Take Me Home Country Road

It's strange to think that just yesterday I was having a relaxed day of Andy Warhol and Thai food in Pittsburgh, PA, and today I'm writing to you from the Midwest. Gettting to Ohio today (by way of West Virginia, hence the John Denver reference) has made this whole cross country trip seem a little more real. Telling people in Pennsylvania that I had biked from Boston didn't seem too impressive, but now that I've actually crossed into the heartland, it seems like we've gone quite a ways. (700+ miles, actually) The ride today was fairly uneventful, a 40 mile ride that seemed like child's play after the grueling rides of the last week.
Items of note from today included:
- Our leaders surprised four of the members of the trip with awards. These awards included one girl who recieved a medal for her good spirits after getting poison ivy on her butt (she will, for the purposes of this blog, remain anonymous) and one for myself for "waging continuous war with my bike" (read: I am always the greasiest and grimiest member of the trip. Enough so that it has been honored with a medal with football players on it.)
- Having a free large cheese pizza from Papa John's that the owner donated and then scarfing it down with two other girls.
- Stubenville, OH. Home of Dean Martin. Apparently.

Pittsburgh Never Tasted So Sweet

Never would I have thought that arriving in Pittsburgh would be so exciting. But not only is it home to the Pirates, a 35% grade hill (that some of the crazies in my group want to bike up), and someplace called the "Strip District" that apparently has a lot of cheese shops, it is also the scene of our first DAY OFF! My arrival in Pittsburgh (During rush hour and covered with grease from changing a flat along US30. Unpleasant.) may have been anticlimactic, but the possibilities here are endless! I could have, for example, stayed up late last night (this proved physically impossible for my body) or slept in early this morning (ditto). I will not, however, be thwarted in my plan to eat as much as I can, see a movie, and NOT ride my bike. Tomorrow we will be riding out of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania entirely, so this is my last post from the Keystone State. So goodbye PA. I liked your Amish country, but next time, let's lay off on my legs a little bit with the hills.

Rough Riding

In case my faithful readers aren't aware, Pennsylvania is pretty hilly. Yesterday was our first century, and it was spent climbing up and down those very hills. Yikes. If that wasn't enough, we followed the century with an 80 mile day. So send me your love. Because my legs might give out in the Keystone State. More to follow.

Crossing the Hudson

Crossing the Hudson on a bicycle seemed to be a dream come true for most of the people on my trip. For me (and my ever-present fear of heights) it was a little less thrilling. Especially since we would periodically ride past signs that said "Life is worth living," as if you needed reminding that yes, you would die if you fell from the bridge. Our ride today was pleasantly less hilly and less rainy than our previous rides, but as some of our leaders have warned us, we're only gearing up for the horrors that await us in PA. Other than the bridge, highlights of today's ride included getting lost and being cheered on by an entire elementary school, discovering that it is officially Vanilla Milkshake Day, and realizing that we don't actually get showers today, despite the 70 mile ride. Ick.
Oh, and quote of the day, courtesy of Jose, the most intense trip leader ever:
"Chuck Norris' computer doesn't have a ctrl key. Chuck Norris is always in control."
I suppose this was intended to be inspirational.
Will write from Pennsylvania!

Welcome to a World of Pain (the Berkshires)

So apparently the Berkshires are fairly big. And hilly. And hard to bike on. These are all things I have learned in the past few days, en route from Andover to my current location of Poughkeepsie. One of the hills we biked on yesterday was a 17% grade! (If you're not impressed by this, do some googling. It's STEEP.) The scenery, however, made this decently tolerable. Town after New England-y town outdid itself in adorableness and we passed (and played with) a farm full of miniature goats! The mountains themselves, of course, are really breathtaking and it made me very happy that I was exploring the US this summer. I've lived in Connecticut for 4 years and never fully appreciated the beauty of the scenery next door.
As for myself, I'm holding up well.
Current Katie Stats:
Blisters: 2
Ridiculous tan lines: 6 (they would improve faster if it would stop raining. If any of my myriad readers could do anything about it, it would be most appreciated.)
Percent of time spent covered in bike grease: 82%
Bug bites: Too many to count

