Hello Adirondacks

- We never stop climbing...it's annoying and very hard.
- Last night we stayed at a YMCA camp on Lake George and got to sleep in beds and eat a hot breakfast.
- Camping tonight in tents and grilling for dinner.
- So many miles ahead of us...daunting.
- Legs and butt are so sore.
- Tan lines are coming in.

Bethel Mountain

Today was the longest and toughest climb of the summer. We ended at nearly 2109 feet!! It was so hard, I had to walk several times. At the top we were met by Aunt Lynne who had lemonade, watermelon, and delicious hot tea. It was heavenly and awesome to see Lynne again. We were all super appreciative.

In town, we bathed in the feezing cold river before going to a local book/coffee shop to hang out.

Tonight will bring more adventures or just sleep time. We'll see.

Build Day

Filled a hole with dirt today in the rain. Enough said.

Mammoth tusks and rocks

The morning started great. An old man at the church had a surprise for us in the dining hall. He brought a piece of a mammoth tusk found in Alaska. It was nearly 25 pounds!! He also collects rocks and let us each pick one out. I'm going to make a necklace out of it.

The rest of the day was wet and soggy with lots of rain. We pushed through the hills and arrived at our host early.

I was super excited because my Aunt Lynne came to see me and took me out to dinner. And gave me a list if the best swimming hole in our next route!!

Kaboom Team

Hills, hills, and more hills. But all is well...I'm part of the kaboom team. We took our sweet time today and it was great. Along the way we stopped at a buffalo farm, ate buffalo jerky, swam in a stream/river, and beasted the 1000 ft climb in the last 11 miles!!!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days. Prett self explanatory.

60 down, a whole lot to go

Words of the day: exciting, miserable, painful, beautiful, fun

We climbed and climbed today. And then we went zooming downhill only to climb some more. The morning was great, especially the wheel dip in the Atlantic, but my thoughts are with the rough afternoon. I walked up hills three times because my muscles were screaming. The long downhill almost made it worth it. Tomorrow is a 30 mile day but there will be many many mre hills. I finished close to the beginning of the group which was confidence boosting though my reaction to the ride was sort of different from others. I look forward to food, sleep, and relaxing until we mount our bikes once more in the morning.

Pictures

1) Party at the ReStore
2) Photo booth at the party
3) Mixing paint with my small team on build day. We left the main build to paint a condo.
4) Painting!!!

Orientation

Everybody arrived on Wednesday for orientation and we've been getting to know each other. There have been lots of presentations about safety, health and hygiene, and a day in the life of a bike and builder.

Today we went through drills in the parking lot to go over quick stops, sharp turns, peripheral vision, and hand signals. Afterwards we took an easy 10-mile shakedown ride to get used to biking together. We were then driven to a YMCA to shower, which felt great. We've all been drenched in sweat because of the 90 degree weather and lack of a/c in the church.

After a lovely flat bread pizza lunch we split up in our chore groups the most unusual of ways. We all lined up and closed our eyes and then a leader whispered an animal in our ears. Then with our eyes closed we had to find each other by making the sound of the animal.

We proceeded to move with our groups to different stations to learn about bike maintenance, donation magic, and our chore assignments for each day.

Tonight we were treated with a pizza party at the Habitat Restore where there was tons of dancing and tons of fun. We even got to go next door to play a round of laser tag!! The Habitat people were so friendly and nice to us and danced with us too. It was a blast.

Tomorrow we have an early wake up call of 6:45 to get ready for our day of building.

Arrival in Maine

I arrived in Maine last night after a 15 hour drive, to stay with another rider, Caity, who was also hosting Stella, Bri, Deborah, Charlie, Kevin, and Francis. Today we had a great breakfast at a local restaurant. It's been wonderful getting to know this group before we meet the rest of the riders.

The highlight of the day thus far has been swimming in the Atlantic ocean! It's been maybe 10 years since I've been in the Atlantic and it was awesome. We floated and jumped in the waves for 45 minutes. It was so refreshing and relexing.

We're now getting ready to drive to Portsmouth, NH for orientation. On the way we're going to grab some sea food for lunch at a little stand. Can't wait!!

"All my bag are packed, I'm ready to go"

Everything is ready and I depart early early early tomorrow morning for a 14-15 hour drive to New Hampshire. Our group is meeting up on Wednesday to begin orientation! We'll be dipping our tires in the Atlantic on Saturday morning...can't wait.

My bag and camelbak with the group items I'm bringing: ukulele, slack line, and foam roller. (And Marlow, who I wish I could bring!)

