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Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes is a competition put on each day by the two “sweep” riders, who ride at the end of the pack making sure that no Bike & Builder gets left behind. They design a challenge such as take the best photograph with a local, film a music video, or pull the best prank. Then at the end of the day, the sweep riders review the submissions and declare a winner.

I am sweep for the second time on our ride into Springfield, MO. This day has all the makings of a grueling, long, frustrating day. It is almost 100 miles long, the humidity is oppressive and the temperature over 90, and this is our third such riding day in a row meaning that riders might be struggling a little. My fellow sweeper is Kaitlin, and from the beginning of the day, we decide that we are not going to let anything make this day less than amazing. Although the day lasts for fourteen hours, we do just that. And other than feeling like our chamois are a made of a bed of needles as we neared hour 14, we are in very high spirits upon our arrival in Springfield.

To introduce our sweepstakes submissions for the day, Kaitlin and I produced the following video in all of our unplanned spots throughout the day.

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Week 4 – Bike & Build

7/9 – 7/10: Yellow Springs, OH
Mileage: 55
Host: Antioch College

My body gets rocked today starting at 2am and not in the same physical way that the bicycling and building had been doing previously. I must have eaten something that I shouldn’t have and as a result I am making panicked trips to the bathroom throughout the night and then returning to my sleeping bag pale and in a sweat. I repeat this a few too many times.

Understandably, I am in no condition to ride let alone be awake. I spend most of the day asleep in one of the vans many open rows. I wake up for a brief time during lunch where I consume several sips of Gatorade before returning to my slumber. We arrive in Antioch college, I force myself to eat some very bland food, and then after a quick Bike & Build presentation and a small scoop of ice cream, I proceed to sleep for close to twelve hours and wake up the next day considerably stronger.

Although still not 100% as my body is still thoroughly dehydrated and seemingly exhausted, I am able to participate in the build day. We move a shed, paint a house, and weather seal another. In addition, we get a tour of a passive house, which I learn is a house that is incredibly insulated and therefore requires very little energy. The walls are thick, the water heater cooperates with the dryer so that they can exchange energy in an efficient way, and all of the appliances use very little electricity. Interestingly, this kind of house is still not really economically feasible because in order to make it an economic investment, the house will need to be lived in for upwards of over fifty years, which is not always achievable.

For a quick GI update, I am not eating normal foods and replenishing my water supply; therefore, I’m excited that I should be able to ride the next day.

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7/11: Rushville, IN
Mileage: 101
Host: St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 426 N Morgan St

A lot happens today on the road, especially given that we are on the road for over 100 miles, but what I will remember most from this day is that one of the riders, Alex, gets into a very scary accident with another cyclist. She ends up hitting her helmeted head against the pavement and suffers a concussion. In addition, her acromioclavicular ligament is hurt, which if more serious could have prevented her from riding the rest of the trip (luckily, this is not the case). Frighteningly, Alex alsohas a posttraumatic seizure just after hitting the ground, and although I am not on the scene to witness it, just hearing the story third-hand is enough to send shivers throughout my body. Alex spends the night in the hospital with a couple other riders and seems to be handing everything as well as possible.

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7/12: Bloomington, IN
Mileage: 86
Host: Sherwood Oaks Christian Church

Today is a very long van day for me totaling about 370 miles—a longer distance than traveling from the San Francisco Bay Area down to my folks place near Los Angeles. The miles added up as follows: I drove to the lunch spot around mile 45 where I leave the trailer so that riders can help themselves to the coolers and prepare themselves lunch from our leftovers. I then back track and drive the 100 miles from the day prior because Alex was at a hospital near our host in Yellow Springs, OH. We all wait a little while at the Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia, OH because the orthopedic surgeon still needs to clear Alex to ride (even if after a couple weeks of rest). Together, we drive back to the lunch spot to reattach the trailer to the van and then complete the day’s route all the way to Bloomington, Indiana.

Upon arriving at the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church, I was very ready for a little food and a beer, and as luck would have it, a handful of riders are heading out to the Upland Brewery in town. The church is nice to give us a brief tour of the beautiful town before dropping us off at the brewery where I end my day with a delicious bowl of chili and a couple beers.

Although Alex will not be riding for at least a week, things seem a little more normal now. The whole group is back together after having been separated for a night—this rarely happens on this trip, and usually we end up even sleeping in the same room all together. I’m excited to get back on my bicycle tomorrow.

