an ode to google maps.

again, xkcd gets it right,:

http://xkcd.com/461/

enjoy

so, I just, like.... biked across a continent, man.


nope. still sounds ridiculous.

Vancouver is nice. Ive been hanging out with Robyn, having a blast visiting Bowin island and helping Robyn move into her new ( sweet) apartment. and NOT biking.

still cant believe i biked here.

ok, time for more napping. I'll be home Saturday.

Sandpoint, ID

so, here we are.... NOT in Montana!
So we had a half-day build today, here in Sandpoint, where I learned to install siding. I just keep adding to my skills list, yay. We've hit the cascades, now, and should be in them for the rest for the trip pretty much. the rest of the trip being..................9 days! including one more build day in Washington! Ack! I cant believe we're come so far, and that time has passed so quickly. I attempting to upload photos now, but i must admit i havnt been taking many photos. I'll just have to steal all of Erik's great photos at the end of the trip.
hmm, I seem to be having some difficulty.
I'll try to put a few up here if it works.
tata for now.

leaving Montana.

oh my goodness.

oh
my
goodness.

Glacier National Park.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK!
GLACIER PARK!
GLACIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow.



Biking is going.... and going..... and going.... we've ridden 3350 miles. 650 miles to go, through the cascades. I CANNOT believe it has passed bye so quickly. we rode through Glacier national Park a few days ago and it was STUNNING. plus, now i can say i've biked over the Rockies!!! woo! it was such a sudden change from seemingly-unending wheat fields to being in the Rocky Mountains. a very welcome change too. ITS SO BEAUTIFUL!

we just finished deciding how to allocate the money we raised, and we're giving sizable donations to six really great organizations doing very interesting builds. I learned how to put up roof shingles with a nail gun. I have ridiculous tan lines. we have 11 days left, and i cant really comprehend that yet, since we have 650 miles left to bike.

and that's the news.

Chinook MT

hello? anyone still out there still reading my blog? Its been forever since I've updated it. lets see. so here's the run down. since Crookston:
wind, wind, then surprising tailwinds yay!!! and fields. lots of fields.

We were just on Hwy 2 to Minot, where we got a welcome day off to just relax. i did nothing. i slept and ate and slept and listened to music and made a significant dent in the amazing mountain of food sent to me in both Duluth and Minot.

Thank You!!!! thanks to Grandpa, I have enough Juicy Fruit gum to last a life time, and between him and my parents, I am feasting like royalty on every sort of cool treat imaginable.

After Minot we went to new town and then to the by-now-infamous Theodore Roosevelt national park. it was absolutely beautiful, until about 2 am when a thunderstorm proceeded to flatten our camp, thoroughly drench us all, and force us to flee to shelter in the bathroom. not the most comfortable place to sleep, but it worked. after that, we got back on to Hwy 2 and have been blessedly free of headwinds since.

there's really not that much to report: we've been pedaling ...a lot.... in mostly a straight line..... past fields..... and more fields.

the days are finally getting rather routine. but that should be shattered in just a few days when we get to ( drum roll please) THE ROCKIES!!
we're going straight through Glacier Nat'l park on the Going To The Sun road, and its going to be amazing. steep, but amazing.

PS, my odometer is going to pass 3000 miles tomorrow. woah.

Crookston, MN

Hello! well, I've passed the half-way point , both in time and distance. my odometer passed 2000 this morning. It was a long day, but perfectly flat, and blissfully windless, so I was cruising. It was so nice. We're on Highway 2 now, and will be... for ever. All through ND and MT As long as the wind isn't tooo punishing, it will be really nice.

the ride since my last post has been lovely. the bike path from St Paul to Duluth was AMAZING!!!!!! it was so beautiful, and it was so nice to never have to think about traffic or directions. Plus, my bike was riding better than it has since the beginning of the trip. I finally cleaned it out well, and In St. Paul, I got a new chain from the aptly named Bicycle Chain. Thank you guys soo much! it feels great, and all the squeaks and shifting problems have disappeared. YAY!

