Can you believe that I have already rode into Wisconsin? I biked from Portsmouth, NH to Madison... that is unbelievable and so exhilirating. The ride to Madison was short and sweet, but it was harder than we thought it was going to be thanks to a steady breeze from the northwest. We were all so excited to be there though, so it didn't really matter. Madison was one of the "most looked forward to" destinations on the trip, and from peoples' reactions I think it lived up to its billing.
The first day there people spent the afternoon sightseeing and wandering around state street. After another lovely host dinner, I met up with Andy and Justin at a Mallard's game. Although I did not see a single pitch thrown, I had a great time catching up with them and getting to see them. When we decided we couldn't care less about the game, we went back to there place and hung out for a while before meeting up with Bike and Builders on State Street. It was kind of surreal to be sitting at a bar with friends from high school and 10 friends I had just met while biking across the country; pretty awesome.
The next day we had a build day and we all got to work on several houses in the same habitat development. My work situation that day was absolutely perfect for me and was so inspiring. I worked with two men, Herman and Marzo, ages 80 and 91, respectively, and they were fascinating. Herald was a former clothing shop owner in Madison and Marzo was in the construction field his entire career. Marzo was also a cyclist and toured Europe at the tender age of 80. Knowing he did something like that at 80 was another reiteration that we will in fact make it across the country. They enjoyed having the attention of three young ladies as much as we enjoyed listening to them and learning from them.
From Madison, we headed to Gays Mills, WI. That morning my dad drove up from Janesville and met us at the churnch to ride out with us. That was another great moment; it was pretty special to be able to share a little bit of this experience with him, because if anyone would appreciate this trip, it would be him. After my dad turned around to head back, the rest of the day got very interesting. We conquered the "trifecta" of cycling that day and battled through wind, distance, and hills (mountains). People kept commenting that they "had no idea Wisconsin had mountains." It was one of the days that I wish we had a camera following us so that people could see exaclty what we accomplished that day.
And, as much as it was a day in which I probably complained about the hills 100 times, it was one of the best, most satisfying rides of the trip so far. I rode with Jeremy, Cydney, Julian, and Laura and we had a blast for all 100 miles. The highlight probably being the truck pull/town fair we stopped at in Boaz. We talked with drunken locals who offered to drunkenly drive us to Gays Mills and watched souped up truckes try to pull the "Attitude Adjuster."
After Gays Mills, we went to Onalaska (LaCrosse). Apparently nothing too exciting happened on that ride day because I can't really remember it... I do remember that I got to see Sarah Holmes that night though! Another great experience while in my homeland. She picked me up from the church and let me shower in her hotel room, which was awesome. Even though we only got to see each other for a little while it was so nice to see her. Thanks, Sarah!
The next day we rode from LaCrosse to Pepin, WI, and it was another one of my favorite rides so far. We followed highway 35, or the "Great River Road" most of the way as it followed along the Mississippi. It was our first perfect weather day and we even had a slight tailwind! We got to talk a lot along the route, go really fast, and take in some gorgeous scenery. Pepin is also the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder, so that was a perk at the end of the ride. And speaking of Laura Ingalls Wilder, we had some wonderful literary conversation centered around "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn". I also talked about the upcoming day - the Twin Cities!
Much like the ride to Janesville, the ride to St. Paul started out horribly. I don't know that I have ever been so miserable on a bike. It rained/poured for the first 35 miles, was cold, and really hilly. I got through it with a lot of laughing at situations that were so bad they had to be funny. The rain finally ended though and we reached the top of a hill where we saw a bald eagle perched over the Mississippi; it was about as "American" as you can get. The rest of the ride got better after lunch and we finally entered into Minnesota and St. Paul.
I was so excited to see everyone in the cities, especially Tori. She has been in Argentina for the past 6 months and randomly happened to fly into Minneapolis the same day we rode through. Tori and my parents picked me up from the church and we picked up Kate and Amy to go out to dinner. After dinner, all the girls met us at Bar Abilene for drinks. In addition to the girls, their were several suprise visitors. I cannot express to all of you how much it meant that you came out to see me, so thank you!!! It was great to see everyone and find out how everyone's summer is going.
