then came the lightening and thunder, so we saught shelter underneath the car port of some mans trailer. After staying there for a bit trying to wait out the lightening, the car port (or possibly the telephone pole next to it) was struck by lightening!

After about 45 minutes of waiting, we pushed on to lunch which was held under a dry strange shelter littered with items such as:
A turd
Various stuffed animals and children's play toys
A box of cigars
Documents from 2006
3 Full beers (score!)
And evidence that both human and animal species have used the space for shelter and bathroom activities.

I was in the first group to arrive at the host for the first time! We stayed at a church that has been hosting CUS since the very beginning, and they were so nice and thrilled to have us. We had town hall which involved copious amounts of dancing and compliments, as well as tornado stories (read Conor's blog for his Barn encounter).

The ride into Portsmouth was long and hot, with some extremely steep climbs (one was 15% grade!). Got my first TWO flat tires this day, along with many of my teammates as the roads were extremely rough. Fix your roads, Ohio.

One of my teammates Celise was in a bad accident, where she was on a descent and hit a pothole and went over her handlebars, shattering her collarbone and sending her off to Columbus Ohio for emergency surgery. Unfortunately, she won't be able to ride with us for the rest of the summer- but we have hope that she can meet us in Portland. We miss her so much already!

We were all super bummed about Celise, so we went to the sketchy dollar store and bought ice cream to eat our feelings. Our unanimous feelings towards Portsmouth Ohio: it blows.

CINCINNATI!!!!!

We were all so pumped to get to Cincinnati and have a build day and go to the baseball game, that we all got in before noon. It was only a 47 mile ride, but Kyle, Emily and I arrived at the bike shop in Cincinnati at 10:45- pretty speedy considering we left the church at 8.

Rese's bike shop gave us a 25% discount, which was awesome because I was able to buy a new saddle and stem. We were actually staying across the river in Fort Thomas Kentucky at a church that was set up for us by an alum, so we had a cookout there before heading out for the evening.

Joseph, being the donation magician that he is, hooked us up with free tickets to the Cincinnati Reds game! They were playing the Milwaukee Brewers, so our team was pretty split fan-wise since so many are from Wisconsin. After the game we hit the town and danced our butts off at a place called PLAY (we were the only people on the dance floor. It ruled).

Our build day in Cincinnati was frickin awesome. We split into two groups, and my site was a home for a family that is supposed to be finished in October. My task for the morning was putting in windows, which meant I got to climb all over the scaffolding like a monkey.

After lunch Kyle, Liz and I worked on framing a wall, which involved cutting lots of wood with the electric saw and hammering lots of nails. It was cool that we got to work next to the homeowner (a woman and her husband), and they cooked us food for lunch which was awesome. Others worked on siding and walls, but the coolest part of the day was when I got to study floor plans.

INDIANA!

Today's ride was our longest yet- it was supposed to be 92 but of course we took some wrong turns and it ended up totaling 97 miles. It rained on and off all day, but nothing too serious. Lydia found a sword on the side of the road by a stroke of fate, and it protected us from bad weather and evil potholes.

We're staying in Colombus Indiana with an incredible couple who has taken us under their roof for the night. Unfortunately there was no sign at the state line to take a selfie with.

Today was great because we got 2 lunch stops.

Tally:
Miles: 882
States: 5 (we're counting Kentucky since we technically stayed there).
Successful DMs: 3
First place arrivals at the host: 1 (wooooo!)
Tornadoes encountered: 1
Spaghetti sandwiches eaten: 2 (Conor ate one too)
Extra miles added: at least 50
Po sports events attended: 1

Our ride from Summersville to Charleston marked the fourth day in a row of over 70 miles logged on our bikes. Our amazing host Dennis sent us off with some insightful advice, being a cyclist himself. He told us to enjoy the ride, and not race to the destination without stopping along the way to smell the roses or check out a weird thrift shop. He also told us that it's going to rain, so we just have to laugh at the rain. Tough days are inevitable, and we have to make the best of them and maybe even enjoy them; they end up making the best stories.

A church lady woke up at 2:30 in the morning to bake us homemade biscuits, I'm convinced she was an angel. The ride was almost all downhill (there were some climbs but nothing compared to the last three days). The route was tricky with unlabeled turns, so when we got to mile 53 and hadn't seen the trailer for lunch, we assumed Kyle had gotten lost (he did. Kyle sucks.)

We pushed through to Charleston stopping for snickers bars and snacking before pounding out the last 20 miles to arrive at the host around 2. At dinner, we presented Abram with our sweep challenge gifts (items found for him along the road) which included:
-sparklers from a sketchy fireworks stand on the road
-a piece of a watermelon rind with "Happy 19th Birthday Abram" carved into it
-a happy 60th birthday banner found in a bin labeled "free stuff" and a flea market
Abram chose the 60th birthday banner, which he then wore out to the bar that night.