In Duluth we had a ton of fun working with the Land Trust, a great organization doing some really great work. they had a ton of things for us to do, including NOT DIRT! yay. I got to paint trim all day, which I loved. It was nice to work inside houses that were so close to completion. Plus the neighborhood they were developing was really interesting, with the mixture of normal market and Land Trust houses.

Also my phone finally arrived in Duluth after being found in a field along our rout in Wisconsin. Thanks! Also thanks to Tony, Grandpa and Mom for a massive pile of food that arrived there too. very very yummy.

ok, running to a presentation now, hopefully more later. Wish me luck for tomorrow!: 116 miles against the wind. oh, joy. North Dakota, here we come!

St Paul

Hello everyone. I've made it to St Paul, MN.  In one piece.  We just left Wisconsin, which was AMAZING. Such a beautiful state. I love it. Madison especially was nice. It reminded me a lot of Boulder, and had great bike paths.  leaving Madison was also an adventure. We had to get to gays Mills, WI after that, which was a saga. I don't have time to do it justice, so check out someone else's blog to get the details. Suffice to say I  DIDN"T get lost at all, and it still took me 12 hours.  My butt may never forgive me. 

I'm treating it well, tonight, though which might help make amends. We get to stay with  host families! in a real bed!!  YAY! They are super nice, and fill me with yummy things.  we get to be on a nice big bike path for the next two days, too, all the way to Duluth, which should also be wonderful .  

'ny way, I should go collapse in that bed so kindly offered.  Sorry I haven't posted any pictures, yet. I'll find a way eventually. maybe. 

sweet dreams!

Chicago!

Hello everyone, I'm still alive. I know that from my blog record, it doesn't seem that way, sorry. So tonight we are in Grays Lake, Illinois. We left Chicago late this morning, after perhaps the first full nights sleep of this trip. Chicago was AMAZING!! We got an entire day off ther which was wonderful  after our longest day yet.  115 miles from Edwardsburg, MI.  ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN!!!!  I can hardly believe it. Can you?  It was a gorgeous ride, full off things to.... ride by....  At one point, going through Gary Indiana ( que the Music Man)  a fighter jet passed 50 feet over my head. An air show was in progress, and he passed low over out rout just as i was trundling along.  It was so loud.  we finally got to Chicago at about mile 90, and still had  25 to go to get to out overnight location. We got to ride on a bike path right next to the lake for almost all of that, and there were tons of people out to spend the sunny afternoon at the beach.  It was kind of weird to be riding through so many people and such traffic. I was exhausted that night. I tried to explore down town, but I was so tired I kept falling asleep on the L train.  I collapsed onto my thermarest without even getting into PJs. 

Sunday was a whole different story.  We got the entire day completely to ourselves. We were originally scheduled to have a build day at Chicago, but that fell through, so we just got to enjoy ourselves.  And did I ever have fun.  I will post more on that later. Suffice to say, Mom, Dad, look for a postcard. 

Anyway, presentation time, gotta go. Love to all, and thanks again for making this possible. Its a complete BLAST!

New York

Hello everyone. Hi Gramps! happy July. We've made it to Rochester NY, and i just finished my forth day of building. We were in a lovely neighborhood called "Flower city" possibly, where they hope to build 10 houses this year! apparently, Rochester habitat for Humanity is able to do all their own skilled installation because they have so many volunteers, and thus can even pay their three site managers! this is really cool, and lets them be soo much more efficient. We were mostly hacking away at weeds today to clear a plot for the next house, which was actually really fun, but hot work.

We are all incredibly tired from yesterday's ride. It was a great rout ( thanks Isaiah!) but it was 88.6 miles!!!! I biked from 8 am to 5 pm, straight (except for lunch)!! Once again, if you had said to me a month ago I would be going that far and not completely collapsing, I would have said " no way", but it wasn't too bad. (stairs are still kind of difficult today, though). Everything hurts, but I can feel myself getting stronger, finally. After getting up Bethel Mt, and going over the Adirondacks, in the pouring rain, this side of new York has been so pleasant.

We are now over 550 miles into our trip, I think. I can hardly believe it. 550+ miles!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAH!

ok, dinner in 5 minutes, and you can guess how much I'm looking forward to food after today.