After getting to sleep in my own place, I finally got to sleep past 7! Then I said goodbye to the parents and Tori before heading out to pick up Laura and Ashley to go to the bike shop. The bike shop wasn't very successful, but the girls got to see where all of our bikes got put together. After the bike shop we ran errands to the mall and the bank, so they got to see lots of Minnesota staples. Once the errands were run, we met up with Kim and Smith to walk to the sculpture gardens, followed by dinner and a drink at Joe's Garage. On the walk home from dinner, we randomly ran into Kelsey and Lauren. It reiterated what I love about Minneapolis - a big city where you still run into friends. After dropping Laura and Ashley off, I went back and chatted with the girls some more and then had to say goodbye. It was a tearful goodbye. I miss you guys again already!
The ride from St. Paul to Askov was a lovely suprise - 110 miles when we thought it was going to be 85. It was another pretty ride though, with fairly easy terrain, so it was a doable 110. That night, however, was not so doable. As most of you know, a camper I am not, and it was our first night of camping. It started out fine enough, until the mosquitoes came out. I fell asleep in our tent before the "family meeting" and in that time I was attacked through my pants to my butt. I have never had so many bites in one area before, and it is not a fun place to have a lot of bites while riding your bike across the country. On top of that, it rained all night long and our tent was not properly set up, so I got rained on all night and got no sleep after riding my bike 110 miles. I was not a happy camper when I got up in the morning. Pun intended. I survived though, and got on my bike as soon as possible the morning.
From the misery that was Askov, MN, we rode to Duluth, MN. I was excited for this ride because I knew it was going to be flat, on a trail, and pretty. It ended up being all of these and fast. I rode with Theo and Jeremy and Jeremy gave us a less on a Judaism for an hour and then we played contact, and before we knew it we were there. I had the pleasure of doing laundry for the group again in Duluth, which is always a treat. We also had our second to last build day there, and it was another good one. All 30 of us worked on one house again and we were able to almost finish putting up an entire roof and putting insulation alongside the foundation. It has been a nice stay here in Duluth and tomorrow we are off to Grand Rapids, MN.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
"Life is A Highway"
Wow, it is has been a long time since I have blogged... So much has happened, and so many miles have been ridden.
The ride to Chicago was as eventful as anticipated. We started out of Edwardsburg, MI and went south along Lake Michigan. In the first half of the ride we rode through Michiana Shores, which was a beautiful resort town on the lake with some really impressive homes. After Michiana Shores, we rode through Gary, IN. The comparison of Michiana Shores and Gary was an excellent example of the juxtaposition of wealth in America and a good reminder of why we are riding. We were riding by million dollar homes and then 20 miles later we were riding through the heart of poverty in the midwest. Unfortunately, those kinds of neighborhoods and contradictions happen everywhere without an acknowledgment that the other exists.
After Gary, the ride got very interesting for me. First, a girl I was riding with had a tire explode on her; I definitely thought she got shot. My response was, "Oh my god, Abby got shot; I'm glad it wasn't me." How inappropriate and how me. She did not get shot, but we had to sit on the curb and wait for an hour for the van to get there and give us a new tire. After the tire was fixed, I had my first experience with chafing. It was a chafing like I have never experienced before and I was very near tears the last 20 miles of the ride. Once we got into Chicago, I tried to walk down the street to a Michael Jackson cover concert but only made it halfway before I had to quit to go to a CVS and buy Desitin. I also asked for a pair of shorts and created quite the scene in CVS... I will have to tell the story in person and act it for you to get the full impact of my entry into Chicago.
We went out in Chicago that night and had a really good time. The next morning we got up and rode around downtown Chicago and went to Millennium Park, Michigan Ave, and Evanston. I rode with Kelsey, Lauren, and Angel that day and we had a really good time taking it slow and stopping at all the sights. Kelsey was a wonderful tour guide of Northwestern. We arrived in Gray's Lake and had a relaxing night in preparation for the ride into Janesville!
