Day 16. Waynesville, NC.
Remember how I said I was going to tell you how I feel about the mountains after we rode over them? Well you might say the mountains and I have a bad romance. On our ride into Asheville 3 days ago, we climbed over 6,000 feet (80 miles). The day before that we climbed to 4412 ft elevation before we rode down into Newland, NC (65 miles). Those 2 days were the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. And we also saw the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Every time I cursed the incline for making every part of my body hurt, we'd reach the peak and look out onto the Blue Ridge Mountains and just forget it was even hard to get up there. I am so proud that every rider made it into Asheville without having to be picked up by the van. Even one of our leaders, Nate (who's done 3 Bike & Build trips), said that that was the hardest day he's ever had on Bike & Build. And once again, once everyone was together, it was gravy.
Asheville was interesting. It was the first place we've stopped where the hospitality left something to be desired. I don't think I ever saw or talked to a single person who worked at the church, and we're used to really engaging with our hosts. It was a really great location in relation to the downtown area though, and we were able to explore a little bit. The town of Asheville is, I'm told, called the "San Francisco of the East." I believe it. Super hippie town. Almost uncomfortably so. It was just an odd stay all around. I know that we've been incredibly spoiled with how great our hosts have been thus far, and I'm just holding Asheville to a high standard...but I was ready to get out of there. The Habitat crew we worked with was awesome though. We had 2 really great build days with them. I was cutting wood with power saws and drilling and we put a roof together and installed all the windows in this house...it was a really good experience. They even gave us all t-shirts on the last day because they liked us so much. So Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity - tight. Asheville itself - meh.
Today we rode into Waynesville, NC. It was a nice short (and minimally hilly) 32 mile ride. Myles and I were "Sweep" which means that we are the last 2 riders of the group to make sure that everyone makes it to the host site. We rotate 2 different people on sweep everyday. Today was a great day to be sweep because it was such a short ride, and we went through towns the entire way. We had coffee with Kelly (one of our leaders who was driving the van today) in Asheville to give everyone a head start, then just cruised. We stopped at a flea market on the side of the road and talked to the locals about what we were doing. Some of them had even seen us on the news :) We ran into a couple of local cyclists who were training for a triathlon in the area and rode with them for a couple miles...It was a super smooth day to be sweep. I did lose a contact about 6 miles from our host site and have to ride in with kind of altered perception...but it was cool. We had lunch in town here and I had some real delicious fish tacos. Tonight there happens to be a block party going down on Main St. We're all pretty excited about it (and I keep forgetting it's Memorial Day weekend). There's also a bar called O'Malley's (where we'll plan our escape?). Waynesville is looking good so far....
I can't believe we've been on the road for 16 days and ridden over 600 miles already. We cross our first state line tomorrow into Tennessee! Exciting. Time is flyin', next stop Gatlinburg...
Saturday, May 29, 2010
24 May 2010, Taylorsville, NC
(This is being posted late, but is the journal entry I wrote for my favorite day of the trip so far, the ride from the lake house to Taylorsville, NC.)
Day 11. Mileage: 64
Today was super. Definitely the best day yet. Last night we were at the Lake House in Richfield (High Rock Lake). It was a really exhausting day of riding to get up there, so most people just crashed. But today...
We stopped about 7 miles out at this gas station to pee, and it turned out to be the greatest place ever. It was also a hunting post, so it had all kinds of camo and supplies, etc. Stutte bought beef jerky and this fantastic bandana that says "TATTOOED TRASH." There was also a sign on the door that said "please pay before loading corn." [Note: Joe just gave me a headlight that you wear on your head so I could keep writing after they turned the lights out.] After the gas station we trekked on. The roads today were great. THESE are what I call rolling hills: you roll down them and easily roll back up. I can deal with these across the country. I didn't drop to my granny gear once all day. I hope that it's me getting better at climbing that's making me feel like it isn't so hard.
We saw a fire station with its doors open so we stopped and took pictures with the fire engine and firemen. They were really nice, and by the time we got to Taylorsville (the station was in Salisbury), the fire chief was already following me on Twitter. (How awesome is it that the fire chief from Salisbury, NC has a twitter?)
