K-Court #2 - From La Crosse, WI

To: Pen
From: Judges of creativity
Fine: 25 cents
Re: For believing he won the costume contest. Nice try, soldier boy.

To: Dae
From: Everyone
Fine: 10 cents
Re: For being so darn sexy.

Confession
To: Lindsey
From: Kathy
Re: Those shorts that I borrowed during the costume contest? Well, I was laughing so hard, I peed in them a little. Sorry.

To: Christopher
From: J-Muffin
Fine: 5 cents
Re: For getting dinner first 90% of the time…even when he drives the van.

To: Katrina
From: Jessie
Fine: Undetermined
Re: For not being able to identify Minnesota, Wisconsin, or the Mississippi on a map today.

To: Isaiah
From: Christopher and Anson
Fine: 3 cents
Re: For not knowing what a tributary is

Props: Michelle
From: Christopher
Re: For being able to say no thank you while smiling but still getting across the F you message

Props: Dan
From: Everyone
Re: For the formatting of the que sheet into Gays Mills

To: Dan
From: Everyone
Fine: 50 cents
Re: For the ¬directions on the que sheet riding into Gays Mills.

To: Fan
From: Bobby
Fine: 20 cents
Re: For losing me my Jenga championship

To: Bobby
From: Jessie
Fine: 5 cents
Re: For saying “wait we’re going across the continent?”

Props: Batman Crew (Christopher, Kathy, Pen, Kevin, Erik, Reed and Craig)
Re: For being awesome

To: Maki
From: Jessie
Fine: 5 cents
Re: For not knowing that we’d cross the Mississippi

Props: Christopher and Joy
From: Craig
Re: For finding great lunch stops the past two days

Fine: Isaiah
From: Craig
Re: For having our lunch stop next to a bog.

To: Isaiah
From: Everyone
Fine: 30 cents
Re: For bragging about never getting a flat tire

Props: Anson
From: Everyone
Re: For deflating Isaiah’s tire while he was bragging about never getting a flat tire.

To: Q-man
From: Dan
Fine: My next phone bill
Re: For talking on mine for so long
To: Kevin...I have no friends
From: Maki
Fine: Your blog entry in January with title, “I Have No Friends”
Re: The only blog entry said “Some people are looking for a summer adventure, some are looking to work for a good cause. I’m looking for more…a wife.”

To: Jessie
From: J-Muffin
Fine: 5 cents
Re: For giving me my nickname. Everyone else is fined 1 cent for letting it stick

To: Dan and Kim
From: Skydive Chicago
Fine: 25 cents
Re: For making our video PG-13

Props: Kathy
From: Christopher
Re: For going all the way for the win even when it means rubbing blue paint on your face

Props: Maki
From: Christopher
Re: For have the best pick up line…that doesn’t involve a poop joke.

To: Ian
From: Laura
Fine: 2 cents
Re: For claiming to be geriatric when he is really not older than the rest of us.

Props: Kathy
From: Christopher
Re: Winning the lotto.

Props: Joy
From: Everyone
Re: For making a que sheet that was .0018 miles off all day.

To: Zack
From: Matt Damon
Fine: 10 cents
Re: For stealing my look

Props: Zack
From: Christopher
Re: For using “please” and “thank you” so politely

Props: Katrina Roi
From: Everyone
Re: For being an all around class act

To: Google maps and Wisconsin
From: Everyone
Fine: 50 cents
Re: What the heck?!

To: Caitlin Callahan
From: Kathy (Really? Do you need to ask?)
Fine: Exclusion from any and all future bike and build trips
Re: Getting in my face for a straight hour and a half during lunch; bring precocious; having attitude; plaguing my nightmares

Props: Craig
From: Kathy
Re: For being the best pace leader through city streets. He points out everything and waves at cars on the right religiously. But I think a lot of people in cars are confused by the waving.

To: Kathy
From: The rest of the Batman crew
Fine: 50 cents
Re: For forcing everyone to get up for opening night and nearly missing it yourself because you were sleeping under the sink of the 4th floor bathroom.


To: Arianna
From: Jessie
Fine: 25 cents
Re: For flirting with farm kids other than our own to get out of an extra 20 miles on our ride to Gays Mills.

Props: Minnesota and Wisconsin
From: Everyone
Re: Appropriating budgets towards state signs

To: Isaiah
From: Everyone who was at the pool with you in Gays Mills
Fine: 10 cents
Re: Dipping your foot in the water to test the temperature after a hot 120 mile day. Come on.

To: Dan
From: Jessie
Fine: 10 cents
Re: For playing the Batman song in my ear at 5:30 am far, far away from anyone who actually saw the movie.

Props: Ryan Family in Janesville, WI
From: Christopher and Jessie
Re: For having wine, befitting our European palates.

Props: Kristen
From: Everyone
Re: For getting back on your bike after second lunch

Props: Lindsey
From: Dan
Re: For always saying “Good morning” back to me

To: Erik
From: Everyone
Fine: 10 cents
Re: For being nicer than any of us could ever hope to be. We resent it.

To: Michelle
From: Joy
Fine: 1 cent
Re: For making “peeper” noises and blaming it on the frogs while in the van on the date of July 6th.

To: Sean
From: Maki
Fine: 3 cents
Re: For taking a hiatus on his blue steel look to laugh at a story told at our Ashtabula picnic

To: Jess
From: Kathy
Fine: 25 cents
Re: For getting schwaste-y faced at the party in Janesville, “Does anyone else see two Ians?”

Two part fine:
To: Sharon
Fine: 15 cents
Re: For attempted defecation in farmer’s field in Ohio. When said farmer noticed and yelled from home, Sharon retreated. Cowardice is not tolerated here on B&B, we finish what we start.

To: Katrina
Fine: 25 cents
Re: For attempted seduction of above-mentioned elderly farmer. After expressing his outrage about Sharon “dancing in his field,” and threatening to trespass in our own land so we understood, Katrina offered in a silky voice that he was free to, “Drive your tractor in my field whenever you want.”

Minot, ND

North Dakota finally decided to reward us with an easy and stress free ride for our 65 mile day into Minot. There was some roadwork on the way out of Rugby, which meant a two-lane road with no shoulder that made it a bit nerve-wracking when traffic passed, especially semis. I was riding with Jessie, for one semi which blared its horn at us since it was too wide, I switched over into the opposing traffic lane for it to pass and Jessie decided to ride in the dirt median on the right. Lunch was a quick stop to eat a PB&J then back on the road with Jessie. The road work finally worked in our favor for this part since they were working two lanes. The far left lane was open for traffic, but the right lane was blocked off since it had been recently paved. This meant a 22 mile stretch where we had an entire lane of smooth road to ride on. Jessie and I still decided to ride on the wide shoulder, which meant that there was a rumble strip and an entire lane separating us from traffic; I've never felt so safe.

We had to slow a bit to pass a truck laying down asphalt/tar on the road. There were three people holding SLOW signs and just behind the truck there were two guys making sure everything was being laid properly. It's not too stressful of a job and doesn't require that much attention, so the guy nearest the lane with moving traffic decided it'd be a good idea to take the 2x4 he was holding and do whirlwinds around his head with it. I saw it coming ahead and shouted out a bit, but we were moving rather fast and he was an idiot. I put my head down since if I am going to get hit, I want to get hit helmet first. Thankfully, neither of us got hit, but we were quite freaked out and gave the guy a good scare too. Don't be stupid people.

So for more reference's sake on how terrible that windy day was. The ride into Minot I was tearing through road. There was no wind, my legs felt good and I just went. I think the peanut butter and honey sandwich I had for breakfast had something to do with it all. It was the fastest that I've ridden the entire trip. The 65 miles took about 3 and a half hours compared to the 5 hours and 20 minutes for the windy 60 mile day.

We have a day off today in Minot. It's a long stretch of 11 days of straight riding before our next day off and break. Included in some of those days we'll be camping. Camping should be fun as long as it's not raining, god help us if it rains because then all bets are off on our temperaments.

Minot's claim to fame is the air force base. It's a pretty big deal and one of the few locations in the country with nuclear warheads. Talking to a church member, who generously opened up her home (and cotton towels) to several of us to shower, she mentioned how there are a hundred or so intercontinental missile silos around in the area that can be fired at any time. Supposedly, we rode past several on our way in. I had no idea at all. But, Minot also has strong scandinavian heritage and built a park to acknowledge their history in the area. I rode over to the Scandinavian Heritage Park earlier this morning with Laura and we went to check out the large Dala Horse. Too funny.

I'm at the library using the internet, which is not letting me upload pictures for some reason, and getting my fill of magazines. Another mail drop today and thanks to everyone who sent packages. Jess, the banana chocolate chip muffins are much appreciated and will most likely be gone by tomorrow's breakfast. And my parents keep sending along the odd treats for the group, last week was fortune cookies, this week it's almond cookies. They get it, I'm chinese. Send a wok along next time and we'll cook up some stir-fry. Also, a shout-out to Anson's family for sending individual postcards to each rider, ensuring that everyone would get some type of mail this week.

The other treat here in Minot is that dinner, breakfast and our lunch has been provided on both days, quite the surprise to us. I'm on dinner crew this week and we weren't looking forward to spending two nights cooking for 30 people, so the five of us were relieved to hear that we'd only have to wash dishes and not cook the meal. Score.

Time to catch up on magazines. Then tonight either going to the movies or playing bingo. I'm crossing my fingers for bingo.

Check out some media coverage. The links are below. Two local news stations are coming tonight and tomorrow morning to film us eating/mingling and riding on our way out.

http://www.crookstontimes.com/articles/2008/07/28/news/2news2.txt

http://www.hillsdale.net/news/x1470903185/Bike-and-Build

Rugby, ND

Would you rather bike 120 miles with light rain for parts and a heavy thunderstorm? Or would you rather bike 60 miles into a headwind?

Well, that's been our past two days. Today was pretty brutal with the wind. It came from everywhere. Well, everywhere except from behind. For comparison's sake, yesterday over those 120 miles I spent 6 hours and 40 minutes on the bike. Today, over the 60 miles I spent 5 hours and 20 minutes. Stupid wind.

The first half of the day I rode in a line with Kevin, Pen, Christopher and Derek. The line wasn't so much to draft or block the wind, since the gusts prevented us from being close to each other and the wind would switch between a headwind and a crosswind, sometimes both, but we were riding more for moral support. It helps to know that people are around you and you push and feed off of them. Kevin flatted about 2 miles from Devils Lake. We waited for the trailer to come since he needed a new tire, there was a large hole in his.

The second half of the day, we all split apart and rode on our own. We were all a little stressed out from riding so close to each other and with fatigue setting in, it was tough to concentrate and maintain a constant distance and straight line. Splitting up was good. I made it through most of the last 30 miles by myself, which I'm very proud of. Normally, when I ride alone I tend to go a lot slower and have difficulty since there's nothing to focus on, but things were clicking today and it felt relatively good.

On a bit of sad news, we had our first trip to the hospital today. Again, the wind was very gusty and strong so being in a group of riders is tough to keep up. In another group, Katrina tapped wheels and took a spill. I wasn't there for it, but heard that her little finger was a bit askew; she also had a few scrapes on her face and shoulder. Dan, today's van driver, took her to the hospital where she got x-rays and determined that she broke her finger. They put a cast on and bandages and she'll be alright. The hospital was in Rugby, our night's destination, and the trooper that she is, got back on her bike to make up the 30 miles that she didn't finish. She biked 15 out and then turned around for 15 back. We're all relieved that she's okay and amazed at her resilience. She's set a new standard for the "tough as nails" trophy, all while doing it with a smile.

For those that aren't aware, Rugby is the geographical center of North America. There's an large pile of rocks to make it official. It's too funny. Real people, real places.

Must run, prom tonight.

Devils Lake - Part 2, Isaiah's Farm

Our epic ride through the storm and long mileage was rewarded with a stay at the Isaiah's home and farm. It was clear that Isaiah was glad to be home and that his family and friends were glad to see him. Their family embraced all of us with a warmth we haven't seen yet on this trip. Their home absorbed all 30 of us with mattresses and beds scattered in every spare part of the house.

Upon arrival, Papa Berg and his brother Nathan were offering tractor rides and tours of the farm. Tractors are big. Farms and the whole scenery and process and everything about them are such a foreign concept to me. I was fascinated looking around and learning about it all. There's just so much involved. Also, within a mile of his home, there are only 5 families. Still, it's a close community as lots of people showed up for the cookout dinner.

Just before bed, there was a thunderstorm and it kept going on in the distance. There's nothing better than sleep had during a thunderstorm. And, it was nice to be under a roof as opposed to be hiding behind a building like previously in the day. Oh and I slept in a bed.

We woke up rather late the next morning and were greeted to some great eats and lots of wind making for a rough day.

The Berg's arranged for a school bus to drive us from the church in Devils Lake to their farm in Starkweather. 

Family friends brought over horses to ride. It's similar to a bike in that it involves a helmet and saddle, just different in that I have no control over the horse. The trainer led the horse around in a gentle walk. I declined trotting, as I was afraid the up and down would hurt too much. The horse neighed just before this and freaked me out a bit. I think I'll stick with the bike.

There was a hot tub on the back porch. We did not skip a beat to take advantage of it.

Pen felt the need to check the air outside. Upon opening the door, a swarm of bugs entered hovering attracted by the lights. The Berg's had seen this before and were well prepared with numerous fly swatters. 

Ian cooked up the special challah he received at the synagogue in Duluth and treated us all to challah french toast. Of the group, he's the chef and takes charge of most of the meals when we cook for ourselves.

Isaiah's mom prepared homemade caramel rolls for breakfast. Delicious. Papa Berg seen dishing them out and giving extra large servings to everyone. 

