Libby's cycling adventure across the country with...

Day 50 – Harrisville, WV to Elkins, WV (98 miles)

2010-05-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Today was a tough day. Very tough, actually. I think it was perhaps the most climbing we have done on this trip (or at least the most climbing we have done in a very long time). We didn’t just climb up hills today. We climbed up mountains. My body is very, very tired. The hills/mountains started two miles outside of town and really didn’t stop until we arrived in Elkins. Fun.

We had our lunch stop in Weston, WV. It was an interesting town. During our lunch stop, we walked to see the local asylum.

It was enormous. Apparently it was built during the civil war and just closed down in 1994. It was actually a little creepy…
After lunch, we headed back out in an attempt to conquer the Appalachian Mountains. As we were traveling up yet another one of the CRAZY mountains that West Virginia decided to throw in our faces, we passed a woman working construction on the side of the road (she was manning one of those “slow/stop” signs before construction started). When we arrived at her post, we were incredibly tired, as we had probably already been climbing for about 4-5 miles and we were 70 miles in to our daily ride. Here is a quick recap of my conversation with her (as I was very slowly crawling by on my bike):
Me: “Hi.”
Construction woman: “Hi.”
Me: “Any idea when we’ll see a downhill?”
Construction woman: “Um…” (pause) “You’re in West Virginia.”
Awesome lady. Thanks for the encouragement. You just squashed what little motivation and positive thoughts I had left…

After more climbing and more mountains and even more climbing, we arrived in Elkins. Only six miles longer than we were originally told. I am very tired. And very sore. But I am incredibly proud of what we did today. We successfully conquered the Appalachians (or at least part of them). We’ll head out to beat them again tomorrow, too. And we will not be defeated.

End of the fiftieth day. And it was mountainous.

Day 49 – Athens, OH to Harrisville, WV (87 miles)

2010-05-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

This morning started off with an amazing breakfast. There is no better way to start out the morning that with a delicious breakfast. While some of the other riders decided they wanted to forego breakfast and head out right away (I guess to get to our site earlier; but to do what, I have no idea…), eight of us wanted to experience this little cantina that had been highly recommended to us. And we definitely did not regret our decision. It was a Mexican-style breakfast. I had the most amazing huevos rancheros I have ever had. I was completely stuffed afterwards. I tried to take a little nap on the bench before heading out to start our ride. While I was afraid that the excess breakfast food might upset my stomach during the ride, it was just the thing I needed to power me through some of the hills that we were going to have to face.

While the route was relatively scenic, we did run in to some hills along the way. I guess that is to be expected, since we are entering Appalachian country. We also probably spent at least half of the first half of the day (the time before lunch) on gravel/dirt roads. Apparently there is no direct route from Athens, OH to the Ohio-West Virginia border except the highway and unpaved roads. Awesome. But it really was a neat experience. We just had to be super vigilant so as not to fall over in a rut or let our wheels spin out under loose gravel.

We passed in to West Virginia today (and, again, crossed the Ohio River). One more state down, two more to go. I was very distraught that I did not find the Ohio state sign, however. (If you remember, we did not find the Ohio sign on the way in to the state.) I guess the Ohio state sign was directly on the opposite side of the West Virginia sign. Who would have thought? Obviously not me. But Jeff managed to snap a shot of it, so I’m going to steal it from him and pretending that I took it. Don’t tell anyone, ok?

Soon after the lunch stop, we passed through a cute little town called Cairo (pronounced like Karo syrup – we asked a local). This was the start of a rails-to-trails bike path that we were going to take part of the way to Elkins. We were very deceived by the trail, though. We were under the impression that the bike trail would be paved. We were wrong. Very wrong. The trail turned out to be gravel and dirt. It actually reminded me of some of the roads we were on at the beginning of the ride. Who knew our road bikes would get so much off-roading experience?!?

After another massive hill, we made it to our site for the night. There’s no better way to finish off a tough ride than climbing a 21% grade hill, right? We are staying at the 4H camp right outside of Elkins. It’s very nice. And a local pizza shop donated dinner for us, which was amazing. I think all of us will sleep well tonight.

End of the forty-ninth day. And it was off-road.

Day 48 – Columbus, OH to Athens, OH (91 miles)

2010-05-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

This morning we left Columbus and headed out to complete the final stretch of our journey. Atlantic Ocean, here we come!

We had a gorgeous, hilly, rainy ride today. As we were riding along, I was reflecting upon some of the things I was learning that day. Lessons from the road:

1. Southwestern Ohio is quite different from “Ohio-as-I-know-it.” While I am used to the corn fields, soybean fields, wheat fields, flat land, and generally boring overall appearance of Northwest and Central Ohio, Southwestern Ohio is the complete opposite. It was gorgeous. The fields seem more lush and greener. The scenery is much more pleasant on the eyes. And the topography is like a completely different place – lots and lots of hills. Some hills were pretty brutal. But the good thing about a hill is that (usually) for every ascent, there is a descent waiting on the other side (although it opposite is also true, unfortunately…).

2. When your chain falls off while going up a hill, the most logical thing to do is pedal like crazy. Unfortunately, this happened to me today. We were going up one of the brutal Southwestern Ohio hills, and I wanted to switch in to my lowest gear. (This gear is lovingly known as the “Granny gear.” This is the gear that provides the lowest resistance and is, thus, easiest for getting your butt up massive hills.) While trying to shift in to my Granny gear, my chain decided to rebel. Instead of moving in to this gear, it instead jumped off of my front cog. Awesome. So now, whenever I pedaled, my legs were not moving my wheels. Nothing was moving my wheels (because the chain was no longer connected to the wheel). While I was aware of this fact, my gut instinct was to attempt to move my feet even faster (even though this did absolutely nothing to propel me forwards). This, obviously, did not work. Because this is not how you get your chain back on the cog. Fortunately for me, the hill was not so steep that I didn’t have any forward momentum. I was able to clip out at the last minute to avoid falling over sideways on my bike. Crises averted.

3. Rain while running is fun. Rain while riding is annoying. Rain while riding downhill at 40+mph feels like bullets. We experienced intermittent rain throughout most of the afternoon. It was pretty annoying. At times, the rain came down pretty fast. While this may not seem so bad, while traveling down some of the massive Southwestern Ohio hills, you can get going pretty quickly. Thus, the rain drops no longer feel like rain drops; they feel like bullets pelting you from every direction. Not a very pleasant experience.

4. If it is raining, put on your rain jacket; then the rain will stop. But make sure that you leave your rain jacket on, because the instant you take it off, it will start raining again. This was perhaps the most annoying part of the day. The rain would start. We would ride on for a while, hoping that it was just a short shower. However, at some point, we would realize the rain was going to continue for a while and we would stop to put on our rain jackets. Then we would take off again. Literally within the next couple of minutes, the rain would inevitably stop. We would start burning up from wearing our jackets (they are pretty much like wearing a plastic bag), but would leave them on for a bit with the expectation that the rain would start again. But it wouldn’t. So we would stop and take our jackets off and then start on our way again. Literally within the next couple of minutes, the rain would inevitably start again. Then the above process would repeat itself. So we found ourselves with a dilemma: leave the jacket on, swelter in the heat, and avoid rain, or leave the jacket off and get drenched by the rain. Tough decision…

5. Take daily mileages with a grain of salt. I learned this lesson a long time ago, near the beginning of the trip. But I am reminded of it on an almost daily basis. Even when we are expecting a 80 mile day, we have to consider this mileage to be plus/minus 10-15 miles. This seems to take in to account all of the potential problems/changes that can occur along the route. And it helps keep us relatively calm when we are already at 90 miles when we are told that it is only going to be at 83 mile day.

6. Always remember what your specific road markings look like. Today our support team informed us that they would be using white and orange paint to mark our route. Good think I listened. Around 80 miles in, or so, we ran across three arrows labeled with an “R” marked in yellow paint on the road. All of the rest of our markings had been with white and orange paint and labeled with an “R4,” so I was pretty convinced that we were not supposed to follow those other arrows. Other, however, were not as convinced. And because of this, they ended up riding 5-10 extra miles. That’s an unfortunate mistake.

End of the forty-eighth day. And it was educational.

Day 47 – Columbus, OH (0 miles – Columbus Global Health Day)

2010-05-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 17, 2010

Today was a crazy day. We didn’t really get much rest from about 7am to 8pm. Columbus Global Health Day is one of the biggest days of the entire ride. We put a lot of effort in to it every year.

This morning was the kick-off of “Bike to Work Week” in Columbus. A huge group of people met near campus area and biked down to the State House. There were supposed to be 70+ CEO’s of Columbus businesses at the event, so we thought it would be a good idea to show up and try to do some schmoozing. The major showed up and talked for a little while. Then we all biked down to the State House. It was pretty cool to see so many people biking. We closed down High Street. And, perhaps more exciting, I got lots of free stuff. I like free stuff.
We stopped by Meiling to help set-up briefly before our official “ride-in” to OSU campus this morning. It was fun. We all hung out in the parking garage beforehand to hide ourselves from the crowd gathering outside of Meiling Hall (and to hide from the drizzling rain outside). At the designated time, we all rode in to our event, amidst lots of cheering and clapping. We felt pretty special. We had a few brief speeches (it was starting to rain harder) and then went inside for an informational fair and small group discussion with some local high school students.

The students from METRO High School came over to give us presentations on the Millennium Development Goals from 4:00-5:00. They were amazing. They used incredibly creative ways (most used videos) to explain the goals. Exceptionally impressive. Our key-note speakers were scheduled from 5:00-7:00pm. We had representatives from both of our beneficiaries – HEAL Africa and World Bicycle Relief. We were incredibly excited to have them there and they gave great talks. I have to admit, however, that I was very embarrassed by the lack of support from OSUCOM faculty, staff, and students. We had some amazing support, but not much. We advertised for the event a lot (perhaps excessively), but it didn’t seem to affect many people. Besides the R4WH team, there were only perhaps 5-10 in attendance for our keynote speakers. It really was a shame. This was definitely our worst attended event – and it was at our home institution. Pathetic.

End of the forty-seventh day. And it was tiring.

Day 46 – Columbus, OH (0 miles – rest day)

2010-05-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ride for World Health had our third annual Solidarity Ride this morning. We had an absolutely amazing turn-out. Nearly 140 people came out to support our cause – the most support we have had at a Solidarity Ride thus far. And, although the weather looked incredibly ominous in the morning, Mother Nature actually decided to be nice to us today and keep the storms up north.

One of the people to come out and support us this morning was my mom. We rode the 20 mile route together. It was so much fun. It reminded me of when we were little and we would go biking together around Findlay. She did an amazing job and we had a great time together. Although the route wasn’t that well marked, I helped organize the Solidarity Ride for the past two years, so I had a pretty good idea of where we were supposed to be going. The “20-mile route” actually only ended up being about 14 miles (not sure what happened there…), but it was enough for us.

Mommo had never worn a bike helmet before. But one of the rules of the Solidarity Ride was that everyone must wear a helmet. Lucky for her, I had an extra one sitting around the house. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was supposed to wear it. Here is a run-down of one of our conversations:
Mommo: “This helmet doesn’t fit very well.”
Me: “That’s because you have it on backwards.”
Mommo: “Oh.”
She switches the helmet to the correct orientation.
Mommo: “That feels better.”
Haha. I love her.

Today was Maggie’s birthday! How exciting! We went out to her favorite restaurant, Rubino’s, for dinner. Her parents treated us to an amazing pizza dinner. Yum. Gordon Gee even stopped by to say hi. Maggie is so popular…

We had an evening bowling party to celebrate Maggie and Pete’s birthday (Pete’s birthday is tomorrow). It was lots of fun. The theme of the party was “Sunglasses and hats.” I proudly wore my new, AMAZING sunglasses and yellow cowboy hat. I wasn’t that great at bowling, but at least I didn’t get last. We had lots of fun.
End of the forty-sixth day. And it was glorious. (As part of Maggie’s birthday present, I let her pick out today’s word of the day. “Glorious” was the first word she said. It is also one of her favorite words. I thought it was very appropriate.)

Day 45 – Columbus, OH (0 miles – rest day)

2010-05-19T17:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Today was a free day from the ride. While I love all of the riders and the experience has been amazing, I was incredibly grateful for the break. The real break. Whereas on our other “rest days,” we were off our bikes but still around the team the entire time, today was a complete rest day for me – from my bike and from the team.

Mike and I went back to Findlay to see my parents and go to Lindsay’s wedding. Lindsay is one of my best friends from high school. We had an amazing time at the wedding and the reception. And Lindsay looked absolutely gorgeous, like I knew she would.
End of the forty-fifth day. And it was marry.

Day 44 – Cincinnati, OH to Columbus, OH (103 miles)

2010-05-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 14, 2010

We rode home today. It felt amazing. I have never been more excited to go home.

We started off the day on a “rails-to-trails” bike path for the first 60 some miles or so. Although it eventually became a little monotonous, it really was quite gorgeous. We were surrounded by trees, which kept the temperature a little cooler than we had imagined. And, to make things even better, I had an awesome new riding partner for the day. While quite a few of the other riders were in a hurry to get back to Columbus, I had no need to rush. The person I was most excited to see was already there! Mike and I had lots of fun on our way up north.

The bike trail took us through a small town called Corbin, Ohio. We were lucky enough to have a water break in Corbin. It was amazing. There were so many things to see during our 10 minute water break. So funny. We met an amazing man, who was lovingly referred to as Elvis by the citizens of Corbin. It soon became quite evident how he earned this nickname. Not only did he have an amazing mustache and sunglasses, but he also loved Elvis' songs. Just prior to departing to continue down the trail, he serenaded us to an Elvis tune. Amazing. We also were highly entertained watching a foot-long dog being walked on a 12-foot leash. In the minute we were watching the dog, he tripped over his leash at least three times. Only in Corbin…

After riding over 2700 miles in the past 6 weeks, I was incredibly excited to arrive in to Columbus. It was great to know where I was going and not have to rely solely on the white spray paint on the road. We rode in to town and immediately celebrated at one of my favorite places in town – Jeni’s! There’s nothing better than finishing up a century ride with incredibly delicious ice cream. Yummy.

Mike and I rode back to the condo after ice cream and then went to pick up Mason (he was staying with a friend while Mike was gone in Cincinnati). It was a very happy reunion, filled with lots of scratches and even more kisses. Great day.

End of the forty-fourth day. And I was home.

P.S. Today I was on the front page of my hometown newspaper, the Courier. Check it out - (http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2010/May/14/ar_news_051410_story1.asp?d=051410_story1,2010,May,14&c=n) I’m famous!

Day 43 – Aurora, IN to Cincinnati, OH (32 miles)

2010-05-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 13, 2010

We finally arrived in Ohio today! After traveling nearly 2600 miles across the country, we are back in “The Heart of in All.” Our entry in to Ohio, however, was very anticlimactic. We never found a state sign or any acknowledgement of even entering a new state. Sad. Don’t worry. We will make every effort to find the state sign on our way out of the state.

I was on support again today, so I didn’t get to ride. (I was actually supposed to be on support tomorrow, but Mike is riding with us tomorrow, so I switched on to Team Clover for the day.) Instead, I was frantically marking turns. During the 32 miles of riding, we had to mark 28 different turns. Crazy. But we somehow managed to stay ahead of the riders. Pretty sure we finished marking the route approximately 15 minutes before the first riders arrived at our destination. But at least we made it.

We had our Global Health Day at University of Cincinnati this afternoon. We had a great turnout and the lectures went very well. After the lectures, we had to load all of the bikes on to the vans and take them out of the city to store at a past rider’s house. Katie, Heidi, Sarah, and I loaded and unloaded approximately 18 bikes off the top of the vans. It was a super fun way to spend the afternoon…

We had journal club at Christ Hospital with the Family Medicine residents. We then all dispersed for the night to stay with different hosts. It was a bit crazy, but things ended up working out in the end. We went to a social event at a local bar before headed to our hosts’ houses for the evening. While there, Mike finally came! It was SUPER exciting! He’s riding up to Columbus with us tomorrow. It was great to see him. We hadn’t seen each other in 6 weeks!