Lebanon

And we're off!!! We left from Newcastle on Saturday, where we dipped out wheels in the Atlantic Ocean. We've now crosses all of New Hampshire. The first day ws rather rough. It started out absolutely beautifully, but due to accidentally taking "the scenic rout", and the lunch van stopping farther along the routh than planned, Iit was a while before i got lunch which made some of these lovely rolling New hampshire hills absolutely painfull. peanut butter and jelly bagels never tasted so good as after more than 50 miles of everything BUT flat. At one point, we even hit a road that had just been torn up for repaving! A mile of rocks and sand up a hill is not as much fun on a road bike as on a mountain bike. After a lunch break everything was peachy again, and the two days following that were increadibly beautiful, and much easier. I think im getting the hang of this!

We're in Lebanon NH now, 120 miles later, and just a few minutes ride from good ol' Dartmouth. We got here yesterday afternoon, after a very beautiful, but rainy ride. I'm getting better at hills, I even passes Anson on one of them! (for those who dont know him, this is impressive.)
Today we helped waterproof the foundation of a new house here, and i'm covered in tar splater. we get to put in insulation tomorrow, and then we'reheaded off to Vermont.

ok, times up. I'll try to get some pictures up later.

Travel safe!

So here we are in Portsmouth.
it was a mini adventure getting here in the first place. My dada came up to New Hampshire with me, and we went to Dartmouth to pick up my bike and Derek, a friend and fellow BNB rider. We were headed towards Portsmouth on Wednesday, but found ourselves at the the end of Mass than we expected. So we ended up taking a two-hour "scenic" detour through the state. Lovely, really. Eventually we got her, though.
This is the second evening I'm spending with Bike an Build here. It has been amazing. We don't start biking until Saturday, then we will head down to the Atlantic and dip our wheels in the ocean to kick off the ride. Until then , we have a ton of things to do here.
The first night was mostly just getting to know each other, icebreakers, and getting the BNB policy down. Then today be did basic bike maintenance, and a short ride to make sure everything was working. Everything was, thank goodness. I now know how to change a tube and a tire, and how to clip in and out of my new pedals ( Thank You FULLCYCLE!!!).
This evening we went to another local church and met the director of the habitat for Humanity chapter here. She was fascinating, and incredibly passionate. The work she is doing (almost single - handedly!) is so incredibly important, and its amazing how much she has been able to get together. I'm really excited to head up to the build site tomorrow and work. Apparently we will mostly be finishing off the house, as they're pretty far along. So mostly landscaping, painting, hanging doors, I think.
At first I was impatient to get going, and actually start getting miles in, but I'm realizing how important these frost few days are to get to know each other, and really let the group feeling grow. its nice to get to know people BEFORE we are all sweaty, exhausted, and cranky. Now we can have random conversations to discover each other, and get a sense for how it will be to live together for over two months.
Right now, the sense I get is: It will be one of the most interesting groups of people I've ever encountered. Everyone is really interesting and involved. I don't think there's anyone I wont get along with. And everyone is really excited and determined to make the most of this ride.



P.S. another goal I am adding to this trip: to have a Banana Split in every sate we pass through. I've had one on every state I've been to in the US so far, and I really want to continue this scrumptious trend.

1st Goal reached!

HAHA! red letter day: Ive made it to $4000! I've reached my fund raising goal! I'm officially going on this thing! woo hoo! Thank you so much! everyone who contributed, everyone that helped me fund raise, everyone that encouraged me and told me to go for it! I couldn't do it without you!

THANK YOU!

June 1. Tick Tock

Well, here we are. I am DONE with final exams!! yay, and suddenly Bike and Build feels terrifyingly close at hand. I am really going ! AAAHHH!

This is of course only possible because of my many amazing supporters! With your help I have now raised $3485! This is a staggering amount, and I will never be able to thank you enough! I will try to make that worth your support, by having an amazing summer, biking hard to end poverty housing.