Devils Lake - Part 1, The Ride

The ride: 116 miles in three parts.
Start to Lunch 1 (Mile 40)

Left the church with Erik and Derek a bit behind everyone else, which meant we had absolutely no chance of catching all the people in front of us. The sun was just breaking on the horizon as we left, so if we carefully turned out heads to look back while riding, we could see the sunrise. The three of us kept a pretty okay pace for the first 40 miles, but for all three of us it was rather obvious that our rears were a bit sore, we tended to stand a lot to ease the pressure. We passed through Grand Forks along the way signaling our entrance into ND. We picked up Kate and Kim by Grand Forks and left with a group of five. We learned from Kim that Quang had a crash a bit before and scraped up. That guy is a trooper. Off in the distance ahead at the beginning, I could see another double paceline had formed. Later I learned that it was a group of 14 and they were pulling at about 22-24mph. Dae got a flat at mile 7 and then again at mile 8. My flat happened at mile 38, just 2 miles before lunch. Kate was behind me and I ran over a metal coil and it sounded like my tire exploded. I honestly thought that I was going to lose control and crash, it was terrifying. It sounded much worse and was fixed in no time. Note to North Dakota: loosely packed asphalt with light gravel thrown on top does not constitute a shoulder. We biked on it for a while until we skidded a bit on gravel then moved onto the road, to the left and out of the safety of the rumble strip.

Lunch 1 to Lunch 2 (Mile 80)

We took a quick lunch break and headed back on the road, but Kim decided to leave earlier. The stop was short, we still had a lot more miles to go, feeling relatively good, and wanted to beat any possible headwind that might come. These next forty miles consisted of our pace first being set by Derek at a torrid 20/21. Then I lowered the pace to 18. Then Kate brought it down to 17. Then Erik kept it at 16/17. These downgrades were all necessary, we were definitely feeling the miles. We took a few breaks to take pictures and just plain rest. The last 10 miles to lunch 2 were some of the most difficult of the day. I personally didn’t eat enough at Lunch 1 to get me through to comfortably make it to Lunch 2. Also, the four of us played “Would you rather?” to help the time pass by.

Lunch 2 to Devils Lake (Mile 116)

Cold burrito day, our favorite. Joy, the van driver, warned us of rain in Devils Lake moving east and then the gas station owner told us of a storm that was coming in. Turns out that his version of a storm is different from our version. We left Lunch 2 with light rain and 10 miles later the lightning and thunder started. The four of us were a little concerned but we’ve ridden in rain before. The lighting kept getting a bit louder so we decided it’d be good to pull over and wait out the storm. There was a white building ahead so we raced towards that. We didn’t make it fully in time and spent maybe 5 minutes (a very long time) fighting the full brunt of the storm. The wind forced us off our bikes, the rain felt like needles and it was all entirely dangerous. Cars and trucks pulled over on the side of the road, so you can imagine how stupid we must have looked with our bikes. the storm is something you’d see on a Discovery Channel documentary called Nature’s Fury or something similar. Or, the best description I can come up with is think of a sandstorm, only with water. I ran with my bike toward the building and we waited about 25 minutes for the storm to pass. In the meantime, we watched a bird unsuccessfully fly against the wind. Leaving our shelter we rode very cold until we warmed up about 5 miles later. At that point, North Dakota finally decided it had enough messing with us and gave us a smooth shoulder and a tailwind. We breezed through the last 30 miles going at about 20mph without much effort. I rode next to Derek and we bonded over our asian-ness. The sign for Devils Lake was a welcome sight and the church was not more than 2 miles away. After arriving at the church at learning about the storm, someone said that at its peak the wind gusts were 36 mph.

Instead of staying at the church for the night, Isaiah who lives in Starkweather, ND opened up his home to our group of 30. That’ll be a separate post; as it’s chock full of fun times.

Thoughts from today:

Thor and Viggo were tired.

North Dakota smells. Grand Forks smelled like rotting shrimp, but Derek described it as vegetables in a compost pile. At another point between the two lunch stops, we went past two ponds that smelled of raw sewage.

North Dakota has a strange sense of humor. While we were riding on the loosely packed shoulder that was a horrible excuse for a shoulder, the other lanes for against traffic were freshly paved. Boo.

If you thought rumble strips were effective for cars, then they are a rude awakening for bikes. Everything shakes, including your insides.

The church gave us a bottle of squeezable jelly. And we will be reusing it and refilling it from now till the end, huzzah.

One of our trailer doors fell off today. The bolts on the latch decided they wanted to take a break and popped out. Joy unfortunately discovered this and has a scrape above her eyebrow to show for it. Isaiah's dad fixed it up once we got to his farm.

Crookston, MN

We are preparing for doomsday again. Our longest ride is tomorrow--120 miles to Devils Lake, ND. Everyone is milling about, cleaning their bikes, setting out breakfast, packing the coolers, filling up water bottles, packing their bags, doing everything possible now to save time in the morning. Why might that be? Because we are waking up at 4:15. We are planning to be on the road at 5:30am.

I'm not afraid or concerned about the early wake up time at all, no matter to me. I am afraid and concerned about the 120 miles after that.

The early early days are because of our horrible day facing the wind on our ride into Grand Rapids, MN. Since the wind (and sun/heat as well) doesn't pick up till after 12, we try to start the day as soon as we can so we can get as far as we can without facing the inevitable wind.

That's how today started, leaving Bemidji. We woke up at 5:30 and we're out of the church at 6:45am, which is a new record for shortest wake up to leave time for us. The route was 90 miles, a long day, also prompting the early wake up. Though there was complaining and groaning about it, it made the ride much more enjoyable. We were blessed with good weather today, smooth and wide shoulders, and little to no wind. I rode with Kate and Joy and joined by Dan and Kim later to the first lunch stop. Our first lunch stop was at 9:00am. Crazy. I kept riding with Kate and Joy after lunch and joined by both Derek and Sharon. Things were going so well that we even played ghost (word game) and the celebrity game while riding. I personally wasn't a big fan of it, mainly because I find it hard to think and focus on riding at the same time. Kate had a flat tire and Derek dropped off since he was a bit sore today. Our second lunch stop was at 11:15am. At that same time, and with 13 miles left, Pen and Ian arrived at the church for the day, just as morning mass was getting out. When our group of four made it near the church, we decided to bypass it and go straight into town to find a Dairy Queen. The thin mint blizzard is highly recommended and my new favorite. Go out and try it while you can, since it's this month's flavor and only around for just a bit more.

All in all, it was a good ride for everyone. At one point, in front of me there was a double paceline with 10 people in it . . . and they were all playing a game of contact while riding. Though, I'm afraid that since we've had such a good day today that tomorrow is going to be hail and brimstone.

The folks here in Crookston and the church here have been wonderful. Just like in Edwardsburg, it's a great place to be the night before one of our toughest rides. Lasagna, rice and vegetables for dinner filled us up plenty. They advertised our presentation well so there were more than the usual amount of people. And, they are waking up tomorrow to make us egg-bakes for breakfast . . . serving at 4:45am.

Tomorrow is cold burrito day for the second lunch stop at mile 80. Since I my chore group has changed to dinner group, we were in charge of getting that all prepared for tomorrow. It consisted of a trip to the local Wal-Mart and getting the tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, onions, and salsa that go into a cold burrito. While shopping, we found the bulk food area and as Ian went to pull out a giant bottle of ketchup, he knocked over a glass jar of pickle slices. It was probably a gallon and a half of pickles. WIthout hesitation, Christopher and I bend down and pick up some pickles to start munching on them. Heck if we were going to let them go to waste.

Kathy made beer bread tonight in preparation for Prom in Rugby, ND. The ingredients are flour, sugar and beer. It's delicious.

During our presentation today, while we were introducing ourselves, when Sean stood up, we all instantly broke out singing Happy Birthday to him. It's his birthday today and we made a public spectacle of it. It was great.

Lastly, my calves. They now have their own identity. Kevin named them. The left one is named Thor. The right one is Viggo. Apparently Thor is the god of weather and I forget what Viggo is the god of. Well, we had our group meeting after presentation today all cozy in a smaller room and someone mentions that the good weather today is due to Thor, the god of weather. Immediately, several people bow down and start stroking my calves. It was quite the sight and very odd, but hilarious.

Early day tomorrow. Longest day tomorrow. But we will be rewarded by staying at Isaiah's farm. He lives not too far from Devils Lake in Starkweather and we'll be treating to horses, tractors, a cook out, beds, showers, sleeping out under the stars, even a school bus driving us from Devil's Lake to his house, everything . . . who knows if we'll be even up for taking advantage of any of it.

Bemidji, MN

We’ve entered the land of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. A statue of the pair right on Lake Bemidji seems to be part of their claim to fame. It’s a nice town and seems to be the most immediate and largest town west of Grand Rapids. A few people are exploring their main street area, as there are a few thrift stores, they’re searching for prom attire. Again, check out Kathy’s blog for a posting about prom.

A 70-mile ride today that was much better than yesterday. We woke up a bit earlier (6:00) than normal (6:15), but later than planned (5:45), as Dan didn’t wake up to his cell phone. Kathy was awake and went around waking us up and placed out prom invitations near our sleeping bags, the theme is Harvest Moon. The egg bake breakfast (6:30) was delicious. It’s basically an omelet in a casserole dish with no opportunity to get dry since there’s loads of butter and milk in it, along with croutons, ham/sausage, and lots of cheese. It was gooey goodness to start the day.

For the first half of the day I rode in a paceline with Kate, Ian, Jessie and Kim. We were moving at quite the clip, about 17/18 mph and it was tiring. Towards the end just before lunch, I could feel my legs shaking and muscles tensing. At mile 27 my rear tire decided to go flat. A bummer since our group was just behind the front rider and while I was changing it, lots of people passed us. Kim also veered off to the left twice, each time it was a dog chasing and barking at her.

The highlight of lunch today was the giant fish structure in the picture below. There was a stray kitten that kept trying to eat our food. Isaiah moved it several times, but once we had some food spilled on the ground, we decided to let the cat stay to clean it up. Towards the end of lunch, a fun one-eyed doxen and a golden retriever dropped by which delayed me getting started for the second half. Ian decided to break out the peanut butter and cocoa puff sandwich. I broke out the peanut butter and cheese sandwich.

I moved to the less intense paceline of Erik and Kathy for the second half. They were going at about 15/16 and that 2mph made all the difference. It was a relaxing speed . . . until the wind picked up. The nice thing about getting started earlier than normal is that we were able to beat the wind. It doesn’t pick up until about 12/1. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday, but we were all still cursing it. At one point, Kathy pointed out a hill to the right full of grass and wildflowers. It would’ve been pretty, but all I could focus on was how much it was all moving around.

Just before the church, we stopped at a bike shop. I was looking to buy tubes since I’ve gone through two in the past few days and owe Jessie one, since she gave me hers when I had the flat earlier. On a whim and following Erik’s extreme care for his bike, I asked the owner to check to see if my chain had stretched. After riding for so long, the metal links that form the chain stretch wreaking havoc on the gears, rings and everything else the chain touches. Turns out that my chain is fair to good, closer to fair. Erik’s chain is good to fair, closer to fair. Which means that soon, I’ll need to get a chain. A few others have already changed theirs.

Arriving here at the church and scoping out the place, I was reminded of two other things (which they have here) that make for a great church. There are 6 showers here, 3 for the men and 3 for the women. After a day’s ride, the first thing to do is take a shower. We’ve been sweating in our chamois all day and well, you’ve got to get yourself cleaned otherwise bad things happen/form/grow. Normally, we’ll have to take van trips to the local Y, high schools, pool or wherever else, but the fact that we can just walk a few steps from our bags to the showers is quite the luxury. The second item is an ice machine. Anywhere there’s an ice machine I’m sure to fill up bags and ice myself to help my muscles recover. In the morning, it means that we can fill our camelbaks with ice for cold water. A side note this church has a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, something we haven’t seen anywhere else.

Dinner provided tonight. A picture as a group for the local paper. And lots of meetings. We have to have our town meeting with K-Court following it. Then after that, our weekly affordable housing meeting. It’s going to be a long night. Thank god there’s an ice machine.

Kangaroo Court - Session 1

Every week, normally on Saturdays, we have something called Town Meetings. It’s a forum for people to raise comments, problems, issues, etc. and address it to the whole group. It can get tense especially if it’s a personal call out, but normally it consists of smaller reminders about keeping up with chores, proper chalking, following the rules of the road.

Since Town Meetings often leave the group with a bitter taste in their mouth, Erik had the brilliant idea to have Kangaroo Court. K-Court consists of small fines or props to people for actions and events in the past week. Note: The maximum fine is 50 cents. It’s a good laugh and fun to share stories since not everyone hears everything. And it puts us back into a good mood.

I’ll be posting K-Court fines and props. These are from Week 1 and were told back in Grayslake, IL. It’s basically all a bunch of inside jokes, but still worthwhile to take a gander.

To: Zack
From: Pen
Fine: 1 cent
Re: For not listening to his mother.

Top 5 B&B’ers who resemble celebrities:
#5 Ian-as the Rat that can cook in Ratatouille
#4 Anson-as Napoleon Dynamite
#3 Pen-the lead singer of High School Musical
#2 Joy-as herself
and finally, the B&B’er who most resembles a celebrity
#1 Christopher-as Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars
(Props for 1st four, 10 cent fine for #1)

To: Route 20 [the miserable stretch leading into Cleveland]
From: the riders of Bike and Build
Fine: 50 cents
Re: F you too.

To : Quang
From: Michelle
Fine: 20 cents
Re: For sticking a strand of your hair on my face

To: Reed
From: Craig
Fine: 15 cents
Re: For wearing his chamois all-day in Niagara . . . and not even biking there.

To: Reed
From: Everyone else
Fine: 50 cents
Re: Wearing his chamois and jersey (with a black t-shirt over it) to Niagara Falls when everyone else riding in the van was wearing normal clothes. When asked why he was still wearing his chamois, Reed replied, “They’re comfortable.”

To: Ian, Craig, Michelle and Kristen
From: Kathy
Props: For sitting through 2 hours of the worst cinematic tripe to cross the screen since Snakes on a Plane. This experience can also be described as watching the movie, WANTED

To: Zack
From: Christopher
Fine: 10 cents
Re: Happy Birthday Zack!

To: Christopher
From: Kathy
Fine: 15 cents
Reason: Berating me for buying $3 secondhand chamois when he owns a pair of holey chamois that gave everyone a serious glimpse of his butt.

To: The van
From: Everyone
Fine: 50 cents
Re: For being the non-descript sketchy white drug van and for having crappy bumper stickers and always being full of everyone’s crap.

To: Quang
From: Christopher
Fine: 50 cents
Re: For never taking your jersey off before dinner…because you don’t want to mess up your hair.