We chatted with our hosts for a little while, then headed to bed (in a REAL bed – first time since El Paso, TX!!!). We need our rest for our century ride tomorrow…

End of the forty-third day. And it was a happy reunion!

For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures today. Sorry…

Day 42 – New Albany, IN to Aurora, IN (65 miles)

2010-05-19T16:12:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Today was supposed to be a 95 mile day. Mother Nature, however, had other plans in mind…

Mile 0: We are at Lenore’s dream house (she wants to buy it but doesn’t want to live in Louisville – it’s a dilemma). The skies look incredibly ominous.

Mile 0.1: The rain starts. Most of us stop to put on our rain jackets. Then we continue on our way.

Mile 3.2: Pretty sure this is about the point where we saw our first strike of lightening. At this point, however, the rain was coming down so hard that we couldn’t see well enough to read our bike computers.

Mile 4.98: We desperately seek shelter under an overpass. The rain is completely pouring down and lightening is striking a few times every minute. Pretty scary. In our attempt to pass the time while we were waiting for the storm to pass, we took some pictures. They were interpretive “thunderstorm” pictures. Very funny.
After waiting for about 20 minutes, we got back on the road again. It was pretty wet and continued to drizzle for a while, until…

Miles 14-18: Crazy lightening flashes freak us out as we race down a country road with absolutely NOTHING else in sight.

Mile 19.72: Crazier lightening flashes strongly encourage us to pull over (again) to wait out the oncoming storm. We just happened to be near a BP station, so we took up residence there. It’s actually the perfect place to wait out a storm. They had warm drinks, tasty snacks, and even a television where we could watch the radar.
The rain continued to completely POUR and lightening was literally flashing all around us. The vans came to save us. We decided to rack the bikes and try driving ahead for a while and then reassessing the weather. We had to wait for the storm to die down a bit, though. It’s a bad idea to try to load bikes on to the top of vans in the middle of a lightening storm. Metal racks + tall heights + metal on the bottom of our shoes + terrifying lightening = bad combination.
We drove up about 30 miles, took naps in the van (while Tim was creeping us out from outside…), and had lunch.
Mile 19.72 (of cycling, but with 30 more miles of driving): We waited out another storm from and then headed out to finish the ride. It turned out to be a completely gorgeous ride – rolling hills, lots of trees, riding right by babbling brooks. Awesome.

Mile 65.14: Arrival at our final destination for the day – The Aurora First Baptist Church. Because of the bad weather, we all had a bike washing party. We were then fed an incredibly delicious lasagna dinner. Yum. Literally, the best veggie lasagna I have ever had (it was actually vegan). Amazing.

End of the forty-second day. And it was stormy.

Apologies

2010-05-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to write a quick note to apologize for not updating my blog sooner. It seems like I have been out of civilization for a while. But thanks for being patient and I promise to try to update more frequently in the future. Thanks for all of your support!

Hugs,

Libby

Day 41 – Leitchfield, KY to New Albany, IN (87 miles)

2010-05-11T14:17:00.003-07:00

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Today was one of my favorite rides. It at least falls in to the top three. It was awesome.

Unfortunately, I did not have my camera for the majority of it (I ended up borrowing a camera from Jody – she was on support for the day), so I wasn’t able to catch many of the scenes. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say that it was amazing.

The scenery was gorgeous – lots of rolling hills (and some incredibly brutal ones), fields of wildflowers, and woods all around. For the most part, the roads were pretty devoid of cars, allowing us to enjoy the scenery without interruption. We crossed the Ohio River and in to Indiana around mile 50. It was very exciting. One more state down. And we passed in to the Eastern Time Zone. It seems like we are moving so quickly! It’s really hard to grasp the fact that, not too long ago, we were back in California…

We are staying the night at an amazing house – it is a HUGE change from our lodging last night. One of Chris’ friends from college lives in New Albany and his family was kind enough to invite all of us to stay for the evening. They fed us a delicious meal, complete with a cake with a map of the US and our route on it. So sweet! Their house is absolutely incredible, as well. They live very close to the city, but their house is set back from the neighborhood. They have a huge wooded area around their house, complete with a pond and a horse run. It’s gorgeous. They also have an incredibly adorable Newfoundland. I was pretty excited about that, too.

Some of the other riders went out in to Louisville tonight. I decided to stay back and try to get caught up on my life (as well as get some rest). I can’t believe we are almost to Columbus, but I am so excited!!

End of the forty-first day. And it was gorgeous.

Day 40 – Nashville, TN to Leitchfield, KY (62 miles)

2010-05-11T14:17:00.001-07:00

Monday, May 10, 2010

The best way to describe today would be random. Incredibly random. Unfortunately, I have already used this word to describe a different day, so I will have to think of a better descriptor for today.

The day started out like any normal morning – get up, back up our bags, eat breakfast, sit around for a little while, listen to the route, and then start out on the ride. We left Nashville pretty quickly and crossed the river over a really neat pedestrian bridge.

About 45 miles in, we came upon a group of riders standing around on the side of the road. Turns out there had been a small run-in with a traffic cone, leaving Pete with a hurt hand/wrist and Roshan with a broken bike. I’m not sure which one is worse. Pete’s wrist can heal with Roshan’s brand new carbon frame was cracked (and it is not possible to fix carbon once it is cracked). Sad.

Once our support van came to help out, we got on our way again. Unfortunately, I only got about 5 miles farther down the road before I had a flat. When I turned my bike over to figure out what the problem was, I found an object in my tire that should not have been there. When I removed it, it turned out that I had managed to get a 1-inch nail imbedded in to my tire. Awesome. Strike one.

While riding through Tennessee, Bryce began thinking about “the hills of Tennessee.” This, naturally, led to him thinking about the song, “Proud to be an American.” Randomly, Bryce, Jody, Travis, and I burst in to song. It was fun. I’m sure we were a sight to see – four cyclist wearing orange spandex riding down the side of the road singing “Proud to be an American” at the top of our lungs. Fun times…

Before arriving at our lunch stop, we passed in to Kentucky. We were also able to get the Tennessee state sign as we left. Very exciting. However, because we had to wait on the side of the road for so long after the accident, we didn’t arrive at our lunch stop as early as we normally would have. Our support team had us rack our bikes at lunch so that we could make it to Mammoth Caves in time for a tour.

We go to Mammoth Caves just in time to go on the Historical Tour. It was pretty interesting. The caves are definitely much larger at Mammoth Caves than Carlsbad Caverns. I guess that’s probably how it got its name… At one point during the tour, we had to go through this area known as “Fat Man’s Misery.” It was an incredibly tight walkway which is approximately 200 yards long. I was not very happy about it. But Tim talked to me about ice cream the entire way, so I made it through. Like I’ve mentioned before, ice cream makes me happy…

After the Caves, we drove to Leitchfield, the city where we were staying for the evening. We were invited to speak at the Lion’s Club which, luckily for us, happened to meet at the local Pizza Hut. The group treated us to a yummy dinner. There just happened to be two other guys passing through Leitchfield who were also cycling across the country, but to raise money for Autism research. One of the guys in the Club made some pretty off-color jokes about Autism. Only in rural Kentucky… Strike two.

We left the meeting to go to our lodging for the evening. Now, I would like to point out that we have stayed at many different types of places. But today topped them all. We are staying at the local fairgrounds. Yes, in the arts barn at the fairgrounds. It’s just plain creepy. There are random campers and vehicles inside the barn. Lenore and I decided to sleep in the van. Luckily, they unlocked a building with running water, or we would have been using a Port-a-Pottie for the evening. Strike three.

There were no showers at the fairgrounds. However, fortunately for us, Leitchfield just recently built a new firehouse. And the firehouse just happens to be located just a short walk away from the fairgrounds. So, we all grabbed our showering stuff, walked over to the firehouse, and took showers there. Strike four.

Final strike of the day (you didn’t think it was possible to have this many strikes, did you?): there was no internet at the fairgrounds. This, in and of itself, does not constitute a strike. I would not expect a fairgrounds to have WiFi. But we all wanted to check our email (it seems like we have been living outside of civilization for the past few days…). So where did we go? McDonald’s. But not just any McDonald’s. We went to the local McDonald’s inside the local WalMart. However, McDonald’s didn’t have any plugs, and my computer is piece of crap and has absolutely no battery power at all. So I sat in the entrance of WalMart, plugged in to one of their outlets, using McDonald’s WiFi. Strike five.
I am now going to go to sleep inside the van. I pray that no crazy person decides to stalk us at the fairgrounds at night. I’m just a little (ok, a lot) creeped out. We will definitely be locking the doors of the van tonight…
End of the fortieth day. And it was haphazard.

Day 39 – Memphis, TN (0 miles – rest day)

2010-05-11T14:16:00.003-07:00

Sunday, May 9, 2010

My blog is boring. I was literally just falling asleep reading through my last few entries. Zzzzzzzzzz… I’m going to make an effort to make this blog more entertaining. We’ll see how long this lasts.

Ok, I am already foreseeing two huge problems with my above-mentioned goal of increasing the entertainment value of this blog entry: 1.) I wrote the above paragraph prior to leaving for dinner. I have now returned from dinner, in which I stuffed myself completely full with delicious food. I may soon find myself in a food coma. 2.) Heidi is currently playing the piano in the same room in which I am attempting to write. Her music is so peaceful – I love listening to piano music. It makes me want to rest my head on this table and take a little nap. If I start to write complete gibberish and not make sense in this blog, it is probably because I have drifted off to sleep due to reasons 1 and 2 stated above. Please do not blame me. You will have Paradise Park and Heidi Gollogly to thank for this one. You can take it up with them…

After removing the clock from our room last night (I can’t stand ticking clocks in rooms in which I am sleeping – I find myself counting the seconds. It’s a strange habit, I know.), I actually got a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while. That is not to say that I actually slept through the night, as this would be a complete miracle. But I only woke up about a half a dozen times. And, to make things even better, we were allowed to sleep in this morning. “Sleep in” used to mean sleeping until 10 or 11 in the morning. I “slept in” until about 8:30 this morning. And it felt wonderful. My body did wake up on it’s own around 6:30 this morning, but I made myself go back to sleep. It was glorious. Maybe I am finally starting to catch up on my sleep.

We had a delicious breakfast delivered by a generous woman who was going to allow all of us (and remember, there are 23 of us) to stay at her house if we could not find another place to stay. For her sake, I’m glad we were able to stay at this church. After breakfast, some of us headed back downtown to explore the city a little. We stopped by the Country Music Hall of Fame. Because, again, I hate country music, I opted not to go for the tour. We did a little bit of shopping downtown, complete with a stop at a delicious ice cream shop. We then hiked about 2 miles to Centennial Park for the local arts festival. It was really neat. There were tons of local artists with all different types of art and mediums. It was like going to a museum – except it was outdoors and it was free. You couldn’t ask for anything better! While we were in Centennial Park, we ran in to the Parthenon. In the past two weeks, we have been to Paris, Milan, and now Greece. We are such world travelers…

While at the arts festival, I met up with Tiffany Ballard, one of my friends from undergrad. She’s a fourth year medical student at Vanderbilt and just happened to be in town this weekend. It was great to see her and catch up. It’s crazy to think that it has been nearly four years since we graduated from DePauw. Time flies when you’re having fun. And I’ve been having a blast!

I just had a delicious veggie burger and sweet potato fries for dinner. It was delicious. There is nothing better than sweet potato fries. Except when the sweet potato fries are drenched in catsup. Yum. Our restaurant even had live music. Good dinner. I have almost reached my food coma state and feel I should finish this blog as quickly as possible. Bed is calling my name. I need to try to catch up on even more sleep tonight.

End of the thirty-ninth day. And it wad catch-up/catsup day.

Day 38 – Milan, TN to Nashville, TN

2010-05-11T14:16:00.001-07:00

Saturday, April 8, 2010

The route today was perhaps the most scenic and amazing ride thus far on the trip. Unfortunately for me, I was in the van during the day. Today was my support day (again – it seems like they occur quite frequently), so I only got to appreciate the route from the passenger seat of a cargo van. Sad. But Jeff and I made sure we stopped at as many scenic locations along the way that we could. We were in lead van and had to mark the route, so we had to make sure we stayed in front of all of the riders. Whenever we came upon a scenic stop, we would park the van, run down to the waterfall (or whatever else we were looking at), hang out for a few minutes, run back up the trail, jump in to the van, and peel out. It was adventurous. We had fun.

We took the riders up to Nashville on the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is a scenic byway that is part of the federal parks system. The Parkway starts down in southern Mississippi and travels all the way up to Nashville. It was amazing. The roads were lined with trees and there were gorgeous overlooks throughout the route. It was so incredibly peaceful. I’m pretty sure we saw more bikers on the road than cars. So jealous. So incredibly envious that I did not get to ride today.
We are staying at the First Baptist Church right in the heart of downtown Nashville. We only had to walk down a few blocks to hang out for the evening. I have to admit that the major cities in Tennessee (or at least the ones which we have visited) are amazing. There is live music in literally every single bar and restaurant. And for the most part, the music is really good. I guess you have to be pretty good to perform in Nashville, also known as “Music City.” We went to a honky-tonk place to start out the evening. And, although I don’t really like country/folk music (I’m pretty sure I made this darn clear in a previous blog entry), it was a lot of fun. Honky-tonk is much more entertaining. It’s got a great beat. The bar also had writing all over the walls and ceilings. I felt the need to add a permanent memento to the collection.
We went to a couple of other places that evening. We ended up at a bar called Big Shotz very close down to the river district. Apparently it had been flooded out but had just reopened. I was surprised by how well the city seemed to be recovering from the flood. Although some areas closest to the river are still closed and cleaning up from damages, many places are already open again for business. Big Shotz was one of these places. The clientele was incredibly interesting. The music was entertaining (live rock band – I was pretty happy!). And the drinks were cheap. Good times.

End of the thirty-eighth day. And it was musical.

Day 37 – Milan, TN to Hohenwald, TN (20ish miles)

2010-05-11T13:59:00.001-07:00

Friday, May 7, 2010

People in West Tennessee really love their Strawberry Festival. And I am pretty sure that is an understatement.
Our entire team participated in the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival Grand Parade this morning (or, if pronounced by the people around here, the “Straw-burry Festival”). We were staying in Milan, TN overnight so we biked the 14ish short miles back to Humbolt, TN for the parade. The day was incredibly hot and humid and the winds were super strong (gusts up to 25mph!), so we were already sweating profusely by the time we arrived at the parade. We got lined up in our parade position and had some time to further decorate our van and our bikes (and ourselves). I’m pretty sure we looked incredibly idiotic. But we had a great time.
Luckily, we were in the parade right behind a float that was blaring music, so we were able to dance through the streets as the parade progressed. Some of us attempted to actually ride our bike in the parade, but we were moving so slowly that it made the task nearly impossible. The parade route itself probably wasn’t much longer than two miles or so. But those two miles were completely lined with people, at least 3-4 deep on both sides. It was crazy. And there seemed to be a Strawberry Queen/Princess from every single po-dunk little town around western Tennessee. We even had our own Strawberry/R4WH King and Queen – Justin and Maggie. Fun times for all.
After we finished our route in the parade, we wandered around the area a little. Unfortunately, although it is the Strawberry Festival, there are very little real, edible strawberries around. I was quite disappointed. I had imaged strawberry everything – strawberry shortcake, strawberry smoothies, strawberry jam, and (what I was most excited about) strawberry pie. But, alas, this was not the case. There were abundant strawberry “trinkets,” but not many delicious strawberry creations. I guess the reason for this is that, back during the depression, this area of Tennessee was one of the top producers of strawberries in the country. There was a large railroad that ran through the area, delivering the strawberries to Chicago, and from there, to everywhere else. However, after the implementation of minimum wages, the farmers in the area could no longer afford to maintain and produce the strawberries, so the crop effectively disappeared from the area. Sad. But they still love the Strawberry Festival in West Tennessee and they still celebrate it every single year (with much hoopla and excitement).

