Haiku and some updates

We spend the morning
Chasing down our shadows.
In the eve, ride away.

The last two nights we spent in Franklin, PA. We arrived on Thursday night and stayed with Pastor Sam at the Presbytarian Church there. He and two buddies came to meet us mid-day to bike in. They were all incredible cyclists; turns out Pastor Gibb has been cycling for 30 some years. He had interesting stories all around and was a perfect fit for our group. Besides being an avid cyclist (and bike mechanic, thank goodness), his church has also invested in a fixer-upper house in town. Instead of biking on to Youngstown, OH on Friday, we decided to stay and trade our day off for a build day with Pastor Sam. It was a relief to all because we hadn't built since Providence, and we have all been excited for that aspect of the trip as well. The enthusiasm was quite visible - Logan and I and others spent a good portion of the day in the attic ripping down walls and ceilings. The soot from the chimney and the dust from the blown-in insulation left us all looking like a crew of coal miners (see the 9th photo in Volume D of the P2S gallery here: http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,68/), prompting one of the volunteer construction workers to ask me at the end of the day, "You grow up on a farm?" I was flattered.

Right now, Bronwyn and I are taking our time getting to our destination. We have about 2 miles to go and have been at this point for almost 2 hours now. We stopped at Walgreen's to get her photos on a CD, and now we're at a little library so I can try to get my photos uploaded. (See http://rlaskey.org/gallery)

Oh, don't want to forget Les and Elaine, two farmers we met today at our lunch stop about 30 miles into the ride. They were a cute and generous older couple with three daughters who had since moved away. Les and Elaine run a 350 acre farm growing corn, wheat, and soybeans. They let Sarah park the trailer in their yard and talked with us all during lunch. Elaine even brought us out fresh cantaloupe and juice. They were both quick as a whip and had both funny and serious stories. They had once gone to Poland for a year for Les' work. I asked what she thought of the people there, she said, "Same as here. Some nice, some not. You realize that when you get older. People are the same everywhere."

Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance

I'm writing from the Thad's computer. He's the manager here at the YMCA in Warren, PA. I'm trying to upload photos but unfortunately it just seems to go at a snails pace, so bear with me. You can always view what I have in my gallery here.

Today's ride was about 70 beautiful miles. We seem to have left most of the big mountains behind at this point, but we're still left with some hefty rolling hills and most of all - strong head winds. On PA-6 this morning, Bronwyn and I were flagged down by a woman on the side of the road waving her arms and her camera. She was from the Bradford Era, a local newspaper. She took our picture with Sam who showed up a few minutes later and talked with us for about 20 minutes about the mission and the ride.

It wasn't until a few days ago when I rode with Amelia that I felt like I really understood the overused phrase, "Enjoy the ride." That day, though, I felt like every second was enjoyable, and I learned how to really enjoy it all -- the mountains, the scenery, the strong headwinds and all. I've been conscious of that feeling since, and trying to focus on really enjoying every day's ride. Today was no exception.

Alright, gotta head out. As always, there's so much more I could say. Looking forward to our next build day on Saturday.

Apologies for the delay

It's strange. The internet was such an intergral part of my life pre-B&B that I never imagined it to be so elusive. I am here for 14 more minutes on this library computer in Clark Summit, PA. I am trying to upload some photos, so as long as that works as I'm writing this, you can check them all in "Terra's Gallery" here.

I have been having a wonderful time and can't even begin to explain the trip in words, much less rushed words. Yesterday I woke up with a song stuck in my head, but the only lyrics I could remember were "sun, sun, sun"...it's a song called Burgundy Shoes by Patty Griffin, if you care to fill in the blanks. I awoke in a cabin in White Lake, NY to a beautiful sunny day and a large brown cow outside my window. It had migrated over through the woods from the farm next door. A bit of a rude awakening as I stumbled out to the bathroom and remembered Pastor Dave's warning about the family of bears nearby. I had a great day biking with Amelia as sweep riders - maybe even the best day I've had so far. We passed over very hilly but less mountainous terrain (two days ago we climbed a 4-mile long hill...followed by an AMAZING 2 or 3 mile decent). Nothing beats hitting nearly 50mph on a bike.