We ventured to a bar called Adelphia, which we overtook with our crew of 20+ thirsty young people and ordered 8 towers of beers. Of course this lead to multiple rounds of the game up chickens down chickens, for which there was no winner.

CHARLESTON to HUNTINGTON

This ride was only 50 miles, and super flat, so it took us almost no time at all. We started the day eating breakfast with the homeless of Charleston at St John's church where they serve 2 meals a day to whoever needs them. This was awesome getting to know some new people and branching outside of our bike & build bubble, I loved hearing their stories and sharing my own.

I had my first successful DM today! I got us all Dairy Queen ice cream, AND donuts from this pirate place (they give you the donuts in a pirates chest...awesome).

Currently icing my saddle sores...

BUILD DAY!

Our build day in Charleston began with us getting on our bikes for a whopping 3 mile ride to the Charleston ReStore- arguably the nicest in the country! They have a community education room where they hold home owning classes and other community meetings, which is decorated with local art and an awesome coat rack made of pipes.

Every ReStore I've been to has been piles of dirty parts and lumber you have to dig through to find what you're looking for, and they're usually in desperate need of organization. This ReStore looked like a legit furniture store, and it works so well that its profits fund 50% of Habitat homes in Charleston!

We got a tour if the store and were then put to work organizing the warehouse for a few hours, which sparkled when we were done with it. Because of the rain, we were sent home early and had a bunch of free time that afternoon to explore the city.

Charleston is much cooler than I was expecting- I mostly fell in love with this one coffee shop slash book store slash pottery/clay store called Taylor Books. We also went to an antique shop and the Farmers Market, where I got some amazing trail mix.

Tally:
Beer towers consumed: 8
Lunch stop disasters: 1
Birthday boys: 2!
Cuddle puddles: so many. See above photo
Knee injuries: ~5

The ride out if Charlottesville has been fondly renamed Doomsday. Not only was this our longest ride yet (86 miles), but it was 75% uphill through the Appalachian mountains with some really steep climbs. What could possibly make this ride worse, you ask? Terrential rain.

Only 10 riders were able to finish this ride, because the climbs were so steep and the weather was so bad. Fog was so thick we were convinced we were inside of a cloud, and the rain soaked us through in the first few miles so we were frozen for the rest of the ride.

I began to wish for hills instead of descents because the descents were so painful. The rain felt like nails pelting into your face as you're racing down a hill at 30 mph, and the wind forced you into a hypothermic state of misery. The climbs at least warmed your body up, even if they did rip apart your legs. The only way to get through this day was to make the best of it and laugh at how horrible it was, Liz and I pretended we were at a water park because at that point we were just swimming.

Lexington to Marlinton, West Virginia

We crossed out first state line! This ride was gorgeous, despite the rain (we're convinced it will rain until Oregon), as we rode next to a river through the hills of West Virginia. We stopped and got in the river for a bit and skipped rocks, inbetween some pretty tough climbs.

We ran into a man who biked across the country with his son for his 60th birthday, and he told us we were cheating for bringing a trailer. He was really nice though and assured us we only had one more mountain to climb before Marlinton. He was kind of right- with the exception of the hill that the host site sat upon which was a huge bummer because we were beat by the time we got there.

Marlinton WV to Summersville WV

The mountains continue. To start the day off, we encountered a 9 mile climb in the rain, which was totally worth the incredible view at the top. We reached an elevation of 4545 ft, our highest mountain yet! This ride was also gorgeous even though it was pretty tough, especially considering it was our third 70+ mile ride in a row through Appalachia.

Sweep challenge was to take the best planking photo, for which we took runner up:

Tally:
GatoRAGE: gallons
Rain soaked belongings: all of them. Convinced my clothes will never be dry
Mountains climbed: uncountable. Probably in the billions.
States: 2!
Miles: over 500
Bears seen: 1-2 (I'm skeptical)

Leaving from Dillwyn, we had our first ride in the rain, which was glorious (mostly because it was short and only rained for the first 10 miles). We quickly grew attached to a dog who showed up at the church around the same time we did, and were sad to leave him, but as multiple leaders pointed out, he wouldn't enjoy living in the trailer. April, the town masseuse, paid us a visit and gave us foot massages which was greatly appreciated (brave woman).

Day 5 was another short ride from Dillwyn to Charlottesville, so we had the time to stop and take a dip in my favorite river- the James! I loved knowing that my friends in Richmond were probably swimming in the same river. The ride into Charlottesville was beautiful, riding on roads canopied with trees and some awesome descents.

