There are a lot of stereotypes about Texas. And, now that I'm here I can tell you that they are all true.
First, there was the state sign. The Texas state sign was the biggest state sign we'd seen so far: a towering green homage to the Texas flag, driving safely, and underneath it, a plaque proclaiming Texas "the proud home of President George W. Bush." Yee-haw. I rode in with Jo, Jess Leon, Dani, and Jorge. Jorge, a native Texan, kissed the ground.
Before we got into Texas, Jorge taught us the UT fight song. Here's how it goes, sung to the tune of "I've been working on the railroad":
The eyes of Texas are upon you, all the live long day.
The eyes of Texas are upon you, you cannot get away.
No you cannot escape them in the night or early morn.
The eyes of Texas are upon you, till Gabriel blows his horn.
After 15 uneventful miles, we arrived in the small farming town of Wheeler. We showered in the locker rooms at Wheeler School (one school for K-12) and admired the rows upon rows of football trophies lining the halls.
The First Baptist church hosted us and really did a great job of welcoming us and also, showing us what Texas was all about. They fed us a delicious dinner ("We made brisket. I know ya'll have vegetarians, but this is Texas). The church had a really cool youth center in the basement, complete with a giant movie projector: I'd never seen the Bodies and Motion video so big. And while, you might think a group of college kids mostly from the coasts and a group of high schoolers from a small town in Texas wouldn't have much in common, we discovered that we shared one important thing: a love of Chuck Norris quotes. We shared our favorite quotes and they told us theirs: "Jesus could roundhouse kick Chuck Norris in the face ... but would he?"
The next day we had a tough ride: 99 miles into Amarillo, on jarring roads, uphill and into a headwind the whole way. But actually, it wasn't so bad. I spent most of the day with Lynn, Jess L., and Jo. After second lunch though, I ended up on my own. I was a little daunted by the idea of riding the next 3o miles on the flat, boring road all by myself, but it actually went by pretty quickly. In Amarrillo, Lynn caught up to me again and we road the last few miles together.
It's time to get ready for our build day, so I'll have to share the story of Jorge and the 72 ounce steak another time...
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Tulsa, Oklahoma
I'm writing from Tulsa, home of Garth Brooks and the Hanson Brothers (we biked here from Vinita, Oklahoma -- hometown of Dr. Phill). The last few days have been really great: flat, sunny, and with lots of fun stops along the way. We've gone swimming in the most beautiful river, posed for pictures with a giant blue whale, and run around in a giant field of sunflowers. Today's been one of those days where it just seems really unreal. I'm in Oklahoma! I biked from Boston to Oklahoma!
Boy am I tired.
Boy am I tired.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
joplin, missouri
Since my last post, our merry band has biked diagonally across the state of Missouri.
Highlights include:
Walking 6 miles of gravel road in the rain.
Camping out in Potosi: We were staying at a Boy Scout camp. The camp was rented out to a Christian youth group so our host ('Potosi Paul') found us a field next to a very old church and graveyard where we could pitch tents. Then it thunderstormed. We ended up cramming into a half-finished house for the night.
Back to back centuries through the Ozarks. Oh yeah. I was sweep (ride behind the rest of the group to make sure everyone gets there safely) the first century, so unfortunately (or fortunately!) was picked up at 5pm around mile 60. But I finished the second century day, making it my 3rd 100 miler of the summer. I'm really really impressed at the rest of the Bike and Build crew who pedaled through both.
Lots and lots of frozen custard. Yum.
Working on the first day of a blitz build in Springfield, Missouri. They're building a house in front of a golf course during a big tournament and then moving it over to its real location. We spent the morning posing for pictures and then sitting around waiting for something to do (I took a wonderful nap). But in the afternoon we got some work, and I got to use a saw for the first time ever.
Uttering the sentence: "today was a short day -- 80 miles"
It's 9pm, which means bedtime. Goodnight all!
Highlights include:
Walking 6 miles of gravel road in the rain.
Camping out in Potosi: We were staying at a Boy Scout camp. The camp was rented out to a Christian youth group so our host ('Potosi Paul') found us a field next to a very old church and graveyard where we could pitch tents. Then it thunderstormed. We ended up cramming into a half-finished house for the night.
