A Summer to Remember

After arriving to Dulles Airport via JetBlue's red-eye flight, I realized that I was home. It is the strangest feeling to know that I will finally be physically located in one place for more than 1 week (11 months to be exact- living at home with the parents while doing AmeriCorps). The sense of sadness is quite overwhelming- all attributed to leaving my Bike & Build family. I even foolishly made a convincing effort in my head not to cry but that failed miserably. Who was I kidding... tears come complimentary to B&B goodbyes. We spent the last 11 weeks together, through all the highs and lows of the trip: We are bonded as SC2SC10! This summer was truly an unforgettable one: one filled with lifelong memories and one that brought a group of 32 people together for 1 sweet journey.

A little background/update about Suz (my knee, yes I named her): about half way through the trip (July 2) I had an accident while descending in San Isabel National Forest on our 116 mile day. I had to be Medevac to a hospital in Pueblo, CO and underwent surgery on my knee. I fortunately didn't break anything but I did however tear some of the muscle and tendons in my left knee, thus I was in brace-bound the rest of the trip- well sort of... (oh and yes, can't forget the bag showering- I rocked the MC Hammer/genie pants on Miss. Suz- quite uncomfortable at times but thanks to everyone's great duct taping skills, she stayed dry). I have regained errr probably 60-70% of my range of motion so PT is in the near future.

I also want to thank all the parents who wrote and called with concern. It meant a lot to have your support. And a special thanks to the Barry family for renting a kiddy cart for me to ride in with the group (pulled by the awesome Sebass). Lastly, I couldn't of finished the trip without the group's support. Thanks for waiting around for this slow-poke, giving up the first row's middle seat, taping me for showers, helping me through everything, and making this summer the best one I have ever had.

I thought sleeping in a bed again would be the best thing about returning home, but I was proven quite wrong. The first night, I shocked myself and chose to sleep in my sleeping bag on my thermarest. And last night, I slept in my bed and rolled around for hours. Not sure when my body will take a liking to sleeping in a bed again. There are so many things I miss about the summer- from the morning hissing of thermarests to the snores of 31 people passed out at 10 pm and sometimes earlier to the lunch stops (I don't know how to eat lunch anymore- not without 30 people passing by while I snack!!)

Cheers to this summer! All of us made it to the Pacific in 4,300 miles (got to include the times we got lost or re-routed, a slight adjustment to our original 4084 mi), one way or another!

Lunch stop (nom, nom time)

ready set ride!

hungry riders

goofing around on the road

A little building action in Tupelo, MS

Breakfast at a boathouse (OKC)

Rockies = breathtaking views

working hard at our last build site (chico, CA)

a colorful group in Twin Lakes, CO

California!

cart ride to the pacific

SANTA CRUZ, CA!

We started off a group of 32 strangers, as:

Passionate Preston, Running Ryan, TV-star Travis, Leaping Lizzy,

Navigating Natalie, Zesty Zac, Meandering Michael, Sickly Scott,
Broken Brad, Live-Strong Lance, Boat-driving Brian,
Absolutely Angela, Voluptuous Varun, Break-dancing B$,
Prestigious Paul, Trekking Tyler, Sizzled Sarah,
Nuun-loving Nichole, Just Jess, Dodging David,
Eating Eugene, Kindergarten Karen, Milking Megan,
Kleptomaniac Katie, Knowledgeable Kelsey,
Karate Kim, Crushing Craig, Jumping Jillian, Koi-like Katie,
Motivational Melissa, Kinky Kern, and Sneaky Sebastian.

But above you see one of the many B&B families Bike & Build has built.

a steep climb and long descent

walsenburg, co- the ride in was beautiful two lakes with water so, so clear (and on a side note i practiced my picture-taking abilities by keeping the camera in my back pocket...captured some real nice landscape pics today)

today's climb was a real test: the climbing made me asthmatic and there were many points where i thought my lungs were going to give out...but they didn't. after climbing roughly up to 9,400+ ft we began a long descent in cold, sleet-like conditions- apparently sarah and i did not get lucky in the weather department because we were the only ones we had the storm the whole way down (we both survived and finished our 1st mountain pass, hoorah!) we then had a lovely cloud hover its way into town with us so more rain for us

tommorrow will be our longest day yet 116 miles ready go...

a great few days

in the past few days we entered new mexico and then colorado!!! the rides have been consistently long and the booty has wanted a rest rest... and today in trinidad the rest has finally come (ahh relaxation and time away from the saddle)

the ride into des moines, nm was awesome - filled with great conversations and slow-paced easy riding (if you were wondering at one point katie k, varun, craig and i were riding a nice 9 mph pace) the scenery was absolutely breathe taking, right out of a windows screensaver. 9 miles out our little group decided to hike up this mountain- we hopped some barbed wire and proceeded in some climbing (a nice change from the biking i suppose- got to use some other muscles) but the view uptop o man gorgeous. later riders (jess, zac, paul, brian, and lance) behind us found our bikes and joined us watching a 120 carted train pass by from the giant hill.