Moving on with our day, Stutte suggested that the next thing we should take pictures with is a fake animal, or something obnoxiously oversized. Lo and behold, we happen upon a gigantic inflatable blue gorilla wearing yellow sunglasses and a bikini. Her name is Rebecca Jane according to the super nice guys who owned the car dealership (I believe we were in Cleveland, NC). Awesome pictures ensued.
The last 16 miles were not quite as exciting, we were riding along the highway, which was nicely paved but not nearly as interesting as going through towns. We had a couple tough climbs in there, and as we reached the peak of one of the last ones, we saw the mountains on the horizon. It was gorgeous. But we'll see what I have to say about them when I have to ride over them tomorrow and the next day...
Saturday, May 22, 2010
What am I doing, what am I doing? Oh wait, that's right..
Good evening sports fans,
Well, tonight is our last night in Chapel Hill. It really has been a lovely 3 days here. Much was accomplished: houses were painted, roofs were trussed, walls were raised, and my new friend Leam and I have officially dubbed our summer theme song: "Over" by Drake. It is appropriate on multiple levels (and we heard it while we were out on Franklin St on Thursday night and can't stop singing it).
Earlier today at the build 3 other riders and I built the auxiliary storage/shed onto the back of the house...from scratch. There was nothing but a concrete base when we started, and now there is a whole shed, with beautifully flushed carpentry if I do say so myself. It actually was really cool to see something so permanent where there once was nothing and know that your hands built it. I used the power saw and everything. Stutte told me I looked "super official" and Andrew told me I looked like "a boss" when I was cutting the wood, haha. They're such flatterers...
Tonight some locals provided a delicious taco bar for dinner for us here at the church. People have been so unbelievably generous. I am absolutely eating way too much. So much for losing weight on this trip, this is more food than I will ever have available to me. After dinner we went to see the Durham Bulls (the National Champion Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays) play the Pawtucket Red Sox (you can take a wild guess whose affiliate they are). The park is really gorgeous, I took a picture that doesn't do it justice and posted it to my twitter which you can follow here: https://twitter.com/BreezyTB. I'll be doing most of my real-time updating via twitter so check it out to see cool stuff! (including a short video of our burrito eating contest at Qdoba). Unfortunately, it stormed like crazy about 20 minutes after we arrived so the game was called (the Bulls were winning). So we all got soaked but enjoyed some Bojangles (Nate's fave) on the way home.
Tonight everyone is trying to get their 3 days-worth of mess all packed up and ready to go for our 5am wake-up tomorrow. We have a big 83 mile ride out toward Winston-Salem, where we'll be staying at one of our leader's friend's lake house, which we've heard is pretty legit. So here's hoping for some good weather and a smooth ride tomorrow.
"And that's what I'ma do 'til it's over, 'til it's over...but it's far from over..."
Well, tonight is our last night in Chapel Hill. It really has been a lovely 3 days here. Much was accomplished: houses were painted, roofs were trussed, walls were raised, and my new friend Leam and I have officially dubbed our summer theme song: "Over" by Drake. It is appropriate on multiple levels (and we heard it while we were out on Franklin St on Thursday night and can't stop singing it).
Earlier today at the build 3 other riders and I built the auxiliary storage/shed onto the back of the house...from scratch. There was nothing but a concrete base when we started, and now there is a whole shed, with beautifully flushed carpentry if I do say so myself. It actually was really cool to see something so permanent where there once was nothing and know that your hands built it. I used the power saw and everything. Stutte told me I looked "super official" and Andrew told me I looked like "a boss" when I was cutting the wood, haha. They're such flatterers...
