Crying over Popsicles

Yesterday’s ride was…well…hot. And extremely tiring. I mean. extremely tiring. It was our first longer ride. About 78 miles. And I felt about…ehh…78 of them.

Our morning started off with our usual morning chores and route meetings. This morning, though, was a more somber meeting. Natalie, one of the program directors for Bike and Build, was leaving us. She has been with us since day 1 of orientation, and now she had to leave to go help with the CUS route (central US…Blake’s route). We have all grown rather fond of her, so it was bittersweet to see her go. Before she left we gave her a cinnamon roll hug, which took forever. She also won the sweep challenge with Champion Charlie and Smiling Shayan, so they got a big group hug from the leaders.

We also got blessed by the priest of the church and spritzed with holy water along with our bikes. Then…we were off!

I rode with Hairy Hannah, Dashing Dan, Exuberant Emma, and Cantankerous Connor, and Colorful Corina (who moved on a little ways into the ride). Our sweep challenge for the day was who could find the best roadside item. We pulled over to hydrate and eat and found some massive pine cones. We decided it would be a good idea to wear them for the rest of the day. Hopefully te extra grams wouldn’t weigh us down too much.

Our route took us to a pretty awesome trail that we got to ride for a good portion of our trip. Along the way we passed a random tree with ornaments all over it. We going too quickly for me to get a picture, but it was basically a tree on the side of the road that had huge random ornaments on it. In the middle of a trail. Yeah…Floridians are weird.

We stopped to take a bathroom break, and a couple folks from other groups also came up. Two such folks were Champion Charlie and Smiling Shayan. They were feeling extra sexy in their safety gear (because safety is sexy!), so they decided to show off a little.

The rest of the ride up to lunch was fairly uneventful.

After lunch, however, things got hot. Really. Really. Really hot. We spent most of the last half climbing a hill that truly never ended. I’m pretty sure it’s part of Mt. Everest. Pretty sure. I was struggling. I was tired, hot, on the verge of bonking, going at a much faster pace than I normally do. Thankfully Emma, Hannah, and Dan were all incredibly wonderful and made sure to stop for water [leg] breaks, kept throwing lots of positivity my way, and never made me feel dumb for having a hard time.

After what felt like 30,000 years in the blazing hot sun climbing the mountain that never ends, we FINALLY got to the church. Oh. Did I mention it was at the top of hill that was practically at a 90 degree angle? I was lucky I could still unclip from my pedals by the time I got to the top. When I crawled into the church, I was greeted by a kind old man with a bowl full of Popsicles. I thought I was going to cry. I’ve never been so happy to have a Popsicle in my life.

Shortly after I arrived, we were taken I go get showers. And apparently there was a pool. So as soon as I got clean, I thought it would be prudent to join the others outside and soak the cold water up.

That night a few members of the choir stayed and ate with us. Again, it was absolutely disgusting. Heavy plates, non-human noises coming from the riders, and super droopy eyelids. After dinner my chore group (Quokka Flokka Flame) gave the same presentation out leaders did the previous night.

Normally at night we have those stragglers who stay up super late…not last night. Everyone was out by around 11. And I mean OUT. I think a tornado could have come through and we’d never know.

I hear tomorrow is another 73 mile day…I think I’m coming down with a case of broken legs…

The city of Murals…take 2!

Day two of my ride and I’m still alive and have both of my legs! I know…even I have a hard time believing it. We departed from St. Augustine and headed west to the grand and illustrious city of Palatka.

I began the day with Liz Lemon and Jubilant Jamie. Let me tell you…we made quite the trio coming down A1A.

We got stopped at a drawbridge to let a boat pass, which was pretty neat. Until I realized were stopped at an incline. Which I’m pretty sure is nearly impossible. Once we got going again, I broke away from Liz and Jamie and rode solo for a while. Then, all of a sudden, from behind me I hear some pretty sick nasty beat boxing and rapping going on. Who could it be other than Jammin’ Josiah, and his back ups, Derpy Dillon, and Really Rhys? In addition to serenading me, they let me tag along for a while (they are quite speedy). Dillon rode abreast with for a while and we chit chatted and pedaled along.

We reached lunch around mile 20. Machine Gun Madeline was able to DM us some ice and water from the gas station we were at. In addition to that bit of awesomeness, colorful Corina was talking to a trucker named Derrik whose truck broke down across from us. After talking to him for a while, he donated $100!! It was so unexpected and amazing.

