Wichita Falls, TX to Altus, OK

This is the journal that I was assigned to write for the group journal page.

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It was another early morning for the Bike and Build crew as we woke up at 4:30am in the Wichita Falls YMCA. Breakfast was the usual simple Bike and Build meal: cereal, bananas, oranges, and coffee. You’d think it’d be easy enough to make it through the morning uneventfully, but some people (or maybe just this person, heh) tried to refill the industrial sized coffee maker and instead managed to get coffee everywhere because she couldn’t figure out how to stop the water from pouring through the filter even though the coffee maker was off. Hm . . .

As people started heading out that morning towards our next new state (Oklahoma), I discovered one of the more unpleasant things of a typical Bike and Build day: the dreaded flat tire in the morning. With the wear and tear of each day’s biking, it usually happens at least once a week to somebody on the trip, but each time, it never fails to be a surprise. Becca Bainbridge waited for me to change my tire, and we finally headed out as the last people before sweep, who are the two riders that are assigned to ride in the back for the day.

Along the way, we turned onto a new road that we would to be riding on for nine miles and promptly encountered a bright orange sign that said, “ROAD WORK: NEXT 8 MILES.” As we bumped along, we exchanged stories to pass the time and distract ourselves from the “mildly uncomfortable” butt massagers that our bikes had become. When the road work ended, we started riding a lot faster since the road was nicer, but we had only gone a few miles before Becca yelled, “Stop! Camels!” As confused as I was, I stopped anyway and saw Becca pointing at the small herd of camels that were grazing on the other side of the road. We took some pictures, and I chalked the road with “Camels! <=,” so that the riders behind us would see the chalk and the camels. (They did indeed stop and ended up crossing the street and seeing the camels up close. Some of the camels even walked up to the fence so that the riders could pet them.)

Usually chalk is used to indicate which direction to turn on a confusing street or whether we should turn off for lunch, but sometimes it can really be used for anything, like when we chalked that there were camels. Riding along, we saw lots of random, fun things like “=),” “I wish I were on a boat right now,” and my favorite, “STOP: Hammer time.”

After lunch, we encountered some serious, 15-20 mile headwind that did not let up for basically the whole 50 miles we were on that road. We usually try to take breaks every 15 miles or so on a normal ride day, but that day, we stopped after 2 miles to go to the bathroom and then 8 miles after that because we were exerting so much energy. As we approached the only shade we had seen for the past ten miles (a barn by someone’s house), we could see a convertible in the driveway with two curiously unmoving people sitting on the back of it. As we got closer, we realized that it was two mannequins dressed in bikinis sitting on top of this classic style convertible just hanging out on the front lawn. It was certainly . . . unique. We weren’t the only ones to think that either. While we sat in the shade of the barn, we watched as a random SUV stopped in front of the house. A woman came running out of it to pose in front of the convertible while her husband took a picture. She then ran back into the car, and it just drove off, perhaps not even seeing the tired bikers huddling in the shade nearby. We took some of our own pictures before leaving, hoping that the owners didn’t mind too much that we enjoyed their little oasis of shade in the endless road of powerful headwind.

Becca and I toiled on for many more miles before we finally turned onto a new road away from the wind so that it became a tailwind. We zipped along the smooth flat road, thoroughly enjoying the fact that we could actually coast downhill without coming to an abrupt stop because of the wind working against us. We crossed the border into Oklahoma (and took pictures with the state sign) and made it to the host with a few minutes to spare. It was a long, hot day, but it was definitely a boost each time we saw something unexpected on the road, be it silly chalk or bikini-clad mannequins on someone’s front lawn. The things you see on the road in a day of Bike and Build . . .

Updates from the road

Since it is so difficult for me to access the internet on the road, I have opened up a twitter account: http://twitter.com/ninabikes so I can use my phone to send text messages about what I am doing and have it posted online. These short updates (think of it as a mini blog) will only appear on twitter and not on my main blog, so hopefully I'll be able to let you guys know more about what I am doing. Feel free to leave comments about anything (either on the blog or through twitter); I'd love to hear what you guys think! :)

Carthage, TX to Athens, TX

Today's route: 94 miles from Carthage, TX to Athens, TX

We woke up this morning at 5am in the house of a previous Southern U.S. Bike and Build rider. I was sleeping alone on a recliner in a room in the corner and did not hear the wakeup call, so I did not actually get up until 5:20 when I heard people moving around outside. I packed my bag as quickly as I could (the rule is that no one eats breakfast until all the bags are packed in the trailer) and actually managed not to be the last person packed. We then had a delicious breakfast of pancakes, cereal, coffee and orange juice, amid the chaos of everyone filling up their water bottles and cleaning their bikes.

Lots of people had already left by the time I was ready, and there were only about 5 riders left, including sweep, which are the two riders who are assigned to ride in the back to make sure everyone is okay. I left at around 7am with Rebecca Carter, and we headed out into the Texas sun. Well, it was actually more like Texas dense fog, and it was very eerie riding through fog so thick that visibility was only a few feet. Thoughts of Stephen King's The Mist kept coming to mind.

Rebecca and I took turns leading as we zipped down the road thinking that everyone was way ahead of us because they left so early. We ended up passing some of the slower riders (we affectionately call them "The Slugs") and a large group of at least 10 people that were waiting for someone to change a flat tire. We finally caught up to another group that was riding and traveled with this group until we reached the first lunch stop. The group pulled in just as the van was parking, so we were the first group to arrive. I was thrilled because I had never been in the first group to arrive at lunch and especially not after leaving almost last.

