Texas is really big.
Really, really big.
We just rode across it.
That took us a while.
Now we're in New Mexico, "Land of Enchanment". So far it's enchantingly empty and devoid of any signs of human life. Last night we stayed in Logan, population 1,000. It seemed pretty small until we entered Mosquero today. When we had all arrived, we'd increased the population of the town by 25%. Surprisingly, however, the high school has a decked-out computer lab, so I have a chance to write a blog entry. Woohoo! Oya, also, the school's mascot is the Fightin' Pirate. And the fighting Lady Pirate. Apparently no one told them about wenches. When you walk into the school, there is a giant 9-foot tall painted silhouet of a pirate holding a basketball. This town is awesome!
When I last wrote, we were in Louisiana. It was nice. Then we got to Texas. It was pretty wild. The last two weeks have flown by, with a lot of crazy Texan experiences. Highlights include:
- Carthage, TX, where we stayed in a sumptuous mansion.
- The ride from Carthage to Athens, on which Zach and I were sweep (the two people designated to be last for the day, to stay behind everyone and make sure that we all arrive safely) and we went roughly 100 miles on the worst-paved road known to man. Mind you, this road was not old and decrepit-no, it was intentionally paved with GIANT STONES in it. You could see at the very edge of the shoulder where the pavement had initially been smooth and pretty. Then they added stones to it. In case we had any doubts about this, we came upon a road crew that was busy adding stones to perfectly smooth pavement. I will never understand that road. Anyway, after assorted adventures, Zach and I made it into Athens around 7:30, as the sun was going down. So far we hold the record for the latest that sweep has had to be out. When we got to town we were greeted by incredibly friendly church folk (not exactly out of the ordinary), and we found out that rather than all staying in a gym, we were being split up into small groups and staying at the homes of members of the church. I ended up staying with Tom, a very friendly man in his late fifties. From the moment I got in the car and the radio began playing classical music, I knew that I had been assigned to the right family. Tom lives alone with his young son Andy in a house with a staggering amount of animal paraphanalia. This included a polar bear rug (in my bedroom), and a giant birdcage in his dining room with half a dozen live birds. Thomas, the other rider with me, fell asleep as soon as we got there, but I stayed up for a while chatting with Tom as "Tootsie" played on the TV in the background. It turns out that Tom is a Stanford grad who went into business after college, decided he didn't like it, bought his own company, and proceeded to travel the world for the rest of his life, doing work for his company. He said that he's spent more time in London than Dallas. Anyway, we spent a while talking about youth, how to decide what to do with one's life, the meaning of life, and other assorted topics. He was quite an interesting fellow.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER:
Unfortunately, I have to cut this post short. I ended up being called away as I was writing because we had to go to dinner. There was not going to be any dinner provided for us at this host location, but when we got to town the locals told us that there was a Cowboy Camp going on a few miles outside of town for the weekend, and they had free food tonight. We went over in the van, and discovered that it was an Evangelical Cowboy Camp. Which was cool. They gave us Cowboy Bibles. Basically, it's the New Testament, with bits of cowboy wisdom thrown in periodically. The food was pretty much all meat, so I just gave up and ate a hamburger. Hunger has finally overcome taste.
We chatted with the cowboys for a while, they sang some songs (mostly about Jesus), we sang the Star Spangled Banner (they were very impressed), some of us learned how to rope, and we drank some delicious cowboy coffee. Anyway, we have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning, so I'll try to continue this post next chance I get and summarize the rest of Texas.
Stay cool, wear lots of sunscreen.
Pace
Friday, July 18, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
Star Spangled Bikes
I originally started writing this post on July 4th (see paragraph below) but then I got kicked off the computer and we went to fireworks and etc. Now is the first time I'm back on a computer. We're staying in Carthage, TX, in the home of a Bike&Build alumna (well, her parents' house). It's ridiculously nice. For you pirates, it's about the same as Tor's castle. Last night we stayed at a Baptist summer camp in the middle of nowhere. Literally. Not a person for miles around. They had a lake with paddleboats. It was sweet! Anywhere, here's the bit I wrote before:
Well, again it took me far longer to post than I hoped. Today is the fourth of July and we're at the Louisiana School of Math, Science, and the Arts in Natchatoches, LA. Today was an easy day, only fifty-five miles. I finished pretty early, took a long nap, and caught up on some bike maintenance.
