Longest Ride to Date

Last night we had a town hall meeting in which we had to each do highs and lows of the week. I'll share mine here too:

High - being forced to stop in the middle of a hill to see a moose in the middle of the road.

Low - sleeping. I suck at sleeping through the night and it's not that easy for me here either - not to mention I talk in my sleep all the time.


So today was challenging. First of all, last night was hilarious. We all sleep on thermarests on the floor in the same big room, so if you snore or talk in your sleep like me everyone knows about it. Also thermarests are not quiet- they make a rustling noise everytime you move positions in your sleep. So last night Dennis gets up and comes back and bangs his knee on the pew really loud. This woke up maybe a third of the group who began stiring on the thermarests. This noise then caused everyone else to wake up and shift too, esentially causing a group roll over in the middle of the night.

Today was freezing! If I had cell phone service I'd know the temp but let's just call it fall weather not end of June weather. I mailed some postcards, and then the cue sheet said 65.1 miles then turn left. So we rode on one road a really long way. Made it to lunch where Andrew and I sat in the back of the trailer for warmth.

The day eventually warmed up but it was a long time coming. After lunch we stopped a little ways down the road in a town called Old Forge. We picked up some sweet stickers including one that said "Stop for Moose, it could save your life!". While we talked to the lady in the store, she decided to call the newspaper so we got our pictures taken.

Heather, Sam, and I headed out of there together and settled in for the last 30 miles of the day. On the way we picked up steven and Tony and rode on the best road so far this summer. It was a slow windy downhill where we didn't have to brake, felt safe and could just enjoy the view!

Stephen had a good quote - "I tend to judge how steep a hill is by how my legs feel at the beginning, and that one felt like steps."

When we got to the host I did some adjusting of my bike which is cool that I'm learning how to make adjustments I used to rely on the bike shop for.

Also got interviewed with Andrew here in boonsville for this paper. Two in one day!

After dinner, Beth, Angela, and Kristen and I went for a walk and talked. It was fun.

The days are so full, and my phone died today so sorry for the lack of photos.

Stats of the day:

Total Mileage: 76.23

Avg Speed: 15.91 mph

Max Speed: 34.1 mph

It was really windy, but I feel so accomplished when I finish the day


-- Diane

Location:Main St,Boonville,United States

Wrong Turn

For the second night in a row we don't have cell service, but no worries, we will reenter civilization one day.

Started a day with a climb out of the white mountains and ended up taking a wrong turn causing us to go back up a hill we went down. Total extra mileage: 4...with hills.






Today was long and grueling lots and lots of long steep hills. We don't have low enough gears to pedal easy so lots of people have sore knees including myself.

We are in a wilderness county tonight which partially means more bears than people. We are in the heart of the aderondacks.

We stopped at a crossing of the Hudson river and I found a caboose that reminded me of Honkey...so mom maybe you can pass this pic on to him?





Today I'm really just exhausted. Got showers at the ambulance station. Perks of getting in first mean picking sleeping spots first and getting showers first, but sometimes you miss random dance parties which is a bummer. I'll have to work on a balance.

Stats of the day:

Total Mileage: 62.04

Avg Speed: 13.4 mph

So tired. Gnight!


-- Diane

Location:Indian Lake, NY

The Moon Is Out

Plastic bags are amazing! We pulled out of Rochester with a climb ahead of us in the rain. The saftey glasses I'm using work well except they fog up a bit so I take turns using them and letting them de-fog. When we got 50 meters before the sumit of the pass the wind was whipping prolly 30 - 40 mph. And it was pouring rain! It was intense but I struggled through. Downhill was scary afterwards because the roads are wet and winedy and your going 40mph and the rain is stinging. So obviously we were working hard at the beginning of the day. We regrouped at lunch and again before entering New York state.

To get to New York you had to take a ferry.










So the 32 of us got on and ferried into New York.

In New York we saw a covered bridge, so Travis, aka T-bear and I stopped to take some photos. Not long after we found a bit of ice cream to munch. Another few miles down the road there was a toothbrush on the ground - we were in need of one of these to clean our bikes with so I picked it up and brought it for the group to use.

When we got to the Y which is where we are staying tonight, we were shocked and amazed. It is on Lake George and is more like a summer camp. We have real beds tonight and had an amazing buffet dinner. We went swimming in the lake where you could be up to your head and still see the bottom! After dinner we played shuffleboard, turned in laundry and cleaned my bike.





Although I was in no way involved, we had an accident today. Beth and Jess colided while making their final turn and got all scraped up. They'll ride again but not tomorrow.

Stats of the Day:

Total Mileage: 54.47

Avg Speed: 13.77 mph

Max Speed: 36.19

-- Diane

Location:Silver Bay, NY

Moose Crossing

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

So today was amazing! We knew we had to climb a mountain today and thus decided we wouldn't push the pace. Before second breakfast we were climbing up a hill and I needed to spit. I turned right but Paul was on my side so without even looking I turned left and released. Well that was a mistake because Michael was on that side. So I spit on his leg - whoops! I felt horrible but everyone thought it was funny.