After wandering around and eating fair food in the massive heat, all but four of us decided that we were going to rack our bikes for the rest of the day. We were in no mood to attempt to bike during the hottest time of the day. We all hopped in to the van and were driven to our final destination for the day. We were originally supposed to be traveling to McEwyn, Tennessee; however, with the flooding around the area, the schools were closed and we were not able to get a hold of anyone at the school the day before. Luckily, our wonderful hosts in Hohenwald, Tennessee helped us to find a place to stay that wasn’t too far out of the way. Thank goodness, or we would have ended up in flooded country with nowhere to stay. We are staying in Hohenwald, Tennessee. When I first heard the name, I thought it was called “hole-in-the-wall.” This might be fitting for the town. It’s pretty darn small.

All of us were pretty exhausted from the heat today, the past few tough days of riding, and the sheer excitement of the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival. Everyone passed out before 10:00. We are party animals.

End of the thirty-seventh day. And it was festive.

Day 36 – Memphis, TN to Milan, TN (92 miles)

2010-05-11T13:27:00.001-07:00

Thursday, April 6, 2010

We had yet another hot, long day today. I have to admit that I wasn’t in the best mood starting out the day. I was pretty tired and not super excited to get on the bike for another long ride. But it turned out to be a pretty good day.

For the first time in I-have-no-idea-how-long, we were actually blessed by shade for a large portion of the ride. It was amazing. It’s pretty ridiculous how much of a difference there is between the sun and the shade. So although the temperature was probably just as hot today as it has been for the past few days, it didn’t seem nearly as bad. We thought we were going to be blessed with a tail wind for our ride today, but, unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to play a nasty trick on us and blow the wind right in our faces for pretty much the entire day. That made the day a bit more challenging, but at least it was a cooling wind. For the vast majority of our ride, the scenery was pretty good, with lots of woods on either side of the road. Overall, it made for a pleasant ride.

We started to get in to flood country today. It was very sad. Lots and lots of fields were flooded. We also saw some stranded houses out in the middle of rain water lakes. And we passed a few trucks and trailers submerged in water. It is difficult to imagine someone’s entire life’s belongings floating in murky, dirty water. The church where we were supposed to stay tonight was located in Humbolt, Tennessee. Unfortunately, because of problems after the flood, a large portion of the church (including the gym where we were supposed to stay) ended up covered with sewage backup. Not pleasant. So they found another place for us to stay a few miles down the road. It was so nice of them. We are staying at a Baptist Church in Milan. Sadly, Milan, Tennessee is not nearly as exciting as Milan, Italy. And it’s not pronounced the same way, either. Apparently they like to be different here in Tennessee. For anyone that is interested (and for everyone else who couldn’t care less), the town is pronounced like “my lan.” I guess it has a nice ring to it…

Today was also mail-drop day. It was a big day for me. Mike sent me a package full of random stuff. The wonderful ladies (and guys) at FS&H sent me an enormous package full of complete deliciousness. And Nancy made the most amazing ginger cookies I have ever tasted. I may gain 5 pounds eating all of the food that was sent. And I’ll enjoy every minute of it. Thanks guys, you rock!

Tomorrow we are participating in the Strawberry Festival in Humbolt, TN. It is a very big deal around here. Schools are even out for the festival. We are going to be in the parade tomorrow morning. In preparation for this exciting event, we decorated our bikes and helmets this evening. We are so creative. I think we may have gone a little overboard with the pipe cleaners…
End of the thirty-sixth day. And it was flooded.

Day 35 – Memphis, TN (0 miles – rest day)

2010-05-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 5, 2010

We had another day off today in Memphis. It seems like we have had quite a few off days recently, but then again, there is a lot more to see around here than middle-of-nowhere Texas. And, after riding over 200 miles in the last two days, our bodies were incredibly grateful for the day off the saddle.

We had a Global Health Day at University of Tennessee and afterwards we stayed downtown and explored the city. On our walk from UT to downtown, we passed by Sun Studio. Sun Studio is a recording studio in Memphis where Elvis Presley first recorded his music. Other famous musicians to record at Sun Studio were BB King, Ike Turner, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee, and Roy Orbison. We opted not to go in for the entire tour, but were still able to look around. It was really neat.
We stopped at a restaurant for a delicious lunch and then headed to the eastern side of downtown to see the Civil Rights Museum. The Museum is located at the Lorraine Hotel, the hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. It’s actually a pretty chilling sight. You turn the corner and right in front of you is the hotel that you have seen in countless pictures of MLK, Jr. We explored around the outside a bit and then went inside the museum. We wanted to actually tour the entire museum, but, unfortunately, it was closing in less than an hour and we would not have nearly enough time to see everything. I guess I’ll have to come back another day.

We walked back downtown to the Peabody Hotel to see the “Famous Peabody Ducks.” I had never heard of the ducks before, but could not stop hearing about them once we arrived in Memphis. We couldn’t understand why there was so much fuss over a few Mallard ducks, so we decided to go check it out. And, oh my goodness, was it a spectacle.

The history of the Peabody Ducks dates back to the 1930’s. The general manager at the time had just returned from a hunting trip and thought it would be amusing to leave his decoys in the fountain. Apparently it was a hit and the tradition began. Every day at 11:00am, the ducks are escorted from their penthouse home, on the Plantation Roof, to the lobby via elevator. The ducks are accompanied by the Kind Cotton March (by John Philip Sousa), then proceed across a red carpet to the hotel fountain. The ducks swim around in the fountain all day until, at 5:00pm, the ducks are ceremoniously led back to their penthouse amidst lots of photo-taking. All and all, the “march of the ducks” wasn’t actually that impressive. I mean, really. Ducks got out of the fountain, they waddled down a red carpet, and then they got in an elevator. Woopty-doo. But it was quite entertaining, nonetheless. And after all, I was one of those silly tourists that got suckered in to seeing these famous ducks.

To end our evening, we all went to see the Memphis Redbirds take on the Albuquerque Isotopes. Yes, the Isotopes. I thought the name was pretty pathetic, too. Oh no! Watch out! Here come the Isotopes. EVERYONE RUN!!! It was a minor league baseball game. And, for the cheap price of the tickets, it was pretty entertaining. We ended up leaving before the game was even over (we have to be to bed at a reasonable time…), so we aren’t even sure who ended up winning. But when we left, the Redbirds were winning by one. Fun game. Go Redbirds!!
It was Heidi’s birthday today (one of our national riders). To celebrate her birthday, she (along with three other riders) participated in a “quesadilla challenge” at the ballpark. (It’s usually the hamburger challenge, but in response to Cinco de Mayo, they made it the carne asada quesadilla challenge). They were divided in to two teams, with each person being dressed up as a tortilla (or a hamburger bun). They then had to assemble the quesadilla by running to get the pieces and putting it together. The first to assemble their quesadilla was the winner. Since it was her birthday, I thought the other team might be nice to Heidi and let her team win. However, the “other team” consisted of Maggie and Justin. And Justin is perhaps the most competitive person I have ever met. So, needless to say, Heidi did not emerge from the competition victorious.

End of the thirty-fifth day. And it was exciting.

Day 34 – Marvell, AR to Memphis, TN (104 miles)

2010-05-10T19:01:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, April 4, 2010

So much happened today, I’m really not sure where to begin. It was an exciting day. Big day for all of us. The following is a list (but potentially not complete) of the major events of the day:

1. Crossed the Mississippi River. Around mile 17 or so, we crossed the Mighty Mississippi. It was exciting. We crossed on this really neat trestle bridge. The Mississippi was pretty darn dirty, but it was still a momentous occasion for all.
2. Found the Arkansas state sign. We were thwarted in our efforts to find the state sign when we passed in to Arkansas; however, we were determined to find it at some point. We accomplished this task today – on our way out of the state. This is a perfectly fine solution if one cannot find the sign on the way in.
3. Left Arkansas, passed in to Mississippi. Two states in one day – very exciting. Mississippi was not very kind to us, though. Apparently they don’t support shoulders on the side of the road, so we were stuck riding in the road throughout the day. Well, to be fully honest, they do have a type of shoulder on the side of their roads. But this shoulder is composed entirely of gravel, with about a 3 inch drop-off from the road. This is not conducive to safe riding…

4. Left Mississippi, passed in to Tennessee. THREE states in one day – even MORE exciting. Tennessee also didn’t like shoulders. None existed. We also could not find the Tennessee state sign. Sad. But don’t be too sad; I’m sure we will find it on our way out of the state.

5. Double century. We successfully completed our second century in a row today. It was tough, but we were very proud of ourselves. Our legs and butts, however, are not very happy with us right now…

6. Rendezvous. A famous charcoal dry rib barbeque restaurant. Memphis is known for its BBQ, and I guess this is one of the most popular places in town. I did not partake in the BBQ ribs, but did have delicious red beans and rice. Everyone else seemed to love their food.

7. Beale Street. Famous street in downtown Memphis, known for its Blues clubs, lives bands, and open container policy. We had so much fun listening to music, dancing, and people watching. The “Beale Big Ass Beer” was also a welcomed addition to the evening – 32 ounces of cheap, cheap beer. Yum.
8. Karaoke. We had been looking for a fun karaoke place since the beginning of the trip and we finally found it in Memphis. It was hysterical, to say the least.

End of the thirty-fourth day. And it was big.

Day 33 – Little Rock, AR to Marvell, AR (103 miles)

2010-05-03T18:29:00.001-07:00

Monday, May 3, 2010

Today was a dam day.

We started out our dam day riding across the “Big Dam Bridge” in Little Rock. The Big Dam Bridge is the largest solely pedestrian and cyclist bridge in the country. It is 4226 feet long, spanning the Arkansas River. It was pretty dam cool. It is the Big Dam Bridge because it is, rather obviously, on top of a dam.

After the Big Dam Bridge, we rode along some really pretty bike trails along the Arkansas River to get out of the city. Once out of the city, the scenery was pretty at times and incredibly boring at others. We rode past some gorgeous woods, right next to ugly farm lands. I guess that’s the way it is in Arkansas.

We had yet another century today. They are almost commonplace at this point in the ride. There weren’t many hills along the way, so that made it a little easier. There was, however, wind. And the wind seemed to thwart our efforts in nearly every direction. Also, perhaps worse than the wind, today was hot. Damn hot. Because we took a detour to the Big Dam Bridge, we got off to a little later start than most mornings; therefore, we were still out riding during the hottest times of the day. And boy, was it hot today. Definitely the hottest and most humid day of the ride thus far.

We arrived at our final destination with many of us suffering from mild cases of heat exhaustion and dehydration. Not a fun combination. But we are starting to feel better after drinking lots of water and getting some rest (and washing the coating of salt off of our bodies). Hopefully we can avoid the crazy heat tomorrow. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but I’m beginning to think this may be wishful thinking. It’s hot around here. Very hot.

End of the thirty-third day. And it was dam hot.

In my heat exhaustion, I didn't take many pictures today. I'll try to get more pictures from friends and add them to my blog later.

Day 32 – Little Rock, AR (0 miles – rest day)

2010-05-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 2, 2010

We had an off day today in Little Rock. Unfortunately, because little rock is located in the “Bible Belt,” a lot of places were closed. But that still didn’t stop us from enjoying our day of relaxation.
When I think of a rest day, I usually think of relaxing in my comfortable bed and sleeping in at least a little (and preferable, a lot). Unfortunately, such a thing does not exist on this ride. Even though we had a day off today, we were still awoken at 7:00am when a group of men came in to the parish center to begin preparing breakfast for the congregation. Awesome. I also was not sleeping in a comfortable bed, but was instead sleeping on my camping mat. Even better. At least we were invited to a free breakfast, which made the early morning much more bearable.

We headed back down in to Little Rock for the early afternoon. After being in a large group for over five weeks, we all thought it might be best for our collective sanity if we split up a bit. I wandered around the river district of Little Rock by myself, taking in the sites. I eventually found myself sitting on a park bench reading my book/drifting off for a while. It was great to have some alone time to feel like I could really “regain” myself. I know this sounds strange, but when you are constantly surrounded by 21 other people every single day for 5 weeks, you start to go a little crazy.

Eventually I met back up with Maggie, Jenn, and Sarah and we went to visit Heifer Village. Heifer Village is the main campus for an organization called Heifer International. This is an incredible organization. Basically, what they do is provide livestock to families in developing countries, with the ultimate purpose of alleviating/eradicating hunger and poverty around the world. With the supply of these livestock (heifers, goats, chickens, and sheep) to impoverished families, Heifer International is providing these families not only with food, but also with a means of profit. The only requirement is that each family pass on one of their offspring to another family, in an effort to keep the program going. It really is amazing. We also learned about some of the other organizations that are working in developing countries. It really is inspiring to see what other people are doing and how they are trying to make a different in small, but meaningful, ways.

We came back to the parish center around mid-afternoon. Team Blueberry was in charge of making dinner, since we didn’t have to make dinner yesterday. We had fun in the kitchen. Now we are all relaxing, getting ready for our (early) morning tomorrow and yet another century.

End of the thirty-second day. And it was inspiring.

Day 31 – Hot Springs, AR to Little Rock, AR (48 miles)

2010-05-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 1, 2010

We fell asleep last night to the sound of a ridiculous rain storm. I don’t think I have ever seen/heard rain fall that hard for that long of a period of time. Had I been in my own bed, the storm may have seemed soothing; however, lying on the floor of a gym with the rain pounding down on a tin roof and the lightening streaming across the sky outside isn’t necessarily the most pleasant situation.

We woke up this morning to threats of thunderstorms all morning. Chance of thunderstorm was supposed to become more severe throughout the afternoon/evening, with changes of large hail. Wonderful. Everyone was incredibly excited to get on their bikes. Actually, many people were anxious to get out on their bikes in an attempt to out-race the approaching weather.

I was on support again today, so luckily I did not have to deal with the weather. I did, however, have to deal with lots of problems out on the road. I was in the middle van, which is really only supposed to be for water stops and lunch, but we did a lot more than that today. Within the first 10 miles of the route, we had already picked up one person (he was having problems with his tire) and helped fix two flat tires. Exciting morning. We arrived at the first water stop just a few minutes before the riders started coming in. While we waited, we went searching for bullfrogs. Fun times for all.
The rest of the ride actually went pretty smoothly. We had to stop a couple more times to help out with flat tires and other little problems, but overall, nothing major. And, probably best of all, we were able to avoid the terrible weather that was looming across the radar. (We were, however, bombarded by these storms later in the evening).

We went out in Little Rock in the evening. Roshan worked really hard to get us free admission into a “Crawfish Boil.” I had never heard of such a thing, but presumed it was similar to a lobster boil. I was both correct and terribly incorrect in this thought. The similarities to a lobster boil: crustaceans are boiled with potatoes and corn, all food is thrown on a table, and the food is doled out to hungry onlookers. Differences from a lobster boil: crawfish are just plain scary. They have beady little eyes that stare you down. Granted, I am veggie so I did not try the crawfish, but I definitely watched people (suffer through) eating them, and it was a humorous site. Crawfish have very little meat – I guess this meat is located in the tail area. But it seems to me that much more waste is created from attempting to eat a crawfish than is really worth the effort for the measly portion of meat. We were also entertained by a terrible cover band. They had no musical talent whatsoever. They were also terrible “dancers.” But they were highly entertaining, nonetheless.

We went to a deuling piano bar later in the evening. It was a lot of fun. We somehow managed to make it back to the parish (we are staying at the family center of the local Catholic church) just before another wave of crazy storms blasted its way through Little Rock. The storms are crazy here in Arkansas. I just keep my fingers crossed that we never see any tornadoes on the horizon…

End of the thirty-first day. And it was stormy.