After lunch, (including some delicious donated lunch meat...lunch never has meat usually since it's too expensive to buy), we all headed out to the pool party that was being held at mile 70. The hosts were the family of yet another Southern U.S. alum, and everyone was excited for the break in the long day. Three miles from the party though, we encountered construction and freshly paved roads. While this is a plus for cars, it is completely impossible to bike on because gravel would get stuck in the wheels and lock the bike up, and many people ended up with melted tar all over their wheels. Becca Bainbridge and I alternated between biking 20 feet, stopping to get out all the rocks, or just walking the bikes in the grass. Those three miles took us about an hour, and all we wanted was to go to the pool party. When we finally made it, everyone just relaxed and had some delicious food and ice cream. We also found out that some people managed to hitchhike their way across the construction, while others got a ride from the van or just toiled through it like Becca and I did.

When we left, we biked the last 25 miles mostly on a very narrow road with no shoulder and rolling hills. Kerri and I almost got run off the road by a semi passing another semi, but still managed to make it to the host right before 7pm. It was a long day and will be another long day tomorrow (~100 miles again: the mileage on the website is not necessarily up to date, but as of today, everything listed for before July 4th is correct). Our average mileage is way more than the original stated 65, but by the end of trip, riding multiple centuries (100 mile rides) in a row will be a piece of cake for everyone. Although hopefully not something that we would need to continue doing after Bike and Build. :P

Hello from Marianna, Florida!

Hi Bike and Build friends!

I am presently in a public library in Marianna, Florida on my day off. I have limited access to internet throughout the trip, but I will try to update the blog when I can. In the meantime, you can follow the main trip blog at http://www.bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=SUS&year=2009. There, you will be able to see where we are, how far we've progressed, photos, and the group blog, which is updated every day by a different rider.

Presently, the group blog does not have the most recent posts because we camped out in state parks for the first two biking days of the trip (June 13th and 14th) and did not have access to internet. (We have nice air conditioned hosts for a while now, so no more camping for some time.) All newer the posts should be up soon, and then you can check for daily updates there.

I'll try to post more about what I've done specifically (and pictures of course!), but I have two minutes left on this computer, so more news soon!

Thank you all again!

Hills galore and "stock" photos

So now that school's been over, I've been back at home in a suburb of Philadelphia, biking mostly in Tyler State Park, which is right near my house. Now while it's quite nice having somewhere to bike where I don't have to worry about traffic (like the bike path around Manhattan), I quickly learned that I had been spoiled by the flatness of New York City. What? Biking 30 miles in Manhattan? No problem.

Tyler Park, on the other hand, is apparently Hill Capital. Its own website says, "If you’re riding a bicycle, remember that nearly all of the trails on the west side of the creek are hilly." The first time I went biking there, I discovered that, yes, sometimes I do have to use more than just the middle 2 of 27 total possible gears, hehe.

The good thing about having uphills, though, is that there are downhills. Wheee! I also discovered that it is best to keep one's mouth closed when traveling at high speeds through heavily wooded areas with lots of little, flying bugs. Unless one likes the extra protein.

One of the very few stretches of flat bike path

I did my best to take lots of nice pictures, although everything was so picturesque that I feel like some of them look like stock photos for some kind of park advertisement, haha. In order to include myself in the pictures, I had to pull some Survivorman-esque tricks. For those who do not what that is, it is a TV show where one guy goes out into the wilderness to survive on his own and does all the filming by himself. This means that if he wants footage of himself crossing a river, he has to set up the camera, cross the river, come back across the river he just crossed, pick up the camera, and cross the river a third time to get to his destination. In that same vein, the photo below is staged:


I set the camera precariously on top of sign that said "Caution: Steep Hills" (figures :P) and carefully set the 10-second timer. Then I had to hurriedly get onto the bike and then bike extra slowly past the front of the sign. After biking at a snail's pace for a few seconds, I would bike back to pick up the camera and see if the picture turned out okay. The resulting picture is actually a result of the third try, since on the first try the camera overexposed, and all the picture showed was a massive ray of sunlight. Then on the second try, I didn't get on the bike fast enough and accidentally ended up taking a picture of a passing jogger instead.

I mean, behold! Breath-taking action shot! :D

Past Bike and Builds

Check out the new video that Bike and Build made: learn a little more about Bike and Build, and see some of the cool things I'll be doing this summer!



If for some reason the above video does not work, you can also watch it through the direct link here.

"Bike, bike, bike . . . "

First off, apologies for not updating more often . . . however, finals are finally (pun not intended) over! That means more time for biking, building, and blogging! And other things that begin with "b" . . . er, baking?

Anyway, before school was over, I had gone biking in New York City a number of times. I lived right in the middle of Chinatown, so my friend Becca and I decided to try biking along the south side of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which is a bike path that runs along the edge of Manhattan, separated from traffic. Unfortunately, there was construction along most of that side, including the lovely signs that accompany said construction, "Bikers must dismount and walk bicycles." Becca and I pretty much walked down to the south end of Manhattan before encountering any open bike routes, and even then, we had to bike really slowly to avoid running into the massive swarms of tourists visiting the Statue of Liberty and South Street Seaport.

What? Lots of people would be outside on a sunny Saturday afternoon in New York City? What a silly notion... :P

After that, I would only go biking in the late afternoon/early evening, which actually turned out to be quite nice since there were less people around, and it was cooler outside.
You can see a tiny Statue of Liberty on the left side of the picture to the right.

I also discovered that if I went north instead of south on the greenway, there was no more construction and only miles and miles of beautiful straightaways. While biking, I was not wearing headphones and listening to music as I did all winter at the gym (since it's unsafe). So with nothing to listen to as I biked up the west side of Manhattan, I found myself thinking "bike, bike, bike, bike, bike..." as I spun away on the pedals. At one point I caught myself and briefly wondered if I was going crazy. Naaah.

Riverside park, which I didn't even know existed until I biked straight into it. Cool, huh?




"Bike, bike, bike..."