It's tight but everything fits...the compression sacks really saved me!

Window Installation

On Saturday morning I returned to the same Habitat for Humanity build site that I worked on a couple of weeks ago to complete my sweat equity. It was nice to work under the same supervisor, as he already knew our skills and abilities. Plus, I got to know him a little more. We worked hard to four hours installing windows into the house. I was super excited because I'd never installed windows and it was fun to learn. There are many detailed steps, but it's actually simple and quite an enjoyable task. Habitat's standards for windows are far above normal starter homes; they install trays at the bottom of each window to catch and divert leaks and tape every side of the window twice.

Here I am getting ready to tape the edge of this window with the father, Jay, of the family whose house we're building.

My team for the day!

I really enjoy building alongside the family members who are receiving this home. I got to know Jay and found out that he is from Senegal and attended a French school because of French colonization. We were also building with another couple who was doing sweat equity for there Habitat home that was going to start construction in early July. They were both from Somalia and spoke hardly any english, although they've been here for eight years. Columbus has such great ethnic diversity...in that one day of building the U.S., Senegal, Somalia, and Eritrea were represented. 

The Suburban Wilderness

Today as I was biking around the loop in the nature preserve near my house, I encountered some incredible and surprising wild life. There is yet to be a day when I ride through there that I don't see a rabbit or deer...or tons of cardinals and red-winged blackbirds. This afternoon was a different experience though. At the beginning of the loop I came around a corner and there was a HUGE bird crossing the path, it took me by surprise (I was worried I might hit it). I later realized it was a wild turkey, though it looked quite different from the ones we have in Southern Ohio. I didn't notice if it had a gobble or not.

The best part of the ride was when I came to the top of a climb and thought I saw a dead animal on the side of the bike path. It turned out to be an owl sitting on the ground with its wings spread completely out. I was amazed; the wingspan was huge! It watched me as I passed and turned it's head all the way around...it was unbelievable to be that close to an owl. After talking to my dad about it, we decided it was a barred owl (pictured below). Our guess is that is was probably guarding food on the ground, though it was strange to see a nocturnal animal is broad daylight.

In other news, I learned how to change my tires on the bike. Now I have great durable tires to biking thousands of miles. I also figured out how my new bike pump works and how to clean my gears and chain. At the end of the work session I was thoroughly covered in grime...just how it should be.

I've got three more days until I depart for New Hampshire and things are a little hectic. I have spent the past week moving out of my house, back to my parent's house where my stuff will live this summer. On top of that I've been packing for the trip, biking more, and doing my sweat equity with Habitat. I look forward to the simplicity of my routine this summer.

66 miler

As part of our training for this summer, we must ride one 65 mile route to practice long distances. Though I have always loved biking, 30 miles was usually more normal and realistic. That being said this long 66 mile ride was a great experience. I had some frustration with my seat and numbness because of poor posture but I pushed through it. I have since adjusted my seat to ensure good posture and a pain-free ride. The long mileage is still daunting to me, but it is my no means a race. Frequent stops, lots of water and snacks, and great company will get me through each day. I actually sort of find it amazing how your body can keeping pushing itself when it gets tired. I'll be counting on that.

I want to keep everyone updated this summer and I move across the country and so I'm bringing my iPod to blog on. If it's not blaringly obvious by this short post, I am testing out the iPod now. It works great but takes patience. And...don't worry about pics, I will be downloading them from dropbox so you can share in the scenery of this beautiful country!

Sweat Equity

As part of my preparation for Bike and Build, I must complete 10 hours of sweat equity work with a local affordable housing group. I have worked with Habitat for Humanity a lot in the past, from traveling to El Salvador with a team to participating in builds through AmeriCorps. However, I haven't built recently, so yesterday I joined a build in Columbus. Dave, our supervisor, was tons of fun and we had a great day. I worked on preparing the front of the house to put up the trusses for the porch roof. 

It was very important that the 2X4 supports we were putting up where exactly level. After doing it incorrectly the first time, Dave showed us a great way to ensure they were level. The problem was that the boards were very warped. I marked a straight line across the wall and then as we nailed it in, we pulled down the board on the other side to hold it in line.

This is Jay, the father of the family who is receiving this house. He has two young boys and three older girls (maybe 9, 12, and 14 years old). Jay told us that he loves the process of construction. I think Habitat is so wonderful, because the families are a part of the building process.

The whole team!

For my final couple of hours, I want to continue building on the same site.