Finished!

This blog is way overdue but I just wanted to let you all know that I have successfully completed Bike & Build.  We rode into Cannon Beach, OR where I was greeted by my mom, cousin Sarah and Uncle Charlie (along with tons of other families & friends).  We had a wonderful celebration dinner at a church in town and then went back to Dibb's rented house to celebrate.  

Since our departure I went to Sandpoint, ID with my mom to see her apartment and new 'home' which is a wonderful town complete with lake and mountains.  After visiting with her for about 4 days I flew back to the east coast where I spent a week at home with friends/family while I packed everything up to move into my new apartment in Rhode Island.  

I am currently living in Warren, RI about 2 blocks from the water and an awesome bike path (wahoo!).  My boyfriend's boat has been in Newport this past week so it was nice to finally get to spend some time together.  Today is my exciting first day of Law school at Roger Williams University (well, orientation) and my friend Jen Coliflores from Colby will be picking me up (she is also a 1st year law student!).  I hope everybody's summers have been enjoyable and I appreciate all the comments and mail I received along our route!

Finally a post...

A lot of miles have been logged since I last posted a blog. The past 2
weeks have really been challenging because of the heavy mileage and I
think also because there are just 12 days remaining...crazy! We are
currently in Idaho City. I don't know how this place got it's name
because it is certainly not a city (no offense). I don't remember the
exact population but I know it was in the hundreds. I have been
fighting a personal battle with my rear tire still. I thought after
purchasing new tires in Boulder, CO my problems would be solved.
Wrong! Leading the group, I now have somewhere between 15-20 flats.
Today alone racked up 4 so I'm leaning more towards 20. I thought the
problem had to do with my wheel and so I fixed what I thought was
wrong. However, the 88 miles we biked today which included some
serious climbs clearly demonstrated my inability to fix my wheel.
Anne didn't feel well and was in the 'van' by the time I had my 4th
flat and was on my way up a mountain. She was kind enough to lend me
her rear tire which allowed me to complete the ride.

I say 'van' because our actual van, Betty, is currently in Boise being
repaired after breaking down on her way to Stanley, ID. We have a
Uhaul in her place but it just doesn't compare. A few of us were
weary of ID after our first 2 days but the scenery definitely improved
with the mountains/canyons/rivers/

wildlife and the wind died down
(Thank God). I think we are all really looking forward to our build
day in Boise and just being in a bit of a larger city.

I don't have time to write about all the places we've been recently
but I can say we have had some really generous hosts lately (and in
general). One benefit to riding the Central US route is that it was
one of the original 2 Bike and Build routes. That means there are
some very strong relationships built over the years with various
hosts/locations and the people who are kind enough to provide food and
shelter for us really know what they're doing. Our host from Idaho
falls went over the top and gave us our very own collapsable table to
use at lunch (we generally use cooler lids, etc that get quite nasty
over time). We had an awesome build day in ID Falls as well where we
worked with a family of 4 to put on siding, a front poarch, roofing,
and insulation.

Ok, time to sign off but I'm looking forward to the next 2 weeks (not even!) Also I was very excited to see some of the fam today in Idaho City. Dad and Sara are taking the dynamic duo camping in Yellowstone for the next 5 days...should be an adventure!

Steamboat Springs, CO (and the Rockies!)

I still haven't been able to upload any photos (several libraries don't permit it) but I believe if you check the actual B&B website there should be some. Anyway, we are currently in Steamboat Springs, CO where we had a build day today with Habitat for Humanity. We met the homeowner, a single mother of six children who is very excited to move into her new home that is almost finished. Apparently last year's Bike & Build group were the ones that started the house so it is awesome to see that it is near completion.

The ride into Steamboat was pretty awesome... after climbing about 2,000 feet we had a solid 8 mile decent that was preceded by warnings for a 'steep grade' and 'Runaway truck ramp'. I believe another sign said that the downhill was a 7% grade. If anyone reads the journals on B&B you will have seen that I was in charge of writing about our first day riding through the Rocky Mountains. I think I wrote that the climb/day was the toughest yet but it was easily surpassed by our ride the following day through Rocky Mountain National Park. I really suggest you read the journal on our site that was written by George that day. He really captures everything about the ride including the amazing scenery, wildlife, snow, horrible wind at the top, etc. It was by far the most challenging and rewarding day of the trip. I basically got knocked over on my bike by the wind at the top of the mountain (12,183 feet) and also captured about 30 elk running across the road on my camera (awesome!). The road at the top of the mountain is called Trail Ridge Road and is the highest continuously paved road in all of the U.S.

After descending out of the mountains into Grand Lake, CO we road the following day to Kremmling. It was a perfect 'recovery' ride since we couldn't actually give our bodies a full day of rest. The roads were basically all flat/downhill with a few minor exceptions and we conveniently road by a delicious candy shop and natural hot springs spa where we soaked our aching muscles for about 2 hours. Not too shabby if you ask me.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of our ride through the Northwest because I really love the mountains and small towns we pass through. I will try to be a bit better about posting although I know we have some camping days coming up so that may not be possible. Thanks for reading!!!

Denver Colorado!

Wow I just wrote a really long blog about Denver and then clicked 'Publish' and it did not work...and deleted all of what I wrote. Since I'm just about out of time on this library comp, you'll have to wait for another day. Bummer... In summary: Eastern CO was boring, Rockies look awesome, Denver is great and we are excited for day off today and build day tomorrow b/c yesterday's 100 mile day was brutal. My butt and quads hurt, I'm looking forward to eating non-B&B food today and see a fellow Colby Mule in Boulder Wed.