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7/13: Sumner, IL
Mileage: 95
Host: Sumner United Methodist Church

Today is a long day but a good day. I find a town named after my alma mater, and seeing how I bleed cardinal, I had no choice but to stop and take a couple selfies of me and the relevant signs. Later we find a pool around half way where we cool off and take a much needed break on this incredibly hot and humid day. It might have reached close to 100 degrees with no lack of humidity.

Also of note today is that we cross our first time zone as we leave Indiana and enter Illinois. State boundaries are always exciting, but couple them with a time change and it is almost too much excitement with which to contend. In short, our day was broken up with fun intermediate stops such as the pool and the state boundary, and this made the 95 miles seem much shorter.

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Bike & Build does laundry

Living on the road, although very far from real life, still comes with its challenges and its chores. The group is divided into five different rotating chore groups to tackle exactly these. There is an overnight crew to make sure we aren’t forgetting anything at our hosts. The cooler crew packs and unpacks the coolers each day in the host’s refrigerators and cleans the dishes from lunch. The dinner and presentation crew cleans up (and sometimes prepares) dinner as well as presents to the host about what Bike & Build is all about. The trailer and van crew packs the trailer each morning bright and early, and is also responsible for keeping our lovely van clean. And lastly, the breakfast and laundry crew puts out and cleans up breakfast as well as performs the laundry ritual, which is scheduled for every third day.

The way laundry crew performs their task is a window into how much of our trip across the country operates. First, there is a strict schedule in that it is every third day. Given that we are all allowed a 4500 cubic inch duffle bag or backpack, which must also fit our sleeping bags and air mattresses, packing lots of clothes is impossible and frequent laundry is necessary. In addition, riding with dirty spandex can not only smell really bad but can also lead to all sorts of spreadable and disgusting bacterial growth. Thus, laundry is always done on extra hot! We tell riders if they have delicate clothes, they should probably just go ahead and ship those home. There will be no special batches of laundry.

Our laundry ritual starts in the late afternoon after we shower, and the laundry crew sets our a giant tarp on the ground and sends out mass text messages to get our clothes out there as soon as possible. We all tie up our clothes using a laundry loop to keep the chaos to a manageable level, and then we throw our laundry “clumps” upon the heap of smelly clothes. The laundry tarp is then carefully wrapped burrito-style so that no clothes can leak out on its journey from host floor to van to laundromat. After washing the clothes on hot with lots of detergent, drying takes place. Nothing makes the whole team love laundry crew more than receiving perfectly dry and slightly warm laundry. That said, we unfortunately realize that this is more of a luxury than a right and are always anxious upon the return of our clothes.

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Clean clothes keep the Bike & Build machine running smoothly just as all of the tasks of the other chore groups, and now by halfway through the trip, living like this almost seems normal.

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Week 3 – Bike & Build

6/30: State College, PA
Mileage: 95
Host: St. Paul’s Church, 109 McAllister St

Today is another van day for me, and I will use it as a chance to get in a couple extra stretches and rest my legs. I am accompanied in the van most of the day by Emily, and together we enjoyed a great morning riding past the other riders while cheering them on, and then eventually finding a nice local coffee shop near lunch to talk while we waited for people to arrive.

That all said, van days are a lot of hurry up and wait, and the afternoon was not as relaxing as the morning was. Because of the longer distance, we have two lunches, so the van and trailer rush ahead to set up a second lunch closer to the end of the day’s journey.

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7/1: Johnstown, PA
Mileage: 80
Host: YWCA, 526 Somerset St

Today is probably the toughest ride to date, but it starts out wonderfully at a local delicious coffee shop.  It is easily the best latte that I’ve had so far on this trip and it’s from Saint’s Cafe in State College.  But after the easy start, the day has a little of everything—big rolling hills in the morning, mountains in the afternoon, a torrential downpour of water, an incredibly steep downhill into the city near the end, and a sizeable overall distance at around 80 miles. By the time we arrive at the host, we can barely pull ourselves together to shower and eat before collapsing on our Thermarests for the night.

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7/2 – 7/3: Pittsburgh, PA
Mileage: 80
Host: Smithfield United Church of Christ, 620 Smithfield St

My knee isn’t behaving itself today. It uses almost any excuse to flare up. A little bit of bumpy road, a steep incline, and a fast gear change are examples of things that my knee disagrees with today. Before I hurt myself, however, I get picked up 15 miles short of our destination because this journey across America is definitely a marathon not a sprint, and I need to make sure my knees will make the trip. Upon arriving, I get a chance to meet up with my old roommate Gabe who is driving across the country back to the west coast and we enjoy a meal together as I recount some of my stories from the road.