Day 30 – Arkadelphia, AR to Hot Springs, AR (36 miles)

2010-04-30T18:41:00.001-07:00

Friday, April 30, 2010

Today was a wet day. Very wet. We started out our ride in a humid, Arkansas morning. The sky looked a little bit bleak, but we kept our fingers crossed that the rain would hold off until we arrived at our destination. We had a short ride today, so we were (mildly) hopeful. The rain started around mile 9 or so. And it kept going the entire ride. At times the rain would let up a little, but it never stopped. And most of the time it was completely pouring. When we were going downhill, the rain became bullet-like. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling. But we all arrived safe and sound (albeit quite drenched) in Hot Springs.
After warming up and drying off, we went in to town to explore Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was a pretty cute little town. And, as it turns out, the town is also a National Park. Probably the least nature-like National Parks I have ever been to. The Park collects 700,000 gallons of water a day from the hot springs for use in the public drinking fountains and bath houses. The water from the springs is 143*F. Very hot. It’s pretty neat to see (nearly) boiling-hot water coming out of a fountain or running through a creek.
We explored the downtown area a little bit. Apparently Al Capone loved Hot Springs, Arkansas and was known to frequent the bath houses. We went to one of the oldest hotels in the area and saw his car in the main lobby.

We all went to one of the bath houses in the afternoon. It was splendid. It was great to relax in the water and ease some of the tension and pain out of our over-used muscles. No, the water is NOT 143*F in the bath houses. They cool it down to different temperatures, because I’m pretty sure someone could get some pretty bad scalding burns if they stayed in 143*F water for too long. Our bath house had four different pools: 92*F, 95*F, 100*F, and 104*F. It was so relaxing.

I’m not sitting here watching the weather channel for tomorrow. Storms are definitely near by and on their way here. There are already a few rain drops falling outside. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow…

End of the thirtieth day. And it was wet.

Day 29 – Magnolia, AR to Arkadelphia, AR (76 miles)

2010-04-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 29, 2010

"We swear that we will take part in these Olympic Games in the true spirit of sportsmanship, and that we will respect and abide by the rules that govern them, for the glory of sport and the honour of our country." – The Olympic Athlete’s Oath

Today was a gorgeous, hot day in Arkansas. The roads we traveled could definitely best be described as picturesque. We passed over some really pretty, old bridges. The terrain was rolling, but made for a really fun ride. My only complaint would be the weather. It is starting to get hot. Very hot. And the humidity is picking up. That’s how I can tell that we are getting closer to Ohio…

Yesterday afternoon, Team Tango revealed the first part of a surprise to us. They had sent the entire team a package to our mail drop in Magnolia. Inside the box was a random assortment of odds and ends, as well as instructions to divide in to four teams. We would find out more instructions the following day.

Today we learned that these random odds and ends would be the makings of an epic battle - The First Annual (hopefully) Ride for World Health Olympics. It was so much fun. Events consisted of the following:

1. Wheel barrow/straw drinking race. In this grueling event, teams are required to divide in to two pairs. One member is the wheel barrow “wheel”, while the other is the wheel barrow “handle.” The “wheel” walks on their hands to the other end of the field, while the “handle” holds the “wheel’s” legs up in the air and walks behind. This specific event is different from your typical wheelbarrow race, in that the “wheel” is also responsible for drinking water out of a bowl through a twisty straw. Each person must complete this task. The first team to finish, wins. My team won a bronze in this event. We were awarded 1 point. We would have done better, except that someone sabotaged our straw. It literally was practically impossible to suck up the water. It took be probably about 3 minutes to drink approximately one and a half cups of water.
2. PlayDough modeling. In this show of artistic ability, elegance, and grace, each team was given 4 minutes to design a bike out of PlayDough. We felt that ours was amazing. Travis crafted ridiculous, life-like handlebars, complete with brakes and aero-bars. The bike was very aerodynamic and structurally perfect. Had I not purchased a new bike prior to this ride, I definitely would have purchased one identical to the one we created. We definitely should have won. Our bike was by far the best one out there. The judges, however, obviously had been bribed by the other teams, as the other “bikes” (I put this in quotes because they did not resemble the perfection we had created with our PlayDough) had no artistic ability whatsoever. They also lacked on elegance and grace. Pooh. We placed third, again.

3. Water balloon toss. This should go without explaining. If you do not know what this is, you lived a very sad childhood. We didn’t place at all in this event.
4. Dizzy bat. This is an event that challenges all dimensions of one’s being – speed, balance, agility, and last (but not least), poise. The rules of this event are as follows. Each team lines up approximately 50 yards from a plastic baseball bat. When the event starts, the first member of the team must run to the bat, place the large end of the bat on the ground and the small end of the bat (the handle) on their forehead. They must then proceed to spin around the bat 8 times, all the while ensuring that the handle remains on the forehead and the other end of the bat remains on the ground. Once they have completed 8 full rotations around the bat, they must run back to the starting line and tap hands with the next person, who repeats the same sequence. This event is hysterical to watch. And incredibly fun to play – for children (and adults) of all ages. While spinning around the bat, one becomes incredibly disoriented. When they try to run back to the starting line, they veer in all crazy sorts of directions and frequently fall down. My team did not have the fastest time. In fact, we had the slowest time. But we definitely won in the entertainment category. We were hysterical. Three of our team members fell down. I definitely would have fallen down if it hadn’t been for Pete (one of our officials) catching me and steering me in the correct direction. Fun times for all.
5. Pie eating contest. Each team was assigned a graham-cracker pie crust filled with whipped topping. The competition was to see who could finish their pie soonest (whether it be the entire team that helps out, or a single person). I was a little grossed out by this event, but it was great fun to watch. Everyone who participated ended up with whipped cream from chin to ear. My team finished last. But we got an extra point for cleanliness (we didn’t spill nearly as much on the ground as other teams). We’ll gladly take our points where we can get them…

So, needless to say, my team came in last. But we put up a valiant effort. And if we hadn’t been thwarted by the faulty twisty straw, who knows what would have happened?!? We could be gold medalists right now. But, in the end, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about having fun. (Although this is usually what is told to the losing team…)
End of the twenty-ninth day. And it was glorious and honorable.

Day 28 – Texarkana, TX to Magnolia, AR (59 miles)

2010-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

We passed in to yet another state today. Good-bye Texas, hello Arkansas!!

Today also marks the (approximate) half-way point of our trip. We have traveled over 1500 miles and have been on the road for 4 weeks. It doesn’t seem like it has been that long. Time flies when you are having fun. It’s been an amazing experience thus far.

Our entry into Arkansas was lackluster, to say the least. While all of us were incredibly excited about entering a new state, Texarkana, Texas is not a good place to be starting. Texarkana, Texas borders Texarkana, Arkansas, and it is very difficult to figure out where one state ends and another starts. Unfortunately, there was no sign to mark our entrance in to Arkansas. We were all quite disappointed, to say the least. We decided to create our own “Welcome to Arkansas” sign to commemorate this epic passage. We are determined to find the Arkansas state line when we pass in to Tennessee.

I rode the day with Jenn, Maggie, Pete, and Katie (intermittently). We lost Katie for a while at the beginning of the day. I thought she had just fallen back to take a picture, but when we arrived at the rest stop we were there for quite a while before she showed up. I called to see how she was doing, but she said she was just feeling “really weak” and her legs were “jello-y.” When she arrived at the rest stop, she was informed by Justin and Bryce that, not only had her brakes been rubbing on her back wheel (making it very difficult to move), but that her back wheel was also not secured in place. Awesome, Katie. Not sure how that happened. Needless to say, the rest of her ride was much easier…

We had great ride today. It was short and incredibly relaxing. And lots of fun. We were “pulled over” soon after our rest stop by one of the local Sherriff’s deputies (Sarah had gotten a flat tire and everyone had stopped to help her out). He proceeded to help us get hooked up with the local newspaper in Stamp, TX and Magnolia, TX, as well as a radio station in Magnolia, TX. Thanks Mr. Sherriff’s deputy. You have been very useful. Thanks for helping out your local citizens.
While getting “pulled over,” we also learned from our Sherriff’s deputy friend that there was a County Fair starting… when? Well, TODAY!! How exciting. We decided to check it out. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the fair, they were still setting up. Sad. And they weren’t opening until 5:00pm today. Even sadder. But we still had fun admiring the rides and drooling over the prospect of carnival food. Yum.

Further down the road, we passed a very interesting farm. From far away, we thought that maybe there were funny-looking cattle and funny-looking horses. However, upon a closer look, we found that the farm had bison and camels. Yes, camels. In the middle-of-nowhere Arkansas. They fit in really well. We are all quite used to seeing camels on the side of the road…

Maggie also found an Arkansas license plate on the side of the road. She was quite excited about it. She practically caused a bike crash trying to get off her bike and run back to retrieve it.

I got a package today from my parents - a late Easter basket. It was incredibly exciting. It was my first package to one of our mail drops. Big day for me!

End of the twenty-eight day. And it was random.

Day 27 – Paris, TX to Texarkana, TX (94 miles)

2010-04-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

I feel as though I have run out of witty things to say in my blog. At the beginning of the trip, the jokes seemed to be rolling off my fingers on to the page. Now that we are almost half way through, my fingers are tired. I guess they have passed over too many Frontage Roads, Primitives Roads, and just plain terrible back country roads. They are starting to lose sensation. I guess this is a common injury in cycling known as “handlebar palsy.” Too much time spent on those handlebars.

We definitely spent a significant amount of time on our handlebars today. 94 miles, to be exact. It was a great ride, complete with more gorgeous Texas scenery.

We had an awesome tail wind for the entire day. We were easily going over 20mph without much effort whatsoever. And, to top it all off, I had great company for the day. I rode the first part with Roshan and Jody. We picked up Justin after lunch. And we picked up Bryce after our last water stop. So we ended up with an awesome group to finish strong in to Texarkana.

We are staying at another Methodist Church in Texarkana. They treat us very well here. Their youth centers are absolutely amazing. Makes me realize what I was missing gong to youth group in the MidWest. The youth center is complete with an “internet café” (created by ourselves, but there is free wireless as well as an awesome little café area), basketball, Wi, cable television, a huge projector screen that will turn in to our own personal movie theatre tonight (I hear rumors of watching the Sandlot – awesome movie!), and a stage, just to mention a few of the amenities. The connecting church also has a book store where we got free popcorn (I was in Heaven – I absolutely LOVE popcorn, and free popcorn is even better!) and delicious peach smoothies. Yum. Food makes me so happy. It makes me chuckle thinking about the small, simple things that really make my day.

Speaking of food, Team Strawberry is currently in the kitchen whipping us up a delicious dinner. My stomach is already rumbling. We were moving pretty quickly this morning, so we had “lunch” a little after 10:00am. I’m ready for some tasty food. Yum.

End of the twenty-seventh day. And it was blissful. (I would like to point out that this was Maggie’s suggestion. I am feeling so incredibly un-witty today that I couldn’t even come up with a word to describe the day. Hopefully I’ll get my spark back tomorrow.)

Day 26 – Greenville, TX to Paris, TX (58 miles)

2010-04-26T15:26:00.001-07:00

Monday, April 26, 2010

We rode all the way to Paris today. Complete with an Eiffel Tower (nevermind the fact that there is a large, red cowboy hat on top…). Fun.
Team Blueberry was on support again today. Our amazing hosts at the United Methodist Church in Greenville, TX prepared breakfast for us, so our morning was pretty easy. I rode sweep van with Travis, our poor injured rider. The morning was really laid back and restful – no injuries, flats, or other problems. We had a fun time following the riders and relaxing in the sun.

We ended our ride at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Pretty impressive. They created their original 65 foot Eiffel Tower in 1993 (in tradition with all cities named Paris). However, in response to the creation of a 70 foot Eiffel Tower in Paris, TN in 1993, in 1995 Paris, TX added a large, red cowboy had to the top of their Eiffel Tower. Oh, rivalries. They never get old. And they get even more entertaining in the south…
The local news, Channel 99, came out to film a staged “ride-in” and interview some of our riders. We are famous.
We are staying at the First Methodist Church here in Paris, TX. They are treating us amazingly, as well. After settling in, we set out to explore the town of Paris, TX. It is a really cute town. We found ourselves this awesome little diner, Jaxx Gourmet Burgers. They have delicious food, an amazing beer selection (much more than we would expect from small-town, Texas), and (probably best of all, although it could be tied with the amazing beer selection) free internet. Fun. I love Paris.
End of the twenty-sixth day. And it was springtime in Paris. I love Paris (Texas) in the Springtime…

Day 25 – Fort Worth, TX to Greenville, TX (78 miles)

2010-04-26T15:07:00.001-07:00

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Spring has sprung in Texas. When I first found out that we were going to be traveling through the great state of Texas for 11 days, I have to admit that I wasn’t super excited about it. In my head, I imaged desert, cacti, oil rigs, and tumbleweed. Lots and lots of tumbleweed. But, to my pleasant surprise, we have seen very little of this. Yes, there have been a few oil rigs and some cacti. But Texas (at least the part through which we are traveling) has not been desert-like at all. The terrain has been incredibly lush and green. There are trees everywhere. Wildflowers are springing up like crazy on the side of the road. And I haven’t even seen a single tumbleweed. It’s been gorgeous.
Today was no exception to the gorgeous Texan scenery. We started off the day headed straight in to some pretty brutal head-winds for about 30 miles. But it didn’t even feel that bad because the roads were smooth, the sun was out, and the scenery was great. Eventually we turned back east and had an amazing tail-wind. We covered the last part of our route in no time flat.

Lauren and I cycled together for the majority of the day. We passed through a lot of interestingly named towns in Texas. Ponder, TX just cried out for us to stop and take a picture...
We are staying at the United Methodist Church in Greenville, Texas. They have been incredibly wonderful to us. They cooked us a delicious meal and have been incredibly hospitable. Some people decided to go out and see the city, but I just wanted to stay in and relax. I read my book outside in their gorgeous little garden/woods area.

End of the twenty-fifth day. And it was lush.

Day 24 – Fort Worth, TX (0 miles – rest day)

2010-04-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Today was an off day in Fort Worth. It was much appreciated by everyone on the team. We all had a pretty late night last night, so the large majority of the morning was spent sleeping. We woke up to eat breakfast. And then napped again outside.

We were super lazy. It was so refreshing.

We got motivated to actually do something in the afternoon. Maggie, Jenn, Lenore, Jody, Chris, Tim, Pete, and I went back to the Stockyards for the afternoon. We wandered around to see the sights. Maggie bought some cowboy boots. She is starting to look like a real Texan.
The Stockyard area is a perfect area for people watching. And, oh boy, there are some good people to watch in Texas. The common Texan expression is that “everything is bigger in Texas.” Well, this seems to be true with fashion, as well. In the Texan fashion, it seems to be “go big or go home.” I have never seen larger cowboy hats in my life. T-shirts are tight, jeans are tight (for both men and women). The cowboy boots are intricately designed and detailed. The belt buckles are huge. We even saw one belt buckle that had a pistol that actually fired. It was crazy. There is only one good word to describe female fashion in Texas – bling. Bling, bling, bling. Women walk around wearing as many rhinestones as physically possible. I sometimes wonder if they might fall over from the sheer weight of their fake diamonds. There are rhinestones on their shoes, jeans, belts, belt buckles, shirts, hats, bracelets, necklaces. Everything. If you look at a Texan woman in the wrong light, you just might be blinded by all of their glittering bling.

We went to a delicious Texan steakhouse for dinner. Some of the team went to a rodeo and had a great time, but I was tired and wanted to go back to camp and get some sleep. Cowboy boot shopping and people watching can be quite exhausting.

End of the twenty-fourth day. And it was blingin’.