I'd planned to do a whole post about New Orleans, so I'll mainly talk about that today. We left New Orleans four days ago (though we're now about 320 miles away...time flies). We spent a six days there, it was quite an experience. Many parts of the city are still deserted, especially in the ninth ward, where we were working. We spent five of the days working on a house that had been heavily damaged by the flooding. We worked with the Episcopal Diocese Disaster Relief Unit, which was established to help homeowners rebuild damaged houses (there were also many Habitat groups around, as well as other organizations constructing new homes where they had been completely destroyed. The house that we worked on had sustained heavy water damaged, so they gutted it and re-did all of the plumbing and wiring. When we got there that was about as far as they had gone-we could see through most of the interior walls. We spent the five days putting up insulation and drywall throughout the entire house, then putting "mud" (a plaster-type material) over all of the holes, screws, joints, and irregularities. By the time we were done, most of the walls were ready to be painted. It was good to be able to see that we had actually accomplished something significant in our time at the house.
Although we had the evenings free, we had to be up early for construction (many of us biked the six mile commute every morning), and we were usually tired from a full day of work, so I didn't have a great deal of free time to explore. Nonetheless, I got to see a lot of the city and had a good time. Every day after construction some of us went to Cafe du Monde and had beignets (french fried doughnuts), which were delicious. I saw Bourbon St, which was pretty unpleasant. It was like a weird version of Disney World for adults who liked to drink a lot. Not really my thing. The more out-of-the-way parts of the city were much more interesting, and we spent a lot of time jujst biking around, looking at all of the cool architeture. The city is somewhat like Boston in terms of having a lot of old buildings with tiny, criss-crossing roads that are hard to navigate. Most of the streets in the city, except the very largest ones, were one-way, which made navigating somewhat difficult at times. Also, the streets are in awful condition. There was hardly a single street without potholes and cracks all over the place. However, the people in the city were very bike-friendly. Unlike Mississippi and Alabama where people threw things at us and barked at us (yes, people barked at us), I never recieved an angry honk during my whole time in New Orleans.
We had our first day off in the city, and it was amazing! In the morning we went to a phenomenal breakfast diner. I got the usual eggs, hash browns, toast sorta thing and it was the best breakfast I've had in weeks. After that we had a chorus rehearsal which went smashingly (everyone is so enthousiastic and they're all such quick learners!). Then about a dozen of us suited up in our Bike & Build uniforms and went down to the french quarter. We rode up and down Bourbon St. and the surrounding streets, telling every single person about Bike & Build. We ended at Cafe du Mond, where we were met by a news crew who filmed us and did some interviews. I can't find the clip right now, but I'll post the link later. We earned about $130 in donations in less than an hour, then while we were being interviewed, the owner of Cafe du Mond came out and gave us all certificates for free beignets. Most of us had ours then and there, though we tried to be polite and have less of a powdered sugar-throwing war than the previous day. After enjoying our delicious afternoon snack, we split up. A few of us went around looking for a bar in which to watch the news to see if we were on it (we had no other access to a TV). While riding down Frenchmen St. we came across a park with rainbow banners everywhere. We had stumbled upon New Orleans' Pride Festival! Unfortunately, it was just starting to rain and the festival was winding down. Still, we wandered around and admired the rainbow stain-glass work and such. We finally made our way to a bar, where we met Laura, the worlds' most awesome bartender. She lowered a projector screen for us to watch the news and gave us all a free round when she heard about our cause (I had some local Root Beer, which was delicious). It turned out that she was also a cyclist, preparing for her first bike tour, in Italy. We talked for over an hour, learning all about the local bike scene and her adventures. We finally made it home for a delicious dinner and some sort of evening activities. I forget what we did. Anway, the day was very fun.
