Lowville, KY

Today is our first day off of the trip, and we're spending it in Louisville (but usually pronounced "Lowville"), KY! As you can see from the pictures in my last post, we had an awesome build day in Portsmouth, OH. Before leaving town we went by the flood walls that line the Ohio River. There was almost a mile of these beautiful murals depicting the history of Ohio painted on the walls.

We just had 2 days of riding before reaching Louisville, but they were some of our longest. We road 95 miles into Paris, KY and then 85 miles to get from Paris to Louisville. On these days that are close to 90 miles or that will reach 90 degrees (we call them 90/90 days) we wake up at 5am to get a jump on the day. The 95 mile day into Paris went really smooth. The weather was perfect, and we all finished the day around 4pm. Fast! We stayed at a YMCA that night and made use of their outdoor pool.

Yesterday was our 85 mile ride into Louisville. My friend Paige and I (above) road "sweep." That means we ride last in the pack and make sure everyone gets in safely. The day started with us biking past lots of pastures where they raise Kentucky Derby style horses. It was a beautiful landscape. Later in the day, the sun came out and we took to the rolling hills of Kentucky. It hit about 93 degrees by 3pm and Paige and I stopped to pick up a couple of squirt guns to cool down the other riders. It was a blast. Due to the heat and hills, we got into our host site a 630, but what an awesome day.

Here are a couple of videos I took while out on the road. This first video is of our descent into Mcconnellsburg, PA. After climbing for around 5 miles we coasted down 3 miles of downhill! Here's a video of Colin King screaming by at around 40mph.





This is a video of some riders standing at the bottom of another big descent. The turn we were supposed to take is pretty sharp, so we decided to point out the turn to riders behind us. This was also a really long downhill, so it helped to give the riders heads up to slow down.

Thanks for checking out the blog! Time to head out into Louisville for our day off. If you haven't checked out our bike and build website, click here to see our route tracker, journal written by a new rider each day, and photos posted by all the riders. Thanks!

-rob

O-H-I-O

We made it through the gorgeous hills of West Virginia and crossed over the Ohio River. It was sad to leave such a picturesque state, but we've got lots more to go. And immediately upon crossing the river we had 20 miles of flat ground! We felt like we were flying! Just today we all kind of felt like we've fallen into a nice rhythm with our bodies and bikes. We cruise at anywhere from 15mph to 20mph. But on hills it's a whole different game. We sometimes crawl up the steep mountains, but fly down the other side.

We got an intro to pace lining in the flat lands of Ohio. I think we all had a blast. Pace lining is when 5 or 6 riders line up a tire length apart and bike fast! The first person works really hard to break all the headwind, while the other riders get to draft. When the person up front gets tired they call out that they're dropping back, and get to rest a bit. We averaged about 16mph with a headwind and some hills. I think we all felt pretty good about that one.

Build day! We had a build day with Habitat for Humanity in Portsmouth, OH. We did an amazing amount of work. Below you can see the before and after. All 32 of us worked all day to do mainly two tasks. First there was a huge ditch surrounding the foundation and along the inside. I worked with a crew that hauled dirt and filled in these huge trenches. The second crew was in charge of clearing out the inside of the foundation and then nailing in all the joists. As you can see below, the next step is to simply nail in the floorboards. It was a scorcher, and hit 90 degrees, but we worked hard and felt good about an awesome day on the build site.

Country Road

West Virginia! This was ... so far ... my favorite state to ride in. Sure we climbed some 3,900ft mountains. Sure we got poured on a couple mornings in a row. But wow, what a beautiful state to ride through. On our ride to Parsons, WV we experienced hours of pretty chilly rain and lots of fog. But what's a cross country trip without some bad weather. At one point I got super chilly, and made the best purchase of the trip. A half pound block of fudge. That kept the fire going inside me, and the skies cleared to make for some sweet riding. We climbed up really close to some huge wind turbines, and after cresting the mountain we cruised down 3.5 miles of downhill. Yeah!

