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!