Day 23 – Ranger, TX to Fort Worth, TX (102 miles)

2010-04-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 23, 2010

Today was definitely my favorite day so far. And yes, I know that I keep saying this. But today topped them all (well, at least the first portion). I started off the day riding by myself because lots of riders were being slow-pokes this morning and I didn’t really feel like waiting around for them. I normally don’t really enjoy riding by myself – I tend to get bored and lonely. But today was not the same. The weather was gorgeous, the route was nice, and the scenery really was breathtaking. The sun was rising through the clouds and it kept sending rays of light through. Gorgeous.
At the first water stop, the rest of the group caught up with me and we rode together for quite a while. Some of the “I’m-a-crazy-cyclist” riders decided that the conditions were prime for trying to ride a century in less than 5 hours. So, needless to say, they took off. I think they did accomplish this feat, but I think I had more fun on the ride.

We ran in to some not-so-favorable conditions right outside of Fort Worth, but we were able to make it through with minimal car honking and glares. Around the 100-mile mark, I found a wonderful little snow-cone stand on the side of the road and felt that I really needed to stop. And it hit the spot perfectly. A few other riders joined me a little later for our delicious, icy treat. Then we rode to our final destination for the next two days. We are staying at the YMCA camp right outside of the city. We have two cabins, fire pits, mattresses, and a lake right outside. What more could we ask for?!?

Jess’s family lives relatively near-by, so they brought us dinner for the evening. It was delicious – multiple different types of salads, cheese and crackers, sandwiches, and (best of all) cheesecake. We were all in heaven. We stuffed ourselves to our hearts’ desires.
Because we have a day off tomorrow, we went into Fort Worth to the historic Stockyard area. I had never heard of this area before, but apparently it is pretty famous. They have a rodeo there every Friday and Saturday night and have turned the old stockyards/barns in to little shops and restaurants. Jenn found us this interesting, basement bar where a Bluegrass band was going to be playing. Now, for those of you that don’t know me super well, Bluegrass/country music is definitely NOT my style. In fact, I find country music to be one of the most annoying sounds ever. When I think of country music, I think of someone who can’t sing attempting to sing in a really twangy voice about their tractor and their lost love. In other words, I think it’s terrible.

However, I ended up having a great time. Yes, the band was a little annoying. And I can’t really comment on whether they sang about their tractors or lost love because I really couldn’t understand what they were singing about due to their incredibly twangy, thick accents. But it was fun, nonetheless. We all got out on the dance floor and made complete idiots of ourselves because most of us can’t even find the beat, let alone actually dance. Good times, good times.
End of the twenty-third day. And it was awesome.

Day 22 – Abilene, TX to Ranger, TX (69 miles)

2010-04-26T14:08:00.001-07:00

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Today’s route was one of my favorite so far. It was so much fun. We didn’t have terrible winds today, so didn’t feel like we were moving our legs and going absolutely nowhere. Although the route was pretty hilly, there were lots of rolling hills, which gave us enough time to recover between hills. It made for a challenging, yet very fun ride today.

I was riding with the guys for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t have the weight to descend as quickly or the power/strength to ascend as quickly as the majority of them, so I ended up riding by myself for a bit. Chris eventually rode with me and we had a great rest of the day.

We stopped to admire the wildflowers, take pictures, and attempted to speed away from crazy chasing dogs.
Just prior to reaching our final destination, we passed through Eastland. The county is known for it's Horned Toad, Rip. I'll let you read the description below for more information. Interesting. Very interesting...

We arrived in Ranger, Texas pretty early. Ranger is an incredibly interesting town, to say the least. Upon arriving, we were pretty certain we had arrived in a ghost town. We turned on to Main Street and didn’t even see any cars. The vast majority of the store fronts were closed; most buildings were completely dilapidated, with broken windows and fallen-in roofs. We did come across one building that was open – Fox’s Mercantile – which sells “Everything from Crackers to Coffins.” Strange. The owner of the store came out and chatted with us for a little while. Even stranger…

We also found the Medical Museum Etc. on Main Street. Unfortunately, it was closed (and appears to have been closed for a very long time). We were able to peak in the windows and see all of their treasures but could not go through the museum. Sad.
We are staying at the First Baptist Church in Ranger. We showered at Ranger College, which just might be as dilapidated as Main Street, Ranger. My shower water ran straight down the wall. It made for a challenging shower, which involved quite a bit of pressing my head pretty much directly against the wall. It made for a difficult showering experience.

We had a tasty meal cooked by Team Lemon. We had amazing internet when we first got to the church, but I’m pretty sure that, in our excitement, we overloaded the system. Without much to do in Ranger, Megan, Katie, and I decided to take a walk and explore. Interesting place, Ranger, Texas. We passed by the Police Station, which also turned out to be City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce. We passed by two Kwik Stops because, yes, a place like Ranger does in fact need two Kwik Stops. We got “shot at” by two children playing in their front yard. And “Sexy Beast” passed by us in his maroon truck, at a minimum, four times (he was thus named because he had “Sexy Beast” written on his front windshield). We were interested in renting a movie to watch this night (because we couldn’t think of a better way to pass our evening in Ranger); however, we were told that the store “only rents movies to people who live in Ranger.” Again, I repeat, interesting place, Ranger, Texas.

End of the twenty-second day. And it was interesting.

Day 21 – Sweetwater, TX to Abilene, TX (42 miles)

2010-04-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Today’s ride started out as one of the most picturesque routes we have had thus far. Thanks to my support day yesterday, I felt great. (Most of) the pain in my legs, shoulders, and butt had resolved. Great day. I rode the first portion of the day with Travis (and eventually Roshan). We kept commenting about how the views were great and the ride was so much fun. The wind was actually cross/semi-tail, so, for the first time in at least a few days, we didn’t have to battle the head winds.
About 12 miles in (or something around there), we hit another Primitive Road. Who knew that my new road bike would get so much off-roading experience?!? The road actually wasn’t that bad, and it was a beautiful view. The support team didn’t think it was a good idea to try to spray paint directions on the dirt road, so they spray painted on our sand-sled. Glad that it could be used again.

As we turned down yet another near-Primitive Road, Travis, Roshan, and I picked up speed going downhill to pass underneath a train-track overpass. It was incredibly picturesque. There isn’t a much better way to describe it. However, little did we realize that the road underneath the overpass was not-so-serene. Roshan and I were on the right side of the road, but Travis was on the left side of the road, which turned out to be the wrong side of the road. As we approached the under-pass, we realized a few moments too late that the road was pocked with holes and huge bumps. Roshan and I managed to avoid them. Travis tried to jump a massive hole. He landed on the other side, but in the wrong position. I was a little bit ahead, but when I stopped and turned around, all I saw was a pile of person and bike rolling. It was scary.

Roshan and I ran to see if Travis was ok. Although he was pretty scraped up and in some pain, he luckily did not appear to have any serious injuries. We called for the support van to come pick him up and take him to the Abilene ED just to make sure everything was ok. A few X-rays later, Travis was deemed to be bruised and battered, but without broken bones or any other serious injuries. Thank goodness.

The rest of the ride to Abilene, most of us were pretty cautious of the road. Sadly, we learned that some roads are not as safe as they may initially appear.

We stayed at an amazing facility overnight – The First Baptist Church Family Activity Center. Before we could enjoy it, though, Team Blueberry (my support team) had to do the team’s laundry. It was an adventure, to say the least. I have to admit that this was the first Laundromat I had ever been to. I guess I have been blessed to always have laundry in my house. We had some major difficulties trying to use the change machine, until we realized that it could change $20 bills at one time. Then we felt like we had hit the jackpot hearing all of those quarters coming out of the machine…

Our evening was perhaps the most fun evening we’ve had during the entire trip. The Family Activity Center not only had a bowling alley (yes, a 6-lane bowling alley inside the center), but it also had a skating rink. Ridiculous. We spent the evening bowling and skating to our hearts’ desires. Roller skating was complete with a disco ball and 90’s music. It really brought back memories from childhood birthday parties.

End of the twenty-second day. And it was fun-filled.

Day 20 – Lamesa, TX to Sweetwater, TX (104 miles)

2010-04-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I was on support today and I have to admit that I was quite happy to have a day off the bike. It gets tough on all parts of the body to be on the saddle every single day.

We had another century ride planned for today, so we had everyone get up pretty early so that we could get off to an early start and not arrive at our destination too late in the day. Little did we remember that we had just passed in to the Central Time Zone. This meant that when we woke up at 6:00am and tried to load the cargo van, it was pitch black outside. Oops. We all forgot about that one…

Adam and I marked the route in to Sweetwater, Texas. It was very chilly, dreary, and windy this morning, so most of the riders hung out at McDonald’s while we started marking the route (and while they waited for the sun to come up…). The route actually appeared to be pretty enjoyable, except for the ridiculous head winds and the over-abundance of road kill on the shoulder. I felt a little guilty, but I was very grateful to not be riding in that weather. The wind was again brutal and it was spitting rain all morning. I’m sure it was a bit demoralizing for many of the riders to turn a corner and see acres of windmills, all moving full-speed, aimed in their direction. Ah. We love Texas…
Once all of the riders arrived at Sweetwater High School, the sun came out and the day turned gorgeous. Imagine that. The people at SHS were absolutely amazing. They were so friendly and fed us a delicious meal for dinner. During dinner, we had a journal club about Child Soldiers in war-torn countries. While an incredibly distressing subject, it was very interesting to have this discussion with other members of the group.

We ended the day by going to a local BBQ restaurant for basketball and a drink. I don’t care anything about NBA, but a cold beer can sometimes hit just the right spot.

End of the twentieth day. And it was restful.

Day 19 – Hobbs, NM to Lamesa, TX (72 miles)

2010-04-20T09:41:00.001-07:00

Monday, April 19, 2010

Today was another difficult Texas day. It started out dreary and cold and pretty much stayed that way during our entire ride. The day became a little nicer later on (not quite so cold), but only after we were done riding for the day. Again, the winds were head on and brutal. And cold.

The drivers in Texas don’t really like us very much, either. We had a few drivers give us some pretty nasty honks. A group of us got pulled over by the Sherriff because he claimed to have received 8-9 telephone calls complaining about our presence on the road. We’re pretty sure it was just one nasty truck driver, but can’t be sure. The Sherriff was very nice, but told us that we had to stay on the shoulder of the road and could not take one of the two lanes. We explained to him that we were riding in the road because there is debris and glass on the highway. His suggestion to us was if we saw any glass on the shoulder that we should “try to avoid it.” Thanks Mr. Sherriff. I hadn’t thought of that before…

After battling the winds for a little over 70 miles, we arrived in Lamesa, Texas. There’s not much to do here. And we had almost 3 hours to waste before we were allowed in to the gym at the local high school where we were staying for the evening. We decided to go to McDonald’s for some coffee and hot chocolate since it was so cold outside. Who knew it would be this cold in Texas?!? I really wanted ice cream but, unfortunately, the ice cream machine was broken. Sad day. I guess ice cream would have just made me colder, though.

When we arrived at the high school, we all rested, had a warm shower, and ate a delicious spaghetti dinner. Some 7th and 8th graders were playing pick-up football on the field outside where we were eating. Our riders got really in to the game. The guys eventually asked us to join, which a few obliged. It was funny to see grown guys playing football with middle schoolers. That didn't seem to matter to them, though. They got pretty in to the game...I’m exhausted. And cold. It’s so chilly here. I miss Arizona. Sorry if this blog isn’t as witty or interesting as past blogs. I’m tired. I’ll try to be more creative tomorrow.

End of the nineteenth day. And it was cold.

Day 18 – Carlsbad, NM to Hobbs, NM (71 miles)

2010-04-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Today started out a pretty good day. I slept well last night and we woke up to a delicious egg, toast, and oatmeal breakfast cooked by Team Lemon. The day was rather chilly (started out at 50 degrees according to Megan’s nifty new cycling computer), but the wind had died down and the roads were not nearly as hilly as they had been the past few days. Signs were good.

We started off with a small group of 7 riders. We rode together for about the first 12 miles or so until the rest of the group caught up to us (they started later than we had). After this point, about 18 riders were riding in double pace lines down the side of a gorgeous, not-very-busy, well-paved New Mexican highway.
I will digress a moment from the events of the day to mention a little bit about pace lines. Pace lines can be awesome. When riding in a line, one person (or two people, in the case of double lines) takes the lead and holds the pace for a period of time. When they get tired, they fall to the back of the line and hang out there as another person moves forward to take the lead. And so on. The advantage of a line is that, not only will the person in the front of the line effectively “block” some of the crazy Southwestern winds, but the people in the line behind can draft off of the front people, allowing them to go faster and bike easier with less effort. Sounds like a great thing, right? Well pace lines can also be very bad. They can be very difficult to become accustomed to, especially when many riders have never ridden in a pace line before (as is the case with many people on our team). It is incredibly important to stay a certain distance behind the wheel in front of you – too close and you risk bumping tires and crashing, too far and you lose all benefits of the draft. If someone slows down too quickly in the front of a pace line, it can create a crazy back-reaction and cause riders behind them to risk becoming too close to the wheel in front of them and crashing. One of the rules of pace lines is that you must never cross wheels with the bike in front of you. Crossing wheels means that the front wheel of your bike must never be next to any portion of the back wheel of the bike in front of you. If this happens and the person in front of you has to quickly swerve to the side to avoid something in front of them, their wheel will hit your wheel, causing you to crash. There really is no other alternative. You get too close, you crash. There is an ever-so-slight science to pace lines. It’s not really as simple (or safe) as it may seem.

Today was one of those bad days for pace lines. While it seems fun to have almost the entire team riding together, it can become very dangerous. With larger pace lines, it is more difficult to compensate for small changes in speed or minor swerves of the riders in front. Some of us were a little anxious riding in a group that large, but didn’t do anything about it. Hindsight is always 20/20. About 45 miles in to our day, something happened. No one knows exactly what happened, but something happened. Bicycles slowed, wheels crossed, someone swerved, and riders went down. I don’t really remember everything that happened, but I do remember looking in front of my front wheel, and there was Lauren, underneath her bike, in the fetal position. I had nowhere to go but right over her. My bike literally launched over hers. If you would like a visual, think of me as Rodney Dangerfield and Lauren as the ramp. Needless to say, I crashed on the ground as well. A chain reaction started, with at least 6 riders going down and three bikes in serious need of repair – mine included. I had to rack my bike for the rest of the day while the support team tried to find a bike shop in Hobbs, NM. Although this was not a good outcome for the day, in the end, we were all very lucky. No one was seriously injured – just bumps, bruises, and some serious cases of road rash.

The support team wasn’t able to find a bike shop in Hobbs. However, through the power of small-town telephone chains, we ended up with an amazing bicycle mechanic name Randolph who fixed all but one of our bikes. Poor Tim. His back wheel is really bent out of shape. Randolph was able to true my back wheel and bend my back derailleur back in to place. He was my hero for the day. And he probably saved me significant amounts of money.

The amazing people at the high school welcomed us to “Hobbs, America” with a delicious dinner.It was nice to not have to cook for the evening. We headed out on the town to try to find a location with internet. We ended up at the Hobbs’ Family Inn. Interesting place. A few other members of the team went out looking for a drug store and one got shot by a paint ball gun. Hobbs loves us during the day but hates us by night. Interesting place, Hobbs, America.

End of the eighteenth day. And it was crashing.

Day 17 – Guadalupe Mountain National Park, TX to Carlsbad, NM (38 miles)

2010-04-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Today was a short day. I think that was good for everyone’s sanity.

The day started out incredibly cold and a bit frustrating. For our bikes’ safety, they are all locked together overnight while we are camping or if the bikes can’t be kept indoors. The bikes were safely locked last night; however, this morning, we could not open one of the locks. None of the keys we had would open the lock. This was bad. Very bad. Luckily, we were staying in a camping ground with lots of handy campers. Someone just happened to have both wire cutters and a hacksaw in their car. So after lots of elbow grease, we were able to cut through the cord holding our bikes together.We could not, however, open the lock. So we lost one of our bike cables. Sad loss. Those things are not cheap…

The first 7 miles of the trip were downhill. This was great. But then the rolling hills started again. And the wind continued as fiercely as yesterday. We just can’t seem to escape the wind. It was literally impossible to simply coast down the hills, because the wind would stop us in our tracks. Bitch. It started drizzling toward the end of the ride, but, luckily, we were all able to get in before the rain really started.

