Instant Photo Blog!

High: tumblr.com

Low: 4 miles of Gravel roads today...

So! Thanks to Mary Ellen Hitt, one of the awesome riders on this trip, she's helped me set up a tumblr.com account. Using this account I can instantly send texts & photos to my blog from my phone... but the catch is its a different URL: http://stephaniemcbride.tumblr.com/. BUT it's going to be awesome, because you'll be able to get instant photos and updates on what I'm doing, even if I don't have internet!!! It's going to be more of a photo blog with captions, and I'll keep this one for longer entries that let you know more about what I'm doing and seeing.

Century

High: 115 Miles, & with a good friend from home!

Low: 90 degrees & more...

Since Paris, KY was the last time we talked, I've got a lot of catching up to do! The ride from Flatwoods, KY to Paris, KY was absolutely amazing. 115 miles! Ryan, my friend from Cincinnati, you know who you are, joined us for the day. Even though he dropped me after the first half hour, we got to catch up at the lunches and chat. I learned all about how their graduation went and what everyone back at UC is up to!

Back to the 115... it was easy! Sort of... it was definitely overwhelming at first, but I rode with the meatballs and Connor and Robbie joined along too! We all did a great job of keeping conversation and focusing on small goals to get the 115 under our belt. The first goal was first lunch, then 1,000 mile mark (for the entire trip), then second lunch, then 100 miles (for the day) then the host! (which was a YMCA & pool) Once we were in, many of the riders also worked a lot of donation magic to score some pretty awesome dinner additions, pizza & ham sandwiches! It was delicious and a great end to the day. Everyone's spirits were up because of the great success with donations and the mileage, it's great to have the century under our belts, especially since everyone did it! I'm so proud of all the riders, especially considering the next day was an 85 miler... (my legs were in no good shape...crampy, but it happens!) Oh! And another high for this day, MAIL DROP! I got my camera, and some wonderful surprises from my family and friends :-) thank you guys!!

After Paris, we went to Louisville KY!! This was the 85 miler, very hard day... it was relatively hot and since our legs had done a hundred plus the day before, it was pretty hard to get the 85 done. I had some great motivation though, the following day was a day off! That night the B&B crew did a "Bambi Walk" (pub crawl) down Bardstown Rd and eventually found a karaoke bar! The highlight was probably Shania Twain, "Man I feel like a woman", not sung by the ladies, but the men of the group! Absolutely hilarious. Meatballs pulls a great rendition of Kings of Leon and Kristie, Megan and I did Queen some justice with Bohemian Rhapsody. Excellent night. My mom, dad, sister & Josh all came down to visit with me the next day, after a good sleep in until 11:00 of course. (Which was amazing, especially when I think about tomorrow's 4:30am wake up.....) We went to Za's for some delicious pizza and then the Coco Cafe for amazing ice cream. Another plus to the Louisville overnight, is that it is home to 3 of our riders, so Laura's family hosted an amazing pot luck dinner the night we got in & Chris's family created a wonderful cook out the next night, complete with home made ice cream! Delicious. Props to ya'lls family's for putting on some great meals. (For that matter, thank you to all the hosts!!)

The day from Louisville to Bedford, INDIANA (I can't believe it...) was relatively uneventful for myself (I was in the van) The riders visited Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby! It was also Kristie's birthday too... It's unfortunate that it was so hot though. The riders all took it in stride though, like real champs. That's one cool thing about riding in the van... I think I've mentioned it before (when I watched everyone climb Leadmine Mountain), it's very inspiring to see others bike 80 some miles in 90 some degree heat. Great job you guys! It always makes me excited to tackle the bike the next day.

Speaking of which... today was an amazing day! 45 miles!!!! We had some riders make it into the host before lunch. It was definitely a relaxing day, good weather, not too hot & good company (as always). This afternoon was wonderful too, since we had so much time to ourselves, a lot of the riders, including myself, were able to catch up on miscellaneous chores. Dinner tonight was also a highlight! The Habitat chapter here hosted us at a nearby farmhouse & made us something other than hotdogs and hamburgers! They baked ham in the ground for 24 hours & also served up some delicious pork, noodles & tasty cherry crumble for dessert. We had lots of vegetables (mom!) which were marinated in a korean sauce and basically ate until we couldn't move. The farmhouse was equipped with a pool, which many of the riders took full advantage of as well as hay bales for sitting and football for fun! It was great to see how much pride the host took in his home and his family when he was introducing himself to the riders. He also said some very nice words about the impact that B&B has upon towns, and reminded me (and hopefully some of the riders) why we're doing what we're doing. I'm sure those kind words will get me through tomorrow's ride. Although, I'll also be sweeping with Kevin "Angel Hair" so it should be a great ride anyways.