Our second day in Pittsburgh is our first day off. We cherish these days off for several reasons. We are allowed to sleep in. We get to do whatever it is we want to and explore the area. And we only get three of these days all summer, so their scarcity makes them quite special. On my day off in Pittsburgh, I start off by going to a delicious coffee shop called 21st Street Coffee, followed by a deep tissue, rather painful massage. I then find another coffee shop to write a little bit and catch up on some of my Bike & Build leader responsibilities before heading to the Andy Warhol Museum in the afternoon. The late afternoon is enjoyed at a converted church that is now a microbrewery. And finally, the end of the day takes us all to a top-ranked Pirates game where they are playing rival Phillies and we get to see the sunset over the city as the Pirates squeak away with a victory. The change of pace today was welcomed and I feel we are all refreshed to start anew tomorrow.

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7/4: Cadiz, OH
Mileage: 75
Host: Presbyterian Church of Cadiz, 154 Market St

We made it out of Pennsylvania! There were times that the hills of the great state of Pennsylvania become a little more than trying, but I feel that we all had an opportunity to bond over said hills through the process of climbing them.

Today was a nice day to leave the otherwise bustling city of Pittsburgh because it being the 4th of July meant that the streets were a little quieter. Pennsylvania got one more laugh at our expense with a couple very nice hills at the beginning of the day, and although I assumed that hitting the Ohio border meant that the terrain would become instantaneously flat, it seems that I have miscalculated a little. It is still fun bicycling over the rolling hills, smelling barbeques on many a porch, seeing wagon wheels on at least every other front yard, and just generally seeing the stars and stripes much more than I am accustomed.

My knee and I weren’t exactly on the same page today, but we both came to at least some compromise. And although the last stretch just before the church was a solid uphill, my July 4th ride can be described as mostly successful. For dinner, the church was very nice to provide us with pizzas. To our surprise, all 12 pizzas were of the pepperoni variety—welcome to Ohio.

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7/5: Coshocton, OH
Mileage: 63
Host: Coshocton Christian Tabernacle, 23891 Airport Rd

I’m driving the van today. The morning is very mellow and I find a lunch spot just next to the cemetery where the great Cy Young is buried. The afternoon is full of running errands such as going to Post Office, to Walmart, and to showers, but overall, it was a nice easy day. In the evening, although it was a day late, we continued our July 4th celebration while we played with sparklers outside in the church parking lot.

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7/6 – 7/8: Columbus, OH
Mileage: 74
Host: Jacob’s Porch, 45 East 13th Ave

In terms of terrain, today was one of our nicest to date. Unfortunately, my body did not make the day as relaxing as it could have been. My knees are feeling weak, and I stop frequently to stretch. Amanda is nice enough to stick with me throughout the day through my rest stops and all.

A couple notable things today are the delicious cupcakes we try around mile 60 that were once featured on the Food Network, and that near the end of our journey we pass the 1000 mile marker since we left Portland, Maine.

In Columbus, we spend 3 nights, which is really a treat because it means packing our bags at least a little bit less. We still need to tidy up at the beginning of the day, but there is no need to try to squeeze everything in our duffels each morning. We have two build days here on the same sites, which means that we get to know the builders and the staff at the sites where we are working and we really get a sense of the Columbus / Ohio State University area.

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College towns

We have been teased with many college towns along our journey.  I use the word teased because in many of them we arrive late in the afternoon, and then we need to hit the road the next morning before the day gets too warm.  We usually aim to start pedaling around 7am, and this time is only going to get earlier as we head south and west and the temperatures continue to rise.

That said, we did get to spend some time a block from Penn State, a short walk from Ohio State, and a mile or two from Indiana University.  The vibes permeating from these towns are great.  Lots of coffee shops, lots of local bike shops, and of course lots of restaurants and bars.  In State College, PA, I have a chance to check out the local watering hole, Phyrst, and then swing by a delightful coffee shop called Saint’s Café to start my ride in the morning.  In Columbus, there’s One Line Coffee, North High Brewing Company, and the much talked about Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.  Jeni’s gets a lot of hype, but after having been, I would recommend it highly!  And in Bloomington, even though we are only there for a hot minute, we stopped by the Upland Brewing Company for a quick taste.