Back to back centuries through the Ozarks. Oh yeah. I was sweep (ride behind the rest of the group to make sure everyone gets there safely) the first century, so unfortunately (or fortunately!) was picked up at 5pm around mile 60. But I finished the second century day, making it my 3rd 100 miler of the summer. I'm really really impressed at the rest of the Bike and Build crew who pedaled through both.
Lots and lots of frozen custard. Yum.
Working on the first day of a blitz build in Springfield, Missouri. They're building a house in front of a golf course during a big tournament and then moving it over to its real location. We spent the morning posing for pictures and then sitting around waiting for something to do (I took a wonderful nap). But in the afternoon we got some work, and I got to use a saw for the first time ever.
Uttering the sentence: "today was a short day -- 80 miles"
It's 9pm, which means bedtime. Goodnight all!
Monday, July 7, 2008
meet me in St. Louis
I was really excited about riding over the Mississippi River. When I woke up on a church social hall floor in Salem, Illinois, it hit me: today was the day. We'd had two days of beautiful flat riding since Bloomington, and one more 80 miler would take us to the Mississippi. At breakfast though, things began to look dark. There were rumors that today would be hilly... really hilly. We're biking through the Ozarks today, someone said. Aren't the Ozarks in Missouri, not Illinois? Anyway, the elevation chart on the cue sheet confirmed it: big big hills -- mountains really. But I set out determined. I was going to bike across the Mississippi today, no matter what.
Ten miles into the ride, it became clear that yes, the Ozarks are not in Southern Illinois (ha ha Kyle Magida) and an uneventful but pleasantly flat ride brought us to the outskirts of St. Louis. I've been told that this area is unusually cool right now. But that can't be true because it was very very hot. We stopped at a nice air conditioned Dairy Queen (where Oliver somehow downed a blizzard bigger than his head) before heading out down a nice bike path. Biking on the path was really fun -- no traffic to worry about. It felt a bit like we were all just out for a nice leisurely Sunday afternoon ride, not spandex clad biking machines who've ridden over 1000 miles in the last 4 weeks. Well it was leisurely until we realized that the YMCA where we could shower closed at 3:30 -- then we started to book it.
The bike path spit us out into a treeless, baked, neighborhood. Confusing cue sheet directions had us following the arrows chalked by those before us until all of a sudden we were riding onto the McKinley Bridge. I guess I was a little disappointed by the Mississippi. It was much smaller than the Hudson and it was so so very hot and I wanted to shower so badly that we barely stopped for pictures at the Illinois/Missouri line before rolling on. After the bridge we headed south on the "Riverside Bike Path," which was not so much riverside as concrete-wall-and-industrial-wasteland-side. Then the bike path turned and ended in a wall, so we continued on the street, up a hill, past the correctional facility, into St. Louis proper, which smelled a bit like boiled asphalt and vomit. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on St. Louis. Maybe I've just gotten used to the smell. But at that point all I wanted was to be out of the heat and in a shower.
When we rolled up to the church at exactly 3:28pm where Skip Burns met us outside, informing us that the Y had actually closed at 3:00. Luckily, Allie's grandmother invited us to her assisted living home in the burbs to shower, which was amazing. After that, and not one but two dinners, and a nice 20 minutes lying on the grass under the arch, I was finally feeling pretty happy to be on this side of the Mississippi.
Ten miles into the ride, it became clear that yes, the Ozarks are not in Southern Illinois (ha ha Kyle Magida) and an uneventful but pleasantly flat ride brought us to the outskirts of St. Louis. I've been told that this area is unusually cool right now. But that can't be true because it was very very hot. We stopped at a nice air conditioned Dairy Queen (where Oliver somehow downed a blizzard bigger than his head) before heading out down a nice bike path. Biking on the path was really fun -- no traffic to worry about. It felt a bit like we were all just out for a nice leisurely Sunday afternoon ride, not spandex clad biking machines who've ridden over 1000 miles in the last 4 weeks. Well it was leisurely until we realized that the YMCA where we could shower closed at 3:30 -- then we started to book it.