We ended our ride right outside of Carlsbad Caverns. Adam entertained all of us by dumping our entire box of kitchen stuff out the door of the cargo van. After cleaning up this mess, we all got some hot chocolate or coffee at a little “grocery store,” where we were able to warm up and escape from the rain and the wind. I never imagined I would be drinking hot chocolate in Texas. But it was cold.

The tour around Carlsbad Caverns was impressive. The caverns are enormous. I felt like Carmen Sandiego spelunking around the caverns. They are located 754 feet below the surface. The temperature is always 56 degrees, with 90% humidity. On the way in to the cave, there were lots of bats circling the entrance. Kind-of creepy, but also pretty neat. We saw lots of stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, draperies, columns, and popcorn. Yes, popcorn. But not the type you can eat. That would have been awesome.

This is a picture of Adam, me, Tim, and Chris pretending to be stalactites, stalagmites, and popcorn.
Around mid-afternoon, we arrived at site for the evening. We are staying at a Baptist church in Carlsbad, NM. There is a bird that lives in the gym ceiling. It chirps “hello” every once in a while. We had a dinner of grilled cheese and burned tomato soup. I didn’t know it was possible to burn tomato soup, but it definitely is. That’s ok, it was still pretty good. We just had to add a lot of extra stuff to get rid of the burnt flavor…

End of the seventeenth day. And it was spelunk-tastic.

Day 16 – El Paso, TX to Guadalupe Mountain National Park, TX (106 miles)

2010-04-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 16, 2010

Today was the most difficult day on the ride thus far. We completed our first century today. For those of you not familiar with this term, a “century” in cycling is defined as any ride that is greater than or equal to 100 miles (completed during one day, of course…). While this may sound difficult under “normal” cycling conditions, it became twice as difficult (at least) under the conditions which we faced today.

We started off incredibly early in the morning, as we knew it would take a while to complete a century. None of us imagined it would take nearly as long as it did. The day didn’t start off incredibly well. Justin blew a tire in the first five miles of the ride. He waited for the support van while some of us continued.

While we were aware that we were going to have a significant climb ahead of us, we all were under the impression that the majority of this climbing would occur during the last 10-15 or so miles of the journey; again, we were mistaken. The hills started around mile 20 and stayed with us the rest of the day. What a good friend.

Not only were the hills never-ending, but the wind was absolutely relentless. It was perhaps an even more constant enemy during the day than the hills. If you think the wind is bad wherever you live, visit Texas and reassess your previously held opinion on this subject. At our rest stop, the not-so-friend woman told us that they don’t even call anything “wind” in Texas until it reaches 100mph. Awesome. During our entire journey today, we faced a non-stop head wind. If we changed direction ever-s0-slightly, so did the wind. What a bitch.

I reached the century mark and was pretty pleased with myself, albeit very tired, with shaking legs, and a little cranky. Little did I know that the day had even more in store for me. In my delusional, tired state, I stopped paying close attention to the shoulder. At mile 101 I had a flat. I ran over a portion of a thrown-out beer bottle. Never, NEVER throw beer bottles (especially glass) out of the car. This bottle was the bane of my existence. I t happened mid-way up a super, super, SUPER steep hill on the way in to Guadalupe Mountain National Park. I sat there and stared at my wheel for at least 90 seconds, contemplating whether or not I would let it get the better of me, before I decided I should do something about it. Luckily, Jen and Jody caught up to me soon after and came to my rescue. With their help and encouragement (they pretty much changed the tube for me), I overcame the flat and continued on my way.

The rest of the route was, again, very tough. Lots of super steep hills and plenty of very strong head-winds. At one point, Lenore (who was on support that day) passed us and told us that it “flattened out ahead.” She was full of shit. Tim (support) also told us that there was no wind on these massive hills. He was also full of shit. Shit, shit, shit.
At mile 106.71 I arrived at our camp site, incredibly tired but so happy to be there (and quite proud of myself for accomplishing this feat). We had a delicious chili dinner, watched the sunset, and passed out for the night. End of the sixteenth day. And it was incredibly brutal.

Day 15 – El Paso, TX (0 miles – rest day)

2010-04-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Today was a day off in El Paso. I think it was just what the team needed. We seem to have been on-the-go for quite a while, so everyone was very grateful for a little bit of down time. For the first time in more than two weeks, we were actually able to sleep in this morning. It was amazing. We eventually got up and went to a delicious Mexican diner for breakfast. It was delicious. Maggie was sad because the diner didn’t have anything “sweet” to eat, but she’s a minimalist and a boring eater, so her opinion doesn’t really count.

I felt like I was finally able to catch up with my life today. Sometimes as we are traveling through some of these remote cities, I feel like I’m not even in normal civilization. So I caught up on the majority of my emails, finished most of my contract stuff, and just got my life back in order. Sounds boring, but it actually helped reduce my anxiety by quite a bit.

Around mid-afternoon, 15 of us piled in to the white 15-passenger van (White Lightening) and drove about 2 hours to White Sands National Monument. It was absolutely amazing. It is difficult to describe; I don’t really feel like words can do it justice. White Sands is literally acres and acres of snow-white sands in the middle of the desert. I realize that sand does not sound that exciting in the middle of a desert, but this was something completely different. The sand here is powder soft. We walked the entire time without our shoes on. The dunes seem to stretch forever. Maggie and Tim purchased a disc sled at the visitor’s center, and we went “sledding” down the dunes. It was so much fun. We also had long-jump contests down the side of the dunes. It was like we were little kids all over again.
We stayed for the gorgeous sunset. We were told that this was one of the best times to visit White Sands. I couldn’t agree more. It was beautiful.

After a quick dinner on the road, we all headed back to the hotel for our last night of sleep in a real bed for a while. I’m sure we all left quite a bit of sand in those beds when we left…

End of the fifteenth day. And it was sandy.

Day 14 – Las Cruces, NM to El Paso, TX (45 miles)

2010-04-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

We passed in to yet another state today. Well, it’s almost as if we passed in to another country today; Texas is a land all of its own…

I was on support today, so Jess and I left bright and early in the morning to go out and mark the route for the rest of the riders. The route was pretty smooth until we got in to El Paso, where it quickly became obvious that the roads were not safe for cyclists. The directions had the cyclists riding on a highway-like road, with no shoulder, and cars flying around the bend at 60+mph. To the south was the border (literally directly next to the specified road) and to the north was the highway, so we had no choice but to turn around and have the riders rack their bikes when they came close to the city.

Everything went pretty smoothly and we were able to get to our Global Health Day with plenty of time to spare. Some people played ping pong in the lounge, while others just hung out and enjoyed a little relaxation time. Jen and Lenore gave our first lecture and then a speaker from the PanAmerican Health Organization spoke. We had a great turn-out and were incredibly pleased with the event. We also got quite a few donations and free lunch, which is always something to smile about. =)
After our GHD, we went to get settled in to our lodging for the next two days (we have a day off tomorrow in El Paso). However, these lodgings were not similar to those we have had during the past two weeks. Oh no; they were much better. Somehow our wonderful hosts in El Paso had figured out a way for us to stay in a hotel for the time we were there. It was amazing! Semi-privacy, showers, and a REAL BED to sleep in. We were all ecstatic. We spent the remainder of the day lounging by the pool and relaxing.

For dinner we went to a delicious local brewery. Some people weren’t too happy with their food, but I was very content with my veggie burger and raspberry beer. We went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the hotel. While this may not sound very exciting, our hotel was privileged to have a salsa/pop bar in the basement. Interesting? I thought so. But we had a great time and it was nice to let loose for a little while. End of the fourteenth day. And it was a bit crazy.

Day 13 – Deming, NM to Las Cruces, NM (67 miles)

2010-04-15T22:44:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Today didn’t necessarily start out the best. Both Bryce and I had flats this morning, so we were very late to get started. By the time we were done fixing our flats, the whole team was gone. Long gone. Nowhere to be seen. But Bryce and I had a really fun ride.
One of the things I like about this trip so much is the amazing people who are a part of the team. It’s been so much fun to ride with different people and learn more about who they are, where they came from, and what they have done. There have been so many interesting, stimulating conversations. And lots of laughs. The best part is the laughter.

Bryce and I caught up with Jen, Jody, and Maggie at the lunch stop, so we rode together for the remainder of the trip into Las Cruces. We hit a pretty big downhill on our way in to town. I got to my maximum speed on the trip this far – 43.89mph. I was pretty excited. Maggie had a major incident on the hill, though. At the lunch stop, she had purchased a brand new belt with an enormous belt buckle – and she was quite excited about and proud of her purchase. The shear speed of the hill was simply too much for her new belt, and it proceeded to fall off at the top of the hill. Luckily, Maggie was able to quickly stop her bike, drop it off on the side of the road, and run to save her belt from oncoming traffic. Crisis averted.

We crossed the Rio Grande just prior to entering Las Cruces. It was not as impressive as I had imagined, but it was still pretty large for being in New Mexico. This was also the first “river” we crossed during our trip that actually contained water, so it was a pretty big event for all of us. Upon arriving at our destination, we had some delicious freezer pops. Yum. There’s nothing quite like frozen sugar water after finishing a nice ride…
We had a great journal club at the Temple and then had a yoga class with one of the members of the temple. I have come to the conclusion that yoga is just not for me – or at least that type of yoga. I felt much more stiff and inflexible than I had prior to the class. But it was nice, nonetheless. Afterwards, the members of the temple provided us with a delicious dinner, complete with cake and ice cream for dessert. We were pretty darn happy.
We split up in to groups and stayed with six different hosts during the night. Katie, Adam, Jess, and I stayed with Harvey, a Vietnam veteran Jewish Buddist monk priest who lived across the street. He had some pretty interesting stories to share with us. We finished the night with wine and a Jacuzzi.

End of the thirteenth day. And it was sweet.

The day of flats…

2010-04-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

I was assigned to write the R4WH blog today (www.rideforworldhealth.org/blog). I wanted to include it here, as well:

Today the team was plagued by flat tires. It’s like the flat tire “fairy” was following us around and stabbing our tires with her wand. Just for kicks. Because flat tires make her giggle and feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Although flat tires make the “Flat Tire Fairy” very happy, they make the rest of us upset. Very upset. The first flat of the day is acceptable; in fact, it is usually expected. With riding on Primitive Road, Frontage Road, and the shoulder of I-10, it would not be a normal day if we didn’t stop to fix a flat before the first water break. However, today was an exceptionally flat day. I will even propose that we had many, many more flats today than any other day thus far on the trip. Here is a run-down of all of the flats today (although I cannot promise that it is complete; there are probably more flats hiding out there): Chris, Andy, Travis, and Roshan each had one flat; Jody, Bryce, and Sarah each had two flats; I, however, was the luckiest of the bunch – I had four flat tires today. Not a good day for tubes.

In honor of all of the flats today, I have decided to compose a list of everything that can be done with a “dead tube.” It is probably not complete at this point, but here is a start:
1. Belt – If your pants are falling down and you happened to leave your belt at home, don’t fret. Simply tie an old tube around your waste and your pants will stay up.
2. Hat strap – Everyone has been buying cowboy hats along the way. When they don’t come with a strap, we can make a very fashionable one out of a tube. It is imperative to have a hat strap for one’s spiffy new hat when facing the winds of the Southwest.
3. Backpack – If you need to carry something but it does not come with convenient straps, you can easily fashion straps out of old tubes. Perfect solution.
4. Jewelry – Want to look nice for a night out on the town? Why not try out a necklace, bracelet, or perhaps a headband fashioned out of an old tube? Not only will you be the talk of the town, but you will also be recycling at the same time. Go Green!
5. Balloon animal – Treat the kiddies to a new toy. Although tubes only come in one color (black), they could easily be spiced up with some chalk or paint. Or better yet, I’m sure something could be found along the side of I-10…
6. Rope/bungee cord – If you are out on your bike and you happen to fall in a large hole or down a cliff, don’t panic! Simply tie your old tubes together and climb on out.
7. Wallet – Having trouble holding on to your cash and credit cards? Keep them all together with a small section of old tube. All of your stuff will stay together and it will never fall out of your pocket. If you are feeling extra motivated, you could probably even fashion a small change purse for all of your coins.

In conclusion, old tubes are pretty much as valuable, and as useful, as duct tape. Always keep them close. And if you were riding with us today, you probably would have accumulated more than you know what to do with.

Day 12 – Lordsburg, NM to Deming, NM (63 miles)

2010-04-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 12, 2010

In the first 10 days of riding, I did not have a single flat tire. Yesterday I had my first, and it was sad, but understandable. Most people have had at least a couple of flats by this point in the trip. I guess I had been lucky. My luck changed today; it changed dramatically. I had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR flat tires today. Yes, four. It was a very discouraging day. Although the ride was pretty short (only a little over 60 miles), it seemed to take forever. I literally had a flat every 10 miles or so. Needless to say, I replaced my tire when I got done with the day. Although the tires are brand new, they are just not equipped for the kind of roads on which we are riding – AKA, they are not made for shitty, highway shoulders or Primitive Roads (or Frontage Roads, for that matter…). I hope my new tires bring me better luck than I had today.
Other than the four flat tires, the day was pretty uneventful. We stopped at the Continental Divide on the way. Now all of our water (and waste) will head towards the Atlantic Ocean. I already feel closer to home…

The discouraging, flat ride ended with a trip to Sonic. Sonic always makes everything better. Actually, any type of food makes everything better. I seem to constantly be hungry. All the time. Team Tango cooked us a delicious stir-fry dinner.

End of the twelfth day. And it was flat (x4).

Day 11 – Willcox, AZ to Lordsburg, NM (77 miles)

2010-04-15T12:02:00.001-07:00

Sunday, April 11, 2010

We are in a new time zone. We crossed in to another state today!! After approximately 50 miles of cycling this morning, we crossed in to New Mexico. The terrain is pretty much the same, the weather is still as hot, and it is still impossible to find cold drinking water, but it feels like a change.

Let me briefly explain my cold water comment. Throughout our stay in the Southwest, we have found that no faucet or drinking fountain produces cold water. Literally, it is impossible to find cold drinking water. I’m not sure if there is something wrong with the plumbing or if the valves have been switched as some sort of cruel joke, but it is frustrating. The one place where you CAN find cold water in the Southwest, however (at least based on our experiences), is in the shower. Showers only put out cold water, drinking fountains only put out hot water. Makes sense, huh? Everything is backwards around here. I am beginning to think that I should fill my water bottles with shower water and attempt to shower in the drinking fountain…

Our route today was pretty straight forward: take interstate I-10 the entire way from Willcox, AZ to Lordsburg, NM. Pretty boring and uneventful. However, around 17 miles in, our support team of the day, Team Lemon, deemed the shoulder of the interstate unacceptable for riding, so they proceeded to take us down another road. What road might this be? Well, I can’t remember the name, but it was definitely a dirt road with a large sign stating “Primitive Road.” Not so ideal for cycling. Glad we got to try off-roading with our brand new, high-end road bikes. Unfortunately, Primitive Road had it out for me from the beginning, and I got my first flat of the trip about half way through the 9 mile stretch. Boooo…

Right after lunch we passed the New Mexico state line. Much excitement and craziness ensued. We also lost an hour of our lives. The remainder of the trip to Lordsburg was relatively uneventful, with the exception of pretty awful shoulder conditions at times (but we were able to avoid further Primitive Roads). We are staying in the Lordsburg high school gym, which, as mentioned above, has very warm drinking fountains and ice cold showers.