Tonight some locals provided a delicious taco bar for dinner for us here at the church. People have been so unbelievably generous. I am absolutely eating way too much. So much for losing weight on this trip, this is more food than I will ever have available to me. After dinner we went to see the Durham Bulls (the National Champion Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays) play the Pawtucket Red Sox (you can take a wild guess whose affiliate they are). The park is really gorgeous, I took a picture that doesn't do it justice and posted it to my twitter which you can follow here: https://twitter.com/BreezyTB. I'll be doing most of my real-time updating via twitter so check it out to see cool stuff! (including a short video of our burrito eating contest at Qdoba). Unfortunately, it stormed like crazy about 20 minutes after we arrived so the game was called (the Bulls were winning). So we all got soaked but enjoyed some Bojangles (Nate's fave) on the way home.
Tonight everyone is trying to get their 3 days-worth of mess all packed up and ready to go for our 5am wake-up tomorrow. We have a big 83 mile ride out toward Winston-Salem, where we'll be staying at one of our leader's friend's lake house, which we've heard is pretty legit. So here's hoping for some good weather and a smooth ride tomorrow.
"And that's what I'ma do 'til it's over, 'til it's over...but it's far from over..."
Friday, May 21, 2010
Catch-Up
Howdy everyone. I'm really sorry I've been such a bum about my blog, but we have been pretty non-stop since my last post. Let me catch you up on ride days 1-5.
Our first ride out from the coast to Swan Quarter, NC was nice and flat with a gorgeous tailwind, we were flying. The only unfortunate thing about that ride was that me and some other riders blew straight past the church and rode an extra 4 miles up the road before one of the riders who had already arrived at the church chased us down (which is epic, btw. John Stevens is a boss). So it was kind of a bummer to ride an extra 8 miles on an already 67 mile day, but I guess we can use the practice right?
After Swan Quarter we rode to a magical place called Belhaven, NC. It rained the whole day, but luckily we only had to ride about 35 miles. When we got there, a wonderful man named Georgie offered to drive us to his house to get showers (a beautiful upgrade from the hose). Georgie owns an oyster bar in Belhaven, and opened up on a night the restaurant is usually closed to feed our whole team ON THE HOUSE. It was amazing. And they were the biggest oysters anyone had ever seen. I also had their house clam chowder which was "Hatteras Style" and SO good. If you're ever in Belhaven...definitely hit up Georgie's Oyster Bar.
Tuesday we rode to Greenville, NC (~57 miles), home of Eastern Carolina University. It was the first substantial town we've stopped in. We stayed at a really awesome church downtown. It was huge and had basketball courts and we slept in a room with these giant building blocks and costumes (I dressed like an alligator and played the guitar) so that was fun. Tuesday was kind of rough though, because we had a pretty serious accident...one of our guys crossed tires with the person in front of him while going over a bridge and literally flipped bike-over-body over the rail. I am pleased to report that Andrew made a miraculous soft landing into some brush (though it was a 10-15 foot fall) and only suffered some scrapes. And he was such a trooper about the whole thing, got right back on his bike and rode the rest of the way to Greenville. We got champions on Bike & Build.
Hands down, the toughest day of the trip thus far has been the ride from Greenville to Wake Forest. It was 85 miles of the first real hills I've ever ridden. And it sucked. I also didn't eat enough and almost bonked (I got really fatigued and just felt like I couldn't do it). I took a break and had something to eat and made it the last 25 miles. It was a really hard day for everyone, but once we got to the church at Wake Forest everyone was so happy and proud that we made it. We just laid in the parking lot on the warm concrete and relaxed and it was amazing. Even on the toughest days, it feels so good to be here.
Now we're in Chapel Hill, NC for 2 days to build. The ride from Wake Forest to here was fun, it was nice and short and I am beginning to appreciate the rolling hills. I'm also kind of starting to understand how to shift in order to not be miserable going up the hills. We stopped in Durham and went to a diner for brunch. A regular there saw us and found out what we were doing and footed the bill for every rider (a group of about 16 of us). It's amazing how great people are. It warms my heart and even makes my quads stop hurting.
So that's where we are, I am really going try to give you guys an update every day we have internet from now on. So you keep up with me and I'll keep up with you!
Our first ride out from the coast to Swan Quarter, NC was nice and flat with a gorgeous tailwind, we were flying. The only unfortunate thing about that ride was that me and some other riders blew straight past the church and rode an extra 4 miles up the road before one of the riders who had already arrived at the church chased us down (which is epic, btw. John Stevens is a boss). So it was kind of a bummer to ride an extra 8 miles on an already 67 mile day, but I guess we can use the practice right?