During our second day of rain in the morning we got shelter by a really generous woman and her 3 kids. 15 of us crammed into her garage and she brought us towels and snacks. So nice. With our spirits high, and clothes partially dry we cruised on through WV. At the end of the day it got really warm. We asked some lifeguards at local pool if we could take a dip. They said sure and even got us in the town newspaper.

So far the trip has passed all of my expectations. The build days are extremely rejuvenating. Not only for the legs, since we get to rest, but it's just amazing to see how much of us the 32 of us get done at a build site. We recently put together a string of three 80 mile days. Doing it alone would be near impossible. With the other riders to kind of pull you along, and keep you moving, this trip has been a blast, and such an amazing experience.

Welcome to MD

We left PA and crossed into way western Maryland. We stayed in a cool little town called Cumberland, Maryland. It was dotted with really beautiful churches, but we didn't stay in a church as we so often do. Instead one of our trip leaders hooked us up with a great little space for two nights. It was a old department store that they converted into a huge open space/gallery. Here's a picture of it. Imagine getting all that packed up into our trailer every morning! Well we do it... pretty fast too!

We had a build day in Cumberland, MD too, and it was a blast. We split into two groups. My group worked on putting a set of stairs on the back of the local homeless shelter. It was a badly needed project. We took $500 bike and build dollars to buy the supplies and got to work! Check out these awesome before and afters! The stairs were desperately needed. No back stairs was just plain dangerous, but it also kept insurance bills unsustainably high. We were happy to help out Francis at Restoration of the Heart with this great project.

Hershey, PA!

Our ride through Pennsylvania brought us the hardest climbs we've encountered, and also some pretty amazing views from atop these monsters! We put in some long days, climbed thousands of feet and took some time to gaze off into the distance. We even crossed the AT a couple of times. It's cool to think of our cross country trip intersecting with the north-south hiking trail. Here's a picture of Larry and George marveling at the hardest hill I've ever biked! The sign they're looking at says 10% grade, and long! The downhill that followed was of course pretty sweet!

And of course while in PA we had to make a stop at Hershey park. We had a short day, and therefore some free time to do some exploring/get free chocolate samples. Below George, Sonya and Ryan are enjoying a portion of 5 lbs of twizzlers. They tasted so good after riding to the park. Even better than our free chocolate bar was our little adventure in Hershey Park. We thought, hey why not try and get a free ride on a roller coaster. And we had great luck, and a sympathetic park employee help us out. It was quite a scene as the 5 of us, spandex clad, dashed though the park and into front row seats they reserved for us on their most intense roller coaster. What a day!

Welcome to PA!

We made it to Pennsylvania! Orientation in Providence was a real blast. After a build day in Providence, we dipped our tires in the Bay and then made moves west. Below is the work we got done in one morning! We showed up with just a foundation, and managed to get a good portion of the floor finished.

So far our longest day was 75 miles. Connecticut has way more hills than anything I trained on, but riding with a group, this hills seem not so steep, and we keep an eye on each other. So far I think my favorite stretch of riding has been through the Delaware River Water Gap. It's a beautiful section of forest that surrounds the water gap, and we had some quiet roads to cruise on. No flats yet (knock on wood) and the bike is feeling great. For anyone wondering about what our riding is like, we generally cruise at about 15 or 16 mph, but a lot slower when going up hills. My current max speed was down a huge hill in NY and I went 44.7 mph. I didn't know bikes went that fast... really.

Our second build day was in Danbury, CT. They were awesome hosts. For my build day I worked on a house that will one day be a transition house for veterans moving from a shelter, then into their own place. It was a cool aspect of affordable housing that I just don't learn about too often. The picture above is of Jenny, Steven, my and Sonya taken just earlier today, and our trailer is in the back.

Thanks for checking in! Bike and Build is already proving such an amazing experience. The people we've been meeting have been so generous. Riding has been a blast too. Yesterday we got poured on, but we're all just so excited to be doing what we're doing that I felt like not one of us missed a beat. We cranked our way through NJ and into PA. This morning I feasted on a WaWa soft pretzel and chatted with a super excited crowed at the register. Looking out the window of my beloved wawa I saw lots of blue Bike and Build jerseys cruising on by, and it felt just perfect.

-Rob