To: Isaiah
From: All
Fine: 3 cents per line drop
Re: For trying to woo or swoon the female congregation with his killer pickup line, “I’m a farm kid.”

To: Leaders
From: Riders
Fine: 10 cents for each violation
Re: For losing the van keys

To: Anson, Isaiah, Dae and Christopher
From: Kathy
Fine: 5 cents each
Re: Wearing those heinous unitards. Enough said.

To: Anson
From: Michelle
Fine: Chamois Buttr
Re: For digging through our duffel bags and stealing our chamois butter hoping that nobody would notice

To: No Chew Spew
From: Laura
Fine: 22 cents
Re: Left Silver Bay heading to Indian Lake. After eating homefries, at the top of that massive hill someone puked up a whole potato square. I must ask: Was it as good comin’ up as it was goin’ down?

To: Sean
From: Everyone
Fine: One sleeping bag
Re: Send it home or so help me, it is getting trashed

To: Vancouver, Canada
From: Everybody
Fine: 50 cents
Re: For being 4000 miles away

To: Canada
From: Erik
Fine: 8 minutes of my life back
Re: For putting on the worst fireworks display in the history of fireworks

To: Reed
From: Sharon and Bobby
Fine: 25 cents
Re: Stop hitting mailboxes. You are going to kill yourself

To: Christopher
From: Pen
Fine: 50 cents
Re: Existing

Bemidji, MN - Pictures

From the William Munger bike path. A caution sign warning people about the steep hill ahead. Take a look into the distance of the bike path, that's the steep hill. Are you kidding? I've climbed up mountains. I wouldn't even call it a hill, a mere dent in the road. 

Dae using the putting green during our lunch stop yesterday. It was all fun and games during lunch, but then we left headfirst into the wind, which was neither fun nor a game. 

Again, to reiterate, we sleep anywhere. Pen choosing to sleep halfway on the putting green and the rough, a perfect cushion to take a nap. 

The double pace line. Pen and Kate are in front. Kevin and Kathy are next. Laura and I are in back. You'll also notice, as it's rather blatant, the orange visor on Kathy's camelbak, a find from a thrift store in Hinckley. See her blog for more info on it. Also, if you look close enough on Kevin's camelbak, you can see the purple Tinky Winky head that he carries for funny pictures and movies along the way.

On today's ride from Grand Rapids to Bemidji we entered and left Chippewa National Forest. I regretted not stopping to take a picture on the way in, so I made sure to stop on the way out. Erik's camera has the pictures with actual people in it. I was just taking pictures to use as a desktop background. 

Our lunch stop today, in the parking lot of the Big Fish Supper Club. You can see how they get their name. We were also visited by a cat that ate up Christopher's spilled Trix cereal. Then a doxen and a golden retreiver came out of nowhere and played with us for a bit. And, I'm getting eaten by the fish.

From our ride into Hinckley when I was a sweep with Reed. The treehouse that Kevin and Pen found just off the bike path. Very impressive. The ladder was the least structurally sound part of it all. There was even an extension cord run from somewhere for electricity.

Another one from sweep day. The sign says "Colors by Craig." It was a picture break disguised as a rest from my seat and bike. 

The William Munger bike path. It's a beauty. It just keeps going and going. Paved, smooth and probably the best path we'll have the entire trip.

Coming into Duluth, we gradually climbed and biked through several rock walls like this. I felt like I was back in New Hampshire.

Grand Rapids, MN

Duluth evened the score with us on our ride out from the city. We climbed out of the city away from Lake Superior and up the hill. Locals that we’ve talked to always went on about how there could be as much as a 20 or 30 degree difference between down by the water and up on the hill. The rather steep climb brought us to a scenic road, which afforded views of Duluth down below. While a sight, I didn’t think it was anything impressive, I mean it’s Duluth, a city based heavily in manufacturing and mining. And I couldn’t really focus on looking left because I was so focused on looking down and forward since the road was rough and patchy. It completely demolished my wrists and elbows, which were already tender, and set up for a rather painful ride the rest of the day.

From this, we made a right turn and began our long affair with Route 2. We roughly measured it last night on Arianna’s map and it should be about 800 miles. Of our 85 mile day today, we were on it for 73 miles—73 excruciating miles.

The wind today was out of control. It was like riding into a wall. The tall grass on the side of the road was twisting and turning every way making our day miserable. Though our legs hurt and our rears were sore, talking to people after they made it in, the worst thing about wind is just how exhausting it is. It takes everything out of you. In the morning I rode in a paceline with Ian, Kathy and Jessie. There were some hills so it helped to break things up and we made it to lunch relatively unscatched. Dan found a golf course parking lot for us to stop at. He even picked up a bucket of balls and some clubs in case we wanted to use the putting green or driving range. I left lunch alone and decided to face the winds by myself. Big mistake. From the morning, I was worried that with the wind and my lack of mental energy that I might accidentally tap wheels with the rider in front or some other careless accident. Well, I rode 13 miles against the wind before I stopped to take a break. I saw Jessie and Kathy not too far behind, so I stuck my thumb out to "hitchhike" and add to their pair to help battle the wind together. While I can't say that pacelining created an effective barrier, having a wheel (and target) to focus on helps make the miles go much faster. It was 10 miles till the next break that we took at a gas station. The 10 miles I rode with them felt like half the time than the 13 miles I rode by myself.

As a group, we were all just exhausted, it was a rough day to be riding. John P. nodded off while riding and tapped wheels with Ian, but he was able to recover and no accidents. Erik was having a rough day and dehydrated, but Katrina and Kate stayed with him and pulled him in. Derek decided that the previous 2000 miles were just a warm-up and decided to step it up today and just killed the ride, showing what he's been hiding. Michelle and Lindsey get major props since they rode most of the day alone. In the wind. Both came in a little frustrated and angry, but to spend the greater part of 73 miles facing what seemed like gale force headwind alone is quite the feat. The individual stories today are endless, but we all had a tough time with it.

Things weren't all bad, thinking bad the highlight of my day was the cold tuna pasta salad leftovers I ate for lunch. Tuna pasta is near and dear to my heart, as a variation of it basically got me through my study abroad term in Rome. Tuna, farfalle, peas, onions, parmesan, and mixed up in a carbonara style. Delicious.

We are staying at a United Methodist Church here in Grand Rapids. So far, I think it's the best equipped church we have stayed at as it has all of the items (and then some) that make for a good place to stay.
- Numerous electrical outlets
- Wireless
- 4 brand new computers with internet
- Plenty of bathrooms
- Kleenex
- Hand soap that is not pre-lathered
- Large common room
- Multipurpose room to store bikes
- Smaller rooms for everyone to find a sleeping place
- Couches
- Industrial dishwasher
- Large kitchen for cleaning everything and refrigerator storage
- Snacks upon arrival (make your own smoothies)
- Dinner provided (cookout at a "carnival" next to a lake)
- Breakfast provided (eggbake tomorrow, we'll see how that turns out)

Time flies by here. We already have such limited free time in the evening that it's important you make good use of it. After coming back from dinner (and a needed stop at DQ for a thin mint blizzard), I had maybe and hour or so to take care of everything that needed to be done. What did I do instead to recover? I got onto youtube and watched the first set of the women's wimbledon final from a few weeks ago. I needed a good veg out to rest and relax.

Duluth, MN - Build Day

We worked with Common Ground today, a local land trust that provides affordable homes for families. Their model is very unique and seems to work here and for them. I didn’t get a full understanding for how it works as it was all over my head. But, seeing the homes in the subdivision that they have built said it all. The homes are high-quality and don’t look like affordable homes at all. A number that stood out to me, the home that I was working in would have a market value of about $215K, but because of their structure they could sell it for $145K. It was nice to work with a group other than Habitat to see another way. There’s more than just one way to tackle the issue.

For today’s work, we divided into four groups. Six people went to the Common Ground office to paint walls there. The rest were taken to a subdivision where they are working. One third of us went to work on one house detailing and painting. Another third went to another house to detail and paint. The last third regraded a basement window well, which means they shoveled dirt in the morning, in the cold and rain. They earn the gold star for today’s build. In the afternoon they switched to the more enjoyable task of demolition. Common Ground is now allocating their funds to renovations, as opposed to new builds, so they stripped a floor of a house to its frame.

I spent the day working with Sean, Kate, Kathy, Ian and Sharon. Our site manager was this firecracker of a woman, Julie. In the morning the other five primed window frames and I swept the floors and walls for dust. Our lunch was a fantastic spread for wraps with deli meats, fresh vegetables and a cartons upon cartons of fresh fruit. It was probably the best lunch we’ve had hands down the entirety of the trip. In the afternoon, we painted all the primed areas and added the baseboards to the list. Our group had quite the rhythm going on and we just sped through all the woodwork. TO pass the time, as we normally do during the afternoons of build days, we played a game of contact. Sean and I went to another house to help them with painting and upon arriving, we realized how well out house was working as a team. It was like we stepped into the bizarro world.

Afterwards, we had a dinner at a park on Lake Superior with the Common Ground organization and some of the homeowners. I was in the second van, so that means there were sort of slim pickings on the food. Not that it matters though because it was mail drop day and I had quite the sugar high going into dinner.

Mail drop. First, thank you to the parents for sending along a whole box full of Clif bars and shot bloks. And a big thanks to Lizzy for sending a fun new flavor of Clif bar and a trashy celebrity magazine—nice. Mail drops are sort of like Christmas, they just happen every Thursday. We all anxiously wait to see who got packages and everyone else stands around as people open their packages to see what they got. The best part is after all the packages are open because then we set aside all the food, goodies, baked goods, snacks, candy, etc. on a table for communal eating and munching. Highlights today included Anson’s salmon (from a previous mail drop), Joy’s chocolate chip meringues, and Pepperidge farm cookies from Pen’s host family in Avon Lake, who included three packages along with his boxers that he left there. Basically, we love mail drops. Because even though one might not personally get a package, they still get to reap the benefits. By the way, there are three more mail drops left, in case you were wondering.

It’s halfway now and I am glad to say that I still like peanut butter and jelly. We always have it for lunch and makes the occasional appearance at breakfast, but I can still stomach it. But you know what I can’t handle anymore? Bananas. I can’t stand the flavor, texture, anything about them. I still eat them, but I don’t enjoy it. I know that they are good for me and that the potassium will prevent muscle cramps later in the day, but it’s tough.

Oh, did I mention that I got a flat coming into the synagogue the other day. No, literally coming into the synagogue; I wasn’t even on my bike. I was walking it up to the front door and all of a sudden it just goes flat. Annoying, but still better than on the road. I finally changed it tonight and just plain old replaced the tube since it has two patches on it (one patch for function, one patch for my stupidity). I checked the inside of the tire for any sharp objects and found a little bump. Thanks to the help of Sharon and a fun little tip to bend the rubber, we found a little shard of glass that most likely caused the flats. So tomorrow should go smoothly.

We’re halfway through and it’s pretty clear at how adept we all have become with our bikes. Today, four people got their package with aero bars to install on their bikes. Some of us are ordering a second set of tires since we’ve worn through the first set. Kathy, meanwhile, finally changed her tires from the stock kind. Derek changed his chain (as they stretch after awhile and wreak havoc on the cogs and gears). Derek’s chain change wasn’t the most successful, he biked ~40 miles in his lowest/easiest gear the day we were going into Pepin, which meant he probably maxed out at 12 mph and therefore spent a lot of time in his saddle. And, we, though names will not be mentioned, are getting saddle sores and have sought out antibiotic help. So hardcore.

Ugh. Ian and I just spent the last 16 minutes tries to find the light switch to turn off the lights. We were walking all over the room flipping every switch possible. It was pretty clear what we were doing. There were several people on their computers doing work. It turns out, one of them knew how to do it, but was engrossed with the screen. I realize it’s my fault for never asking directly, but how do you not even notice what’s going around you if you’re in front of a computer? Just a little harmless vent. Bedtime now.

Duluth, MN

Where have we stayed so far? Churches. YMCA’s. High schools. Dorms. Host families. And we can now add synagogue to the list. We’ve made it to Duluth and are staying at Temple Israel. It’s the only synagogue within a 3-hour driving radius and they have a congregation of about 185 families. The president of the Board gave us a tour of the place. I opted not to take it. I have a slight aversion to synagogue tours after traveling with my friend Dan in Europe. The reception here has been just as warm as our previous locations. And the highlight of dinner was an amazing chocolate cake.

To get here, and make it to our halfway point, we had an 80-mile day. 70 of those miles were on the William Munger bike path. Joy, our trip leader who made the que sheet, said it is the nation’s longest continuous paved bike path. Words don’t do justice for how pleasant the ride was today. The bike path was clear of any other bikers, walkers, etc for the majority of the day.

I spent the first 35 miles on the bike path in a group of riders. Kate and I biked the first 13 miles together to Finlaydson and stopped at a café for breakfast. We were joined by a bunch of other riders and we all ate a hearty and cheap breakfast. Much needed, since our B&B breakfast was a bit subpar today; I blame it on Hinckley and the lack of refrigeration and kitchen. I had a scramble/skillet: hash browns, green peppers, onions, American cheese, mozzarella, two eggs over easy, all mixed together with a healthy dollop of ketchup. Afterwards, I was in a group with Kate, Kathy, Laura, Kevin and Pen and the paths were so nice and clear that we pulled out the double paceline. Laura and I pulled first and it was great. I especially enjoyed how we all worked together when there was an upcoming pedestrian to transition from a double paceline to single file. It was all going smoothly until Kathy got a flat. The patch she put on didn’t take, so thanks to Zack with an extra tube, she just changed the entire thing. At this point Kevin and Pen left, so it was the four of us and we rode hard until the lunch. Laura and I at one point were pulling at 21 mph. This was much too fast.

So after lunch, I opted to ride the second half by myself. I didn’t want to stress of a paceline and I wanted to take advantage of the trees and greenery around. Especially with a double paceline, the two pullers in front are kind of racing each other and the speed ever slowly tends to increase. So riding alone I still pushed myself, but averaged about 16/17. There were more holes and bumps in this second part of the trail. But the path is well maintained, and all of them were clearly marked with orange spray paint so you could plan your line ahead of time. So thoughtfull, Minnesota really has it together. I stopped in Carlton at mile 60 to fill my Camelbak with ice. I decided that my new thing is going to stop and get ice so I can have cold water to drink. The best part of the ride today was going though narrow parts with rock walls on either side.