Uh…oops…

Okay, so this is a quick little post. I had a very elaborate and awesome one, but in my lack of sleep stupor I deleted it. So, be on the look out tonight for TWO grand posts about this gradual sleep deprivation ride. But, real quick, we are all safe and sound and extremely tired!

So, never fear y’all! I will continue to fuel your addiction and post a real post this evening.

Please forgive me. And keep reading my blog even though I’m a dummy.

A1A…Beach Front Avenuuuuueeee

Well…today was the big day! Our first.actual.ride. Holy crap…am I really going to do this?? Am I actually going to bike across America?? Yes. Yes I am.

So before each route gets started, they all go to the Atlantic to do their wheel dip. We biked out to the beach and took a few minutes to take pictures with each other and our bikes before our infamous dip.

Once we had some time to play in the water, we were gathered together and told to get our bikes and take them to the water. Once we all got lined up, we gave our leader, Curious Claire, a letter we wrote to our future selves to read when we get to Monterey. It was a bit of a moment having to write that letter. Not that I would ever openly admit that…anyways! So we all got lined up and that was when it hit me. I am about to do something absolutely amazing and life changing. It was a slightly terrifying yet invigorating moment. And then…it happened. No, I didn’t fall again. And you’re a jerk for thinking I did. We dipped our wheels.

We are really about to do this! All of us. A bunch of young adults looking to do something so much bigger than ourselves.

Once we finished our wheel dip, we took a few more minutes to take some pictures and get each other pumped up with some sweet chants. Then. We began.

I rode with Liz Lemon, Jubilant Jamie, and Exuberant Emma. We were off to a great start until poor Liz got ANOTHER flat tire. Not even 4 miles Into the trip. But, thanks to her flat the day before, she was already a professional. While we were waiting, our sweeps, Daring Dan and Curious Claire, came up and sat and bummed around with us.

Once the new tube was in place, we were off again. We rode down A1A towards St. Augustine, and it was mind blowing the wealth we rode by. Multi-million dollar homes all along our ride, and then utter shacks tossed into the mix as well. It was quite sobering. Don’t get me wrong, some of those houses were absolutely gorgeous and amazing, but then sometimes the next house down was a very run down shack.

For lunch, we stopped alongside the beach along the 30 degree line. Needless to say, I’ve never been so okay with 30 degrees in my life.

Once we finished our sight seeing adventure, we got back on the road. When we rolled into St. Augustine, we headed to our designated spot for the evening.

Now, along this trip, if we don’t have a donated dinner from our nightly host, we have to go perform some DM (donation magic) and try to get local businesses to donate food and drinks for us. Well, we did not have a dinner already donated, so some serious DM was needed. And DM there was. We were given a pineapple upside cake (think Brick Street Cafe or Strossners), a whole watermelon, two huge pizzas, nachos, subs, and deluxe candy (high brow turtles and what not). And we still had leftovers from the lunch and the night before, so we ate pretty well. About 8 helpings later, I was finally full. For about an hour. Did I mention I happily accept snacks at mail drops? Because…I do…

Later that evening we finally started painting the trAiler. And it looks awesome absolutely award winningly gorgeous. Everyone came together and did a fabulous job

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Once we finished painting the trailer, we decided it was time to celebrate our first ride. We hopped on down to a local brewery and enjoyed a nice cold refreshing beverage as a reward. While there, I got chatted up by a gentleman who was old enough to be my grandfather. But he was very nice and had a lot of interesting conversation topics. We discussed Greenville (he had been there before and had friends who lived there), religion (he is a world religion and philosophy teacher at St. John’s in St. Augustine), Bob Jones, and, of course Bike and Build. He was quite impressed with our endeavor and wished us luck on our journey. side note: I paid for my own drink…just so we’re clear

Once we finished our beers we headed back to the host site. From there, we all walked like the walking dead to our thermarests and sleeping bags. I’m actually not sure that I even remember my head hitting the pillow.

Well, that about sums up the first ride day of the summer! Hopefully y’all were much cooler reading this than I felt while riding the route.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

Yes! Day three and I still haven’t wimped out and gone home! Whoop whoop!

Today was the day we finally got to show our bikes some love. We started off the day with a bike maintenance “class”.