The ride to Janesville started out disastrously; we all got horribly lost in the first 3 miles and then ended up following Ashley's I-phone the rest of the way. Once we were finally on our way, we had some interesting roads in Illinois, but then we finally hit "the promised land" of Wisconsin. We rode through Lake Geneva and everyone had a good first impression of Wisconsin. The weather that day was questionable from the get-go and I was nervous for all of the activities (boating and grilling out) planned in Janesville. As fate would have it though, the second we got the boats out on the river, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful evening. My parents and another wonderful man took us out on boats and let us go tubing and skiing. The owner of the other boat had never met us before and his letting us use his boat was another random act of kindness from a stranger along the way.
The second day in Janesville was another build day and we got to work with the Rock County Community Action. We were seperated into three groups: demolition, painting the Mercy shelter, and insulation work in Beloit. I was in the demolition group and we went to a house that had been foreclosed on off of Delavan Drive and spent the day demoing the house so that it can be refurbished. I think that all three groups learned a lot while they were working that day. The people working in Beloit got to talk to local workers and learn about the city of Beloit; the demo group worked with the Community Action coordinator and learned about Janesville; the painters learned about the homeless community in Rock County. As someone who is so connected to Janesville, it was very sad to hear all of the problems the area is facing and to know it is happening in cities across the nation.
Madtown!!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
"Flake"
Tonight's title entry was not on my iPod, but is in honor of the jam session we just had in which Theo and Wade played "Flake" and the rest of us tried to sing along. For any of you that know me well, you can imagine how much I enjoyed that. Theo had only played the first chord and I jumped with joy.
The generosity from the hosts never seems to end and is overwhelmingly inspiring. The people in Camden, MI were so happy to have us there and went above and beyond what anyone would ever expect of a host. First, they opened up 5 homes for all of us to shower in and provided dinner. Then, the greatest thing of all, they did our laundry! They did 30 people's laundry; not just 30 regular people either, 30 people who rode their bikes for 80 miles that day. Talk about generosity. We also had an improptu talent show where Theo played the piano, Nate balanced things on his chin, and Sidny amused us all. The best line of the trip so far occurred when the minister of the church asked people to sing along and Sidny said, "I'm Jewish", the minister said, "Ellijah was a Jew," and Sidny said, "So was Jesus." It was pure awkwardness for about 5 seconds and then everyone started laughing. You probably had to be there... but it was funny, I promise.
From Camden we went to Edwardsburg, MI, by way of Indiana. The ride to Edwardsburg was pretty uneventful until I got my second flat of the trip. This flat was particularly fun because I had a slime tire in and sprayed green slime all over myself and the road; that stuff cannot be environmentally friendly. I once again changed it quickly, but had a hard time getting it through the brakes, but we eventually got it and all was good for about 2 minutes. Two minutes later we were riding and a fly flew into my ear and for some reason it put me over the edge. I made the people I was riding with pull over and had a mini nervous break down. It is so funny to see what the tipping point is on any given day. We have all had our moments and the most random things can throw us into a downward spiral; I guess that is what lack of sleep and 6+ hours of exercise every day will do to a person.
Following the lack of emotional control for a split second, we made it to our destination; another set of wonderful hosts. The most amazing thing about this one is that they had 2 bike mechanics from a local bike shop come in and give us all free tune-ups. They were here for 5 hours and helped us all with our bikes. You cannot imagine how much help these people were and how much we appreciated it. People keep telling us how motivating and inspiring we are, but I am thinking that the people helping us along the way are just as impressive and inspiring. You cannot be a part of this trip and not gain an appreciation for the kindness in America.
"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." This quote, by Bill Clinton, seems so appropriate for this trip. Affordable housing is something that is wrong with America, but organizations like Habitat, with the help of all the people we have met, are helping to treat and cure the problem.