Oberlin Kansas

Only a few more days until Colorado!! The past few have been filled with more cows, cornfields, and teeny tiny towns. The scenery has been pretty with lots of wheat fields and hay barrels along the way. Today we had quite the thunderstorm and a bunch of us stayed somewhat dry at an old abandoned house and waited things out. The support van was with us as well. My day also consisted of 2 flat rear wheel tires...both within about 10 miles of each other. I'm going to use a spare tire the group has until we reach Denver (where the next closest bike shop is) and buy some new tires. There's a line of about 6 people waiting to use 2 computers at the local library right now... and I still have to clean the mud of my bike and replace tires so I'm keeping this short. Thank you to everyon who mailed me letters and sent me goodies!!! You have no idea how excited we all get for Thursday mail drops to arrive each week. We gorge ourselves on homemade cookies, candy, powerbars, etc for a few days until the fresh supplies run low then wait eagerly for the next drop haha. Hope all is well and everyone's having a great summer so far!

Manhattan, Kansas: DAY OFF!!!

Today is our first day off of the entire trip. I obviously have not ridden nearly as much as everyone else since I had to leave for a while so I'm sure they are needing the day off more than myself... but it is still a luxury. Yesterday was another long one, 92 miles, as we rode from Lawrence to Manhattan. Despite its length, the ride was awesome. The land finally flattened out, sun was shining, slight wind (which picked up later on but not terrible), lots of corn and cows. I went very slow most of the day but enjoyed myself. We also decided that we would have 'Prom' last night since today was a day off. I stopped at a thrift shop along with way with some other riders and picked out a stylish pink dress with white polkadots, matching hairband (which I tied in a bow), white clip-on pearl earings and matching necklace, and a flash white pocketbook to hold my accessories.

The church we are staying at in Manhattan humored our Prom and rather than give our usual Bike & Build presenation we instead had a fashion show. One by one we made our way across stage, said a bit about ourselves, striked a pose and walked off. The church members voted on a few different categories so there were a few winners... I won Most Coordinated. The amount of food these people made for our dinner was unreal. We eat a lot and still had so much leftovers. They also served us breakfast, got Quiznos donated for lunch, and are serving us another dinner and breakfast before we leave tomorrow morning.

Although today is technically a day off you may have seen the destructive tornados on the news that tore through this area of the country. Last Thursday a tornado touched down several times in Manhattan causing extreme damage in some neighborhoods. We went for a couple of hours this morning to do some disaster relief work organized by the Red Cross and local firemen. They dropped us off in the worst area and said 'Just walk around and ask homeowners what you can do to help them.' We found a family who was left with just their foundation and the first floor (literally just the floor). We got all the rubble moved to the street and tore up the carpet. This was a huge help to them because rain was moving in on us and they wanted the carpet up before then so they could try and cover the wood with tarps. Red Cross made us leave before the bad thunderstorms started but hopefully they finished the work.

I spoke with the woman who lived there (difficult to understand her because she had a foreign accent). From what I could gather she and her husband had moved in just 6 months ago and had their daughter/son-in law plus grandson living with them. They'd picked the neighborhood because it was a nice place for the baby to grow-up and now it was destroyed by the tornado.

Some happier news.... My cousin Tracy and her husband Joey are now the proud parents of a baby boy! He was born June 14th around 3am and weighs 8lbs. Last I heard the name was undecided but I'm sure Baby Ganino now has an official birth certificate complete with name.

The rest of my plans for today are kills some time at the library on the internet (as I'm now doing), read my book 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert, and maybe go for a swim at the town pool since it is disgustingly hot outside. Thanks to anyone who reads my blog posts and I hope that none of us ever have to deal with the extreme-storm destruction the people around here are currently recovering from.

Kansas City, MO

So my last blog post was a bit weak due to lack of time on the internet. Right now we are in Kansas City, MO after having biked 105 miles yesterday to get here (phew). It was as hard as it sounds...but extremely rewarding. We had 2 lunch breaks (one at 40 miles, 80 miles). Alana and I were 'sweep' for the day which meant we had to be the last 2 people on the ride to make sure everybody made it in safely. This also meant that we had a super long day but were able to take our time (kind of). I actually had a flat rear tire at about 50 miles and a really generous army guy stopped and help of fix it which was really a blessing because neither of us were very good at getting the chain back on the derailer. Then my chain fell off about 2 miles later because I somehow hadn't put the tire back on tight enough... go figure.

Speaking of my derailer (a very important piece on the back wheel that is essential to making your tires/geers work)...2 days ago we were riding through a Menonite community when my derailer completely snapped. Don't know how it happened but I was lucky not to fall when it did because it literally stopped me dead in my tracks. I called the leader driving the van to come pick me up (Janine). Somebody in the big house was looking out for me because low and behold 10 miles down the road in the middle of farm country (complete with horse and buggies) there was an amazing bike shop! A nice Menonite guy, Mark, fixed my derailer and answered my questions about growing up in the community of about 400 people.

To complete my amazing few days back so far, today we had a build day that was finished in about 3 hours. I went with a group of girls to see Sex in the City Movie which was entertaining (if you like the show at least). On my way out my dad called to annouce that I have been accepted to Roger Williams School of Law for this fall. I am so excited because I had been wait listed and was frustrated that I didn't know before Bike & Build started. so YAAAAY for that relief!!!

I still need a bit more relief for some of my body parts so I'm going to probably take the next 2 riding days off (because between today's build day, 2 ride days, then an actual day off I will have 4 full days off the bike). That way I will be back to 100% and hopefully not have any more issues for the remainder of the trip. I'll try to get some postcards and such out soon... it's difficult to motivate myself/body to do anything after riding all day other than crashing on my sleeping bag and thermarest and sleeping. Hope everyone is having a nice start to their summer!!!