That's all I have time for now. I don't even have time to proofread! I apologize if there are any egregious errors. I'll proofread it later, I promise. Hope everyone is well. If you're bored, send me stuff. I got the awesomest letter ever from Harry Aspinwall, so if you want to aspire to such greatness, I welcome your efforts. And a lot of you should be getting postcards soon. Hopefully.
Many hugs!
Well, again it took me far longer to post than I hoped. Today is the fourth of July and we're at the Louisiana School of Math, Science, and the Arts in Natchatoches, LA. Today was an easy day, only fifty-five miles. I finished pretty early, took a long nap, and caught up on some bike maintenance.
I'd planned to do a whole post about New Orleans, so I'll mainly talk about that today. We left New Orleans four days ago (though we're now about 320 miles away...time flies). We spent a six days there, it was quite an experience. Many parts of the city are still deserted, especially in the ninth ward, where we were working. We spent five of the days working on a house that had been heavily damaged by the flooding. We worked with the Episcopal Diocese Disaster Relief Unit, which was established to help homeowners rebuild damaged houses (there were also many Habitat groups around, as well as other organizations constructing new homes where they had been completely destroyed. The house that we worked on had sustained heavy water damaged, so they gutted it and re-did all of the plumbing and wiring. When we got there that was about as far as they had gone-we could see through most of the interior walls. We spent the five days putting up insulation and drywall throughout the entire house, then putting "mud" (a plaster-type material) over all of the holes, screws, joints, and irregularities. By the time we were done, most of the walls were ready to be painted. It was good to be able to see that we had actually accomplished something significant in our time at the house.
Although we had the evenings free, we had to be up early for construction (many of us biked the six mile commute every morning), and we were usually tired from a full day of work, so I didn't have a great deal of free time to explore. Nonetheless, I got to see a lot of the city and had a good time. Every day after construction some of us went to Cafe du Monde and had beignets (french fried doughnuts), which were delicious. I saw Bourbon St, which was pretty unpleasant. It was like a weird version of Disney World for adults who liked to drink a lot. Not really my thing. The more out-of-the-way parts of the city were much more interesting, and we spent a lot of time jujst biking around, looking at all of the cool architeture. The city is somewhat like Boston in terms of having a lot of old buildings with tiny, criss-crossing roads that are hard to navigate. Most of the streets in the city, except the very largest ones, were one-way, which made navigating somewhat difficult at times. Also, the streets are in awful condition. There was hardly a single street without potholes and cracks all over the place. However, the people in the city were very bike-friendly. Unlike Mississippi and Alabama where people threw things at us and barked at us (yes, people barked at us), I never recieved an angry honk during my whole time in New Orleans.
We had our first day off in the city, and it was amazing! In the morning we went to a phenomenal breakfast diner. I got the usual eggs, hash browns, toast sorta thing and it was the best breakfast I've had in weeks. After that we had a chorus rehearsal which went smashingly (everyone is so enthousiastic and they're all such quick learners!). Then about a dozen of us suited up in our Bike & Build uniforms and went down to the french quarter. We rode up and down Bourbon St. and the surrounding streets, telling every single person about Bike & Build. We ended at Cafe du Mond, where we were met by a news crew who filmed us and did some interviews. I can't find the clip right now, but I'll post the link later. We earned about $130 in donations in less than an hour, then while we were being interviewed, the owner of Cafe du Mond came out and gave us all certificates for free beignets. Most of us had ours then and there, though we tried to be polite and have less of a powdered sugar-throwing war than the previous day. After enjoying our delicious afternoon snack, we split up. A few of us went around looking for a bar in which to watch the news to see if we were on it (we had no other access to a TV). While riding down Frenchmen St. we came across a park with rainbow banners everywhere. We had stumbled upon New Orleans' Pride Festival! Unfortunately, it was just starting to rain and the festival was winding down. Still, we wandered around and admired the rainbow stain-glass work and such. We finally made our way to a bar, where we met Laura, the worlds' most awesome bartender. She lowered a projector screen for us to watch the news and gave us all a free round when she heard about our cause (I had some local Root Beer, which was delicious). It turned out that she was also a cyclist, preparing for her first bike tour, in Italy. We talked for over an hour, learning all about the local bike scene and her adventures. We finally made it home for a delicious dinner and some sort of evening activities. I forget what we did. Anway, the day was very fun.