This is the grease that is on my leg everyday within the first hour of cycling.





After "lunch" at 9:18am we began the climb.



We chalked the road to give inspiration to the bikers behind us. After coming around one hill, there was a moose in the middle of the road! So we watched it a while until it decided to enter the woods. I made it up 2100 ft without stopping - the key is to sit and stand and alternate.

After you climb you always go down so the last 4 miles of the ride were awesome!

When we got to Rochester, VT it was only 11:11 - the days will get longer. Our host told us we didn't have showers so we could use the river instead. Down we treked as a group to "shower" in the freezing river. It was almost as good as an ice bath with Hulley! Surprisingly the river bath made me feel really clean.

We've just been hanging out this afternoon and are listening to live music now.

Stats of the day:

Total Mileage: 43 miles

Avg Speed: 14.66 mph

Max Speed: 42 mph

- Diane

Location:Bethel Mountain Rd,Rochester,United States

Where's Don?

Build Day!

So last summer I volunteered with ExxonMobil to remove invasive non native plants from a local park. It turned out to be pulling weeds...today was a similar experience.

Don, the site supervisor, wasn't sure if the pile was 4 or 10 tons, but either way it's alot of dirt! We had to spread the dirt all the way around a duplex about 4 inches thick, with the ultimate goal of seeding the yard at the end of the day.

It seemed like everytime we had a question about something Don had left the site to pick something else up. So in other words we were on our own.

Well moving alot of dirt could be boring, but nope we had ways of making it interesting! Sam and Andrew set the world record in speed shoveling, filling a wheelbarrow in 11.30 seconds! Michael and I had a wheelbarrow race in which he totally crushed me as I never even left the start line. While the wheelbarrows were being filled, mine sunk in the mud so I was in a rut from the start :(.

After all the dirt was moved, it was time to rake it out. Now the conditions were this...we've moved dirt for the past 4 hours and there was a very important world cup game on at 230 that we wanted to be back in time for. So some people were moving quicker than the job would allow. I think you see this a little too often at site builds. Since it's not your house you don't feel the same obligation to make it perfect. I feel like if I do a job I wanna do it right so it was a little conflicting.

In the end we accomplished what Don wanted, just a little slopier than I would prefer. I wonder if the grass will grow?








After the build we watched the game which unfortunatly was USAs last. Oh well.

Dinner was fantastic and we gave our presentation after. Then pancake man wanted us to all sing a song together. We were all a little uneasy but once we got to singing songs we all knew it was awesome and everyone was enjoying themselves. Plus we totally made pancake mans night!

Afterwards was of course the icecream run where I borrowed Erica and mys warm up move to keep Heather warm.

I changed my tire so I'll be good tomorrow it's a climb day tomorrow. I'll take it easy with 5 more days at plus 65 in a row!

-- Diane

Location:Court St,Lebanon,United States

They aren't speaking English right?

Rolled out today flying down the hills...more downhill today but still rolling. We passed a moose crossing sign a horse crossing sign and a deer crossing sign and saw 0 animals :(

We then trecked into a Shaker Village. Shakers were a part of Quakers who were celebate and ran their own communitites. Obviously they didn't last that long. The church was very pretty tho. And there was a trumpet retreat going on where no one was speaking English.

We also found a phone booth and shoved the 5 of us in it with our cameras on self timer.

When we pulled into town, there was a free BBQ going on...score! We ate and talked to the bike cop for like 20 min. He told us where everything in town was including the sweet bike store where I got a new tire! (Heather and Sam in the pic below)



The new plan there is to save the old tire for the plains bc it would suck to get a flat while rolling 40mph down hill.

Massage time for the sore muscles! (amist all the baggage)




Had dinner at a church that offers free dinners at night - interesting experience talking to the people who were there because I've never been exposed to that in any way. They were nice and hard working, some just wanted people to talk to instead of eating by themselves at home.

There was an 'earthquake' in New Hampshire tonight but an aftershock is not expected.

Played 4 square like a 4th grader before going out to listen to some live music (although Tim Ruff is better :)). Played B&B jenga - amazing!

Stats of the day:

Total mileage: 38.3 miles

Avg Speed: 15.9 miles

Max Speed: 38.5 mph

-- Diane

Location:Spring St,Lebanon,United States

Another Hill...

Woke up this morning for a 34 mile day - of course it was hilly. Stopped for lunch at 10am so I really didn't eat lunch. Finished the day by one pretty uneventful riding except for the massive hills. I rode with Jess today and we took our time. Sometimes it wasn't a good idea because we had no momentum to get into the hills. Still pretty riding through pine covered roads and mountains in the background.








After we got to the church we cleaned our bikes. That's where it got interesting. I became absolutly covered in grease. I never cleaned my bike so well before.

Also, very sad my tire has a huge gash in it and I have no clue how it got there! I put a cliff bar wrapper behind it to keep the tube in place but next bike shop we get to I have to get a new tire. This is pure bad luck. How did I not get a flat from a gash like this?!? And it sucks because the tires are a week old.