Speaking of Habitat, we had our first 30 person build site today and it was awesome to see what 60 hands could get done in 7 hours. We put up dry wall, caulked a basement, moved enough dirt to level the land on an entire side of the house, took a garage from plywood to almost completion, and finished siding the front of the house. The family was there working with us all day and it felt wonderful to help them build their home.
Tomorrow, we ride to Chicago. Yep, we are going to be in Chicago in a day. We also just found out it is going to be 108 miles... shoud be interesting, that's for sure.
The generosity from the hosts never seems to end and is overwhelmingly inspiring. The people in Camden, MI were so happy to have us there and went above and beyond what anyone would ever expect of a host. First, they opened up 5 homes for all of us to shower in and provided dinner. Then, the greatest thing of all, they did our laundry! They did 30 people's laundry; not just 30 regular people either, 30 people who rode their bikes for 80 miles that day. Talk about generosity. We also had an improptu talent show where Theo played the piano, Nate balanced things on his chin, and Sidny amused us all. The best line of the trip so far occurred when the minister of the church asked people to sing along and Sidny said, "I'm Jewish", the minister said, "Ellijah was a Jew," and Sidny said, "So was Jesus." It was pure awkwardness for about 5 seconds and then everyone started laughing. You probably had to be there... but it was funny, I promise.
From Camden we went to Edwardsburg, MI, by way of Indiana. The ride to Edwardsburg was pretty uneventful until I got my second flat of the trip. This flat was particularly fun because I had a slime tire in and sprayed green slime all over myself and the road; that stuff cannot be environmentally friendly. I once again changed it quickly, but had a hard time getting it through the brakes, but we eventually got it and all was good for about 2 minutes. Two minutes later we were riding and a fly flew into my ear and for some reason it put me over the edge. I made the people I was riding with pull over and had a mini nervous break down. It is so funny to see what the tipping point is on any given day. We have all had our moments and the most random things can throw us into a downward spiral; I guess that is what lack of sleep and 6+ hours of exercise every day will do to a person.
Following the lack of emotional control for a split second, we made it to our destination; another set of wonderful hosts. The most amazing thing about this one is that they had 2 bike mechanics from a local bike shop come in and give us all free tune-ups. They were here for 5 hours and helped us all with our bikes. You cannot imagine how much help these people were and how much we appreciated it. People keep telling us how motivating and inspiring we are, but I am thinking that the people helping us along the way are just as impressive and inspiring. You cannot be a part of this trip and not gain an appreciation for the kindness in America.
"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." This quote, by Bill Clinton, seems so appropriate for this trip. Affordable housing is something that is wrong with America, but organizations like Habitat, with the help of all the people we have met, are helping to treat and cure the problem.
Speaking of Habitat, we had our first 30 person build site today and it was awesome to see what 60 hands could get done in 7 hours. We put up dry wall, caulked a basement, moved enough dirt to level the land on an entire side of the house, took a garage from plywood to almost completion, and finished siding the front of the house. The family was there working with us all day and it felt wonderful to help them build their home.
Tomorrow, we ride to Chicago. Yep, we are going to be in Chicago in a day. We also just found out it is going to be 108 miles... shoud be interesting, that's for sure.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
"Born in the USA"
A lot has happened since the last post and a lot of miles have been covered. We are in Michigan. Michigan. That means in the past week we have went from New York to Michigan. For me, I finally felt like we were getting places when we reached Ohio; so I'll tell you about the journey from NY to Camden, MI.
From Lockport, NY, we had a short ride into Niagra Falls. We spent the day being tourists and walking around the falls and tourist areas. That night we had our first real dinner out at a restaurant and then there were fireworks over the falls. And, I almost forgot the most exciting part of that day... I ran into Evan and Kenny from the "Real World/Road Rules Challenge". No one else was as excited as I was, and although I was a bit embarrassed that no one else even know who they were, it was still awesome.