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The other oddity of finding ourselves in college towns is that we see other clumps of people about our age walking around.  In almost every other town we stop in over this summer, when five or more twenty-somethings are walking on the street together dressed in gym clothes (or something close to gym clothes), it will almost always be fellow Bike & Builders, but in these college towns we seem to blend in a little more.

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Week 2 – Bike & Build

6/23: Northampton, MA
Mileage: 39 (stopped short due to a minor bicycle spill)
Host: Christ United Methodist Church, 271 Rocky Hill Rd

Today, I rode sweep with Abby. Riding sweep means being one of two riders who will remain at the end of the pack and make sure that everyone completes the journey that day. The irony of the situation today is that I end up getting into a bit of a spill just after lunch and am forced to sit out the second half of the day (I shared this experience in my last post). The day was beautiful up to that point, and it was actually still quite beautiful the second half even though I was in the van trying to make sure that the blood seeping through my bicycle shorts didn’t stain anything. Although I didn’t ride the second half of the day, the group was forced to detour because of some road work, and the detour caused everyone to climb one of the steepest hills imaginable. Some riders made that a Hike & Build moment, but again, it is going to be all of these blips that will make this trip so memorable.

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6/24 – 6;25: Pittsfield, MA
Mileage: 43
Host: First United Methodist Church, 55 Penn St

It’s my van day, and this is a blessing because it’s my first day post-spill, and my leg can use the rest. Van days rotate between the four leaders, and on our respective days, we will be responsible for locking up the host site, finding a perfect spot for lunch, running errands to ensure the trip continues to run as smoothly as possible, and of course, being available and responsive to the unpredictable.

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6/26: Poughkeepsie, NY
Mileage: 80
Host: Oakwood Friends School, 22 Spackenkill Road

It’s my first day back post injury, and I’m a bit apprehensive especially given that it’s an 80-plus mile day. That said, from the very beginning I plan to take the day slow and steady. The weather is relatively pleasant as it is a bit overcast, which is a great condition for riding. At lunch I close my eyes while sitting on a bench and enter directly into a deep sleep. This reminds me of my late grandpa who could and would sleep almost anywhere. From an outsiders perspective, it probably didn’t look particularly comfortable, but it did the trick to re-energize me for the second half of the day.

We knew we were getting closer to the mountains as the hills starting to pop up with more frequency and fervor. Rounding a bend and seeing more hill until the next bend is a bit of a mind game in that mental toughness is something more challenging to achieve than quadriceps toughness. With a couple breaks, some snacks, and the reciprocating encouragement between riders, we all make up these hills on our way to Poughkeepsie.

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6/27: Port Jervis, NY
Mileage: 60
Host: Drew United Methodist Church, 49-51 Sussex St

The highlight of the day comes at the end of a very warm and constant uphill grind near the end of the day when alas we see a sign intended for trucks that we are about to a approach a 4-mile significant downhill grade. Coasting into Port Jervis at the end of this day is a delight for all of us even if there were some serious hills getting to this point.

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6/28: Mount Pocono, PA
Mileage: 70
Host Mount Pocono United Methodist Church, 12 Church Ave

Anytime a town name has the name Mount as its first word, that is a descent sign that there will probably be some climbing to get there. And then along the way, we begin to notice street names like Mountain View Road, Summit Ave, and Skyline Blvd. To make things even more exciting today, when we are about 20 miles shy of our destination, we find a detour in the road due to a missing bridge. The detour, to our surprise and our demise, adds about 10 miles and is always at a nice pitch, either up or down.

Another highlight of the day is the food at our host. Delicious! Great dinner and even better dessert. The Mt. Pocono UMC even had this salted chocolate and caramel that makes my mouth watering just thinking about it. Overall, this was my most challenging day yet, and it was really satisfying to have completed it in any fashion.

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6/29: Berwick, PA
Mileage: 60
Host: First Presbyterian Church, 320 Market St.

One scary part of today was near the beginning of the day at then end of a nice, long gradual downhill, I pull into a situation with a huddle of Bike & Builders surrounding a scene with another car and a police car just outside the scene. I pull in and find that one of our riders has been hit by a car that was pulling into a parking lot. Fortunately, the rider is okay other than a little road rash, and the car was not moving too fast because of the situation. That said, this also bring the risks of what we are doing into focus and all of the other riders take a little while to regroup across the street as some of us enjoy our first Wawa’s experience.