we quickly found out how small des moines is... a town of 150 people. there weren't many options in the restaurant department so i stopped at the only restaurant in town (2 miles out) to get a delicious chicken wrap and homemade cinnamon roll (yum with dave, kern, and michael) ps. great substitue for dinner

the next day to trinidad started off with a 16 mile detour to capulin volcano in clayton, nm. the crosswinds to the park were quite brutal and i quickly thought to myself.... i'm going to regret this but i ended up in this amazing canyon leading out of the park (def worth it)

last night was our trinidad de promenade (prom) and i ended up going with michael and seabass and the night was pretty epic

the day off in trinidad can be summed up with one word: restful. i'm pretty nervous about the 40 mile climb and descent tommorrow but i hope my booty is ready because it is going to be a long day (ready or not.... here we come walensburg)

2 days of bad then good

the bad came yesterday... which consisted of a 6 mile gravel road. going downhill on gravel = not fun, quite scary mostly because at one point i almost slipped on the soft sand-gravel. shaking and vibrating arms down rocky "pavement" did not help the 94 mile day. b&b is all about trying new things and i definitely got a taste of gravel riding (don't think i will be jumping at that opportunity anytime soon) when sarah and i stopped in spearman, tx (yes!! 7th state) i got to the gas station (probably .5 mile) in a confused state in search of food and chocolate milk.... i ended up with a ice cream drumstick and snack mix (which sarah and i devoured while stretching) eveyone was pretty dehydrated today but hopefully we won't run into any more ride days with no towns or gas stations (that really impeded our water-obtaining abilities)

one the flip side today's 85 miles..... not bad ... texas redeemed itself (we had extreme heat, tough terrain and headwinds worse than OK) today... we got cloudy cover and nice tailwinds (yes it was a nice change) got to ride a nice group (paul,zac,dave,varun, sarah) it made the morning pass pretty fast (the way i like it)

so.... new mexico here we come tommorrow (o man, o man!!) the state will have about 24 hours to prove itself to me (please be kind) i'm tossed up about texas.... it had a its bad but then its good, i guess tommorrow's ride will be the tiebreaker

tailwinds to watonga

today's ride was quick and easy 70 miles in watonga and what was wonderful was we were gifted with a lovely tailwind

today was mr. butch's last day with us... we all felt sad seeing the last spray painted $ stop... sadness



i finally adjusted my left cleat hoping for feeling in the left toes tommorrow

thank you OK tailwinds, it made today's ride glorious

another day in OK city

today was our 2nd build day and it went pretty productively... we were little busy worker bees because we were able to help the OK habitat get e whole day ahead of their schedule (pat on the back everyone) our work ethic and progress continues to exceed my expectations each time we build (o teamwork...)

we were split up into small groups and we did some blue boarding, sodding, house wrapping, and painting. there are houses scheduled to be dedicated on friday so we put the last touches on those houses and boy everything started to come together

tonight i got an opportunity to go the OK city bombing memorial and i'm glad i was able drag my tired butt there. the memorial was absolutely beautiful and it was really cool hearing all about the time and planning that went into dedicating those we lost as well as the survivors





on another note, after 2 days of rest... i still have a numb tingling feeling in my left foot ...sigh i hope to fiddle with my cleats on of these days to get that squared away (i would love to have sensation in my foot later...??)

preparing for our windy OK ride tomorrow....see you in the AM hot OK sun

build day in OK city

this morning started off wondefully... we had breakfast on a lake at thr OK boat club (as much as i appreciate day old or two or three bagels, fresh panera bagels were mmmm- and yes the most delicious orange with a side of eggs and bacon)





today was our 1st build day in OK city and we got to frame a house in the windy heat of OK. we completely framed the house with our 32 person bike and build army...pretty awesome seeing all the walls come one by one (pics coming soon) our build day was overall weatherwise wonderful (on bike wind = a nono; wind on a build day = relaxing) i think everyone enjoyed today's day off from the bike

the community we worked at hope crossing- a neighborhood of neatly bricked houses. the OK affillate is quite active building about 35-37 houses a year.







lunch was donated by chipotle i got pretty excited but soon realized after i inhaled by burrito.... i felt only dehydrated and slightly nausous...maybe i ate too fast?)

i'm excited for tommorrow's sodding and landscaping day 2 of building