Big days. Big days

Ok, so I think the last time I updated was Granby, CT. Still on Noam's iphone, except now I'm in Binghamton NY. Let's see... Granby to Kent was a fifty mile day, some hills etc, I mainly remember the end of the ride, just some awesomely fun hills, really shaded and pretty. This was also the ride on which i got a deli to donate four giant brownies to me, noam, chas, and thiese, and they were delicious. Then noam and i got everyone lost and added two miles to the ride. Fortunately this was an easy section, before the big hills leading to " Action Wildlife" which was a huge zoo/ petting zoo. Fun to look at some zebras. AlSo we stopped at David Curtiss sculpture, which is just his house with a bunch of awesome animAl sculptures that he made in the yard. I'm sure there will be pictures of it online on the bikeandbuild website, our pics should be up soonish or now. Oh right so Kent school is where we stayed; they are very well-equipped for a high school: showers, crazy nice fields, etc. The local habitat supporters that brought us food were really friendly and brought great food; also one of the main sponsors for the food was Sean Donovan; he is Obama's HUD secretary! So that was pretty cool.

Next day was Kent to poughkeepsie, ny, which should have been an easy thirty miles. But the cue sheet was a little confusing, my group was way in front with no chalk marks to follow, we were trying to book it to catch a world cup soccer game, etc. Long story short, add fifteen miles to the start of the ride, make the end of the ride really hilly, and hot, and not that interesting, and it was just not a lot of fun. But we did finally get to poughkeepsie, and even though the public pool was closed, there was a thrift store in the church and I got a rugby jacket, and we had a lot of nice cool downtime in the church basement. Also I found an ny commercial liscense plate on the ride, so thAt was cool, and also I got rid of a lot of other stuff that I can't believe I thought I needed. Bike and build makes you realize how little you actually need. At this point, I actually have no trouble fitting all of my stuff in my plastic box, which is good because my jeans won't stay up without the belt that I was using to hold the box shut. Also random but on this ride, after the gross hilly part that I did not like, there was an awesome awesome mile of intense downhill. Then some more hilly, then Ny-55, which is a pretty unfriendly place for bikers. Got cursed out and honked at a bunch. Poughkeepsie's a neAt-looking industrialish city.

Next day was a 75-miler to Roscoe NY, and I was riding sweep with Anthony L. Sweep means that you ride behind everyone else and make sure that everyone gets in ok. It started really fun and easy, and we "donation-magicked" a bike pump for half price. Donation magic is when you get places to give you things for free or at a discount, for example I got a bike store to fix another one of our bike pumps for free the day before. Anyway it was a very pretty ride, Anthony donation-magicked us some free clif bars in a climber-diner at the foot of the Gunks, which is a big ny climbing spot. We were talking to some climbing-spectators that we passed on the way up and one of them thought we were married. Hilarious. Also we enjoyed 'sweep messages' left there by Mallory and other riders. The day took a turn for the worse at lunch, which was when the weather started getting really hot, I was exhausted from too much sun (sweep means that you keep waiting for other riders to get ahead -you are just outside for a much longer time than you normally would be). And lunch didn't have enough water for everyone. And the next town's water was full of sulphur, so we couldn't fill up there, ended up filling Anthony's camelbak from some nice person's hose. Also this was the day of thousands of roadkill. Easily saw thirty animals of all kinds- frog, beaver, a squirrel still alive that dragged itself off the road with only its front legs, etc. I will be driving a lot less after this, it kinda disgusts me right now. Also later on this ride, we were riding on the shoulder of a big freeway, bit there was construction and the freeway shut down to one lane, and the shoulder was pretty bad, and this van that couldn't pass us in like, the 100 feet that this lasted for decided to pull into a gas station, speed around to get in front of us, almost run Anthony over when it got back on the road, and proceed to try to run us all off the road. Another member of drive-and-destroy, the antithesis of bike-and-build. Anyway, one rider got so dehydrated that she had to get picked up in the van, the van had to come and bring us even more water (because we couldn't finish the ride until everyone else did), and we finally got into the host site at six fifteen, over two hours after we were allowed to...never been so exhausted. Went to bed at nine because we were getting up at five the next day.

This is when I started to realize how weird it is to sleep in a different place every night and actually only have yourself and your box and your bike with you. So strange, one morning the song Bob Dylan's "like a rolling stone" came on and it made a lot of sense, the strangeness but also empowerment of having yourself and being pretty detached from everything else. Neat once you're used to it.

Next day was Roscoe to Binghamton, 85 miles. We got up early so we were on the road before seven -so nice to be outside when it's cool out and you're alone, etc. Gabe, a trip leader, rode with me forost of the morning and taught me a better way to tuck -lean way down and get your shoulders and half your torso in front of your bike so that your shoulders are resting on the tops of the brake levers. I hit 48.7 mph!!! But also I almost threw up because I almost crashed because my jersey zipper got stuck in my handlebars and I couldn't get out of my tuck or hit the brakes. Scary. After mile fifty I totally had way too much sun (it was around 11:30 at this point) and I died and had a really hard time getting to mile 70. But I did, and it was our second lunch, and leader Paige fed me orange slices, and I felt way better (also I changed back into my chammys - padded riding spandex - after wearing shorts earlier because I was chafing - chafing is a killer on this trip - oh how we love chammy butter and Vaseline and gold bond powder and even diaper rash cream for some people, etc). Oh right so after second lunch we pounded it and despite some minor drive-and-destroy (truck route signs and bike-lane signs never belong on the same highway) we VERY happily rolled into Binghamton, cheering on the way into the church parking lot. A big downer was that one of the leaders who rode sweep got really dehydrated and had to go to the emergency room after finishing her ride for iv fluids.

The next day was a day off, so most of us had a pretty relaexed night cuddling and watching Clue in the church basement rec room. Very gracious hosts, made some great baked ziti. Slept in late the next day, woke up STARVING at ten am. After having breakfast until noon, checking email, having lunch, getting dressed, having a snack (sensing a theme? Our metabolisms are Crazy right now), we walked around Binghamton, got cursed out (admittedly ten or so white people walking around in mostly athletic/travel clothing sticks out) a few times by cars, I got six of us into the pool for free. Actually, after I gave the bnb donation magic pitch, the lifeguard said "I believe you; you don't look like you're from around here. Don't sound like it either". But the pool was supernice, and then I donationmagicked free toy story 3 movie tickets for four of us. The movie Rocked. Then Sam got eight of us 20% off at what was apparently 'south binghamton's best diner', then bike cleaning, then packing, then bed.

I'm actually finishing this blog update the day after the rest day in Binghamton. Today was a really nice easy 60-miler from binghamton to Wysox, PA. Rode with varying people, mostly Brittany and Sarah. we are in pretty rural country - super prettty ride, also Brittany and I got to pass a tractor on a road! Exciting hahahahaha I need more exciting things haha...

So now I'm finally all caught up on blogging, yay. You all can go to bikeandbuild.org and click on route tracker, then providence to Seattle (p2s), and then see pictures and whole group blog updates. Also you can find mail drops and instructions on the website, I would LOVE some mail. Just make sure to send it via the postal advice (ie US Mail) so that the post offices will hold it for us.

Also I forgot to get anyone's addresses before I left - if you want to email your address to me at slickasapenguin@gmail.com I will totally send you a postcard.

Also this is pretty itinerary-style posting - forgets to mention a lot ofthe cool stuff were seeing and people were meeting, and also everyone here ROCKS yay yay yay pretend I'm writing more goofy sweep love messages guys!