After Swan Quarter we rode to a magical place called Belhaven, NC. It rained the whole day, but luckily we only had to ride about 35 miles. When we got there, a wonderful man named Georgie offered to drive us to his house to get showers (a beautiful upgrade from the hose). Georgie owns an oyster bar in Belhaven, and opened up on a night the restaurant is usually closed to feed our whole team ON THE HOUSE. It was amazing. And they were the biggest oysters anyone had ever seen. I also had their house clam chowder which was "Hatteras Style" and SO good. If you're ever in Belhaven...definitely hit up Georgie's Oyster Bar.
Tuesday we rode to Greenville, NC (~57 miles), home of Eastern Carolina University. It was the first substantial town we've stopped in. We stayed at a really awesome church downtown. It was huge and had basketball courts and we slept in a room with these giant building blocks and costumes (I dressed like an alligator and played the guitar) so that was fun. Tuesday was kind of rough though, because we had a pretty serious accident...one of our guys crossed tires with the person in front of him while going over a bridge and literally flipped bike-over-body over the rail. I am pleased to report that Andrew made a miraculous soft landing into some brush (though it was a 10-15 foot fall) and only suffered some scrapes. And he was such a trooper about the whole thing, got right back on his bike and rode the rest of the way to Greenville. We got champions on Bike & Build.
Hands down, the toughest day of the trip thus far has been the ride from Greenville to Wake Forest. It was 85 miles of the first real hills I've ever ridden. And it sucked. I also didn't eat enough and almost bonked (I got really fatigued and just felt like I couldn't do it). I took a break and had something to eat and made it the last 25 miles. It was a really hard day for everyone, but once we got to the church at Wake Forest everyone was so happy and proud that we made it. We just laid in the parking lot on the warm concrete and relaxed and it was amazing. Even on the toughest days, it feels so good to be here.
Now we're in Chapel Hill, NC for 2 days to build. The ride from Wake Forest to here was fun, it was nice and short and I am beginning to appreciate the rolling hills. I'm also kind of starting to understand how to shift in order to not be miserable going up the hills. We stopped in Durham and went to a diner for brunch. A regular there saw us and found out what we were doing and footed the bill for every rider (a group of about 16 of us). It's amazing how great people are. It warms my heart and even makes my quads stop hurting.
So that's where we are, I am really going try to give you guys an update every day we have internet from now on. So you keep up with me and I'll keep up with you!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The time has come, the walrus said...
Day 2. Orientation continued.
Well today was arguably much more interesting than yesterday. Because it is late and we have a 5:30am wake-up, and everyone is probably getting mad at me for being on my computer while they're trying to sleep, I will try to sum it up briefly.
We played more ice-breaker games this morning, and tried once again to paint the trailer. Then everyone go to strut their stuff in their spandex and we did some bike drills. I am pleased to report I am not the most inexperienced person on this trip. We had many spills by people who aren't used to clipping in and out of their pedals yet. We also went on a shake down ride this afternoon, led by some awesome local cyclists. This was cool until we were all riding single file and somebody slammed on their brakes and came to an abrupt stop and caused a multi-bike pile up...one of which was mine. Yes, that's right, on our first day of riding I got wrecked. I was put into the wall, I tell you. Got a few bumps and bruises but at least it's out of the way.
Me and a couple new friends did get to go enjoy some Mulligan's beers tonight before lights out though. Here's to tomorrow.
Wheel dip bright and early, then off to conquer America. Swanquarter here we come...
Well today was arguably much more interesting than yesterday. Because it is late and we have a 5:30am wake-up, and everyone is probably getting mad at me for being on my computer while they're trying to sleep, I will try to sum it up briefly.