Entering Duluth, well, it’s very brown. Everything seems rather drab. But it’s right on Lake Superior, so that in addition to being so close to Canada makes it cold. I’ll be able to get a better sense of the city tomorrow as we head to the build site and hopefully I can talk up more people. Oh, Mike, the Board President said something interesting about Duluth. How way back when around 1900/10, the city was booming and on track and predicted to be the next Chicago. So, civic leaders bought up all sorts of green space and made parks, in anticipation of dense urban growth. Well, that never really happened, but the parks stayed, which is why there’s so much green space here.

We were informed that Duluth is hosting Finnfest 2008 this year. It’s a gathering/celebration/festival/convention of Finnish culture and heritage. Basically, all sorts of Finns will be flocking here to Duluth and spending the next week being Finnish. Tonight was the opening ceremonies. Of course, I had to go so I went down with a van and caught the last 30 minutes of the opening ceremonies. Nothing too crazy, just saw two dances, a singer, lots of speeches/thank you’s and was clearly out of place. The mayor of Duluth in his speech decided to pepper his speech with Finnish related jokes, what did he make fun of? Saunas. The whole idea of it made me really excited, but I think I’d rather see the fair part of it and find some fish if possible, though I don’t think we’ll have time for that. The president of Finland is coming tomorrow though and will be here for a few days for the festivities, so this whole thing is kind of a big deal. The funniest part about it though is that earlier today while in the double paceline with Kathy, Laura and Kate, Kathy was telling us about how Conan O’Brien had a segment where he went to Finland and met the female president and how they oddly look alike. So, these past two places we ran into the circus and Finnfest, but all I really want to is to run into a demolition derby. That’s my goal for the trip, to see one.

After my little stint at Finnfest, I went to go see Wall-E with Kevin and Pen. Others were at the theater seeing Batman and Hancock. So far, there have been four waves of riders to go see Batman. I’m not really sure what news on the outside world is, but if our group is any reflection, then that movie must be breaking some box office records.

A build day tomorrow. We’re finally mixing it up and working with a group that isn’t Habitat. We’re working with Common Ground, a local affordable housing chapter. Someone actually came to dinner and chatted a bit about it and what we’ll be doing tomorrow. One group will be finishing/detailing a house, last-minute touch up stuff and the other group will be . . . moving dirt. A collective groan swept all of us when we heard that.

Hinckley, MN

There’s nothing to do here. Okay, the Big Top Circus is in town (and today only, how fortuitous for us) and I snapped a few pictures with the elephant and a few other people shopped the two thrift stores on main street for flair, but other than that, nothing. It’s a pretty small town and don’t have a clue what it has going on for it. Their biggest claim to fame seems to be a fire that destroyed the town in 1894.

We’re staying at the local high school tonight and sleeping in their gym. It’s not the most ideal of situations because there’s no community interaction and no one to provide dinner for us, we have to pay to use the pool, there’s no refrigerator for us to store our perishable food items and did I mention that we’re sleeping in the large, single room, wood floored and therefore heavy echoing gym. It’s a good reminder to value the churches and communities that we normally stay with.

For internet, I hijacked it. I found an ethernet cord and went into a classroom to plug it in. Resourceful, no? Everyone else thinks that there isn't internet, but I failed to mention this since I'm not supposed to be in this part of the high school anyway and I don't want a huge mad rush of people grabbing ethernet cords from computers and using the classrooms.

Because we didn’t have a dinner provided, Joy’s parents generously donated a pizza dinner for the group. A big thank you to them! We had plenty to eat and actually the first time we’ve had pizza in a long time.

My chore group this week is cooler crew and van clean up. The latter is rather self-explanatory. For the coolers, our responsibilities are to empty the coolers into refrigerators upon arriving to the church and then cleaning them. In the morning, we are supposed to repack the coolers and then fill the jugs that hold our water and Gatorade. Well, yesterday, we kind of dropped the ball and we were nicely called out for it today. It was a confluence of things: arriving in St. Paul yesterday and then being shuttled immediately to our host families; some of our members (though not me) who just didn’t know that the coolers were in the 2nd floor kitchen; some members being told by the ladies at the church that they would take care of it; and that always present factor, laziness. Thankfully none of the food is bad and shouldn’t go bad since we’re going to pack the coolers with ice tonight, but still not a good thing since all 30 of us depend on the food inside the coolers. It’s not just us though, it’d reflected in all the chore groups. We are over a month into the trop and the chore groups are slowly starting to degenerate.

Today, for the 84-mile ride, I was a sweep with Reed. For the first half of the ride I rode behind Reed. His bike tends to wander while riding which is totally okay is there's a shoulder. When there isn't, it's terrifying. There weren't that many shoulders so I rode behind him since I have a large florescent safety triangle on my Camelbak that way drivers would be a bit more warned that there are cyclists to share the road with. There was a 22 mile stretch where we were on the bike path we all heard about in St. Paul. Stopping to chat with someone, they mentioned that the bike path is the old railroad bed from St. Paul to Duluth. They just paved it over and boom, bike path. We were all very happy.

We were also blessed today with a front of cool air that came down from Canada. Kent, my host from last night, mentioned it this morning. It made the day that much more pleasant to be riding. Sunny, cool and a silly headwind. Silly because we are riding east to get to Duluth and that means we should be getting a tailwind, but that'd be too easy for B&B NUS 2008. The final thing that captured my attention most of the day--clouds. They were the cotton ball puffs of clouds in the sky at regular intervals, continuing all the way to the horizon. I found myself staring up more than forward most of the day (this is also a testament to how nice the roads/path was). For further clarification, they remind me of the clouds in the introduction/opening of the Simpsons. I didn't take a picture though, since I didn't really want to stop. Though I did stop to take a picture at a place called "Colors by Craig." They are a sign shop and make signs or vehicle decals.

The day was much longer than I had anticipated. I figured that since it's 84 miles, it'd be short and a piece of cake compared to the 120 mile day. But 84 miles is still a good chunk of road to get through. Also, I didn't eat enough for lunch to get all the calories that I needed. Towards the end, I could feel my legs shaking a bit from fatigue. Reed and I stopped to take a break, just 5 miles from the church, and I had a Clif bar, 2 shot bloks and gatorade to replenish myself.

So, as sweeps we are supposed to stop to help with any riders that might be having trouble along the way. Today we didn't have to deal with any issues like that, but we did have to deal with Kevin and Pen. Those two have been taking it easy and having a good day with their rides. So, the four of us went just down the street from the church in St. Paul and had coffee and a pastry at the "Finnish Bakery" to start the day off. My host mom, Katherine, made eggs and sausage for breakfast, so I wasn't really that hungry, but still. And about those eggs, probably the fluffiest eggs I've had in a long time, top-notch. We ended up finishing our morning coffee and leaving around 9. We biked to lunch, which was at mile 40, then just two miles later we see two bikes laying on the grass next to the bike path. My immediate thought was that someone was going to pop out and scare us. It turns out, Kevin and Pen were playing in a treehouse just beyond. Reed and I walk over and help them film a scene for their Tinky Winky video (this is a much longer story that I don't have the space to type out now). We all head back on the bike path and move along. We keep biking and as we enter Pine City and pass an A&W eatery, Kevin pops out and waves us to come by. So we sit and have a snack with them. You'd think it'd be annoying to stop so often, but it wasn't in the least bit. They were much needed breaks, my rear is still hurting, and the two of them are a lot of fun. And Kevin was so happy everytime he stopped.

Another accident today, but not a serious one. Kim was drafting Dan and her tire clipped his. He didn't feel much of anything, but Kim off her bike and onto her butt. Just a scrape on her left elbow and she was more than able to make it those last 7 miles to the high school. Though, Dan's spokes did get all out of alignment.

Honestly, there's absolutely nothing to do here in Hinckley; I'm kind of going out of my mind. There was a point, before I found the internet connection, where I was contemplating setting out on my bike and heading straight to Duluth. Also, the firewall here has blocked youtube, which is a bummer since I was banking on catching up on the wimbledon finals I missed. Oh, and the only show that I watch and is new in the summer, My Boys on TBS, well their online video player only works with PCs.

Get me out of here.

But to be fair to Hinckley, it might not be the town itself, rather the long, exhausting and fatiguing day I had as a sweep.

Scavenger Hunt

The Scavenger Hunt.

Bike and Build is filled with some rather competitive personalities. I mean, we're biking across the country and each day could basically be viewed as a race if you so choose. We're nearly halfway and we're pretty comfortable and familiar with how biking works. So, today was the scavenger hunt. Christopher, one of the trip leaders, wrote it up last night, after spending a day as sweep with Katrina. While in the back, they chatted about good things to have people search for.

Teams are groups of 4 riders. You need to take a picture of the object/item/whatever on a camera, the more creative the better. You need to arrive to the church before the sweeps. The hunt is scored on points, not number of pictures. So, the picture of a unicorn is worth more than a picture of a dead frog.

Kathy, Christopher and Jessie formed my group. We were bratty about it in the morning, naming ourselves the "Pirates" and even doing a cheer. I don't think that won us any friends. We decided to basically haul as fast as we could towards St. Paul. Then once we got closer, spend the time to find the items. Well, that plan was going great, we had a quick paceline and we even did some quick stops to take a picture. We passed most other groups. Then Christopher got a flat tire. Deciding to maximize the time, Kathy and I turned around to bike the mile back to a cemetery to take pictures of a rider's name (first or last is 1 pt, 5pts for a full name) on a headstone. On our way there, Kathy gets a flat. Half our team is now non-functional and while changing the tires, everyone passes us. I got to the cemetery and take pictures and by the time I get back, the sweeps have caught up to us and we are last. So much for the plan.

Other than that, we did a good job of riding hard while on the road and being productive and effective whenever we did stop for a picture. Erik's blog has a full list of all the items on the scavenger hunt, I believe. Below are some pictures we took from the day's ride and a little explanation. Enjoy. We did.

A unicorn--Basically, it meant you needed to be creative. We tried that and scoured an antique store for something that would work. No go. So we opted for the easier route and stopped at a library and went straight to the myth and folktale section. Jessie impersonating a unicorn and Christopher is rubbing it in everyone's face.

A doctor in scrubs--It never said it needed to be a living person. This person is clearly a doctor (i'm point to the MD) and most definitely wearing scrubs. All about the creativity.

A rider 10 ft off the ground--We tried to climb a silo, but were denied by the owners. We asked a utility person to give us a lift in their cherry picker, but couldn't for liability reasons. This was near the end and by the above picture. Christopher just jumped off his bike and just took off and tore up the sign. If you can't tell, he's in pain since the top of the metal sign was very hot.

Imitate a statue or monument--At the Como Zoo in St. Paul. A perfectly sited statue as we were on our way to another clue, a living large non-domesticated mammal. I saw the zoo sign from the road, so we biked up and just booked it to the gates. And yes, our picture for the living, large non-domesticated mammal is a gorilla. No one is going to top that. Christopher argued that a human could be valid, but I argued that we are domesticated. Thoughts?

A mail carrier--Vocal signs are good in a paceline to warn those in the back about bumps, holes, gravel, etc. Today, they were good for spotting and shooting this mail carrier. The person in front screamed and pointed to the mail carrier. I was in the bag so I whipped out my camera and took a picture. This is a team working at its best.

A rider giving a stranger a business card--Worth a lot of points so at least a few more people would know about our organization. A genius item since it does good for our group, as a scavenger hunt group and as an organization. 

A discarded glove on the side of the road--We stopped at an ice cream shop for pictures of an ice cream scoop. Too bad they only had soft serve. But, they did have plastic sanitary gloves. So we took one, then proceeded to discard it on the side of the road. Well, we picked it back up so we weren't littering, but the picture says it all.

A biking sign--Pretty easy to find. Christopher planned to make a right turn signal since the sign says right. I'm not sure if he's aware he's actually telling everyone he's stopping. He's the one that's also ridden across the country before.

This is when we went guerrilla. Literally took all of 30 second for the picture. Jessie jumped off her bike onto the motorcycle and I took the picture. The owners were none the wise, we were too quick.

A person wearing a shawl--There was a cardboard cutout of Marilyn Monroe, so we decided to play dress up.

St. Paul, MN

Last night in Pepin, before going to bed I needed to patch my tube. For the several days before I had been riding with a slow leak. Basically, each morning my tire would be flat, but if I pumped it up to 120 psi in the morning, it'd be enough to make it through the day. Out of laziness and fear to touch my bike, that's what I did. Push came to shove and after arriving so early into Pepin, I decided it was time to find that small little hole in the tube. I sat myself down on the grass and set about going to work: removing the wheel, deflating the tire, releasing the tire, pulling out the tube, finding the hole in the tube. To find the hole, basically, you just inflate it then put it close to your ear to hear if air is leaking from anywhere on the tube. It's a rather tedious process but necessary. It didn't take me long to find the small hole (which is surprsing since I can barely hear people talk sometimes) so I go about using my patch kit to take care of it. To patch it there are several steps: roughen the area around with sandpaper, apply glue to the area that will be covered by patch, attach patch and hold down with pressure until fully adhered. So I patched my first tube. I put it back on my bike and pump it up fully. Then I hear check it with my fingers and hear some hissing, then feel the tire slowly to deflate. What? Repeat all the steps again and look at the patch. Near the patch, I notice an area that seems to have been sandpaper. Whoops, I patched the completely wrong area. Actually, I patched an area that was perfectly okay. Well, good thing I had done it once before so I could do it again.

An 80 mile ride into St. Paul. Leaving the nice roads of Wisconsin to enter the similarly nice roads and landscape of Minnesota. That was a nice treat. There was one major difference. Today's ride there were hills and hills and hills. If there were rolling hills in WI, then today there were Rolling Hills with a capital R and H. I think it has something to do with all the lakes in the state. It was tough. Even worse, for most of the hills, you could see straight ahead what you were approaching, all of it, to completely scare the life out of your legs and kill your mental will. The morning I was chugging along, which I think is a result of frosted shredded mini wheats for breakfast, on the hills. And I pulled the paceline I was in for a good bit of pavement and at a good clip as well. Then after lunch, I wasn't feeling it as much. The worst was this terrible stretch of straight, Rolling Hill road that we were on for about 11 miles. The cross street we entered at was 110th and we were supposed to make a left on 10th street. Basically, we had a countdown as the signs announced 90th, 80th, 70th, etc... It was terrible.