This also means I have 17 days to raise $515. Tiny compared to what you have already given me, but still a lot. I hope to get this by going door to door once I get back to Boulder. Yay Yippies! If you want to help me with that, theres a link just a few inches above and to the right. (Yep, right there. You know you want to. Just give in to the temptation, you will accrue good Karma! )

I will be back in Boulder in a few days, I cant wait to see my family again, even if it is only for a couple weeks. In the mean time, I must pack!! Freshman year has been great, but summer might even be better!

Interesting

because xkcd is amazing,
this shall be my motto for the summer:

http://xkcd.com/308/
check out more amazing comics at http://xkcd.com

Working with COVER

On this lovely Green Key weekend, several things have happened. Yesterday, Kim, Erik and I worked with COVER in Vermont. We finished out 8-hours of sweat-equity by repairing a roting floor on a trailer. We spent the morning ripping up tiles and cutting out plywood-turned- to-dirt. It was really nice to get in there and get my hands dirty. ................. I learned how to wield a saw!!..........
I have never really had much
experience with things like this. In New Mexico I helped re-plaster an old adobe Church, and I've helped to dig out Acequias, but this time I got to use hammers, drills, electric saws and all that to really do some more precise work, and I enjoyed it so much! It was fun to build, but it was also amazing to work with these people. there were only 5 people working on the house, so I was able to get to know everyone a bit more.
Hugh, Me, Gisela, Kim and Erik
Gloria, the woman who lived in the trailer we were working on, was very sweet to us. She was so glad we had come by and were actually acting on a promise of help. After lunch, she even pitched in and gave us a hand demolishing the front porch. It seemed like she was having a great time. She told us a lot of stories about growing up on a farm in Kansas, and eventually moving out here to VT with her first husband. It nice to know your work is going to someone who really could use it. As Hugh said, service goes both ways. Gloria got help, a little company, and a new floor, but we also got something out of it. The helpers are just as enriched as those we helped. It was a good day.

...and the calluses arrive soon after!

Oh oh, there it is! there it is, ladies and gents! my first callus! OK, so it's tiny, . . .and more like a blister hotspot. . . but it's there! just at the base of my left little finger.

The Bike Arrives

Well, here I am, 46 days before I am to set off, and I have one of the more important parts done:
I HAVE A BIKE! . . . . oh, and its prettty.

This is a pic I couldn't help but take. Here my lovely Specialized Dolce is brand new, just out of the box from Zanes, and newly assembled. (Yes, I assembled it inside my third-floor dorm room, but it was raining buckets outside, and I was waaay too excited to wait ) The credit for actually putting everything together really goes to Anson, my new bike-guru. THANK YOU ANSON!

A very big 'thank you' also goes to all the people that have helped me get to this spot in the first place. Through all of our very generous contributions, I have already raised $2800! I want to reach a minimum of $4000 for this trip, which will not just pay for travel costs but also go towards donations to various housing initiatives.

Thank you to everyone who has decided that the housing crisis deserves attention an support. Thank you to everyone that wants to help me out with such a big adventure.
I literally could not do this without you!

For those of you who still want to get in on this, I will need some help getting over this last hump. Just one thousand dollars to go! Seems like a lot, but compared to the amount that's come pouring in already, Its really very possible! And remember: every bit helps.

Please go to Bikeandbuild.org to check out the amazing photos, and find out more about the organization and the mission. You can also donate there to help me meet my fund-raising goal!

Beginning to Believe

Well, here's my first post in what I hope will be a very good record of my grand adventure this summer.

In just over a month I will be setting out from Portsmouth, NH and biking to Vancouver, Canada to end poverty housing. That's right, I'm gonna bike across the continent! And, I get to help my country-mates along the way. This will be a journey of about 4000 miles across a country I love dearly, but have seen little of.

I will be riding almost every day from June 18 until August 23, crossing 13 states plus British Columbia, helping to build houses and raise awareness about the affordable housing crisis in this country. Hopefully, I will be posting progress reports, stories, silly jokes, pictures and other tidbits on this site throughout that time.

A friend of mine described this project as a BHAG: " a Big Hairy Audacious Goal". I think this is quite apt. Its time to stop talking and actually do something truly 'epic'.

so, lets get to it.