After Niagra, we rode to Westfield, NY. That ride was one of our more difficult ones so far. We had our first tast of what wind can do to a biker. A lot of the people from the east coast don't understand how hard it can be to ride into 20 mph headwinds; almost as difficult as hills. I also had my first (and hopefully only) flat that day and I managed to replace the tube on the side of the road and getting going again within 20 minutes. I was quite pleased with myself. After my flat I was riding by myself for the rest of the day when I ran into another cyclist who was riding from Rochester, NY to St. Paul. He was by himself and carrying all of his gear so he drafted off of me for about 12 miles and had a lovely conversation. It was definitely a small world, nice people moment.
From Westfield we went to Ashtubula, OH. We rode in three different states that day, which was really cool. We also saw the roads get worse as we headed west. A member of the church from Westfield rode out with us and he said as the taxes decreased as you go west, the roads got worse. We had another build day in Ashtubula where we painted the outside of the WIC center there.
After Ashtubula we went to Avon Lake. In that ride we rode right through the heart of Cleveland. I rode in with a Cleveland native and he took us to a small Chinese restaurant that was very tasty. We also went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and got to see the Michael Jackson memorial the day they had the candlelight vigil. The hosts at the Avon Lake church were absolutely amazing and put out one of the finest spreads of food I have ever seen. That night we had "home stays" where we stayed at homes of members of the church. I stayed with a really nice couple that even did a load of laundry for us!
Next up was Bowling Green. The ride into Bowling Green was our first 90+ mile day. I love that we all did it without any major problems and it wasn't even that bad for us; who would've thought. From Bowling Green we headed here, to Camden, MI. Today's ride was 77 miles, so over the past 3 days we rode 247 miles. And I have to be honest, I was feeling it at the end of today's ride. Tomorrow we head to Edwardsburg, MI where we have another build day.
5 days until Janesville!!!
From Lockport, NY, we had a short ride into Niagra Falls. We spent the day being tourists and walking around the falls and tourist areas. That night we had our first real dinner out at a restaurant and then there were fireworks over the falls. And, I almost forgot the most exciting part of that day... I ran into Evan and Kenny from the "Real World/Road Rules Challenge". No one else was as excited as I was, and although I was a bit embarrassed that no one else even know who they were, it was still awesome.
After Niagra, we rode to Westfield, NY. That ride was one of our more difficult ones so far. We had our first tast of what wind can do to a biker. A lot of the people from the east coast don't understand how hard it can be to ride into 20 mph headwinds; almost as difficult as hills. I also had my first (and hopefully only) flat that day and I managed to replace the tube on the side of the road and getting going again within 20 minutes. I was quite pleased with myself. After my flat I was riding by myself for the rest of the day when I ran into another cyclist who was riding from Rochester, NY to St. Paul. He was by himself and carrying all of his gear so he drafted off of me for about 12 miles and had a lovely conversation. It was definitely a small world, nice people moment.
From Westfield we went to Ashtubula, OH. We rode in three different states that day, which was really cool. We also saw the roads get worse as we headed west. A member of the church from Westfield rode out with us and he said as the taxes decreased as you go west, the roads got worse. We had another build day in Ashtubula where we painted the outside of the WIC center there.
After Ashtubula we went to Avon Lake. In that ride we rode right through the heart of Cleveland. I rode in with a Cleveland native and he took us to a small Chinese restaurant that was very tasty. We also went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and got to see the Michael Jackson memorial the day they had the candlelight vigil. The hosts at the Avon Lake church were absolutely amazing and put out one of the finest spreads of food I have ever seen. That night we had "home stays" where we stayed at homes of members of the church. I stayed with a really nice couple that even did a load of laundry for us!
Next up was Bowling Green. The ride into Bowling Green was our first 90+ mile day. I love that we all did it without any major problems and it wasn't even that bad for us; who would've thought. From Bowling Green we headed here, to Camden, MI. Today's ride was 77 miles, so over the past 3 days we rode 247 miles. And I have to be honest, I was feeling it at the end of today's ride. Tomorrow we head to Edwardsburg, MI where we have another build day.
5 days until Janesville!!!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
"Any Dream Will Do"
I cannot get over how nice people are to us. We had wonderful hosts again in Boonville and one of them was a state champion in ping-pong, so we got to watch quite the show.
