Bike and Build Days 1-5

I'm sure everyone who's following this blog has been waiting patiently for some kind of an update. As I anticipated, access to the internet has definitely been sparse, and the idea of updating my blog via my iPhone is tedious, at best (and soul-crushing at worst). But at the moment, I have found myself a computer and a bit of free time to type. I don't know when I'll be able to update again, so I will try to catch you up on everything I've done so far on these first five days of Bike and Build.

On the first day, Dad and I drove into Providence from Ithaca, arriving before the sign-in time. We went out to get a bite to eat after dropping my bike and my bag, before saying our goodbyes. The primary objective of the first day was to get to know everyone and get to know a little bit about the trip. We all learned about our chore groups, what it means to ride sweep, and how a typical day of riding might look. The rides themselves are more or less self-led; we each have a cue sheet that the leaders print off for us in the morning, but after we leave the overnight location, we're basically on our own until lunch. Fortunately, whoever is in front is tasked with the duty of chalking all the major turns so that the riders behind them can know better where they need to go. The sweep riders bring up the rear, ensuring everyone gets to the host location by the end of the day. By the end of THIS day, however, we all went to bed excited, with thoughts swimming around in our brains about the day we finally bike out of Providence.

On the second day, we stared to fall into a routine. After an early wake-up and a quick breakfast, we went to a nearby parking lot to practice some stopping and turning drills. These were interesting because they were all about pushing yourself and your bike to a limit, and then trying to avoid a simulated obstacle such as a car, or a dog, or something else. So we had to figure out how to stop going full speed, and how to turn at a 90 degree angle. Shortly after this we had lunch, and then went on a 20 mile shakedown ride to make certain all of our bikes were in working order. Besides that, this day was mostly full of presentations on safety, Habitat, and the future of Bike and Build.

Next we had a build day. We all biked to a local Habitat home and assisted the workers there in painting the inside of the house and the doors. My particular group was stuck working on doors in a cool basement--which was really fun for a while, but then eventually became tedious due to the poor ventilation and the accumulation of fumes. Before the day was over, however, we all managed to get free ice cream from a passing ice cream truck, which really boosted everyone's morale. That evening we had some free time in order to run errands, and a couple of the guys on the trip and I made a special run to CVS so we could buy tacky brithday surprises for one of our riders who was turning 22 on the next day. That night, after he went to sleep, we wrapped his bike up in saran wrap and stuck candy into the cocoon. We also tied a disney princess balloon to his saddle so he would feel especially loved.

The next day was our first real ride day. We were scheduled to ride about 40 miles out of Providence to a little town in Connecticut called Pomfret. By this time I had already decided that my goal for this trip would be to find out which state (or which creamery) along the route has the very best ice cream. In order to be considered, however, I decided that they have to make their own ice cream and that the ice cream must be donated to the cause. I was told that Newport Creamery on Smith street in Providence was the best ice cream in the city, so I stopped off there and tried to work a little "donation magic." Luckily, the manager there, Ed, was a nice guy and it was fairly easy to convince him that he should be the first one to set the precedent for my free ice-cream binge. I got a small cone with one scoop of vanilla. In order to remove variables from the equation, I have decided vanilla on a cake cone is what I will ask for everywhere. After riding out of Providence (on some really crap roads...) we came to far more open road, and were able to pick up the pace a bit. Riding out of the city was a wonderful feeling, and passing green fields full of flowers on either side of me gave me plenty to look at.

The overnight location in Pomfret was great (I managed to find a couch to sleep on); it was a modest church house with a large basement and a neat upstairs, and the people of Pomfret came out to support us and feed us through the magic of potluck. We were all very appreciative, especially when one member of the congregation, Chaz, handed out some free cycling caps to a few among us who had especially unique fundraising ideas.

Today we rode 60 miles from Pomfret to Granby. The group I was in took the lead early, and we biked along for a while without too much interruption. As we were stopping to chalk, directly before one of our turns, however, Anthony (one of my fellow riders from the UK) looked up and asked "do you think that's an ice cream cone over there?" I, of course, got very excited and recognized this as another chance to use my donation magic to get some free ice cream (and also evaluate a creamery from CT) so we stopped off for a bit to get some. The owner, Jim, at first seemed a little reticent to give us anything for free, but after chatting him up for a little while, he handed us ice cream and said we needn't bother paying. Riding high off of another successful round of "donation magic," my group blazed through to the midpoint of the ride, looking for the van and lunch. At about mile 33, however, we hadn't seen the van, and began to wonder. At this point it was just three of us, Anthony, Spencer and I, and none of us had seen any van or trailer, so we pressed on. At about mile 38, however, we knew we had to have missed it, so we pulled off and called Paige, the leader in the van. Unsurprisingly, she told us that she had stopped around mile 33. We all collectively express our frustration, and then decided we should just press on and find something nearby to eat instead of retracing our steps. So we rode on for a bit, before realizing that the next road on our cue sheet wasn't coming up anytime soon. So again, we stopped, but this time we consulted the locals to find our way on track. A local woman and the postman helped us with their road atlas, and got us back on track. As it turned out, one or a few of the roads on the sheet were inaccessible, and so the leaders ended up rerouting the entire group to avoid the road we never even found.

Undeterred, my group (which had just gained a new member, Chris, who was just as lost as us) hit up a local shop for pizza, talking up the bartender (Karie) and a few locals (Tom and "Random Drunk Guy") to try and drum up some donations. Tom gave us a $20 bill on the spot, and Karie managed to get us $5 off on the pizza. So four guys ate a satisfying meal for about thirteen dollars at Elaine's Pizza in small town CT. IT was really interesting to meet all of these people who lived and worked in a town that, for all intents and purposes, isn't even on the map. And they also had spectacular pizza.

There's certainly more to tell about this day--our second reroute, our absolutely FANTASTIC dinner, our surprise yogi at the church--but it's getting late and we're up early biking 50 miles tomorrow to Kent. I hope that you're all following the route on www.bikeandbuild.org. You can find some of the pictures I've taken on my iPhone on my Facebook. I'm not sure how easily I can put pictures on here with such intermittent access to computers, so please go there to check out my moble uploads.