That's all I have time for now. I don't even have time to proofread! I apologize if there are any egregious errors. I'll proofread it later, I promise. Hope everyone is well. If you're bored, send me stuff. I got the awesomest letter ever from Harry Aspinwall, so if you want to aspire to such greatness, I welcome your efforts. And a lot of you should be getting postcards soon. Hopefully.
Many hugs!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Once Upon a Time, I Dressed So Fine...Now I Just Wear Bike Shorts
Well, it took me longer to get internet access than I expected. On the road we only have one laptop that we can use, and half the time there's no internet at the places where we stay, and libraries are sometimes hard to find in these tiny towns. Anyway, I guess blog posts might be a bit sporadic, but I'll try to do one a week.
Today we're in Pensacola, Florida. This is the first day in a week that we haven't biked, and it was supposed to be our second day of house building, but there have been bad thunderstorms all day and the build was cancelled.
The biking has been pretty sweet; so far we've gone 413 miles, averaging about 60 miles per day. Yesterday was our longest day yet, about 80 miles. It's been challenging, but pretty doable with enough breaks, water, food, and sunscreen. For those of you worrying about the integrity of my ghostly skin tone, I assure you that I haven't burned much yet. Lots of sunscreen is reasonably effective.
I'm not sure what sort of things people are interested in, so I'll try to do a brief summary of everything.
The other people on the trip are incredibly awesome, I love every single one of them. There's a huge variety of personalities, backgrounds, and reasons for going on this trip. People range in age from 18 to 27 and are from all over the country (plus Iran). I've already found lots of people to sing with, and they even seem to be into my sea chanteys (though they might just be pretending to be nice).
The building has been pretty sweet, though we've only had one and a half days. The first day was in Jacksonville, where my group spent most of the day landscaping. I spent pretty much the whole day laying sod with Brad and Mandy, who are both incredibly awesome people. It was a good way to get started on the building while still getting to know our fellow group members (as it was only the second day of the trip). I also learned how to use a machete.
Most of the nights we've been staying in churches, though we've also done a school and a community center. The churches range from tiny little one- or two-building congregations to giant megachurches with sprawling complexes containing gyms, halls, dining rooms, and elaborate multimedia set-ups. Right now I'm sitting in the sound/lighting booth of the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church, using the control computer. Most of the other folks haven't noticed that there's a computer in here, so I'm using it before I let them know. Seriously, it's hard to get computer time! My theatre experience is coming in handy, as I'm able to figure out all the sound and lighting boards. Woohoo!
The food has been great so far, there have been more than enough vegetarian options, and always lots of peanut butter. So all of you worrying about me starving to death, fear not! The only danger left is being eaten be hungry bears. Or alligators, I suppose.
Cell phone reception is still reasonably good, so if you want to talk to me, feel free to call. I will probably miss your call unless it's in the evening, as I don't ususally have my cell phone on my during the day, but if you call, I'll do my best to call back.
Here are some websites you might find useful:
Our route tracker: http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,211/
How to send mail to me (I'm on the Southern Route) (also, I will love you forever if you send me mail!):
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/content/view/55/217/
Our route journal (updated every day by a different rider):
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,67/
Our route's pictures (not a lot now, hopefully we'll get a chance to upload more!):
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,258/
That's all I've got time for today. Hope you are all doing well, and keep in touch!
Love,
Joe
Today we're in Pensacola, Florida. This is the first day in a week that we haven't biked, and it was supposed to be our second day of house building, but there have been bad thunderstorms all day and the build was cancelled.
The biking has been pretty sweet; so far we've gone 413 miles, averaging about 60 miles per day. Yesterday was our longest day yet, about 80 miles. It's been challenging, but pretty doable with enough breaks, water, food, and sunscreen. For those of you worrying about the integrity of my ghostly skin tone, I assure you that I haven't burned much yet. Lots of sunscreen is reasonably effective.
I'm not sure what sort of things people are interested in, so I'll try to do a brief summary of everything.