Bananas: 14 & counting

PB&J: still avoiding these things....

Red Pudding Dessert stuff: 1.5 pounds

Meatballs

High: easy 55 miler today (we've had some really hard days)

Low: broken chains

Today's blog post is going to outline the best day of riding ever. It wasn't today... but this story will pretty much catch up the blog (sorry again for sparsity).

So the day I'm going to refer to is the day we travelled from Schuylkill Haven, PA (pronounced Skoo-Kill) to Harrisburg, PA. It started with an impromptu hay bail climb on the side of the road. Many riders got scratched up trying to mount the top of the pile! After we got enough of the hay we went onward to be distracted by Hershey Park! Chocolate World was calling our names and we couldn't help ourselves but to stop and explore the park. We got caught up in the Hershey museum, created candy bar wrappers & newspaper articles that we were able to email to ourselves. After we tooled around at the exhibits, we ended up spending a large amount of energy goofing off and ended up at an ice cream shop just across the street. When we walked in, we immediately attracted the attention of the manager and began our Donation Magic. We told him our story and he donated 2 amazing sundae's to the group of 4 riders (including myself) that had made it to the park. While waiting for the sundae's to be made, the manager began to tell us about all the charity work he did. He often staged events to break records in the Guiness Book of World Records to raise money for the causes he was involved with. The one we were most impressed with was creating the world's largest meatball! From then on, the four of us referred to ourselves as "The Meatballs." This group includes Kevin "Angel Hair", Mark "Noodle", Joel "Chef Boyardee" and myself, "Momma Meatball." The three boys easily eat the most food of the group, furthering their names, "The Meatballs." These guys are great, and make my riding days much more enjoyable! I laugh the most when I'm with the Meatballs, as they all have great senses of humor and know how to laugh at themselves (which we do a lot).

We haven't topped the day through Hershey Park yet. Although the next day in Chambersburg came close. We made it to a local carnival, won blow up bat man and superman dolls and rode the MOST TERRIFYING ride ever, called The Zipper. We had a scavenger hunt contest for the best mullet, best child and best outfit. The meatballs won for sure, with a double combo mullet and outfit in one photo. Slushees and bumper cars ensued and eventually the night ended with a good night sleep on a Therm-a-rest.

Since those two wonderful days, we had some incredibly hard days. We experienced the worst combination of the elements: huge milage (90+), hot weather (90+) and insane terrain. The same thing happened the next day and the riders all but passed out upon reaching the host at like 8:00pm. Things have significantly improved since then, today was a 55 miler... like I said in my "High" and was an absolutely wonderful ride. We're at a very accommodating host, with a great facility and with a build day tomorrow, riders will be able to rest up a bit before our 114 mile ride into Paris, KY on Thursday.

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone is well...

Bananas: same

PB&J: same as before

Meatballs: 8 since entering the south :)

Inspiration

High: a 60 mile day, slept in until 6am & got in to the host by 5:00pm!

Low: not having internet in forever, hence the lack of posts, sorry!

I have a lot to catch ya'll up on... there's no way I can do that all now. I'm going to do it slowly, so stay tuned, I don't want to miss anything!

We recently traveled through Stroudsburg, PA & had a build day there. We stayed at a beautiful church in the heart of downtown. The church itself was nestled between two buildings and it was easy to walk right by it. However, the downstairs was beautifully restored and recently renovated... it was honestly like sleeping at a hotel! Zach and I snagged some couches in one of the lounge rooms & had some really good sleep. That night we had a wonderful dinner with our hosts, and after our presentation, the host shared their affordable housing story with us. One of the women was very instrumental in helping out the community and getting affordable housing for members of their parish who didn't speak English or really understand the government. She was able to rally everyone together so that everyone could benefit from the number of people who needed affordable housing. Stroudsburg has a significant problem with affordable housing because it's so close to NYC, people live in PA and work in NYC, driving up the costs of living, pushing the natives out of their homes.

On the next day, we had a build day in Stroudsburg, which was absolutely awesome. Habitat recently moved to purchasing older foreclosed homes and then rehabbing them for family applicants. We were in town when they began demolition on the site. It was so cool, they basically let 30 young students loose in the house with free range of the sledge hammers! Tubs were being torn out and carried downstairs, kitchens were stripped, carpet removed, and more. We filled an entire dumpster before noon. I also got to chat with the homeowner and her 13 year old son, which was really cool. He was telling me about how he volunteers at stables giving therapy to other children who are handicapped. He also told me about his 5 year old sister at home who was bummed out that she was missing out on the build! It was adorable, and really cool to meet the people that we are making an impact on.