Tonight we have a treat, host families! Anson and I are at Katherine and Kent's place, which is just a bit more than 5 minute walk from the church. The place is beautiful and I even had her give me a since there's all sorts of great arts and crafts woodwork going on. Having all those little life things to be taken care of and accessible (like white out, reliable wireless, a table to write postcards on) and not being only limited to the items in your bag take a lot of the stress and pressure out to refresh us.

Duluth is two days away and the halfway point. Word from the church members is that there is a bike path from here to Duluth. We all clapped when this was announced at dinner. You should see the smile that comes across my face when we head onto a bike path. Glorious.

Now I know I typed a lot, but I didn't even mention the best of it. To spice things up on today's ride we had a little scavenger hunt. It was epic. To the point that an entire post will be dedicated to it with pictures.

Pepin, WI

Who knew the little town of Pepin would be such a great place? First, it's the birthplace of Laura Ingalls; they have a museum right on main street. And coming in on Route 35 there was a perfectly located ice cream shop where I had a mint ice cream to cap off a tough day of riding. Erik opted for the most intriguing item on the menu, a black cherry soda float. The snacks and food waiting for us at the church was quite the spread and dinner consisted of heaping plates of spaghetti. And the church has wireless, hence the massive post dump.

Again, Wisconsin has continued to impress us with smooth roads, wide shoulders and beautiful scenery. It was an ideal ride on paper, but for me, those 120 miles two days ago finally caught up with me. I just couldn't get comfortable sitting my saddle for the entirety of the day. I had to keep adjusting or stand up for a little bit just to relieve some of the stress on my sit bones. Standing is dangerous while in a paceline, so I didn't do it that often and suffered as a result. It's such a tough decision because if I leave the paceline to get comfortable then I will inevitably go much slower, but if I stay in the paceline I'll get there much faster but be in much more pain/discomfort. I opted for the latter for most of the day.

The que sheets this week have been in the care of Joy, one of the four trip leaders. Her que sheet yesterday was spot on, down to 0.1 of a mile. That's very good, especially considering Dan's que sheet two days ago was just blatantly wrong and was part of the reason for having a 120 mile day. This morning was going swimmingly until my group (Kate, Kathy and Jessie) saw a chalking in the road that read "shortcut." Immediately I was excited to shave off some distance, but then I remember that Dan was in the van and most likely determining the shortcut. Uh oh. So we go along, seeing the roads on our que sheet but no longer able to make the appropriate turns and then we catch up to the front pack and the van. Great, they are re-evaluating but with the help of the van's GPS we follow them back on track. We follow them all the way to the entrance of a national wildlife reserve (the picture) with a dirt road section. Uh oh. We chalk it and make our way through the preserve. We end up losing the front pack, but noticed a chalking that read "I pity the fool" with a right turn chalked. The options are either go straight on the paved road or follow the chalking to the right and go on a dirt road. We assumed it was a joke and read it as "I pity the fool . . . who chooses the dirt road over the paved road." Funny joke. Then we get lost in the nature preserve. We call the van and make our way back to the que sheet and roll into lunch. Have a quick chat with the front group and turns out the chalking was serious to go right and not a joke at all. Let's just say, the four of us weren't laughing. Thankfully, we only added 5 miles to our day's ride.

For lunch, we had leftover sloppy joe meat. It was the best thing I have ever eaten at lunch so far. Combined with an apple cider that had been frozen and then turned to slush, perfect meal.

Erik joined us for the second half of the ride. We followed along the Mississippi for a good portion of it. The highlight for me was seeing a giant Viking man standing outside a store as an gaudy advertisement. I wanted to stop and take a picture, but I couldn't break the momentum of riding. The other place I wanted to stop was the Wisconsin Luggage Reclaim store. Basically, it's where all that unclaimed luggage items go if no one finds them and it's sorted and organized and sold to the public. But again, couldn't break the momentum.

We'll be going in Minnesota tomorrow. I'll be sad to leave this state and its alphabet soup of county roads (CR) that have confused us.

Gays Mills, WI

This place is a small town—population 600—and its apple country. I was talking to the pastor at dinner because I was interested to learn that the town is thinking of relocating. Last August and this past June they’ve had substantial flooding, 100-year floods actually, that have left many of the homes unsuitable to live in. It’s difficult to get the FEMA help to rebuild, but many of the residents aren’t even fully aware of what the process of going about that would be. It was quite the story.

The pastor has been great to us. She made a dinner with plenty of vegetarian option, most of which proved to be me favorite, especially the chickpea, carrot and raisin salad. But, she lives right next door and opened up her home to use wireless, sleep in the extra bedrooms, shower and play with their adorable bulldog or two cats. Where I also quickly remember that I’m allergic to cats.

121 miles. That’s what my odometer read today. It was a doozy of a ride. It was only supposed to be 102, but this morning we got lost and added 18 miles. And then there were other points during the day I had to turn around. Anson I believe had the highest, 130 since he got lost several times. The picture is the chalking of our new directions. We were well off the que sheet, so the van driver, had to resort of chalking an entire new set of directions to get us back on track. It was highly unorthodox and hopefully we'll never have to do something like that again.

It was a long day to being with. But those extra miles were the result of a combination of things: que sheets being completely wrong, intersections without street signs, and our own stupidity as we were riding into the sun, which meant we were going east instead of west. It was a mess of a morning. We were all in pretty bad moods since we all knew that the mileage was going to be long.

The route was great. Very little traffic, smooth roads, and beautiful scenery. That was the saving grace for our unintentionally longest day yet. Wisconsin is hands down the best state we have ridden through. Everything is so green. And the farms are a bit more spread out then in New England or New York, so you can see a bit more of everything. But there were also rolling hills. Which sound fun and seem easy, but they add up. Dae, has an altimeter on his bike computer. So, not only did we ride about 120 miles, but we also climbed a vertical mile in the day. Which is completely unexpected since we’re in Wisconsin. For me, I really came alive around mile 90. There was a long uphill that I demolished, even catching up to the next person in front of me, which is something I normally never do, especially on hills. I think it was my desire to get to the church, but Sharon, who I was riding with just before, mentioned how she was impressed with my level of improvement.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I saw Batman last night at the midnight showing with Christopher, Erik, Kathy, Reed, Kevin and Pen. The movie was great, fun plot twists and the Joker was very well done. But, we got back to the church at 3:30am, meaning I slept for two hours since we had a 5:30am wake up time. Which means I did all that riding basically on two hours of sleep. And it was totally worth it.

The first lunch stop. Supposed to be at mile 40, but really mile 50 since we all took the "detour" and got lost. 50 miles is a long way to ride before the lunch stop. Oh wait, our second lunch stop was at mile 100. The whole day was a bit kooky with the lunch stops. But they were needed and Christopher generously offered up his personal stash of Clif bars to us.

Like I said with Kathy, we will sleep anywhere. This is Dan at the first lunch stop. Thankfully the morning was cool and a bit overcast. But just before lunch, the sun came out and it was hot. Many naps were taken all around at this first lunch stop. A nice place though, shaded and next to a gas station to buy necessary drinks/food and use a real restroom.

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The final descent, after first biking up to the ridge line and then the rolling hills along the ridge line, to Gays Mills that night's final destination. A much welcomed and earned 10% grade. Isaiah posing with the sign. The sign to the left off in the distance is the town sign. At this point, there were about 3 miles left. 

La Crosse, WI

We woke up at 7:00 this morning, which is late for us. We were all still exhausted from the day before. Last night, the sweeps came in at 8:30. We like to have everyone in the church at 4:00pm. For everyone, we all basically just ate dinner then went straight to bed.

Despite our tiredness, I’m proud of everyone for making it through yesterday and finishing the route. It was long, it was hot, we got lost, we were angry, but on the whole we had a positive attitude and persevered.

We left Gays Mills by going up a steep and long stretch of uphill. Again, I was feeling good and made it up to the top with the group of stronger riders who are normally in front of me. The downhill was by far the best, a 9% grade with smooth roads, little traffic and wide turns. My max speed was 40mph.

The downhill brought us to the Mississippi. We rode along it for the most of the day. And these roads, again, were great. Smooth, good shoulders and little traffic. Stayed in a paceline with Erik, Kathy and Kate for most of the day with Laura for a good stint at the beginning of it. We were booking it, that’s how good these roads, terrain and our bodies were. Our paceline speed was about 20mph. The 61.9 miles was a breeze, but my rear was feeling rather sore for the last 10 miles, leftover from yesterday’s long ride. To talk about that more, I looked at my bike computer and it clocked my ride at 8 hours and 22 minutes. That doesn’t included stops for lunch or breaks that was how much time I spent in the saddle.

After dinner, I went with a few people to a local ice cream shop. The pastor recommended it to us and it didn’t disappoint. It’s in a residential area and the ice cream shop is basically a converted home. All sorts of flavors, but I settled on brownie, cookies and cream and neapolitan. I was wearing my bike and build t-shirt and a nice couple stopped me to chat about the program and what we’re doing. It’s always nice to talk to people about the program to raise awareness and interest.

More riding tomorrow . . . and nearing the 2000-mile halfway point.

Madison, WI

The most eventful item of today’s short 40-mile ride into Madison was fording a flooded section of road. Roads are still closed off from the rains and flooding and one of those just so happened to be on our route. We drove on by the “road closed” signs and made our way to the little lake in front of us. It wasn’t deep, maybe about mid-calf at its worst, and about 30 meters long. Christopher led groups across if they wanted to ride across, since there was a crack in the middle to be careful of. And instead of calling out pothole, bump or gravel, we were calling out sandbag, tadpole and algae for some laughs. I opted to take off my shoes and socks and carry my bike across. So, I was sad to hear later that day that Ian, Pen and Kevin, who were far behind since they stayed at the library back in Janesville to use their computers, noticed the paddleboat floating on the side. They paddleboated their bikes and themselves over. The perfect nautical equivalent to biking.

The low of the day was our lunch spot. The “gondola” sandwiches that the people in Janesville had given us were befitting of their name and big. The majority of us who finished their sandwiches had some slight stomach problems making the last bit of the ride a bit slower than normal. Also, Isaiah, who was the trip leader driving the van, decided it’s be wonderful to stop right next to a bog. I think he was lured by the swing set and picnic bench, but he was not aware of the mosquitoes. We were eaten alive. Most of us sought refuge and moved into direct sunlight, which isn’t really a refuge at all.

Madison is a great city. It has a lot of things going on and it’s very biker friendly. I’ve never been to Portland, OR, but I imagine it’d be safe to say it’s the Portland of the Midwest. The city is on a strip of land between two lakes and the capitol building is at the top of the hill, always there to orient you. I would come back to this place in a heartbeat

The first night I went to town with a bunch of people. Split off with Jesse and listened to the weekly music series, “Concert in the Square,” which consists of the Wisconsin State Orchestra playing outside with everyone sitting around on the lawn watching or listening over the speakers. Then, we met up with other riders of age and grabbed an outdoor table along the main drag, State Street, and had a few drinks. It was a much-needed release to sit back and enjoy each other’s company outside of biking.

Day off. I started the day off by sleeping in till . . . 8:30. I tried to wake up later, even sleeping in the coat closet (again) so it would stay completely dark inside, but it didn’t work. The Mermaid Café was right next to the church, so I brought my computer there, had a cappuccino and finally bought my plane tickets back from Vancouver. The café was great, for those familiar with Dartmouth, sort of like Bagel Basement (chalk board menu and all), just a coffee shop and not staffed by high school students. Then, I walked a block for a massage I scheduled the day before. Arianna had scoped the place out since she was dying for a massage. An hour-long session and it was great to relax and have the knots in my muscles worked on. When signing in, they give you a sheet with different body parts/areas you are supposed to check to make sure the masseuse works on it. I basically just checked all the boxes. In the afternoon I biked the three miles into Madison and ate Chipotle and had a Jamba Juice. Visited Monona Terrace, their convention center that sits right on Lake Monona and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Art Museum with Kathy for a bit more than an hour. Then finally went over to the university’s Union and sat on the Terrace, a popular outdoor spot that looks right onto the lake. A needed and perfect day off. The Han family hosted us for dinner. Two of them are current students at Dartmouth, Andy ’09 and Chris ’11, and knew people on this trip. Again, nice to be in a home and a delicious bean and corn salad served with lasagna as the main entrée. Ice cream for dessert, and since we’re in the land of dairy, the 4 tubs of ice cream actually came from the creamery from the university.

La Crosse, WI

Three states in a day again! Started in Wisconsin, then crossed the Mississippi to head into Iowa and rode along the river, which turned into Minnesota for a bit. Crossed the Mississippi one more time to come back into Wisconsin. Sounds complicated, but the roads were well-paved and had some nice lookouts onto the river. We could've gone 3 miles shorter on another route, but this allowed us to add one more state to our list.

Janesville, WI

I heard through a friend that Janesville wasn’t the best town and got the impression that it is rather small. So, I was surprised to see that its population is 60,000 and after walking trhough the town, it seems like a fun place with lots going on for it. The ride itself to Janesville was pretty. Things of note included the lack of state sign for both Illinois and Wisconsin at the border. And an amazing sandwich I made at lunch which consisted of wheat bread, olive oil, parmesean cheese, spinach, tomatoes, cilantro, sugar snap peas and onions.

I am continually amazed at the generosity of everyone that we meet along the way. Two examples:

Today, we decided to spice up the days about 70-mile ride by having a costume contest. The rules were that you couldn’t spend more than $5, so basically it’s things that you find along the road, dumpster diving, or asking for donations from stores. I desperately tried to find items along the road, but shredded road tires, construction materials and nature just wasn’t cutting it. After getting into the church, I walked over to the library, only to be turned away because I didn’t have an ID on me. But, along Main Street there was a consignment shop. Pen and I walked in and on a whim told them about Bike and Build, our costume contest, and asked if they’d be willing to donate anything. Deb and Pat were ecstatic to help us find our costumes. They settled on a purple princess dress Halloween costume for me with this great baseball hat that looks like an elephant. For Pen, they went with a skirt and top of matching pink material with a purple cowboy hat. It was out of control. I ended up buying the hat since it was so funny and well received. Deb and Pat basically just let us borrow the items for a few hours and let us return it the next morning before we left.