After cleaning the big Z up I went for a 3 mile run to the beach :). There were kayaks for free so Paul and I got in one and took it for a ride. We almost flipped because the wind was so strong but somehow survived and caught a wave in. Ran back for a total of just under 6 miles.

I'm sitting in a laundry mat right now with 5 of my buds and we are doing two tarps worth of laundry. 32 x 10 lbs of laundry is 320 lbs of laundry! I guess the fun part will come in sorting it out later tonight!

Stats for the day:

Total mileage: 34.21

Avg Speed: 12.15

-- Diane

Location:New London, NH

Wheel Dip

Today was the first cycling day! Woke up at 5:45 and my group the BBG's short for Baby Blue Giants had trailer duty! It was raining so I got wet before the ride even began. We got the trailer packed and loaded and headed off 6 miles to the Atlantic ocean to dip our wheels in. We made a wrong turn but finally got there.




After dipping our wheels and getting some sweet pics we headed out for concord.

I rode with Sam except that early on I got left behind at a stop light so I had to play catch up. It worked well though. Stopped for lunch around mile 30. Then found a strawberry stand and ice cream!

We also saw a place on the side of the road selling funny wood carvings so we stopped to take pictures. Not long after a man came out yelling at us to read the signs. Sure enough there was one that said no pictures. So we took a photo with that sign too :)

Made it into concord and the pastor of the church we are staying at decided to take us swimming at his pool. Most people biked but I scored an awesome seat in the convertable with him!

Overall awesome first day - I kept up with the fast group and still have energy. I did alot of training and it paid off.

Stats of the day:

Total mileage: 62.45
Avg speed: 14.91

Shnocchi

-- Diane

Location:Rollins St,Concord,United States

Nailed It!

Build day today was a success! Thanks dad for teaching me the little I do know.

Kate and I started the day off by removing a set out stairs outside the house so we could do some flash I forget what the rest of it was called but it was to keep rain moving away from the house when they add the deck.

We had a straight peice of sheet metal and needed it to have a 90 degree angle so I devised an awesome system with clamps and a t-square to get what we needed. Final product is below:




After that we did some roofing - attaching huricane clips and so on. Kate and I ended the day together as well - cleaning up ladders together.

Learned an interesting fact today - one of the guys on my trip - Nolan Brownfoot Wildfire has 4 brothers, their names are Cletus, Herman, Uripidus, and Jerimiah. Quite the collection of names! Psych :) But he had us all believing it for over an hour.

Tonight we had a BBQ with families who have been helped by habitat - it was really neat when we got to see a family react when they were told they were going to be the next selected family for a house.

Habitat fact of the day: Families selected DO pay for the house they recieve from habitat. It's not a free gift.

Early morning tomorrow. Wake up at 6 wheel dipping ceremony at 8:30, let the cross country trip begin!

-- Diane

Location:Portsmouth, NH

Around the World

Woke up this morning at 7 - I can't remember the last time I woke up quite that early but that's okay I'll get back into the swing of it.

We went for our very first group ride to test out the bikes today. So glad i rode with the philly bike club and was used to riding with other people. I got to enjoy it more because the pointing and calling was second nature. I realized during the ride that I was finally amonst people who are doing the same thing I'm doing - biking across America! I don't have to explain it anymore, the people I'm with are doing it too. The ride was great except for a ton of pot holes. Luckily no flats.




Got back and I decided to walk over to walmart and spend $3 to buy a pack of freeze pops for everyone. Huge success :).

Then we finally showered and I have to give a shout out to Jeff - the towel you got for me works amazing! And it's really big and I love it!

Then we painted the van. See picture below. I contributed by mixing and painting the green grass. Not in the picture below sorry.





Finally went to a persons house for dinner where the dinner bell was a cannon being fired. Yes a live cannon - fire in the hole! We also shot some bows and arrows and slingshots and played this awesome ping pong ball game around the world.

People on my trip are chill we have moved beyond ice breakers and are starting to really meet eachother.






It's a build day in Portsmouth tomorrow.


-- Diane

Location:Portsmouth, NH

Day 1

Parents dropped me off today and it was like freshman orientation all over again. I met 32 new people via the name game and went over the rules. Everyone is so different - different majors different points in life etc. But so far everyone gets along. We also painted the trailer white I think we paint it for the trip tomorrow. Lights out are at 11 and we wake up at 7.

Picture might be dark but we are painting the trailer. The bugs were horrible but I've been on a streak lately where they don't eat me as much as they do other people and luckily that continues tonight.



I'm ready to start biking - but I guess I can wait another day or two to really get started.

-- Diane

Location:Portsmouth, NH

Driving to Portsmouth

Sitting in the car driving to Portsmouth stuck in Traffic!



Drive was going well until we hit a midafternoon baseball game. It's times like this where I wish I was on my bike because I could get there a whole lot quicker at this rate. See if I still think that after crossing the country on it.

Check in is at 2pm tomorrow! 24 hours :)

-- Diane

Location:Teaneck,United States