There is more to come, but Stroudsburg was a great stop, very inspiring! It's amazing how welcoming and giving everyone is... I can tell it's affecting the riders, and many of them are very humbled by our hosts generosity.

I must be going now! More updates to come soon!

Bananas: I may have lost count but its somewhere around 18
PB&J: I'm somehow avoiding these, maybe 3 total.
We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast! Amazing!

Donation Magic

High: Lunch on top of Bear Mountain

Low: State Route 6...

One fun thing about being a non-profit is a little thing called, "Donation Magic". If companies donate to Bike & Build, in whatever form that may be (food, supplies, bike work/parts etc) they can file for a tax deduction, which is great for them and us. One of our riders, is especially fantastic at Donation Magic, Magical Mark. He's a smooth talking sweetie who rounded up approximately six egg salad sandwiches, ice cream scoops for friends and a plate of homemade cookies. It's a lot of fun, a very nice surprise and usually a spirit lifter. Sort of on a similar note, Bike & Build is also about engaging young adults in a lifetime of service; so today while we were stopped at the top of one of our MANY hills, a local cyclist came up behind us. We certainly had a critical mass of riders and the local began asking many many questions. Turns out, he's old enough to do Bike & Build next year and is going to apply! It was great too, because spreading the word about B&B also inspires the riders. They all have business cards that they pass out and it's so cute when they do :)

Good job today all! It was definitely a tough day (following yesterday!) Today's hills weren't nearly as steep or as many, but they were epic. We finally crossed the Hudson river as well! That was absolutely beautiful, and it's such a different experience while in a bicycle than in a car. I'm driving the van tomorrow (the one that pulls the trailer with everyone's stuff) and am sorta looking forward to a day off the bike (so is my butt).

I know you all are pulling and praying for me - i certainly keep that in mind on these long rides, thank you. Fair well and goodnight!

Bananas: 7

Lunch: PB & Marshmallow fluff sandy :) yummm

Just Keep Swimming

High: Our host for the evening. They've gone to huge lengths to make our stay absolutely amazing! Thank you Danbury United Methodist & Youth Group!!

Low: My butt hurts.

Today was an absolutely exhausting day- 58 miles of climbing. (Or what seemed like it) While we did have several AWESOME downhills, the ups were pretty big. At the end, I think my average up the hills was approximately 3 miles per hour. My crew, consisting of Kristie, Emily, Heather and myself, were stopping frequently to let the legs recover before going farther uphill. When it gets really hard, I drop my hands down on the handlebars and "Just keep swimming." It's tough sometimes, but the peak is well worth it. What's even better is the "chalk" encouragement from fellow riders. This is how we communicate to each other through out the pack and the day. Whenever there is a turn or re-route, we write an arrow or a note on the road for fellow Bike & Builder's behind us. It certainly helps out a lot when you're on a never ending hill and someone ahead of me has written "You are awesome! Keep Riding!" It's great to know that someone else is suffering/has done the hill before you.

Sorry for the short post, I'm exhausted!! We have a really big day tomorrow - 78 some miles & more climbing. Hosts so far have been absolutely amazing, and we have lots of support!

I ate 2 bananas today(forget what the count is up to)
No PB&J's, but I did have a bacon & PB sandwich-I'll count that too.

Plainfield, CT

Highs: Everything went really smoothly today! & we crossed our first state line!!

Lows: I’m a little tired.

So we’ve been incredibly busy lately! Sorry for the lack of posts… We’re finally on the road, and crossed the Connecticut state line. It was a lot of fun and everyone made it safely. Kristie, Laura, and I were sweep and had some interesting adventures along the way. So sweep, if you’re not familiar, are the last people to leave and ride. They’re they designated first aid group and carry extra supplies in case any riders have troubles. No matter how fast you ride, sweep must always be last and stop for everyone. So on our sweep adventures, we paused for a minute to help with a flat tire, and while paused we were spotted by a lovely old man who lived in a beautiful old farmhouse. He had a floor pump for us to use, and thankfully a bathroom too; but the house was absolutely beautiful. The owner had put about $60,000 to restore it and kept it historically correct, it was like stepping back in time! (1758 to be specific) It was a great Bike & Build experience, and I hope to have many more.

Since I last blogged, we’ve been doing lots and lots with orientation and training. We had our first build day yesterday and helped to paint a duplex home in downtown Providence, RI. Everyone did really well and contributed fantastically. The build site (just like the shakedown ride) were so much fun, and we worked really well as a team together.

Tonight we will be having a delicious cookout in Plainfield, Connecticut, hosted by the wonderful United Methodist Church and Rev. Ellie Terry! We have a lot of left over food from last night too – so no PB&J addition today!

Bananas: 5

PB&J: 1