For dinner, the Ryan family, who live in Janesville, hosted us. Their son is on another Bike and Build trip elsewhere in the country, at that point in time, he was in Arizona. But they have heard all these stories from their son about how open and welcoming people throughout the country have been, that they wanted to return the favor to our group. An amazing spread of marinated chicken and tofu, great salad, and roasted asparagus, my favorite. We ate outside and chatted with friends they had invited. A great evening. We gave our usual Bike and Build presentation by setting up chairs on their driveway, with a convenient balcony for Ian and Dan to talk from. We were also treated to “legal fireworks” which consisted of a tub of gold balls be poured from the second story so they would bounce into the audience.

And pictures from the costume party. Ian and Isaiah served as the hosts and Kevin as the DJ. The hosts always seemed to be lost for words since our costumes were just that wild. Also, Quang dressed up as Quail Man, but that picture doesn't seem to want to load. Their were only a few entrants in the costume party. Pen won, only because I think there was a voting block against Christopher and Kathy, since they had been smack talking the entire day about how awesome their costume was going to be.

Costume: Camelbak. Personally, I think it's the best costume and most creative. On Kathy, the blue is supposed to be the water. The clear plastic bag holding the blue balloons is a dry cleaning bag they asked for along the way. Not sure where they found the blue hose. The yellow mouthpiece Christopher is drinking from is two plastic bowls taped together. Kathy attempted to get on his back, since that where a Camelbak sits, but it proved to be too difficult.

Pen: Southern Belle. He has the ability to turn on his Texas accent and he finally switched it on to get into character for the costume contest. It was a riot hearing him talk. The costume itself isn't so bad either. For reference, there's a pink fluffy skirt that he's wearing which gives it its mass. Don't forget the purple cowboy hat that he also had as part of his costume. Deb and Pat, from the consignment shop we borrowed from, told us that this outfit including the cowboy hat were brought in by one person as her "line dancing ensemble. Oh my.

Costume: Perfect Fusion. We like to make fun of Isaiah for using this phrase in a quote for a newspaper. He described Bike and Build as the perfect fusion, combining both service and adventure. We'll never let him live it down. So, Lindsey and Kate decided to dress up as the phrase. Lindsey is "Service" and has caulk, a pencil in the other ear you can't see, a tool belt, and a nametag with "Edwin" written on it. Edwin was our site manager at the Cleveland build; he also had a twin brother named Erwin. Kate is dressed up as adventure and refers to the biking part. The paper bag is drawn to resemble a road. The nametage says "US-20" that terrible road in Ohio we all hated. And a helmet filled with foliage for good measure.

Costume: Jasmine from Aladdin. There wasn't really much thought into my costume, which I think took away points in the scoring. It's just such a ridiculous thing that I needed to use it. As a group, we have a penchant for various Disney songs, so I figured it'd be appropriate to dress as a Disney Princess. They had plastic tiaras at the shop, but they were small and the teeth dug into my head if I did try to wear them. Also, the elephant hat is just so great. It's not really relevant for the costume though. Also, we were planning to watch Aladdin later that night, so it was topical.

Costume: Lost and Found bag. Dan surprised us all with this costume. Hilarious and creative. We keep a duffel along in the van that holds all the various items that people forget at the church, don't claim in the laundry, and other random stuff we accumulate. He basically just adorned himself with all the objects. A bold move, since many of the items are very dirty and smell. The book he's pulling out of his bra is a 501 French verbs book. Why would anyone bring that along?

Grayslake, IL

A short day today, about 40 miles. My dad drove me back into the city to meet up with the group at 7:30. There was a neighborhood party the day before and there was a cotton candy machine leftover to be returned for rental later that day. So, we surprised everyone with cotton candy, to eat in addition with pancakes we made. 

Since it was such a short day, I spent it with Kathy taking our time. We dropped by Wrigley Field for pictures. Then stopped in on my cousin Vanessa's place who lives nearby and say hi to their newborn, Joshua. From there, we had lunch with bubble tea at Joy Yee's, a hipper chinese cafe in Evanston. By then, it was about 12:30 and we needed to go about 25 more miles to make it to the church by 4:00. A quick stop to see the Bahai Temple and then we booked it through the North Shore, following Sheridan and Greenbay for a good bit of the ride. At one point, we saw a chalking marked "detour" so we called the van leader, Joy, to get more information about it. When we told her where we were, Joy was a little taken aback at how far away we were still. Whoops. 

The biggest moment of realization for me was seeing the rollercoasters at Great America. Because that meant that I had just biked from Wrigley Field to Great America. And that was an easy day. But back before this trip, and having been raised in the suburbs, I would've never even considered making that trip in anything but a car. Being in such familiar territory for me, really impressed that sense of perspective of distance. I mean, realizing that I had biked from Wrigley Field to Great America, to me, seemed like a bigger deal than that 117 mile trek just a few days before.

Arlington Heights, IL

Everyone else in the group was exploring the city for our day off, a bunch of them even went skydiving about an hour north. Being home was great and eating all those foods that I wanted to eat was comforting. 

I made sure to head to Portillo's for a cheeseburger, fries and chocolate cake shake. I went with my friend Kevin to catch up on his own travels and the working world and fill him in on mine. We also dropped by a bike store and an REI as I needed to get some thing in prep for the rest of the trip

Late, my friend Kari was having her graduation party on Sunday, so I was able to spend a good chunk of time there catching up my lots of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. They all knew that I was on my trek across the country (which they labeled as "tour de america"), but showing up showered, clean and in normal clothes just give the appearance that I was actually biking. For all they knew, I could've been making it up the whole time. I hope the tan line was proof enough.

All in all, a welcome day back at home. Though, I will admit, it was weird not to be around the other 29 people for that time. I've just become so accustomed to always having one of them around.

Oh, and being at home and thinking about how I could've been spending the summer back at home with a job, made me fully appreciate the experience and opportunity Bike and Build is. It renergized me and made me ready to get back on the road and my bike. 

Pictures

Our first lunch stop on our ~100 mile day was in the parking lot of this place. The ponies don't even have a chance against Kathy, Kate, Pen and myself.

Sharon led us through the streets of Cleveland. Our first urban environment.

In front of the Art Institute with the lions. At this point, my odometer read somewhere around 110 miles.

Passing by the Art Institute wasn't on the que sheet. We were supposed to stay on the lakefront trial. I took a little detour to meet up with my sister who lives in the city.

The traditional Bike and Build pose. I couldn't help myself. I just needed one in front of the Bean at Millennium Park. Also, my parents happened to be in the city strolling around, so I was able to meet up with them here.

Laughing, chuckling and yakking it up at a red light while going through Buffalo. Good times.

And then came more red lights. It seemed that every stoplight we came to would turn red on us. The laughing stopped and frustration began.

This day we started in NY and ended in OH, meaning we rode through PA in a day. The next three state day would be be leaving from Edwardsburg, MI and ending in Chicago, IL and going through Indiana in a day. 

Derek looking out over the landscape.

A giant rooster on the side of the road of an abandoned fried chicken restaurant. It provided us lots of entertaining pictures and a nice break in the process.

I rode with Erik for this terror of a day. Massive uphills and torrential rain. We were relieved to finally be entering the town of of final location.

My sleeping space and area, set up behind a piano. 

From our build day in Rochester, NY. Our task was to landscape the backyard, which basically meant remove all the weeds, tall grass, and overgrown greenery. This involved tearing down the vines from a tree. Sure we could've cut them down, but playing Tarzan proved to be just as effective.

Again from our build day in Rochester. It was a hot day and landscaping was tiring work. Lunch consisted of two slices of pizza, not even close to being enough to fill us. So, we were understandably tired. Kathy, curling up to take a nap, nestled on and next to drywall.

Arlington Heights, IL

Things that have made the difference: a bed, a private shower, and a cotton towel.

The silly synthetic camping towels that we all use just don't absorb the same. Synthetic towels dry faster and are more compact, which is why we all have them, but it's nowhere near a substitute.

As much as I wanted to sleep in, my body just wouldn't let me. I woke up at 8:30, which is late for the trip, but I was shooting for 10. But reading the Sunday Tribune this morning at the breakfast table, I laughed when I came across the front page article of the "Q" section. An article titled, " 'On your left!' Some translate that as 'Get outta my way!' " It's about the proper etiquette for cyclists when passing other pedestrians or slower cyclist. How appropriate. And relevant considering my jaunt on the Lakefront Trail yesterday that was swarming with people. Basically, if you hear someone saying "On you left" we're not yelling at you or angry. Not in the least bit, we're just trying to make sure everyone is safe and you are well aware. It just might sound like we're yelling or angry since we may or may not have biked a hundred and change miles ahead of time.

Chicago, IL

117 miles later, I'm back home in Arlington Heights. My parents came and picked me up from the church we are staying at in Chicago and brought me out to the 'burbs. Sitting here, thinking about the distance we've covered, to help put things in perspective, I basically just rode my bike from school to home. A trip that I've made several times in my car and completed in 16 hours, I just did on a bicycle over 25 days and my own pedaling power.

But today's long day really begins last night in Camden. You could sense it in the air, we were all buzzing about, preparing our bikes, our bodies, our minds for basically doomsday, the 109 mile day. People were getting everything ready and organized, since we had a 5:15 wake up time.

We left the church at 7:00 to overcast skies. And since Christopher was driving that meant it was going to rain. How he manages to always drive the van while its raining I have no idea, but I find it irritating. It's not his fault in the last bit and he has absolutely no control over, but when I'm wet and riding, I need something to deflect my anger and frustration on. And I choose him.

From the church to lunch the most eventful tidbit was a 4-mile detour a fair amount of the riders took. Detour is a more diplomatic way of saying getting lost. The que sheet had us going on a dirt road, never a good idea, so I think the front riders assumed the roads were set up on a grid and we could just a left, right left, to get back on the right track. Wrong. Roads were angled and nothing really worked. We flagged down cars to ask for direction and things worked out. There was light rain and I showed up to the first lunch stop at mile 40 wet and just a smidge irritable. The rain stopped by lunch and stayed away for the rest of the day. Ironically enough, the road we got lost on was called Chicago Road. A few riders figured we could just take that road to Chicago (a dumb idea). And another rider wasn't really worried about being lost, since we were headed in the general direction of west (I am not easy-going enough for this to be valid). But being lost on Chicago Road in the first 40 miles was basically a sick joke

The 40 miles form lunch to lunch #2 was on one road, Route 12. Rode most of it by myself, which was deliberate. We were told to be very careful on the road as it's busy and I didn't want to have to be responsible for hand signals or careful of closely I was following someone. Turns out the road wasn't that bad and a good chunk went through the Indiana State Dunes State Park, so it was scenic and well-paved. The most memorable thing from this stretch were signs advertising, "Free Parking-Gary Air Show" about every 5 miles.

Lunch #2 was just a clif bar and refilling my water bottles. Left with Jesse, Kathy and Erik. We were a good group riding through Gary and made it to the Lakefront Trail. What a relief seeing the Lake was. It was just a glimpse though as we got a little lost due to lack of chalking, but we found our way and picked up Bobby, Jesse and Kevin. Followed US-41 for a bit, then made it on the real lakefront path. Amazing. Bike paths, well paved, the Lake to the right and open pavement in front. It was a stroll in the park. Then we saw the skyline. I know for me, it just re-energized me, as if the previous 100 miles hadn't happened. A second wind and we stopped and took pictures and Erik and Kevin jumped into the water. I kept pressing on to meet my sister in Millennium Park with Kathy and Jesse in tow. Kathy got a flat and Jesse stayed back with her. Met my sister in front of the Art Institute then walked over to Millennium Park and the Bean to meet the parents who were in the city, a welcome surprise. So comforting to be back in familiar territory and have the family around.

After some quick photos, picked up the Lakefront Trail making my way to Montrose. Ran into Kevin and Erik and we made our way, slowly, to Montrose. The pathway was just packed with people, it made it difficult to move at a good clip. The highlight was us passing a rollerblader listening to his iPod and was offended with how abruptly I had passed him. So he sped up and rudely passed us just to make a point. Erik went to chase after him and passed him and sort of cut him off in retaliation. The rollerblader was being a jerk. How are you supposed to hear me say "passing left" if you have headphones on?

Made it to the church in Ravenswood at 5:11pm. I left this morning at 7am. Chicago is an hour behind where we were in Michigan. That's 11 hours total, most if it on the bike. But, I was feeling good, much better than the 96 mile day into Bowling Green. I tried to keep at a slow and steady pace, so not to tire myself out.

The sweeps, Kate and Ian, arrived at 5:24pm. We al did it. Some were hurting, some wanted more, but we were all tired and a bit ornery. We were all anxious to take off and see friends, family, explore the city, etc. but we needed to have a group meeting first. Lots of tension in the room. We all tore off Christopher's head when it looked like he was going to leave the group meeting to say hi to a friend.

Everyone's off and enjoying the city. I opted to spend time at home. I'm sad I'll be missing out on doing things with them in Chicago, but frankly, I've got plenty more time ahead with them. I think we're all better off if I spend some time away.

Dinner with the family in Chinatown. Ate family style, as it should be, and fulfilled my craving for clams with black bean sauce and chinese broccoli. Back at home, icing my legs, watching Food Network, and basking in the comfort of home.

Edwardsburg, MI

Michigan has just been wonderful to us. The roads, the people, the food, everything. I'm so glad that we are the first Northern US Route to go through Michigan, past years don't know what they've been missing.

Today's route was about 75 miles. So pretty average for us. But the roads today were spectacular, everyone was raving about them. Smooth roads which make it so much easier on the entire body, since we're not soaking up the vibrations from the road. Sure there was the frequent roadkill, but let's face it, when is there not?

For me, today was the best route and day so far. Again, I can't go on about the roads, it makes such a difference. In the morning, we were led out from Camden by a church member who rode us past an Amish community. We were basically thirty-people taking up one lane of a two-lane road, it was stupid and dangerous, thankfully there was little traffic.