We went over how to change an inner tube and tire. Thankfully I had to do both before coming on the trip (per Blake), do I felt pretty confide turning that portion. We also went over degreasing and lubing your chain, another thing I felt confident about. We then delved into more complicated territory and went over brake adjustments. Basically, I’m a professional now. Unless the problems extends past the realm of tires, chains, or brakes. Then you’re on your own.

We then moved on to safety drill portion of our day. There were three stations that we had to go through: clipping in and out, looking back, and calling out obstacles and stops. I just knew since everyone would be watching I was going to fall at some point in the day, most likely during the clip in/out drill. Well, two clip in and clip outs later, I managed to keep my elbows and knees off the asphalt.

Next was the looking back drill. Essentially, Curious Claire would stand back and hold up one, two, or no arms and we would have to look back while riding, call out the number of arms, and continue riding in a straight path. Minimal risk of me falling and looking like a total dork. So we go through the drill a few times (I looked like I was biking drunk when I attempted to do this), and I was waiting to go again, and somehow, standing, at zero miles per hour I managed to fall completely over. Right in front of everyone. Yeah. What a dork. Thankfully, only 4/5’s of the group saw me. As if that was comforting.

The final drill was fairly uneventful. UNTIL these dungeons and dragonsesque guys showed and started sword fighting. Yes. SWORD FIGHTING. Oh. Not impressed? Did I mention they were in armor??

Needless to say, Jolly JB and I HAD to get a picture with them. It was pretty legit. There was also a super trippy manatee sculpture that I just had to snag a pic with as well

Then came the SHAKEDOWN RIDE. Da da duuuuuunnn. Basically, we went on a quick 20 mile ride to simulate what most of the next 77 days are going to be like. We rode in groups of 6, and everyone was responsible for making proper calls and hand signals. We managed to have our first flat on the ride. Poor Liz Lemon had to perform some quick professional bike maintenance and patch her tube that had been deflated via a pinch flat. Once she got everything squared away we got back on the road and managed to make it through the route with no more issues.

That night the folks from Beaches Habitat came and grilled for us. It was absolutely delicious. Before dinner, however, Liz Lemon, Cantankerous Conner and I made some awesome new friends who taught us how to make those rubber band bracelets, and actually made some for us. They were both adorable and incredibly sweet.

That night we got our final pep talk for our big day coming up…day one of the actual ride. How did it go? Well, I guess you better hope I manage to write tomorrow so you can know if I made it or not…insert intense cliff hanger music here

Builds, Bathing, and Biceps

Oh look what we have here! Two consecutive days of blogging. I think I deserve a reward. Possibly in my first mail drop? Hmmmm…

So, yesterday was our first build day. We worked alongside Beaches Habitat for Humanity here in Jacksonville.

As you can see, we are an absolutely gorgeous and construction-minded group. Now, look behind us and observe the sizes of these homes. These will become 2-story duplexes just minutes away from the beach for families that are in need of affordable housing. And we get to be a part of the process. Talk about an amazing feeling. Tasks included: installing towel racks, painting, shingling, painting the outside of the house, interior structuring, and installing hardiboard. I worked with Smiling Shayan and our task leader Ron and helped install hardiboard to the exterior of the house. Needless to say, it’s going to be the best looking backside of a house ever.

Once our build was finished that afternoon, we got to take a shower. It was probably the best shower I’ve taken to date. But I’m sure that will be a common feeling throughout the duration of this hot sweaty trip.

Once we all got showered up and began enjoying our short-lived time of being clean, we congregated outside and began drawing up designs to paint on our trailer.

Once we have a final result, I will be sure to post the glamour shots.

We had a few more presentations and group activities. We created a charter for our group that listed out our daily goals and overall spirit for this trip. We also celebrated Dashing Dan’s birthday by smothering him with some SUS love and birthday serenades

We also had a most epic arm wrestling match. Champion Charlie and Jubilant Jaimie squared off and had a battle of the biceps and Jubilant Jaimie was able to walk away with the victory. note: Jubilant Jaimie is possibly 4’10”, and maybe 100 lbs soaking wet. Champion Charlie is about 5’9″ and normal man sized Can’t Go Wrong with Gaurang acted the Herb Dean of the match to make sure Jubilant Jaimie didn’t pop some roids in the middle of the match. There were no official reviews required to know who the victor was.

Once again, everyone was quite exhausted at the end of day, so going to bed proved not to be an issue once again. We also did not get any fun late night visitors either. We did, however, get to have a laugh at one of our member’s expense. Chainsaw Chuck* was going to town on some logs in his sleep. And since Loopy Laura and I have become floor mates, we both giggled til we cried at this. We are such good friends because we are both obviously very mature. Go us.