The bike path spit us out into a treeless, baked, neighborhood. Confusing cue sheet directions had us following the arrows chalked by those before us until all of a sudden we were riding onto the McKinley Bridge. I guess I was a little disappointed by the Mississippi. It was much smaller than the Hudson and it was so so very hot and I wanted to shower so badly that we barely stopped for pictures at the Illinois/Missouri line before rolling on. After the bridge we headed south on the "Riverside Bike Path," which was not so much riverside as concrete-wall-and-industrial-wasteland-side. Then the bike path turned and ended in a wall, so we continued on the street, up a hill, past the correctional facility, into St. Louis proper, which smelled a bit like boiled asphalt and vomit. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on St. Louis. Maybe I've just gotten used to the smell. But at that point all I wanted was to be out of the heat and in a shower.
When we rolled up to the church at exactly 3:28pm where Skip Burns met us outside, informing us that the Y had actually closed at 3:00. Luckily, Allie's grandmother invited us to her assisted living home in the burbs to shower, which was amazing. After that, and not one but two dinners, and a nice 20 minutes lying on the grass under the arch, I was finally feeling pretty happy to be on this side of the Mississippi.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Bloomington, IN
Today I'm writing from the wonderful Monroe County library (you mean I can use the computer for more than fifteen minutes?) in Bloomington, Indiana. This was an especially exciting stop for me because it turns out that I'm going to be living in B-town, as they call it, for a year after Bike and Build. I'd never been here before so it's been really cool to get to see my future home, as well as meet my future boss for the first time and sign my lease. Bloomington seems to have an amazing cycling culture (have you seen Breaking Away?) and I've been loving the competent bike shops, well-marked bike lanes, and friendly drivers. I'm pretty much really excited to be moving here in two months.
So in between Indiana and P.A., we rode through Ohio and a tiny sliver of West Virginia. I didn't really get much of a feel for West Viriginia during our 4 mile jaunt, but I did like Ohio. First of all, it was pretty flat (well anything's flat compared to the Appalachians). Also, the people we met in Ohio were so incredibly friendly. In Stuebenville (home of Dean Martin), Newcomerstown (home of Cy Young), Columbus (???), and Yellowsprings (home of Dave Chapelle!) we stayed at some very friendly churches and got to meet a lot of cool people.
Ohio was also a bit of a tough state, between the blistering wind, torrential downpours, thunder and lightening, and treacherous gravel. Treacherous gravel you say? Well ... I did manage to wipe out on some gravel thirty miles away from Newcomerstown. I, for once, emerged without a scrape, but my bike wasn't so lucky. My deraileur (the thing that switches gears on the rear wheel and takes up chain slack) didn't so much break, as explode, the metal twisting around itself in a pretty spectacular way. Even the surly bike shop mechanic in Columbus was forced to admit that my predicament was pretty rare. Luckily, I was only off the road for a day, and now, Bobbi Bicycle is back in action.
Tomorrow, to Illinois!
So in between Indiana and P.A., we rode through Ohio and a tiny sliver of West Virginia. I didn't really get much of a feel for West Viriginia during our 4 mile jaunt, but I did like Ohio. First of all, it was pretty flat (well anything's flat compared to the Appalachians). Also, the people we met in Ohio were so incredibly friendly. In Stuebenville (home of Dean Martin), Newcomerstown (home of Cy Young), Columbus (???), and Yellowsprings (home of Dave Chapelle!) we stayed at some very friendly churches and got to meet a lot of cool people.
Ohio was also a bit of a tough state, between the blistering wind, torrential downpours, thunder and lightening, and treacherous gravel. Treacherous gravel you say? Well ... I did manage to wipe out on some gravel thirty miles away from Newcomerstown. I, for once, emerged without a scrape, but my bike wasn't so lucky. My deraileur (the thing that switches gears on the rear wheel and takes up chain slack) didn't so much break, as explode, the metal twisting around itself in a pretty spectacular way. Even the surly bike shop mechanic in Columbus was forced to admit that my predicament was pretty rare. Luckily, I was only off the road for a day, and now, Bobbi Bicycle is back in action.
Tomorrow, to Illinois!
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