Unrelated but interesting facts:
Most creepy roadkill: Snake
Strangest road name: Tie between "Fish and Game Rd." and "Rip van Winkle Blvd."
Number of times I have consumed PB&J in the last week: 50+

Build Day #1

For the uninitiated, it may seem odd that we are building at a Habitat for Humanity site in lovely and prosperous Andover, Mass., but just over the rolling hills of Phillips Academy is Lawrence, one of the poorest cities in New England. The houses that we were working on came with a bit of a backstory. Three houses were being prepared on a given site, one of which was two weeks away from being completed and having the family move in, when a fire devastated the entire block. Luckily, the generosity of the community and Habitat for Humanity in Lawrence has allowed them to rebuild -- or at least, be in the process of rebuilding. So we worked on these houses. With the careful supervision of the Habitat for Humanity staff, we raised two walls on one of the houses! It was a very satisfying feeling. Like an Amish barn-raising, but better. I spent most of my day acquainting myself with the hammer, hauling plywood, and getting blisters. I imagine that the one on my thumb will be fairly unpleasant tomorrow on the bike.
Tomorrow we are eating at Chris Webber's family's house for the second night in a row. I can't remember if I wrote this yesterday, but Chris was a program director for Bike and Build who was hit by a car several years ago. The Webber family has been very very nice to us, feeding us, amusing us, letting us play whiffle ball in their backyard, etc. Tonight they are allegedly cooking us THANKSGIVING DINNER!! For me, my thoughts go straight to pumpkin pie, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. With the amount of activity that we do here (biking and building, generally. As the name implies) food has never been so appreciated. Or consumed in such vast quantities.

On an unrelated note, I realized that the stream of consciousness style in which I write this is barely comprehensible. Yikes. Well, I promise I graduated. Sorry for the awkward syntax.

Andover, MA

So DAY ONE of official cycling has ended. The first two days, when we were in Revere, MA, were spent orienting ourselves/benefiting from donated Italian food from the North End/learning to enjoy sleeping on the floor. The people of St. Anthony's, where we stayed in Revere, were extremely kind. One of the women said to us (and I quote): "My granddaughter is about to graduate high school. I would be proud if she turned out like you young people." We all started crying. On a related note, my trip is overwhelmingly female. 25 women outnumber the 8 men on our trip. So this trip should be one long extremely hard core slumber party. In any case, our first day of cycling, though not very long, was momentous. We walked over to Revere Beach and ceremoniously dipped our tires in the Atlantic Ocean, coming to the almost overwhelming realization that we would be reaching the other side of this country by the end of the summer. The ride itself was short (about 23 miles) and slow-going. We are still learning how to ride in such an enormous mass, so slow and steady is the name of the game for now. When we reached Andover, we came to the swanky swanky middle school in which we were staying, and went for a quick swim in a nearby pond (in our bike clothes, of course. Sanitary? Perhaps not.).
Other important things that have happened recently:
1. I named my bike BB King.
2. I developed an increasingly pronounced bikers tan.
3. I mistakenly brought a much smaller bag than I was allowed to bring and struggle everyday to fit my stupid stupid thermarest inside.
4. I have tried at least 6 different types of Cliff bar, and Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch is still my favorite.

** Check bikeandbuild.org for uploaded photos of us (and by us I mean me)!!!

Come One, Come All!

Hello throngs of dedicated readers and superfans,
This blog will track my (theoretically) successful completion of my bike trip from Boston to Santa Barbara with Bike and Build, a great organization that raises money for affordable housing organizations while leading a group of adventurous little Lance Armstrongs across the country. Since I am now sitting in JFK and thus have packing, prepping, and last-minute training to attend to, I will keep this post brief, but STAY TUNED post June 11 to hear all about my quest to the West!