From there we headed out onto rolling hills. A much welcome change from the monotonous and taxing farm fields of Ohio. I was going at a good clip for this bit then I came to a stop light. Clipped out of the right pedal, but still attached to my left pedal. For some reason I was shifting my weight around and just shifted it too far to the left and over I went. Out of nowhere, I just fell in front of most nearly all the other riders. Good one Craig. So, I pulled over quickly to get out of the traffic, double checked the gears and chain, then headed out with Jesse and Kate who kindly waited for me. At this point, everyone had passed us, so we formed a paceline and just attacked the hills and caught up to most of the people.

Lunch was at mile 37. Picnic benches on a nice town green. Even better, the restaurant where I got fries and a slice of strawberry pie. A terrible lunch, but delicious.

The second half of the day rode with Jesse, Kate, John P. Sean joined for the last 18 miles. More rolling hills, I basically was only able to pull for one of them before I tired out. The road we were one also had a shoulder that had rumble strips. We could ride to the right of the rumble strips and it made me feel much safer knowing that there was a barrier between me and a car. In regards to more fun stuff, we took a picture with a tank. Jesse did a handstand on it and Erik hung his bike from t he gun barrel.

The church here in Edwardsburg set a new standard. They had the local bike shop come to tune and help fix our bikes. They were here for about 5 hours, working on all 30 of our bikes. This would be hundreds of dollars of work; they did it all for free. Especially important since we have a long day tomorrow riding into Chicago, about 110 miles. I looked at the que sheet and it's going to be a doozy. But, at this time tomorrow, I'll be back home in Arlington Heights.

Camden, MI

Another day, another state.

Today, my number finally came up and I was assigned to be of one of two people for the sweep. Two riders are assigned each day to be the last riders. That way, they can help any rider that might need help along the way and provide support. Also, once the sweeps arrive at the church that evening, that means everyone has made it there.

Isaiah and I were sweeps today. It was my first time, which is odd since other people have already done it twice. But, we were quite the funny pair together. Mainly because the two of us have completely different mentalities towards sweep. Isaiah is a pretty intense biker and races at Dartmouth. He's more into the idea of a sweep as there to encourage and herd the riders in front to get to the church safely. My attitude is to make sure that I don't see any of the riders in front of me. I want to be as far back from any other riders so that I can go at my own pace still. The only reason I should see another rider is because they need help. So, in the morning we were staying back a bit since I was going slow, Isaiah thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to use the expanse of pavement for sprint workouts. What? Basically, he'd sprint ahead then slow down, once I caught up, he'd sprint ahead again. We were quite the sweeps. But worked great together.

No major problems from the day. Stopped twice as one rider was taking a break and then lost something as it fell out of his camelbak. The most eventful moment was a fateful left turn to stay on Route 34 where the chalk mark had faded. Laura went straight instead, other riders caught it and told us, so Isaiah, as if he were preparing for this moment in the morning, rode on ahead and caught Laura to make sure that she turned around the get back on track. Successful catch, as Isaiah was churning his legs out . . . I was sitting on the side of the road. Did I do anything productive? Yeah, I called Michelle and mistakenly told her she was also lost and then to turn around. Turns out she wasn't and I made her backtrack for a bit, whoops. Sorry Michelle.

The route today was good. It was actually nice to be sweep since I could go slower and didn't need to push myself, a nice recovery from yesterday. At lunch we got yelled at by a farmer for being in his wheatfields. And we passed through a town called Napoleon.

Mail drop today, a nice letter from my parents. And this is the first time we are in Michigan. I mean, this is the first time this route has made the little sidetrek to Michigan. Just a way to add another state to the list.

Bowling Green, OH

Yesterday's ride wasn't a complete century, it was just short of it...by 4 miles. And let me say, thank god I didn't end up having to go 4 more miles, I don't think I would've made it.

I spent the morning at a good clip, breaking off from a larger paceline into a group of three with Katrina and Jesse. We all had a little bit of blame in an accident that happened along the way. I was "pulling," which means that I was at the front and we were making some turns through a commerical/residential area. Well, I sort of freaked out as I saw a pedestrian crossing the street ahead and since I am a vehicle, they get the right of way. So I slowed down, a bit too abruptly, then Jesse behind me braked more abruptly and pulled tot he side of me which caught Katrina off guard and they both took a tumble. We took at a break at the firestation nearby to shake off the jitters and rest a bit before getting back. The good news is that no one was hurt, the bikes are okay and we learned that falling/crashing isn't the worst thing that can happen.

The first lunch stop was at the entrance to the Cedar Point Causeway to enter towards the amusement park. I desperately wanted to take the afternoon and go o n some rollercoasters, but the lunch stop was at mile 35 and I still ahd 60 more to go. On the upside though, the generous people from Avon Lake filled our trailer with all sorts of food and leftovers from our stay that lunch was a feast. I was pleased that there was cold pasta with meat sauce

Just leaving the lunch stop, we passed by a Merry-Go-Round museum, which is random, but wasn't random enough to warrant a stop. And did I mention that I hadn't even reached the halfway point?

The second lunch stop was at mile 75, with 20 miles left to get to Bowling Green. From mile 40-75, I remember regretting how hard I pushed myself in the morning since I was hurting. But I was in a paceline for this stretch and though I was aching, I didn't want to leave the paceline since that meant I would have to face the wind on my own and not be able to draft off of anyone. So, I got to the second lunch stop exhausted.

From mile 75 to the end, it was bad. I began to realize that I hadn't been drinking enough water during the day and I was beginning to feel dehydrated, my throat just wouldn't stay moist. So, as I was "pulling" I had to take a break and rest and regain myself. I also cursed the rural, barren landscape since we were supposed to turn right on County Home road and it seemed that every road that came up wasn't it, which meant another mile or so until the next road. Which was an eternity and a lot of pain for me.

County Road home finally came and now there were 5 miles left. My stomach decided to turn against all the water I drank after thinking I was dehydrated and basically spent the last chunk going very slow and feeling like I was going to throw up. If I didn't feel that way, I most likely would've stopped at a Chipotle we passed in that last bit. Made it to the church, but I was moving slow and not feeling great. The best part was a church member who was there greeting us and kept pointing out the way to the men's room to me, since I guess it looked like I was on the verge of something.

Laid down and rested outside for about half an hour and felt better. Though I was eaten alive by mosquitoes, a worthwhile tradeoff. So, I made it through the day and even biked around the grounds of Rutherford B. Hayes's estate in Fremont, OH, our 19th president. But I learned nothing else about him and nobody else on the trip knew anything about him either.

Yes, yesterday was long. In fact, our longest day yet. So that in itself makes it difficult. But then there's this thing called headwind. And makes it very difficult to cycle. A constant, relentless force pushing against you. Absolutely draining physically. And then there was this thing called Route 6. A busy two-lane road and though it has a shoulder, it also has lots of semi's barreling down it. Which stresses me out since I constantly think I'm going to be roadkill if I stray from the shoulder and creates weird wind patterns when they pass you. Exhausting route in all aspects.

Bowling Green is a college town. We had our showers at BGSU's athletic center. Great pressure. And there was a nice little main street with a coffeeshop with free wifi. Most others did internet work. I had a currant tea called Monk's blend and a slice of lemon cake and read the NY Times, at a table outside.

I dreamt last night that I was at home and in my own bed. So, I was a little startled when I opened my eyes and saw the stained glass windows of the church's sanctury I was sleeping in. Chicago and home can't come soon enough. I'll be arriving Saturday afternoon/evening.

Avon Lake, OH - Build Day

The night at our host family's home was great. Zack was my house buddy and our family has been nothing short of awesome. Provided everything we needed and even with early morning drives back to the church.

Our build day brought us back to Cleveland and the Habitat site was this row of three houses, the lots right next to each other. The Cleveland Habitat chapter has its act together; I was very impressed. We were backfilling the foundation. Which means, that we were filling in the gap between the basement foundation walls and the hole that was dug. Yup, more dirt moving. The biggest obstacle was filling in the large volume of space below the future porch. MIT John was a rockstar and used the rickety ramp to wheelbarrow dirt into the hole. No one else would attempt it or had the skill to do it. He gets the gold star of the day. Again, it seemed impossible, but we finished by 2pm.

The group working at one of the other lots were people affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not the players, just people. They were awesome and chatting with them at lunch, one of them knew someone at the Rock and Roll museum and managed to get us all in for free. So after finishing, vans were loaded up and most headed over there, in the shirts that we sweated through from the morning. I did not though, I managed to get a ride to the Cleveland Museum or Art, on a day that it is open. I was a bit too overexcited for the museum as I misread the word "reopening." I know the museum is going under construction and I thought it was finished, but actually the museum will be finished in 2012 and just a few of the galleries reopened for the first time as the entire museum was closed. Oops. Still, it was a welcome 2 hours to be cultured and civilized for just a bit. The air-conditioning didn't hurt either. Though most of the collection wasn't on display, I was still impressed and I'll be sure to make it back once it's all finished. My host dad was kind enough to drive and pick me up at the museum, about a 35 minute drive. I couldn't be more grateful.

Dinner was another jaw-dropping spread of food from the congregation. I was a little late to dinner as I was waiting for a back massage from a member who just happens to be a massage therapist. This really has been the best place we have stayed at and it will be hard to top, they have set the standard so high.

Afterwards, I went to pump my tires to prepare for tomorrow. While pumping it there was a little hole in my valve and then my tire went flat. My first busted tube. I was doing so good too. But better to have it while stationary and able to fix it easily then while on the road. Actually, Mike, my host dad is a cyclist and was awesome and helping replace the tube. I was playing a coin game with their two younger daughters and he just shows up with a fully inflated and functional rear tire. I thought he was fixing the stove.

It's finally here. The century. At our group meeting after dinner to discuss tomorrow, we were informed tomorrow will be 110 miles. Oh my. But I'll be sleeping in a bed tonight, have had a warm shower and be well-fed in the morning. I can't think of a better place to rest up and prepare for tomorrow than from here.

And even if I barely make it tomorrow, I'm sure I'll look good. Megan and Katie, the two girls, bedazzled my hair with a single blue jewel. I'm totally set for tomorrow.

Avon Lake, OH

Sometimes, it's hard to believe that everything that we do in one day is all part of the same day. Today was one of those days. It started with a terrible ride and ended with an amazing community of people here in Avon Lake.

First, the ride. 73 miles today. Feeling good. The second day you could feel summer. The day before was the first and the result of me forgetting to put sunscreen on my face are the awesome raccoon eyes I now have from my sunglasses. But we spent about 40 miles on US-20 towards Cleveland. Seems easy enough. Wrong. US-20 is not made for bikes. It was 40 miles of rough road, with sewers about every 50 ft. You had to constantly be looking on the side for holes, ruts, bumps, manholes, grates, gravel, etc. And US-20 is a busy road. Basically, the majority of it had many strip malls and big box stores (Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy) on it. It's made for cars to drive from one shopping center to the other one across the street. Which means fast drivers on this four lane road. So, we're looking on our right to make sure we don't damage our bikes and we're trying to be aware on our left so we don't get damaged by a car. Oh yeah, there are no shoulders. It was extremely stressful and dangerous. More dangerous than any of the many days of rain we've had. We leave chalk arrows for the riders behind us to guide them. We also leave messages. Today, my message was "I hate US-20."

Lunch was a saving grace and much needed. A small diner/cafe somewhere on the route. I met back up with Dan Dittrick there, who decided to ride the day with us. We headed out together as he was going to guide me through the more unsavory parts of East Cleveland. My favorite was a chat I was having while taking a break at Dairy Queen. The lady working this say our directions and where we were going and said, "Oh, I got lost around there once and I just kept driving to get out of it somehow, wasn't going to stop and ask anyone." And we were biking through it. It wasn't as bad as she made it out to be. Sean, Joy and Sharon added on to our group and Dan took us on a slight detour to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I was so pumped to see the museum since 1) I had never been there before 2) It was art 3) They just opened their brand new wing on June 29th and 4) It's free. But of course, it was closed since it's a Monday. Figures. Well, we made out way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for pictures and postcards. Then Dan headed home and we started on the last 18 miles to the church in Avon Lake.

We biked through downtown Cleveland which I am considering an achievement. I would've never considered to ride in an urban city before, not fully secure with my biking skills. But if there's anything the last 800 miles have given me, it's security with my biking skills. It wasn't a problem and I'm looking forward to tackling Chicago.

Those last 18 miles leaving out from Cleveland, just as stressful. Still the same poor road conditions and crazy cars. As a group though, and led by Sharon, we did an amazing job of calling everything out and communicating to each other about the road. It helped to ease the stress.

But then we entered Avon Lake and the poor road conditions disappeared and a bike lane appeared. And at that moment, I knew it was going to be a good stay. We made it to the church all in one piece and they had everything out for us, cold drinks, snacks and chilled watermelon. And there was a pool across the street for showers. After showering, I rested in their TV room, with a bag of ice, good company, slouching on a couch watching Seinfeld in air conditioning. Whoa. Dinner was a feast. It was a pot luck and everyone brought some spectacular dishes. So many church members came to the meal, our largest turnout yet, and it was wonderful to chat with them.

After dinner, one member was generous enough to open up his lakeside house to us to go swimming and relax. We headed on over and jumped in the water. They had a trampoline in the water but even better, this plastic cylindrical inflated tube that you are supposed to run across, ideally without falling. It's quite difficult. And it's hilarious to see people as they attempt it and fall into the water. No entry is every the same. Lots of laughs and lots of fun. I even made it across the tube.

And instead of sleeping in the church, we are scattered at various congregation member's homes. Which means we all have beds. What? A first on the trip. The closest thing we've come to beds before might be a couch here or there. It's absolutely amazing how generous all the people here have been to us.

Build day tomorrow. And I'm up well past my bedtime.

Ashtabula, OH

I am now into OHIO. The midwest. Familiar grounds. And I'm ready to burn rubber on the flatness of it all.

