Oops!

Dear friends and casual readers,

Forgive my lack of recent blog updates. I have been both away from the internet in the past three weeks as well as happily seeking distraction with new friends and thus I have been avoiding my blogging duties. Now that we are almost one month in (wow! I'm actually not far from the Mississippi River as I write this) and the getting-to-know-you phase of group bonding is subsiding, I promise more frequent updates.

Since Day 6 highlights of my trip have included: crossing the Eastern Continental Divide in Pennsylvania, taking the World's Steepest Vehicular Inclined Plane from Johnstown, PA, fighting packs of barking dogs in West Virginia (and Kentucky and Indiana and Illinois), the Habitat Builds in Morgantown, WV and Lexington, KY, my homestay with Emma at Jan Taylor's house in Lexington, our visit to the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Distillery in KY, our visit to the Taylor Made Horse Farm in Lexington, KY, my day at the races in Louisville, KY, the magical evening in New Harmony, IN, and finally the 13 miles of gravel roads and torrential downpours through Illinois.

Entries on all of the above to come soon.

What I'm looking forward to?? Crossing the Mississippi River tomorrow and heading to the Gateway to the West!

Day 6: Hazleton, PA

My first Habitat build! Half our group of riders arrived at the Berwick, PA site prepared to help until lunchtime. Like Habitat of Greater New Haven, the Habitat chapter in Hazleton focuses on refurbishing dilapidated houses as opposed to building new structures. The site we visited today is a duplex that was almost completly gutted to the frames. Our mission was to remove the remaining hanging cabinets in the kitchen, clean and paint the second floor hallway and remove the chipping paint from the porch railings. After an unsuccessful bid to find screwdriverrs (Sam had the only drill) to help with the kitchen cabinets, I moved to cleaning and painting duty. With five of us going at the walls with ammonia drenched sponges, the cleaning went fairly quickly. However, the walls were caked in dirt up to about my hip level. In the history of this house hundreds of children must have run up and down these stairs running muddy fingers along the walls. No one could have ever cleaned it before today.

We quickly sprang into action armed with Chlorine cleanser and a bucket of water from next door. Though we couldn't r emove all of the dirt (it was that thick), what we could not remove, we just painted over. Grimey gray walls turned into fresh egg shell canvases awaiting the next wave of dirty-fingered kids.

Today we also reaped the benefits of yesterday's media frenzy. At yesterday's lunch break, reporters came to interview riders. One photographer stood at the top of the hill to take pictures of our entry into Jim Thorpe, PA, and a news crew came to video our lodgings in Hazleton. When we woke up today, we learned we were front page news in the lead paper and the number one spot on the local evening news!

Day 5: Stroudsburg, PA to Hasleton, PA

I missed the entry that brought us into Pennsylvania, but we have officially arrived. That hit home when I entered the local diner only to be greeted by a wall of cigarette smoke. Apparently in PA, you can still smoke inside restaurants. This was a blast from the past as the last time I requested the non-smoking section I must have been in my teens.

Today was also the longest ride we've had as of yet. 59 miles from Stroudsburg to Hazleton, most of which included some heavy climbing. In fact we gained 1,500 feet in elevation over the course of the day. From the Delaware River Valley to the foothills of the Appalachians I'm becoming quite the climber. Although, honestly, if I's going to make it to San Francisco, I don't have much of a choice.

Tonight we celabrated Frances' 21st birthday which involved more than a little revelry.

Maximum speed: 38 mph.

Day Three: Monroe, NY to Port Jervis, NY

Welcome to riding in the rain. An instant tuturial in keeping warm and safe while travelling along at 15 mph. During training, whenever it rained I simply went to the gym and rode the exercise bike in a dry, climate controlled facility. Unfortunately, one does not have that option when you must get to your destination for the day.

Unlike yesterday's ride there are no "major" mountains between Monroe and Port Jervis. Granted all of the Northeast us generally hilly so our ride along US 6 did include some hills but nothing like Bear Mountain.

One thing I did really appreciate about our ride today was the breaks. We stopped for ice cream at the Firehouse Deli and Ice Cream Shop just off Route 84 on US 6. We sat on plastic patio furniture inside the glorified convenience store and enjoyed massife portions of Hershey's ice cream. $2.25 gets you about three times as much ice cream in Greenville, NY then in Northampton, MA.

Maximum speed 33.5mph.

Bear Mountain

Day two: Ridgefield, CT to Monroe, NY

C-Siggies be proud of me, I climbed Bear Mountain in the middle of a 45 mile ride from Ridgefield to Monroe! We did it at about 6 mph. It was tough, and shook my confidence of how I will handle the Rockies, but we'll hit those seven weeks from now and I will worry about them then.

We also crossed our first state line today. There are some wonderful pictures of a group of us standing in front of the "Welcome to New York" sign in South Salem (Sara Whiting's hometown!) with pants down and bottoms up so to speak (I'm not sure if those will ever enter the public domain) as well as some standard victory shots. Later, we learned that the ground around said sign was completely covered in poison ivy, which has sent me into hypchondriatic fits of itching around my ankles. No bumps or oozing yet.

Thank you also to the First Presbyterian Church who hosted us for dinner tonight and Bob and Marian Mahran who graciously invited Lisa, Morgan, and I into their home (and guest beds!) for the evening. This gesture of kindness to a complete stranger will certainly not go unforgotten as well as the example set by their daughter Jen the world traveler and charity entrepreneur.

Miscellaneous thoughts: Squirrels will jump out in front of a bicycle as easily as they will dart in front of a car. Maximum speed today: 36 mph.

First Day!

Day one: New Haven, CT to Ridgefield, CT

Connecticut can kill a cyclist with its hills. During my SIG with NYCC I considered myself a strong rider, but I was not prepared for hills and valleys of the magnitude found in Southern Connecticut. Unfortunately, 35 miles in to my very first ride my body completely crashed. It may have been the 90 degree heat and humidity or the change in diet or lack of good sleep or some kind of stomach bug, but somewhere around Redding, CT my digestive tract completely shut down. I felt nauseous and diarrhetic at the same time, and didn't feel comfortably moving 15 mph on my bicycle. The support van picked me up and I sulked the rest of the way to the church in Ridgefield.

Orientation

May 30-June 1, New Haven, CT

For two and a half days all the HBC riders descended upon New Haven for a test ride, safety and preparedness lectures, and a meet-and-greet with the other members of our respected trips. My 30 mile test ride on Thursday morning went swimmingly, and I have included below a few gems of information that I observed from these few days,

What I learned from orientation:

Pack your bags quickly. Of course, this is extremely difficult for me due to my extremely sloth-like behavior in the a.m. I spend more time staring into space trying to remember my name then actively squishing my sleeping bag into a manageable container. Unfortunately for me, most of the other members of my trip seem to not be afflicted with this condition, and I am usually the last person to drop my bag off by the trailer.

Carry earplugs. Snoring can ruin any one's night sleep, especially before a 30 mile ride around New Haven.

Thermarests should be inflated. This one speaks for itself. The first night I slept in the St. Thomas Moore church at Yale, I didn't realize that my thermarest would not completely inflate all by itself.