As we were getting ready for dinner today, we heard a friendly, very exciting, high-pitched tune coming from outside of the gym. Katie and Megan had stalked the ice cream truck and encouraged him to come visit us at the high school. It was wonderful. We were like little kids all over again. It’s amazing how little things can make all of us so incredibly excited.
End of the eleventh day. And it was primitive.

Day 10 – Tucson, AZ to Willcox, AZ (88 miles)

2010-04-10T20:44:00.001-07:00

Saturday, April 10, 2010

It was hot today. Very hot. My body was completely covered in salt. We started out early, but could not avoid the beating desert sun. We also rode nearly 80 miles on the shoulder of I-10. The interstate, while normally in pretty good shape, can become boring pretty quickly. Also, unfortunately, the mile markers are a stark reminder just how much farther we have to travel. The hotter the day got, the slower the mile markers seemed to tick away…

A large portion of the team stayed behind in Tucson to go to our Solidarity Ride. Only two other cyclists showed up – very disappointing. The rest of us headed out of Tucson towards our next destination point, Willcox, AZ. We started hitting hills around mile 30ish, and after this point, we got completely spread out. Sam, one of our portion riders, caught up to me while I was unexpectedly thwarted by a closed interstate shoulder and was riding on a dirt road (it was the next best option, I guess…), so I was able to ride with him for a little bit.

Fortunately (and, as it turns out, unfortunately), we hit a massive 6-mile, 5% grade descent right after lunch. I maxed out at 42.5mph. Pretty sweet! Although it was fun to go that fast, Sam went even faster and left me in his dust. So I was stuck riding the next 20 miles on my own, which were perhaps the 20 most difficult miles of the entire day. My muscles were aching, my skin was literally baking, and I felt as though I was crawling along the side of the road. I couldn’t seem to figure out why. Until I look behind me and realized I had just climbed a massive hill (the counterattack of the previously mentioned massive descent). Also, I somehow managed to lose one of my arm warmers while climbing the hill. (I have decided that arm warmers are the most amazing invention EVER, but I will explain this at another date). I made it through to our rest stop, but was pretty exhausted, and VERY saddened by the loss of my beloved left-arm orange-striped arm warmer. I differentiate between my arm warmers because, well, each arm is different. Our left arm warmer is white and orange striped and our right arm warmer is fading grey. Sweet uniforms, to say the least. I love the striped one the best so, of course, this is the one that had to fly off of my bike along the side of the highway.

The rest stop was very interesting, to say the least. One of the members of today’s support team, Andy, was incredibly excited about a specific tourist trap along the side of the highway called “The Thing.” We literally saw advertisements for “The Thing” for approximately 25 miles prior to the exit. “The Thing” turned out to be a lame, false advertisement. Not only was it a massive collection of things, not just ONE thing, but many, many things that were a waste of many, many square feet of space.

Sam was definitely by hero of the day. Even though I ate his dust after lunch, he waited for me at the rest stop and literally pulled by tired self all the way to Wilcox. I was so thankful that he was there. The thought of facing another 20 miles on my own was just awful. We pushed the last 20 miles in ridiculous time and were able to relax for a while before the rest of the team joined us.
Brian is my second hero of the day. After I lost my arm warmer, I called some people and sent other texts to look for it on the side of the road. I had very little/no hope of anyone finding it, but I thought I would try. In the middle of an uphill, Brian managed to find my arm warmer in the middle of the shoulder. He brought it back to me and now it is safely and soundly in my possession. I promise to take better care of you in the future, striped arm warmer…
We ate a delicious dinner of salad and pizza bagels (we have lots and lots of bagels – we are always trying to find create ways to use them). Team Strawberry also came through in the end and made us delicious brownies. Yum. We devoured them while they were still burning hot in the pan.

End of the tenth day. And it was hot.

Day 9 – Tucson, AZ (0 miles – rest day)

2010-04-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Friday April 9, 2010

Today was our first official “off day” of the ride, and I think everyone was very grateful for the day off. Even though the support teams have every fifth day off, on “off days,” we don’t travel anywhere. No one is on support and everyone gets to relax and enjoy the city.

Unfortunately for us, the maintenance crew at the synagogue was not very happy with our presence; therefore, we were not able to sleep in this morning and were instead awakened by all of the lights turning on at 6:00am. We had to be out of the synagogue by 7:00am so that they could prepare for a service. We all piled in to our vans and headed over to Einstein’s bagels for our free bagels, orange juice, and coffee. Delicious. Einstein’s rocks. When we came back to the synagogue to quickly drop off our left-over bagels and cream cheese (we get lots of bagels donated), the only thing the maintenance crew had done in our room was cover EVERY SINGLE table with aluminum foil?!? We were a little confused, but decided it was better to just not ask…

We had an event scheduled at the University of Arizona for today, so we went over to campus and set up an information table in the middle of the U of A Mall. We had quite a few interested people stop by to hear about the Ride, as well as many people who simply pretended to be interested so that they could get our free coffee and bagels. Free coffee and bagels are a great incentive for hungry college students.

During our down time, Maggie and I wandered and bought sweet new sunglasses. We were the coolest kids on campus… At noon, we gave our lecture to a group of medical students during their lunch hour. There was a pretty good turnout and our lecturers (Roshan, Katie, and Tim) did a great job. The highlight of the hour was, however, the free Thai food. Very exciting! (Food always makes me happy!!)

We had a free afternoon, so a bunch of us decided to head over to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We had heard it was a pretty cool place to visit. Even though we all tried our best to decrease the admission price, we could only get a minor discount. We worked our magic, but without much success. C’est la vie. It was still fun. We saw some beautiful vistas, interesting animals, pretty flowers, and lots and LOTS of cacti.

I also got to pretend to be a bat. It was an adventure...
We finished up the evening with a meal on our own. Since no one was on support, we decided everyone could cover dinner on their own. A group of us went to this amazing vegan restaurant. I had a bacon cheeseburger. And yes, it was all vegan. That means no meat, no dairy, no animal products whatsoever. Do not be skeptical, please. It was incredibly delicious.

So now I have a full belly and sleepy eyes. Tomorrow we ride again.

End of the ninth day. And it was relaxing.

P.S. I got my contract for my pediatric residency in the mail today. It’s very intimidating. I don’t think I even understand 1/3 of what is written. Plus, I have to complete everything and turn it back in before April 30th. That’s 21 days from today. And I don’t even know when I will next have internet. Oh, the joys of traveling through Po-Dunk, USA…

Day 8 – Picacho Peak State Park, AZ to Tucson, AZ (43 miles)

2010-04-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Today was a much better day. We (Team Blueberry) were on support, which meant that my body got a much-needed break from cycling. I feel much more rejuvenated.

We started off the day quite early. A few of us woke up before 5am to take a sun-rise hike up to the peak. I wasn’t sure I wanted to get up that early and lose some of my precious beauty sleep, but I am so glad that I did. My beauty can sacrifice for one day… =)

We set off while the moon was still high in the sky and the morning was pitch black. We all had on many layers of clothing, but quickly stripped this off as we made our trek up the mountain. We were able to see the sun rise over the desert from our climb. It was gorgeous. A great way to start the day.

I was in the middle van today, so I helped mark the route, direct riders in the correct direction, and was the official team photographer. I took lots of pictures of people cycling today. I also blared music at rest stops and cheered people on from the driver’s seat of a 15-passenger van. It was fun.
We arrived at Tucson and are staying at a local synagogue (again, props to Maggie for the hook-up). Team Blueberry was on support, which meant we were responsible for making dinner tonight. We made a delicious meal of “breakfast for dinner,” which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. I don’t want to sound like a braggart, or anything, but I’m pretty sure we made the best meal on the trip thus far…

We had a relaxing evening. We finally had internet access, so I am able to update my blog. It’s getting slow and the pictures are taking forever to upload, so you may have to wait until tomorrow for more pictures. My Thermarest pillow and Big Agnes mattress pad are calling my name…

End of the eighth day. And it was rejuvenating.

Day 7 – Phoenix, AZ to Picacho Peak State Park, AZ (92 miles)

2010-04-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Today wasn’t my best day. In fact, it was probably my worst on the trip thus far. But, with the help of friends, I made it through.

I started out the day feeling pretty crappy and it didn’t get much better. My throat hurt and my legs were aching (crying, actually) for a day off after four days of cycling. We had the longest ride of the trip this far. And a lot of the route was in to a head wind. But here were some things that made my day much, much better:

1. Dunkin’ Donuts – At our first water stop, Team Clover surprised us with donuts. It was amazing. Then we went over and took a team picture with the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee people.
2. Dust Devils – There were random little tornadoes of dust that would appear in fields. Reminded me of the Looney Tunes cartoon. It was definitely an interesting sight to see.
3. Nutty Bars – Team Clover also pulled through at the lunch stop and delivered Nutty Bars for everyone on the team. In case you don’t know what a Nutty Bar is, it is a delicious bar filled with wafers and peanut butter, smothered in chocolate. What could be better?

4. Casa Grande National Monument – Random, old house out in the middle of the desert. When in the area, why not stop?
5. Incredibly large cacti – I decided to give one a hug. It made me smile.

6. Picacho Peak State Park – Gorgeous park out in the middle of the desert. This was our final destination, which also made me incredibly happy (to know that we were finally there and I had a rest day the next day!).
7. Telling off Frontage Road – Frontage Road has officially become our arch-nemesis on this ride. There is a Frontage Road that travels parallel to nearly every single interstate across the country. However, because it travels right next to the highway and is rarely used by traffic, the roads are frequently in various states of disarray. Frequently, the roads are terrible. Frontage Road makes all of us upset. Maggie, Lenore, and I decided to give it a piece of our mind…
7. Stunning desert sunsets – The pictures really say it all…

8. Bonfires and s’mores – Great end to any day.

End of the seventh day. And I got by with a little help from my friends.

Day 6 – Buckeye, AZ to Phoenix, AZ (35 miles)

2010-04-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Today was a nice, relaxing, short day. I think everyone’s legs and butts are thankful for this. We finished off our 35 mile flat, easy ride well before noon, while the desert sun was still (relatively) low in the horizon. The majority of us rode together the whole time – fun teamwork and solidarity.

We arrived on the campus of University of Arizona/Arizona State University College of Medicine for our first medical school lecture. The students who were there seemed very interested; unfortunately, most of the students had preceptorships and clinicals on Tuesday afternoons, so we only had 8 people there (in addition to the entire R4WH team, of course…). Small turn-out, but it was a good trial run.
After a short lunch on campus, we headed to the JCC (Jewish Community Center) in Scottsdale. It was ridiculous. Maggie got us an amazing hook-up. The place was enormous and incredible. We spent the afternoon gawking at the facilities and playing in the pool. It was a very relaxing, fun afternoon.

We finished up the day with our first journal club at a local Italian restaurant. Although not the ideal situation for a journal club, we had good conversation and amazing food. I had zucchini parmigiana. It was new to me and an absolutely amazing discovery. I was exhausted that night and passed out on my sleeping bag as soon as my head hit my travel-sized, compressible, super colorful Thermarest pillow.

End of the sixth day. And it was just what I needed.

Day 5 – Dateland, AZ to Buckeye, AZ (85 miles)

2010-04-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 5, 2010

We started out our morning with a minor event at the Dateland elementary/middle/high school. They have a ceremony every morning around the flagpole where they say the Pledge of Allegiance, have announcements, and sing “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” Apparently this is a song that I should know. However, I did not know the words. I just stood there and felt pretty silly. The kids sang it wonderfully, though.

After our short talk with the school, we started off on our longest ride thus far, 85 miles. The ride was super flat and fast, though, so we got done in less than four hours. We were pretty excited to arrive in Buckeye, named after our very own home state. We arrived pretty early in the day and we weren’t able to get into the high school until 3:30, so we decided to explore the town. We went in to the Buckeye Chamber of Commerce. In my excitement to be in Buckeye, I got stuck in my bike and crashed in front of their building, right into a bush and a rock garden. It was pleasant. Great way to finish up the ride…

After my crash, we all went to a local Mexican bar, La Plazita for some celebratory margaritas. They were delicious.
We “checked in” to our site for the evening and had a delicious meal made by team Lemon. Then we went back to La Plazita to watch the Butler-Duke basketball game. I think we were the most activity to happen at this bar in a long time. We got pretty fired-up about the game; but unfortunately, Butler couldn’t pull through in the end. Overall, we still had a great time. Tim and Maggie also wanted to be outlaws. =)
End of the fifth day. And it was fun.

Day 4 – Yuma, AZ to Dateland, AZ (73 miles)

2010-04-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 4, 2010
After figuring out how to get out of the high school (the vans had been locked in over night), we started out on yet another gorgeous ride. We had an awesome pace line of 10 people throughout the whole day.

It’s amazing how much faster, and easier, one can ride when drafting off of the person in front of them. Although the ride was nearly 75 miles, the road was flat and fast, for the most part. The road conditions were much better today than they have been for the fast couple of days, so it was great to relax and have an “easy” day.

Along our route, we saw massive cattle fields. (There really is no better way to describe this – just acres and acres of cows. It was a little disturbing, actually). We got a passing train to pull its horn for us. We only got flipped off by one passing car. Happy Easter… At one of the later rest stops, Chris was filling up his water bottle with drink mix, which was very, very pink. He proceeded to say that he felt as if he was “drinking Barbie.” Only Chris would say something like this. We finished up the day with an 11-mile stretch back on I-8. I’m beginning to feel very comfortable riding on the side of a highway. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I promise to stay off the highway whenever possible…

Upon arriving in Dateland, AZ, we all stopped at the Dateland Travel Center for one of the “world famous” date milkshakes. When in Dateland… Jenn and I decided to be adventurous and split a date and cactus milkshake. I took one sip and gagged. It was not so great. We splurged and bought twisted soft serve ice cream. This was much more delicious.

We are camping out tonight in the Dateland Gym. We are staying in what seems to be the “Dateland compound.” The area has the dental office, fire station, sheriff’s office, church, elementary school, high school, and middle school (and possibly more). We had a delicious Mexican dinner cooked by our wonderful support team. Team Strawberry also planned us a surprise Easter egg hunt. It was awesome.(Also, please check out Maggie's interesting burn/tan lines in the above photo...)

A few more adventures from today:
1. Our lunch stop was planned at a little grocery store along the way. It was a great set-up, with tables and shade (two things which we do not always get during our breaks). There were lots of golf carts at this store. I think the golf carts came from the near-by residential community, but I’m not really sure. One man was driving his golf cart while walking his dog. Interesting sight. Only in Arizona...
2. While showering in the outside hose (it actually had heated water!), I experienced my first earthquake. Actually, my first earthquake occurred, but I didn’t even notice. Apparently everyone else felt it and had complete panic, but those of us showering in the hose didn’t feel a thing. Sad that I missed my first earthquake. But I guess I know that a hose shower can protect me from future earthquakes…
3. Pete was wandering around the complex and decided that he really wanted to check out the school buses. One of the buses had the keys in the ignition, and Pete decided he wanted to drive it (bad idea…). He put the keys in the ignition, started the bus, but couldn’t turn it off. At one point, the keys were out of the ignition, but the bus was still running. (Safe, huh?!?). Sam, our fix-it-all portion rider, was able to come to the rescue, yet again.

End of the fourth day. And it was adventurous.

Day 3 – El Centro, CA to Yuma, AZ (67 miles)

2010-04-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 3, 2010
We crossed in to a new state today (Arizona)!!! One state down, many more to go.
My team was on support today, so I had the day “off.” I use the term “off” liberally because, in fact, we were quite busy all day. Because we are a small team, and we are raising money, we cannot afford to hire someone to provide support for our team while we are out on the road. Therefore, we are divided into five different support teams, with either 4 or 5 members each. That means that every fifth day, a rider is off their bike and providing support for the team. My support team is Team Blueberry. Which, of course, is the best. My team consists of the most amazing group of people: me (of course, since it’s my group), Jeff, Adam, Roshan, and Jess. We rocked support today.