We played more ice-breaker games this morning, and tried once again to paint the trailer. Then everyone go to strut their stuff in their spandex and we did some bike drills. I am pleased to report I am not the most inexperienced person on this trip. We had many spills by people who aren't used to clipping in and out of their pedals yet. We also went on a shake down ride this afternoon, led by some awesome local cyclists. This was cool until we were all riding single file and somebody slammed on their brakes and came to an abrupt stop and caused a multi-bike pile up...one of which was mine. Yes, that's right, on our first day of riding I got wrecked. I was put into the wall, I tell you. Got a few bumps and bruises but at least it's out of the way.
Me and a couple new friends did get to go enjoy some Mulligan's beers tonight before lights out though. Here's to tomorrow.
Wheel dip bright and early, then off to conquer America. Swanquarter here we come...
Friday, May 14, 2010
Time Zero
Day 1 is complete.
Orientation has been a whirlwind so far. When I arrived in Nags Head at about 3pm today the church was full of bikes, bike parts, luggage, and strangers. (P.S. it is totally weird to see a room full of 32 bikes that look just like yours.) Had to say one more goodbye to my awesome sister who drove me all the way out here (I'm so sick of goodbyes) and then came the awkward waiting-for-something-to-happen part. It's like the first day of elementary school when you keep rearranging your markers and colored pencils for no apparent reason because you want to look busy so nobody thinks you're a loser.
There is nothing more deliciously awkward than introducing yourself to someone you have stalked on Facebook for months...which pretty much every single one of us had done before we got here and met. One of my fellow riders told me her little sister went stalking through our trip roster and found me and told her "Brooke Organ looks nice." Haha, I guess that's a compliment? I'll take it.
After our dinner of pizza, baked beans, cole slaw, hush puppies, and a random assortment of fruit (Fradley, there's no way you survive this trip) we walked out to the dunes. If you have never been to the Outer Banks, and you think you've seen a sand dune...you have not. These monsters are ridiculous. It was dark when we went, but I'm going to try to get a picture tomorrow and post it.
We strongly considered walking to the bar across the street after we played on the dunes for a while, but everyone chickened out. Nobody wants to seem like a lush on the first day...we'll go tomorrow.
I did successfully attach my flying Carl Crawford to Captain Ron as a hood ornament. Pictures tomorrow. twitter.com/breezytb
So that's pretty much it, just trying to get acclimated and used to this new life I'll have for the next 69 days. I must say, the Therm-a-rest is not disappointing so far. I'm gonna crash on this little bad boy right now.
I miss you guys and I'm thinking about you :)
Brooke
Orientation has been a whirlwind so far. When I arrived in Nags Head at about 3pm today the church was full of bikes, bike parts, luggage, and strangers. (P.S. it is totally weird to see a room full of 32 bikes that look just like yours.) Had to say one more goodbye to my awesome sister who drove me all the way out here (I'm so sick of goodbyes) and then came the awkward waiting-for-something-to-happen part. It's like the first day of elementary school when you keep rearranging your markers and colored pencils for no apparent reason because you want to look busy so nobody thinks you're a loser.
There is nothing more deliciously awkward than introducing yourself to someone you have stalked on Facebook for months...which pretty much every single one of us had done before we got here and met. One of my fellow riders told me her little sister went stalking through our trip roster and found me and told her "Brooke Organ looks nice." Haha, I guess that's a compliment? I'll take it.
After our dinner of pizza, baked beans, cole slaw, hush puppies, and a random assortment of fruit (Fradley, there's no way you survive this trip) we walked out to the dunes. If you have never been to the Outer Banks, and you think you've seen a sand dune...you have not. These monsters are ridiculous. It was dark when we went, but I'm going to try to get a picture tomorrow and post it.
We strongly considered walking to the bar across the street after we played on the dunes for a while, but everyone chickened out. Nobody wants to seem like a lush on the first day...we'll go tomorrow.
I did successfully attach my flying Carl Crawford to Captain Ron as a hood ornament. Pictures tomorrow. twitter.com/breezytb
So that's pretty much it, just trying to get acclimated and used to this new life I'll have for the next 69 days. I must say, the Therm-a-rest is not disappointing so far. I'm gonna crash on this little bad boy right now.
I miss you guys and I'm thinking about you :)
Brooke
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)