This ride was our first real encounter with climbs- so when we arrived in Charlottesville we grabbed some victory beers and gelato before showering and setting up at the church. Since the next day was a build day, we got to go out in the city with the team and have a good time knowing we wouldn't be in the saddle the next day.

Folk music at the whiskey jar and drinks at the sky bar, the night was full of good times, good music, and delicious drinks. Also, an appearance from my roommate, Harding, and good friend Nate (B&B alum!).

Today was our first build day- working at te Sunrise development with Charlottesville's Habitat for Humanity chapter. Although waking up was difficult, seeing Ben in his overalls (the only pants he brought on the trip) definitely made it worth while.

At the Habitat site, I worked on building a walkway with Kyle and Arden, which proved to be no easy task. Needless to say, a soak in the hot tub at the ACAC down the street was greatly needed after a long days work.

We had our first town hall meeting tonight, basically giving our highs and lows of the week and reading from the kudos box (we write appreciation notes to team members who do nice things and read them each week). I had the experience of being rolled by Kyle- where he rolls your legs with the muscle roller thingy which I would compare to the pain of childbirth. Worth it though to loser up my muscles!

Preparing for our longest day yet (86 miles) with the steepest grade through the Appalachians tomorrow-- brb crying myself to sleep.

Tally:
Old men on the road offering us beer/drugs: 2
Snuggle puddles: 2
Alum visitors: 7
Paths built: 1
Ice cream eaten: ~3 gallons

Above is a photo of us dipping our back wheels in the Atlantic Ocean before departing for our first ride to Suffolk, Virginia. With a little sand in our brakes, we pedaled 54 miles to a church with awesome swings (this is it's only notable feature. It also had a stage with band equipment, which we were banned from using which was lame).

Day 2 of biking we head to Waverly Virginia, where I am sweep for the day with Liz. (Sweep refers to the two riders that ride in the back behind everyone else with extra supplies and a tire and med kit, and make sure all the riders get to the host site safely). The sweep gets to come up with a challenge for the riders, just something to do along their ride that sweep reviews at the end of the day and chooses a winner.

Our sweep challenge was for every rider group (usually 3-6 riders) to form a band, come up with a punny band name, and take a photo for their album cover which they must appropriately title. Needless to say, the results were fantastic. Liz and I decided to participate in our own sweep challenge because we're that awesome. See photo below:

Today we rode from Waverly to Victoria Virginia, 76 miles. Relatively hilly with a semi strong headwind, but overall a solid ride. My lunch was peanut butter, Nutella, and a banana on a bagel: highly recommended. Riders ahead of us had DM'd (DM stands for Donation Magic; basically when people give us free stuff cuz we're awesome and a nonprofit) food from the Tastey Freeze, so we stopped in for some ice cream. I'll say this about it: milk was a bad choice. The 7 miles between Tastey Freeze and the host site was all hills, and after a generous helping of icey cream, I vomited everywhere.

Victoria Virginia, as it turns out, is home of nothing, so our evening consisted of stretching and watching Arrested Development at the host site.

The Tally:
Giant snakes on the side of the road: 2
DMs: 2
Wheels dipped in the Atlantic: 29
Hose showers: 1
Jars of Nutella destroyed: 2
Episodes of Arrested Development watched: 7

Band Names:
Scare Hoes
Derail Your Innocence: Chain Metal band
Crank Set Revival: Rap Reggae band
Lube Tang Clan: Rap group (freestyle performed by Ben)

Some groups went so far as to write their first single...

Crank Set Revival's single:
We wheeled and turned and tumbled down in the sand now
We bike and build across the country and the land now
I got my chain and lube and tires up on the ground now
The sun is pretty hot but we're gon' make it to the next town
Because I got my cue sheet on my bars unless I let it drop
But all I know is B&B will make the pain stop

Pedals on Fire- Straight from Hell
By Derail Your Innocence
Hazard in spandexxx
Defy Giant hazards
Clipping in....clipping in....
INTO YOUR FACE
CHANGE YOUR FLAT
MY FRAME IS MADE OUT OF IRON, LIKE MY HEART*

*lyrics in caps are screamed

After the appropriate number of name games and icebreakers, we feasted on catered Qdoba and expressed our excitement about the summer ahead. We learned about the saddle sores and fungal rashes we will probably encounter, as well as the day to day schedule and general rules.

Today we went on our first ride: a breezy 15 miler to a lighthouse on a naval base where Ben took this photo (I'm behind the bike..which been insisted added to the photo. Thanks, Ben).

Things I've encountered thus far:
6 skits acting out the Bike & Build handbook
1 tire explosion (literally. Exploded.)
4 graphic photos of naked butts with saddle sores
1 very long lecture on hygene
28 incredible young people that are totally stoked to bike across the country.

Tomorrow, we ride!