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A little tumble

After leaving Fitchburg, MA in the morning, lunch today is atop a small mountain.  Some of us turned Bike & Build into Hike & Build to make it to the summit of one of the inclines.  That said, once we arrived, the lunch spot was beautifully nestled into the side of a lake and shaded by trees a plenty.  Today I am riding sweep with Abby, which means that it is our responsibility to stay at the end of the pack and make sure everyone does okay.  This is also an excuse to go slow, smell the roses, and take lots of pictures along the way.  Near the end of lunch, I am working on a fellow rider’s bicycle trying to increase the tension on her front derailleur.  Unfortunately, the fine-tuning adjuster is maxed out and the only way to make a greater adjustment is to play with the spot where the cable is secured to the derailleur.  This is one of those situations where I know what I need to do and how it’s supposed to work, but making it all happen as I imagine is never as easy as it seems.  In the end it takes three of us to make her shifter functional again, but after some success we are ready to continue on our journey.

At lunch, we also learn of a section of road that bicyclists are not allowed to ride on due to construction or some other crazy excuse.  Regardless, we are forced to detour.  Continuing onward from this lunch spot we make our way through a beautifully wooded even if pothole-filled road.  The road also starts to pitch downwards more and more as we continue, and a steep grade plus potholes can make for a slightly trickier ride.

I pick up speed as we continue down this road, and as we round the last corner, the main road on which we’ll be turning comes into view, and for the sake of this story, I’m going to stay that this happens rather suddenly.  I feel that I can safely make the turn at the bottom without going too far into the road, so I slow down slightly and prepare to lean into the turn.  I’m also pleased that my current momentum might help me up this next uphill stretch.  My miscalculation comes at the bottom of this hill just before the turn.  There is a healthy patch of sand and gravel, and as I am already aware of, road bicycle tires and loose gravel don’t get along very well.  As I am turning at regrettably too fast a clip, my tires slide out from under me and I am soon sliding through this patch of road.  Being clipped into my pedals, I remain fully attached to my bicycle.  I also unintentionally continue holding onto my handlebars as my slide across the sand, gravel and pavement finally slows.

The slide seems to last a while, but in reality, I recognize that it was probably no more than a couple seconds, if that much.  I come to a stop, and I don’t move for a a little while as I try to assess the damage.  The adrenaline pumping through me makes me feel superman-esque, but as my heart rate returns to a normal rhythm and I unclip from my bicycle and stand up, I begin to acknowledge what hurts.  The road rash on my arm is obvious, full of sand, and quite tender to the touch.  I take a look at my leg because it is sending my brain all sorts of pain signals, but I don’t notice anything.  My lower leg because it was bent slightly inwards as my foot was attached to the pedal is relatively unscathed.  I then notice that under my very stylish Bike & Build cycling bib, a little red is permeating through where there hadn’t been red before.

By this point, two fellow cyclists, Abby and Alex have caught up to me and are quite concerned.  That might be because my adrenaline still has my legs shaking a little bit, but also because anytime a fellow rider sees another rider go down, the reality of the risks of cycling come into stronger focus.  With them as an audience, I pull up my spandex a bit to expose the nickel-sized divot that has been carved out of my leg.  Similar to a golfing divot, I attempt to replace the patch of skin that was ripped off and place it back over the uneven turf that is my lateral upper thigh.

Although there is some consequences involved with this type of accident including the rather intense shooting pains felt when cleaning out the wound with soap, water, hydrogen peroxide, and alcohol swabs, in the grand scheme of things, I was fine, my bicycle was relatively fine (the derailleur needs to be bent back into shape), and other than a good story and a small scar, the trip will continue.  As one of my riders really likes to say, “It’s all just part of the adventure.”

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Today’s goal is to ride

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There is something incredibly liberating about a day’s goal being to get from point A to point B aboard a bicycle.  All of a sudden riding for 80 miles or more, although still daunting, no longer seems impossible.  A slow and steady pace with healthy breaks will still make this goal accomplishable.  Given that, we stop along the way for snacks, for mini-golf, for carnival rides, for lots of pictures, and for really any other excuse that we might be able to find to explore a new area.

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Sit Bones

Over the first couple days, I have become very aware of my sit bones.  This is probably because each time my butt finds my bicycle saddle, I am immediately reminded of said bones.  Also known as the tuberosity of the ischium, these bones are covered by the gluteus maximum (butt muscles) in the upright position, but exposed when in the seated position, and believe me, if they are tested such as on a relatively firm bicycle seat, they begin to feel a bit sore.  Clearly, this isn’t the only part of my body that has been feeling sore, and in fact there are few parts that don’t, but the sit bones seem to feel a little sorer than the rest.

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