*alliterations have been changed to protect the identity of the slumberjack

Adolescent Ashley

So, for all you interested parties who are wanting to keep up with me on this epic journey, I know I said I would only post once a week. However, the new tentative plan is to post each night about the previous day. Obviously this is not always the case, but be on the lookout because you never know when a new little nugget will appear.

So, all that being said, let’s talk about the infamous first day!

Since our meeting spot was in Jacksonville, I was fortunate enough to procure a ride since it is not too far away from G-vegas. And since Blake is such an awesome friend, he agreed to wake up at 530 in the am to drive down to Columbia with me and meet up with some fellow SUSers (SUS is code for Southern US, which is the route we are taking). We may have gotten there a little ahead of them (about2 hrs ahead…) so we posted up in a gas station and decided I play some card games. Blake also decided it would be cool to take my phone when I went to get the cards and take some pictures so I wouldn’t forget what he looked like. Despite that, I owned him at some speed. He then turned the tables and kicked my butt at some other card game that was monstrously intense and fun. Once the rest of the group (Gaurang, Shayan, Molly M, and Molly B) arrived we loaded up and hit the final leg to JAX.

Check in quick and smooth and we did a few ice breaker games to learn everyone’s names (to be listed further down) and things about each person. We went through many information laden presentations and learned more about what to expect during the best summer ever! We then made our way to the local community center where we would be sleeping and unloaded our gear. We were then divided up into our chore groups and put on short skits demonstrating the do’s and don’t’s of B&B. We then named our groups and continued to get to know each other. Our group is the Quokka Flokka Flame and we are adorably gangster (a quokka is an actual animal, and Wokka flokka flame happened to rhyme and have the same number of syllables). The group consists of Colleen, JoBeth, Dusty, Josiah, and myself. Best chore group ever.

Oh. There was also a push up group. I was obviously not part of it…

That night everyone was EX. HAUST. ED. Going to sleep was NOT an issue for anyone. Although, we did discover at midnight that no one informed the cleaning crew we’d be there, and we were as surprised as he was when he opened the door to the room that held a bunch of tired bikers.

The entire group dynamic seems fantastically positive and upbeat, and everyone seems very easy going and personable. We will see how true that is on those century days in 90+ degree heat with 80% humidity.

Now, as promised, everyone in the group’s names along with an alliterates adjective chosen by them to describe themselves:

Daring Dan, Gregarious Greg, Jubilant Jaimie, Can’t Go Wrong with Gaurang (pronounced similarly to “go wrong”…clever, right?), Loopy Laura, Magnificent Morgan, Creepy Colleen, Curious Claire, Marvelous Marlee, Jolly JB, Dashing Dan, Hairy Hannah, Magic Micah, Daunting Dusty, Cantankerous Conner, Derpy Dillon, Champion Charlie, Excellent Elle, Menacing Megan, Liz Lemon, Smiling Shayan, Machine Gun Madeline, Musical Molly, Mellow Molly, Jammin Josiah, Killer Katie, Kit Kat Kirstin, Colorful Corina, Really Rhys, Angela, and Emma (I’m a horrible person because I can’t remember their adjectives, but once I find out, I’ll be sure to post them). And from this point, everyone will be referred to by their alliterated names. Just to keep things interesting. Oh yeah! I forgot mine…in case you didn’t put two and two together, it is the title of this post: Adolescent Ashley. Because I refuse to be old. Ever.

So yeah! That was day one. All condensed into one, not-so-short post. I am beyond excited about this summer and what memories are in store for me, the other awesome people in this group, and the people we will be making connections with along the way.

-AA

Prepping for 80 days behind bars

80 days worth of living has been squeezed, rolled, stuffed, and squished into one little Rubbermaid container. I don’t think I have ever managed to reach such a masterful level of packing, even after moving every 6 months for the past three years. But knowing (well, not knowing, actually) the adventure ahead that this box represents is beyond thrilling: 80 days spent bicycling across America with the goal of enriching and changing people’s lives by building new affordable housing for those who need it. 80 days of either pedaling or power-tooling. 80 days spent sweating, drinking enough water to drown a fish, and consuming more calories I ever dreamed possible. 80 days to try and make a difference in other people’s lives (but more likely seeing a change in mine). 80 days spent behind [handle]bars, and I could not be more excited!