Yesterday, on our ride from Westfield, NY to Astabula, OH we went through this little thing called Pennsylvania. It was quite the accomplishment at the end of the day to consider that I had been in three states in a single day. Rode with Laura and Kathy in the morning and we were tearing through the pavement. The roads were rural and through vineyards, so it was easy to chat. Just before lunch, we were joined by Derek and Jesse and we decided to take a peek at this sail boat on Lake Erie. Took our pictures, chatted with some other cyclists and then went to lunch, which was all of maybe 200 meters away. A wonderful spot on on the lake (capital "L" lake is reserved for Lake Michigan for me) in Erie before we set off in a large group towards Westfield. I was in the back of the paceline with Laura and Kevin when his tire decided to pop and go flat. We pulled off and stopped to fix it. More riding and after what seemed like ages and sun, we finally entered Ohio. My left decided to feel like jelly so we took a break and Kevin joined us back again then we rode along when Kevin's tire decided to flat again. Fortunately, this time it was right in front of a Steak and Shake. While Kevin was fixing the flat, I offered moral support by drinking a strawberry milkshake. Then a quick 3/4 miles to the church.

So in Westfield, a previous rider on the Northers US trip last summer and a friend from school, Dan Dittrick, decided to stop by. And he enlisted the help of the local Dartmouth chapter the host a cookout for dinner at a place called Roaming Shores. Basically, it's a man-made lake and we ate burgers, played volleyball and dipped out feet in the water.

On the drive back to the church, my car saw the B&B pulled over on the side of the road. When we stopped, we were immediately shown a picture of Christopher with his hands behind his back and head a police car's hood. So they got a speeding ticket. Then, here I go back to the church and proceed to tell this elaborate story with wild hand gestures to everyone else. Oh wait, in the morning I learn that it was all staged. The van broke down (some belt decided to snap), a police car stopped to make sure everything was okay and they fabricated it all. I was had.

I spent the evening with a few others writing fines for Kangaroo Court. It's this thing that we started where each rider can write a fine (max is 50 cents) for another rider if they see something silly or stupid. It should get interesting.

Wheatfield, NY

A quick note form last night's fireworks at Niagara Falls. They were terrible. They lasted all of 10 minutes, which is being generous. We were all very angry since I would've rather slept. I'm still bitter.

Below is the post I wrote for the group journal, it should be posted in a day or two. But here it is on my blog:

Bike and Build. Northern US 2008. Coast to Coast. Moving 0.3 miles at a time. This probably best describes the first 20 miles of our ride today. We spent the majority of it moving through Buffalo and somehow we all managed get stopped at every opportunity for a red light. This, combined with rather rough roads, made for a rather frustrating beginning part of the trip. Normally at the beginning of the day we quickly disperse into smaller riding groups, but with all the red lights, we all were getting bunched up together. I remember at one red light, there were 20 of us in a line waiting for it to turn green. There are 30 of us. We were quite the sight in our matching jerseys moving as a large pack through the streets. Eyebrows were raised.

After making it through that stretch, we spent 48 miles on Route 5, also known as the Seaway Trail. It follows along Lake Erie and it was quite the welcome sight to see all that water and feel the cooler breeze. Several riders stopped off at Graycliff, a Frank Lloyd Wright house built in 1929, which was right off the road. There’s an admission charge, but the people there were nice enough to let us go take a look around the grounds. After hearing about our trip, they were kind enough to let us take tour of the house. I chatted with the Grounds Manager, Clif, who told me even more about the history of the building. For me, it was an hour and a half break but well worth it. Funnily enough, lunch was just 2 miles further down the road, so even more of a break for me.

Leaving lunch, I continued along the Seaway Trail and with 23 miles left, Eric, a Wheatfield church member, joined me to finish the last leg of the day. It was great to have someone ride with and he definitely helped to keep me on pace.

The church here in Wheatfield has been great. They provided a nice spread at dinner and we are very excited to entertain ourselves with the various foosball, ping-pong and large flat-screen TV they have in their church. We also gave a Bike and Build presentation to a few members after dinner.

Today was supposed to be our first 90-mile day, which would’ve been our longest day yet. Thankfully, Isaiah, our ever clever trip leader, somehow managed to cut 12 miles off from our day’s route leaving from Niagara and arriving in Wheatfield. Our bodies were very grateful for the reduction in mileage.

As a group/route/family, whatever you want to call us, we have been quite fortunate that no one has had to ride in the van yet. Despite some rough bits of rain, climbing mountains, multiple flats on the same day, and even some crashes/tumbles, we’ve all made it through the day’s route.

Which leads us to today’s “tumble.” Kathy was riding in a paceline and her front wheel accidentally touched the rear wheel of the rider in front of her. While the rider in front didn’t feel anything more than a possible large rock, Kathy meanwhile veered off the road and basically “flew” off her bike. Fortunately, it was a grassy area to help cushion the landing. No major injuries, just a few nicks, but her front wheel is now a little bent.

Despite that and our beginning through Buffalo, today was a great day for a ride. The weather was perfect, sunny, cool, and not windy. A welcome change from the rain that we are used to.

Tonight’s our last night in NY, as we move on to Ohio tomorrow, passing through PA along the way.

Niagara, NY

Happy 4th of July!

There are several things we are good at here on Bike and Build. Eating anything. Sleeping anywhere. And sniffing out internet.

Another package received last night was a group package for Erik, Isaiah, Katrina and myself from a common friend from Dartmouth. It included chocolate (a nice treat) and festive red, white and blue garland to festoon our bikes. We divided up the garland amongst everyone and we all put it on our bikes for our quick 20 mile ride today. Kathy received an amazing headband with two American flags poking from it. And she wore it under her helmet for the ride. Priceless.

Gorgeous day today for a ride. Backroads and it took us little more than an hour to get to the church for our stay tonight. It's located in Niagara, NY and only about 7 miles from the falls. Since we all arrived here by basically 11:30, we changed and loaded up the van to head over to see the the falls. A few people biked over, but considering that I think we have 90 miles tomorrow, I opted not to.

Several others were craving chinese food, so we crossed into Canada and ate at a chinese place. The whole place around the falls on the Canadian side is very touristy and kind of trashy. Things like wax museums, haunted houses, IMAX, a WWF museum thing with ride and other things that involve lots of bright colors and signs. Lunch was good and a nice change of pace from our other meals, but it's such unfamiliar territory to not eat family-style at a chinese restaurant to me. I'm not really sure how to conduct myself otherwise. After lunch, others went to check out the falls, but since I've been there before twice, I opted to head across the street with Kate to grab a drink and watch some Wimbledon. Kate wrote out some postcards and I watched about an hour and a half of the Nadal match. Dinner back at the church at 6pm and oddly, I had a massive headache after the meal. I rested for about an hour. We're going to fireworks later today, which we are all looking forward to.

Kate and I were a little late getting back to the van meeting point since I left my credit card back at the bar. But as we were crossing into the US, the checkpoint guy asked if we were biking across the country, to Vancouver. We were both rather caught off-guard, but I guess a bunch of other riders had crossed through earlier and were talking about it. What were our giveaways that we were part of the same group? Tan lines.

Lockport, NY

Overcast. Light drizzle. Drizzle. Rain. Heavy rain. Lunch. Rain. Light Drizzle. Overcast.

Basically summarizes today's ride. A shorter day, relatively, as it was only 58 miles. Left RIT and thankfully we didn't need to go through any suburban heavier traffic scary areas on the way out, basically started on the backroads and stayed on them until just the very end in Lockport. But seriously, what's with all the wet. As most cold and wet things do, it put me in a bad mood. But especially today though, my sit bones were hurting and my seat felt particularly hard. Not to mention that my neck still hurt, looks like the realignment didn't stick and I'll have to get to icing that neck/shoulder muscle tonight.

My lunch stop lasted all of 10 minutes, enough time to down a PB&J sandwich and other misc foods then head back on the road. I was cold and wet and I just wanted to get to the church. The van/trailer stopped at a nice lady's house for lunch and she was kind enough to let the wet riders in her home. So many took refuge there for a long time and watched the Price is Right.

Rode through some nice nature preserves from lunch to the church. Saw a turtle and frog on the side of the road. I think the turtle was alive, the frog most definitely was not. Really, nothing else from the road today. Especially since it was raining and overcast, I just tend to look down and try to get through the miles as opposed to look around. Oh, it's also easier on my neck to look down as opposed to up.

Showers at the YMCA, nearby the church, and the library right next door. We have the entire basement of the church, plenty of space to spread out.

It was also mail drop day! Received some much needed clif products from my parents (and Kathy as well...from my parents). And thanks to Lily, I got a bottle of "Cold Snap" which is this herbal pill thing that supposedly "realigns the righteous chi" in me to snap the cold away. And thank you Joy's mom for the wonderful little rubber duck and thoughtful zip tie to attach! I'll try to put it on my bike tonight.

And to recap last night in Rochester. We all went to the movies to see our respective, desired films: Wall-E, Hancock, and Wanted. I was in the Wanted group. This was an absolutely terrible movie. It's a bad combination of the Matrix, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Snakes on a Plane and none of it done well. Thankfully, I saw it with a good crew of Ian, Kathy, Michelle and Kristen, who all understood the movie for the junk that it was. We were laughing at it and the ridiculous terribleness that it was the entire way through. As a group, we're all anxiously looking forward to the next Batman movie on July 18th.

Tomorrow, an easy 20 mile day to Niagara where we will be spending the 4th of July. Woo!

Lindsey and Kristen loading their bikes onto Advance Transit in Lebanon, on our way to Hanover to get their bike's checked at Omer and Bob's.









Kate and I at the amazing bakery/bookstore in Rochester, VT. She's eating the sweet potato corn chowder and I have a peach crumble pie.








Kathy and Erik, loading onto the ferry to cross Lake Champlain, to get from VT to NY.











It is not easy climbing in cycling shoes. Erik and Katrina, on our way up to Brandon Pass/Long Trail.










Giant Adirondack chair and me.

Rochester, NY

Yesterday, while riding from Palermo to Rochester, the group I was riding with, we were chased by dogs. Oddly enough, they were both pitbulls and scared the crap out of us. It's a potentially very dangerous situation. Separate from the dog possibly wanting to take a chunk of your leg, if the dog gets near you it's basically a fall. Once the dog came, someone screamed "DOG!" and then we all proceed to sprint as fast as we can away. Or, if you are prepared enough, we do have several options to shoo away the dog. 1) Unholster a waterbottle and squirt the dog 2) Unhook our tire pump and poke in the direction of the dog. Or just sprint away like mad.

Bugs. Also on the ride yesterday, it was the first time that a bug flew into my mouth. Gross. I quickly spat it out. Thankfully, I had the instinct not to bite down.

My tanlines are coming along nicely. I think the leg and arm ones are inevitable and unavoidable, no matter how much SPF 55 I put on in the morning and then reapply. What's been unexpected though are my glove lines on my hands. My hands are several shades lighter with a distinct line at the wrist. At least I haven't been sunburned yet . Because those look very comical.

Finally, on yesterday's ride, I was in a paceline for a good 20 miles. A paceline is basically a group of riders in a line with my wheels about 6 inches away from the rear tire of the person in front of me. The front rider is doing the "pulling" and all the riders behind then have it easier since they don't need to break the wind. It conserves energy for the group as the front rider will switch out when they get tired. I didn't have a chance to paceline before yesterday, but it was great. There were eight of us and it made things much easier. It's a cool feeling to know that everyone is working together and in sync. One downside is that since you are so focused on maintaining the distance from the rider in front of you, you tend to miss out on the scenery around. I was okay with that yesterday, as it was our longest ride yet, about 86 miles. Or you can alleviate that downside by forming a double paceline, which we did. Basically, two columns of four people, so that you can talk to the person next to you. It was a beautiful thing. The paceline ended when I was upfront pulling, mainly because then hills came and I'm absolutely terrible at hills--very slow.

In Palermo, after our hosted dinner by the church, we had a group meeting to talk about business and such. I'm not sure why, but I was in no mood for it. I didn't find anything funny, I thought it was a waste of time and I wanted it to end. It took about an hour and a half, by the time we were done it was nearly 10. I would prefer to be in bed by 10. It was the first moment of wanting to get away from everyone so far on the trip. I was also tired from the day's ride, but sleep and a good ride to Rochester the next day helped to ease things mentally.

Oh, so we finally are in our largest city yet since Concord. Though it was our longest ride yet to get here, the last 10 miles were the scariest and longest. It was through the suburbs and outskirts of Rochester (not the actual downtown) and these are roads not meant for cyclists as the shoulder was narrow or nonexistent with speeding traffic. Very nervewracking.

And today was a build day in Rochester. We worked at a site doing landscaping. I was impressed, the site manager said that in the area we were at, they are planning to develop 100 Habitat homes to revitalize the neighborhood as it's rather rundown now. We basically attacked the backyard and anything that was green. Weedwhackers, rakes, axes, scythe-like tools, etc were used. We tore that place up. I spent most of the day raking the vines and their roots from the ground. Lunch was rationed to two pieces per person. This was not adequate enough for anyone after all that yardwork. So, the afternoon went a bit slower. The main highlight for me included people swinging from trees, pulling down the branches.

Last night, our leader Christopher had his brother and mother come to visit. They are a chiropractor and licensed massage therapist respectively. She led massage/stretching demonstrations for us to use later and the brother, well he realigned everyone. So my back was realigned which felt great and I'm hoping eases the tension in my neck tomorrow. He also mentioned that I have a strained muscle which is most likely causing the neck pain.

Back on the bike tomorrow. Though it's been great to stay in the dorms here at RIT and be here for two nights.

Rochester, NY

Made it to Rochester after our longest day yet so far--86 miles. But I'll post about biking either later tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow's a build day so I should have some time and I have to head to dinner in about 15 minutes. So just two thoughts:

Wimbledon--I am sorely missing coverage of the tournament. I just spend the last 25 minutes reading online about what's been going on. I kind of just want to find a TV and watch just an hour of anything at some point before it finishes. Yesterday, at the church in Palermo, I used my brief internet time not to check e-mail, post or anything else, but read a few articles about tennis.

RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology)--I'm currently in their library using a computer. But, I needed to register for it and even then I'm 1) limited to only 4 hours and 2) can only register to use their computers "up to 3 times in a calendar year." Also, the library guy didn't even know if their wireless was open/free or not, which I'm assuming then it mostly likely isn't since he'd probably know if it were something that simple. So, this sudden encounter with other internet/technology/computer policies made me realize how lax things are at Dartmouth. When we were there last week, it was free reign for everyone, computers and internet for all. Though, I should probably start getting used to things being more difficult out there from the bubble in Hanover.