From Boonville we headed to Palermo, NY, which is just a small town in upstate NY. It is really funny how we thought of New York City when we thought of NY, but it turns out the rest of the state looks a lot like Wisconsin. The ride to Palermo was really nice and we had good weather. I also had my fist "local" ice cream stop and basically got a pint of ice cream for $2.50. It was delicious.
After Palermo came Rochester, NY. We were all very excited to be in a real city again when we arrived. It took us a while to arrive though, and it was by far the most interesting ride so far. It rained once again; I am very tired of riding in wet clothes all day. The first half of the day was fairly hilly and kind of challenging, but it flattened out after lunch. And that is when the excitement began.
Once it got flat after lunch, we were on a fairly busy highway. 5 of us girls had decided to ride together and we were kind of cruising along when Abby said, "Ali, you're from Kansas, is that a tornado?". And although it was not in fact a tornado, it was a mean looking sky. We decided to ride on anyway, and just as it started to downpour we realized the highway we were on got a lot busier and now had entrance and exit ramps... I obviously handled this situation in my typical manner and started laughing hysterically. We decided to pull over for a minute and call the van and he informed us we were going the right way, so we continued on. In doing so we got a lot of honks and were somewhat fearful for our lives, but we made it out unscathed and had a good story to tell at the end of the day.
After the adverture on the highway, we still had 20 miles to go to get to Rochester and those turned out to be a very long 20 miles. I had never been on my bike for 90 miles straight and I very much so wanted to be off of it. The ride ended in a nice suprise though: we found out we were staying in dorms! This meant showers in the building, a bed, and sharing a room with only one other person, all rare treats on Bike and Build. We also got to go out that night and hang out which was a lot of fun.
The next day we had a build day. I was assigned to help put siding on a house, which is something I had never done before. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I think we were actually very helpful. We managed to do the entire front of the house, so it was cool to see what we had done. The men that we were working with on that site were really nice people and it was fun to work with them all day. One of the best features of this trip is getting to know the people on, surrounding, and supporting the ride.
From Boonville we headed to Palermo, NY, which is just a small town in upstate NY. It is really funny how we thought of New York City when we thought of NY, but it turns out the rest of the state looks a lot like Wisconsin. The ride to Palermo was really nice and we had good weather. I also had my fist "local" ice cream stop and basically got a pint of ice cream for $2.50. It was delicious.
After Palermo came Rochester, NY. We were all very excited to be in a real city again when we arrived. It took us a while to arrive though, and it was by far the most interesting ride so far. It rained once again; I am very tired of riding in wet clothes all day. The first half of the day was fairly hilly and kind of challenging, but it flattened out after lunch. And that is when the excitement began.
Once it got flat after lunch, we were on a fairly busy highway. 5 of us girls had decided to ride together and we were kind of cruising along when Abby said, "Ali, you're from Kansas, is that a tornado?". And although it was not in fact a tornado, it was a mean looking sky. We decided to ride on anyway, and just as it started to downpour we realized the highway we were on got a lot busier and now had entrance and exit ramps... I obviously handled this situation in my typical manner and started laughing hysterically. We decided to pull over for a minute and call the van and he informed us we were going the right way, so we continued on. In doing so we got a lot of honks and were somewhat fearful for our lives, but we made it out unscathed and had a good story to tell at the end of the day.
After the adverture on the highway, we still had 20 miles to go to get to Rochester and those turned out to be a very long 20 miles. I had never been on my bike for 90 miles straight and I very much so wanted to be off of it. The ride ended in a nice suprise though: we found out we were staying in dorms! This meant showers in the building, a bed, and sharing a room with only one other person, all rare treats on Bike and Build. We also got to go out that night and hang out which was a lot of fun.
The next day we had a build day. I was assigned to help put siding on a house, which is something I had never done before. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I think we were actually very helpful. We managed to do the entire front of the house, so it was cool to see what we had done. The men that we were working with on that site were really nice people and it was fun to work with them all day. One of the best features of this trip is getting to know the people on, surrounding, and supporting the ride.
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