A little run-down on how “support days” work. The team who is assigned to support wakes up earlier than everyone else and gets out all of the food for breakfast. We pack up our stuff and start preparing the vans for the day. We wake everyone else up about a half an hour later. Everyone has to change into their biking gear, pack up their bags, and get all of their stuff in to the vans before they are allowed to eat breakfast. This encourages people to get their butts moving in the morning. Food is always a good driving force… We have three vans – a 12-passenger van, a 15-passenger van, and a cargo van. One of the passenger vans is labeled the “lead van” for the day. The support members who will be in the lead van wake up, pack up, grab breakfast, and head out the door as quickly as possible. It is their responsibility to mark the entire route for the riders. We mark the route with a combination of spray paint and chalk. This van needs to leave early, so as to give themselves ample time to mark the beginning of the route before the riders catch up (it takes much more time to mark a cycling route than one might imaging…). About a half hour after the lead van leaves, the riders are allowed to leave. The remainder of the support team is left to clear up breakfast, finish packing everything from the day, and clean up our host site. The cargo van then loads up supplies for lunch for all the riders and heads out to find a good lunch spot along the route. The last van, the “sweep van” has the most exciting job. We sit around and wait. For a long time. I was on “sweep” today, so I did a lot of sitting around and waiting. The purpose of the sweep van is to remain behind the riders and provide any support that they might need along the way (pick them up if they get hurt, provide a tire pump, supply tubes or a patch kit, refill water, supply food or PowerBars, etc.). We wait for a while, drive the van up to the last rider (the one in the back), make sure they are ok and don’t need anything, and then pull over and wait. We wait for a while, pull out, drive up to the last rider, make sure all is ok, pull over, and wait. Rinse and repeat. You get the picture.

Although support may seem pretty easy, it can actually be pretty crazy. We had some interesting experiences today. It actually takes much longer to load up all of our stuff (24 riders require a lot of crap!) into the vans in the morning. 24 riders can also make a HUGE mess, so it can take a while to clean it up. The lead van has the responsibility of assessing the route (as the route is prepared from online maps and no one has ever been on these routes before) and changing it if necessary. Some of the roads that were on our route today were un-rideable (covered with sand and then turned in to gravel roads), so our team had to make adjustments accordingly (this is also why it is very important for the lead van to go out way ahead of the rest of the riders…). We made lots of changes to the route today and had to frantically search through our atlases and GPS’s to find other suitable routes. There are also lots of opportunities for mishaps along the way. One of our vans got stuck in the sand on the side of the highway when they pulled over to mark the route. We had to call a tow truck to get it out. One rider blew about 5 tubes over the course of 10 miles or so. (No, this is not normal, but the combination of a faulty wheel and REALLY crappy, bumpy roads can cause this). Another rider had a run-in with the wheel of the rider in front of her and needed to take her bike to the bike hospital. All of this in the course of one day. Who ever said biking couldn’t be crazy?!? =)

Roshan (my partner in crime in the sweep van) and I did have a few adventures along the route. You need to spice things up sometimes! We walked to “the fence” and took pictures. Luckily, we did not get bombarded by Border Patrol. (It was around noon, so my theory was that they were on lunch break. Roshan thought they were in the bathroom.) We stopped at the “National Granite Museum,” but decided it wasn’t worth the $3 entrance fee, so we left. We also traveled to the Center of the World. It was an experience.
After all of the craziness of the day, everyone arrived safe and in one piece (although one bike arrived with parts broken in pieces…) at our destination. We are staying at the Gila Ridge High School in Yuma. They put us up in the wrestling room. While this is a little gross (makes me cringe thinking of ring worm…), the floor is very cushioned and, as long as we all wear our shoes, I think we should be just fine. Right now, the rest of the team is at an “event” at Buffalo Wild Wings in Yuma (AKA, they want to watch the Final Four games…). Someone had to stay behind at the high school to let everyone back in (because the doors lock when they shut and we do not have a key). Unfortunately, that someone is me. But, I don’t really care about basketball, the day has been a bit exhausting, and alone time is few a far between when traveling with 23 other people. Brian is currently out in search of the “perfect Mexican meal” and will be bringing me back some food very shortly. My stomach is growling just thinking about it. End of the third day. And it was hectic.

Day 2 - Campo, CA to El Centro, CA (78 miles)

2010-04-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 2, 2010

We woke up this morning to frost on the outside of our tents. This is never the best way to wake up in the morning. It was freezing (both inside the tents, and out…). We tried to de-thaw, but my fingers and toes were still numb when we started riding (but the sun was shining, so this was a very promising sign). I started out with a group of riders. It was great to finally get out and really get going. About 5 miles in, we all had to stop on the side of the road to strip off the majority of the excess clothing we had been wearing when we started out. It’s amazing how quickly one can heat up while riding a bicycle!
We passed some gorgeous views along the way. We also passed very close to “the fence” separating the United States and Mexico. At one point going up a hill, the fence actually stopped. It was an interesting site to see. But the area below was surrounded by Border Patrol with guns and dogs, so I guess they keep this area pretty secure.

The highlight of the day was the 10-mile, 6% descent. My maximum speed got up to 39mph. It was awesome. We were on interstate-8 for all of it, because this is really the only road that passes over the ridge. It was a bit intimidating at times, but absolutely amazing. The views were breathtaking. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures, as I was going to fast and thought my bike might fly out from underneath me if I let go to take a picture. Mental images. The experience will stay with me for a long time to come.

We got a bit spread out after the descent (larger body mass = faster descent, smaller body mass = slower descent; therefore, I do not descend nearly as quickly as some of the guys…). We still had a pretty big group left when we got down. Unfortunately, Justin blew not only 1, but 2 tubes within the course of a few miles, but we had a nice break while he fixed them on the side of the road. The first change took about 20 minutes (there were chain issues, too). The second one took about 5 minutes. I would say that’s a pretty good improvement. There wasn’t much to see on the roads after our descent into the valley. Adam started a new game. Each time we say a Border Patrol, we had to yell “beep!” (for B.P.). Beeps were everywhere. It kept us entertained.
I waited at the lunch stop and rode the rest of the afternoon with Maggie, Lauren, and Lenore. The roads got pretty bad after lunch, but our spirits remained high. We sang songs from Grease and Reading Rainbow, just to name a few. Good times.
We stayed at the First United Methodist Church (“Meth Church”) in El Centro. It was great to sleep indoors again, after freezing the previous night (literally). Friendly church people allowed us to shower at their houses and we had a tasty spaghetti dinner. We all went to bed tired, but with full bellies. End of the second day. And it was amazing.

Day 1 - San Diego, CA to Campo, CA (58 miles)

2010-04-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Today was our first official day of cycling. The day started out pretty miserably. When I woke up at 5:30am (I think it was the nerves…) it was probably 45 degrees outside and absolutely pouring rain; however, there was a clear patch in the distance. We had hope. We got off to a bit of a slow start because we had to pack up everything from where we had been staying for the past four days. All of the bikes had to be racked on the top of the vans, and we had to drive out of the city to begin our ride (for safety reasons). When we got to our starting point, I had a complete panic attack because I couldn’t find my cycling shoes anywhere. It is nearly impossible (if not entirely…) to cycle without one’s cycling shoes. However, a kind soul had found them in the parking lot (where I had left them – smart…) and picked them up for me. In the meantime, the rain had cleared and the sun was shining. All crises averted.

The day started with a 3 mile, 6% grade climb. It was tough work, but so much fun. I love climbing hills – feeling the burn in the legs and the feeling of accomplishment (and complete relief) when the hill finally crests and you can see the downhill. I met up with Jess at the top of the hill (she is one of our new riders), and we rode the rest of the route together. We had a few mishaps along the way (including a two-person crash on the side of a very busy, windy road with little/no shoulder), but we finally made it to our destination before dark (albeit tired and very, very cold).

We made a few fun breaks along the way, including a lunch stop at Barret Junction Café, where they sold ¼ lb hotdogs for $1.50. The place was enormous. And entirely empty. Apparently they have a very popular fish fry every Friday, where people come from miles around. It was an interesting place. The views from the top of the hills were amazing (the day had lots of ascends).
We camped at Lake Morena County Park. Please keep in mind that we ascended nearly 6000 feet over the course of the day – so we were pretty high up in the mountains. We had some tasty camping food that night (hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, and baked beans) and all settled in to sleep very early. My favorite comment from that night came from our neighbors at the adjacent campsite. Around 9:30 they were sitting around their fire chatting (and, remember, we were all in tents, so you can hear everything going on outside…) and one of the people from the other campsite looked over at ours and said, “Are they already asleep?” to which another person responded, “Yeah, man. They are riding 100 miles tomorrow. We’re cooking bacon.” I guess you had to be there…

Overall, the day went well with very few mishaps. End of the first day. And it was good.

Tire dip day!!!

2010-03-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2010
We dipped our back tires in the Pacific Ocean today. It was amazing.

Starting out bright and early this morning, in a rather “chilly” SD day (probably around 50 degrees – but a welcomed change from that of Columbus, Ohio…), we all donned our sweet stripes (shouts to Maggie for designing an amazing uniform!) and headed out to start our journey. There really is no better way to begin a day. After a gorgeous ride down to the ocean, all 23 riders “dipped” their back tires in the Pacific Ocean, to officially begin our coast-to-coast journey. I say “dipped,” because some people were actually soaked by the Pacific Ocean. While we were all standing in a line in front of the ocean, waiting for a friendly stranger to take the “token starting picture” of the ride, an unexpected wave attacked our line. Quite a few people ended up mid-shin deep in the Pacific Ocean (along with their bikes!). So some riders, and their bikes, had more of a tire bath than a tire dip. But all of our tires touched the ocean, one way or another.

After this, we went on a beautiful ride up Highway 101. We only went for approximately 30 miles, which was a great way to get ready for our first leg across the country (which begins tomorrow). I am so incredibly excited!!

All of us are of different talents and abilities. We have some incredibly natural athletes, who surge up a hill as if it is nothing. And we have others who haven’t really been on a bike before, but are excited about the challenge. The amazing thing about this group, however, is everyone’s sense of camaraderie and looking out for one another. Everyone is willing to help each other out, with little tidbits of information and helpful hints to make our journey a little easier for everyone. Even though I don’t know everyone on the team that well (yet), everyone is really amazing in their own way. I can’t wait to get to know them even better over the next 3300 miles. Here we go!

We ended the rest of our day with a review of our Coast-to-Coast lectures (thanks, Lenore!). Maggie, Megan, and I participated in our own version of “Supermarket Sweep.” We were able to get enough food for 25ish riders for the next few days for less than $150. Talk about bargain shopping. We were quite proud of ourselves. We were also able to convince the friendly bike shop man to give us a discount on bike pumps (since all of our pumps – except one – seem to have broken…). We definitely worked some magic this afternoon. The afternoon was topped off by ice cream (yummm) and dinner at a Mexican restaurant, complete with a delicious Margarita. After all, you can’t be this close to Mexico and not eat the delicious food. We are now getting ready for our last night at Scripps clinic. Good bye Torrey Pines, good bye San Diego. Here we come East Coast (in a few weeks…)!

Retreat

2010-03-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

March 30, 2010
Changing a flat is a pain in the butt. No, I didn't get a flat tire today. I didn't even go out on my bike today. But we had a bike maintenance class this morning, so we had to "create" a flat tire so we could all practice fixing it (as this is bound to happen at some point during our journey). It’s good practice, but can be frustrating at times. The back wheel is the worst – you have to maneuver the wheel out from the chain (this is not so difficult). But then you have to get the wheel back on, through the chain. I believe this is impossible to accomplish without covering oneself in chain grease. At least I have yet to accomplish this feat.

After making ourselves take a break from Ride work in the afternoon, Katie, Maggie, Megan, Bryce, and I went down to the beach. The water was, again, freezing. But it was a beautiful hike and nice to have a little break.

In the evening, we had our first event at UCSD. We were under the impression that we only had to show up, say “hi,” and listen to other people talk; however, when we arrived there, we realized that this was not the case. We were actually supposed to give a (short) presentation. We didn’t have our computer. We didn’t have a flash drive. Therefore, we didn’t have any of our presentations. Lenore and I did some fast, furious thinking and came up with a miracle solution. I just happened to have an old PowerPoint in my sent mail from at least 2-3 weeks ago. We were able to open this, and I managed to pull off a lecture without any problems. Oh, the joys of being CEO. Now we will always be prepared…

After our lecture, the team was able to relax a little at the local Pub on UCSD campus. It was great to relax for a little bit, have a drink, and chat in a more social setting. And, to make things even better, our awesome host from UCSD knew the bartender and worked out some sort of deal where we got all of our drinks and snacks for free. We owe them big time…
So overall, great day. We have our first “official” ride tomorrow and our tire dip. I am so excited.

After 38 hours in a 12-passenger van...

2010-03-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

March 29, 2010
...we finally made it to San Diego!! The car ride was probably the longest in my life. We stopped briefly a few times for food and bladder-breaks, but other than that, we spent the entire time in the van. We ran in to Mike and Mason on I-70W around 8:00am.
We averted a major bike crisis on the side of the highway (one of the bikes was literally hanging off the roof) around 8:30am. We passed the "mighty Mississippi" around 2pm (I was driving). We ran in to a hail storm in Missouri around 3pm. We stopped at Panera for dinner in Oklahoma around 7pm - here we met an interesting woman who was running for President of the United States. We had an awesome 80's dance party at 11:00pm. After this point, things begin to blur together. I remember passing a giant baby in a field playing with a tractor (hopefully we will get pictures of this in the future - we pass through this town). We also were stopped multiple times by Border Patrol - we were within viewing distance of the US-Mexico border multiple times. The last thing I do remember, however, is arriving at our resting location for the next four days. We are staying at an old physical therapy gym. We can see Torrey Pines (the famous golf course) and the Pacific Ocean outside of our window. It's amazing. After talking to/emailing with everyone from the Ride over the past few months, it was great to finally meet everyone. I am incredibly excited to be spending the next two months with these amazing individuals. After getting to know each other a bit, we all passed out on the floor and had an amazing sleep.

Today was the first day of our retreat. Overall, I think it went very well. We learned about "A day in the Ride" - what everyone should expect during the next two months. We passed out uniforms (which are incredibly sweet - thanks Maggie!) and started to learn our Coast-to-Coast lecture series. We had some free time today, too. A few of us walked down to the Beach - it was GORGEOUS. In the afternoon, I went on a great run with Jeff and Roshan (yeah, Team Blueberry!!).
Maggie and I are now taking a short hiatus from the rest of the team. Everyone else went out for dinner, but someone needed to stay behind to let everyone else back in to the building (it locks us out at night...). Maggie is working on our video. I'm blogging (obviously). I hope you enjoy this blog and continue to follow my journey across the country. Get excited for the next two months. I know I am!!!!!

There's a first time for everything...

2010-03-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Maggie's blog, I have decided to try making my own. This is my first time blogging, so we'll see how it goes. I usually get pretty excited about something initially, but then quickly drop it after I find something more exciting to pursue.

We leave in 16 days to begin our journey across the country with Ride for World Health. We'll be gone for 59 days. I am incredibly excited, yet a bit anxious. There is a lot to be done, but I know we will be ready. I can't think of a better way to spend my last two months of medical school. Hopefully I can share some of our adventures with everyone!

I am so incredibly excited to be involved in Ride for World Health this year. We have all put in a lot of hours to make it a success, but it has been well worth it. We will be traveling from San Diego, CA to Washington, DC. We will bike, on average, 75 miles per day. We find places to lecture and teach about global health issues. To learn more above this amazing organization, please visit our website at http://www.rideforworldhealth.org/.

I have been working very hard, not only on making the ride a success, but also to fund raise for our amazing beneficiaries. If you can provide any support, I would really appreciate it! Here is a link to my personal web page: http://www.rideforworldhealth.org/theriders/huffman.html. Thanks in advance for all of your support! Please continue to follow my blog for more adventures!