The other people on the trip are incredibly awesome, I love every single one of them. There's a huge variety of personalities, backgrounds, and reasons for going on this trip. People range in age from 18 to 27 and are from all over the country (plus Iran). I've already found lots of people to sing with, and they even seem to be into my sea chanteys (though they might just be pretending to be nice).
The building has been pretty sweet, though we've only had one and a half days. The first day was in Jacksonville, where my group spent most of the day landscaping. I spent pretty much the whole day laying sod with Brad and Mandy, who are both incredibly awesome people. It was a good way to get started on the building while still getting to know our fellow group members (as it was only the second day of the trip). I also learned how to use a machete.
Most of the nights we've been staying in churches, though we've also done a school and a community center. The churches range from tiny little one- or two-building congregations to giant megachurches with sprawling complexes containing gyms, halls, dining rooms, and elaborate multimedia set-ups. Right now I'm sitting in the sound/lighting booth of the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church, using the control computer. Most of the other folks haven't noticed that there's a computer in here, so I'm using it before I let them know. Seriously, it's hard to get computer time! My theatre experience is coming in handy, as I'm able to figure out all the sound and lighting boards. Woohoo!
The food has been great so far, there have been more than enough vegetarian options, and always lots of peanut butter. So all of you worrying about me starving to death, fear not! The only danger left is being eaten be hungry bears. Or alligators, I suppose.
Cell phone reception is still reasonably good, so if you want to talk to me, feel free to call. I will probably miss your call unless it's in the evening, as I don't ususally have my cell phone on my during the day, but if you call, I'll do my best to call back.
Here are some websites you might find useful:
Our route tracker: http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,211/
How to send mail to me (I'm on the Southern Route) (also, I will love you forever if you send me mail!):
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/content/view/55/217/
Our route journal (updated every day by a different rider):
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,67/
Our route's pictures (not a lot now, hopefully we'll get a chance to upload more!):
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,258/
That's all I've got time for today. Hope you are all doing well, and keep in touch!
Love,
Joe
Monday, June 9, 2008
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I'm Leaving Tomorrow
I promise that all of the titles of my posts won't be puns on films or musicals. Well, probably not at least. If you don't know what I'm talking about...never mind.
Yesterday I went to my cousin's graduation. I think that the only thing I regret at all about this whole trip is that I won't get much of a chance to see the people who I usually only see during the summer. I've been home about two weeks now, and I'll probably be home less than a week between when I get back and when I go back to school. It's definitely worth it, but I'll still miss seeing folks. Lots of postcards will have to do, I suppose.
I'm flying out tomorrow morning. I'm pretty much packed. I think I have everything, though inevitably I'll forget something. Checklists help, so I've made some of them. I still haven't picked out which book to bring, or what sheet music to bring. I'm really hoping that there will be pianos in some of the churches where we stay, as it will be quite difficult to go the whole summer without playing at all. I'm bringing some sheet music just in case, but I don't want to bring too much. A few hard pieces to work on, perhaps.
The thing that surprises me most right now is how calm I am. I'm simultaneously excited and apprehensive, but I just have this overriding feeling that there's no sense in worrying about anything too much. I think I've grown more calm over the past year. What with having to slow down everything after my accident in the fall, then spending a lot of time in the spring going on long, meditative bike rides, I think that I've achieved a greater personal calm. However, I'm sure that once I'm actually in Florida and this whole trip becomes more present and immediate, I'll be a whole lot more nervous and excited.
Off to finish packing. Next time I write will be from Florida.
Hugs to all!
Friday, June 6, 2008
The Unbearable Lightness of Biking
So I've decided to keep a blog of my bike trip. If you're reading this, hopefully you know the whole background story; if not, check out bikeandbuild.org.
This first entry will be brief, as I have a lot of preparations to attend to.
I don't know how much internet access/availability we'll encounter along the route, so updates may be spotty, but I'll do my best to keep y'all updated and let you know that I'm still alive.
Today's goals:
Pick up glasses (Done)
Start Blog (Done)
Buy PowerBars
Send Thank-you Notes
Organize and Label all Gear
Bike at least 25 miles
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