As we came into the Delaware river valley, we stopped to take pictures and were approached by a woman from the Narrowsburg (sp?) River Reporter. She took our names, a photo, and our story and will likely be publishing an article next Thursday or Friday, so be sure to check it out. Amelia and I crossed the river after a while and stopped to take a picture at the Pennsylvania state sign. Luckily, there were a row of cars for sale parked randomly beneath the sign (weird, right?) so we had a perfect prop for the self-timed camera. As soon as we passed into PA, the road size and form changed. It was suddenly made of some red material and there was absolutely no shoulder. The drivers were a little more cranky, too, but overall not too bad. We biked on and on, eventually hitting our lunch stop around 12:30. We left lunch for the remaining 40 miles around 2:15. By the time we had covered the rest of the route it was almost 7pm, but the scenery we passed through was so beautiful I couldn't complain one bit. Also, at the slower pace, my legs felt extremely strong, the strongest they've felt so far. Even still, they're enjoying the day off today.

Today was supposed to be a build day, but instead, we helped out a local high school Habitat Chapter in raising money for their trip to West Virginia to build in the spring. They held a car wash in the parking lot of the church where we're staying - Our Lady of the Snows. So, we all rolled out of bed at approximately 8:45am (I couldn't believe I actually slept that late) and right out to the car wash at 9. It ws the most successful car wash I've ever been a part of - we raised $847!

Tomorrow, we're off to Towanda, PA. We have about 7,000 feet to climb, but over the whole course we'll actually be decending a few hundred feet. Oh, and last night over a few beers, Tommy and I just may have made our Seattle-San Francisco trip approximately 1,200 miles longer...Sante Fe, anyone?

Poughkeepsie, NY

Hi all - writing from the library at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. We biked into town at about noon today. We only had about 30 miles of riding so we're here early and have a lot of time to hang out. Most of my stuff is still in the van which is en route so I can't upload any new photos just yet. However, yesterday on our longest, hilliest ride yet (from Agawam, MA to Kent, CT) a few of us stopped to get lunch somewhere off the beaten path and ended up talking with a photographer who has some connection to CNN. He took us all outside the sub shop and took some photos -- hopefully hooking us up with a story on CNN. This all ocurred AFTER the sub shop have us 25% off and a woman handed us a $20. All in all, we each paid $2 for lunch and got B&B some good advertising.

So that was the good news for the day. The bad news is that one of our riders, Derrick, took a pretty nasty spill shortly after breaking away from the pack around mile 40. He was going about 30mph when his waterbottle came loose and in an attempt to adjust it he swerved and hit some gravel sending him off the road and hard onto the ground. By the time the rest of us arrived Derrick had already been picked up in the van and driven to the Kent School, cleaned up, and given crutches. He decided he wanted to go to the hospital to get it checked out even though the school trainer thought it was probably only badly bruised. But he really couldn't even walk, and the X-ray ended up showing a broken pelvic bone. Everyone was really sad this morning when the leaders told us -- Derrick's parents were on the way to come and take him home. He won't be riding with us anymore this summer because of a minimum 6 week recovery time, but he's already said he will ride next summer instead. We all really had only started to get to know each other, but because of the tasks we were conquering everyday, we all felt a lot closer than we would have been in any other situation. I will miss Derrick a lot, and hope for his speedy recovery. You can send well wishes to djt8n@virginia.edu.

Despite Derrick's unfortunate fall, the ride yesterday was actually really great and forced me to push my limits even farther. I have never felt burning in my muscles that long or that strong. I was almost reduced to tears mutiple times, but knowing everyone else was feeling the same, I pushed through and was so impressed by everyone. Gotta run now, but more pictures will come later when I get the chance to upload.

Photos for you!

Last night, we were welcomed into Church Beneficent, a Congregational church here in Providence with a long history with the affordable housing cause. The parish members provided us a meal of pasta and salad, complete with ice cream for dessert. After dinner, Tommy and Emily gave a presentation about bike and build. As I was listening to the speakers, I was trying to imagine how to make this cause mine, how to make it hit home and how to make it real. I want to be able to tell a story when it's my turn to present (Sunday night). I want to speak with as much passion as Tommy, and inspire people as well as people inspire me.

We went to build at a Providence Habitat site this morning led by Herman, a man from the Netherlands working as a Habitat Coordinator here in Providence, but got rained out in the afternoon. So, I found a computer to upload some photos from the trip so far. Might as well take advantage of it when I can. Check 'em out here.

We're a pretty good group, diverse enough to be interesting and similar enough to get along and get things done. It doesn't feel like we've only known each other for about 48 hours.

Later this afternoon and tonight we're going to be painting our trailer and personalizing it for our trip. I'm sure there'll be pictures of that soon.

Tomorrow: first ride day. We take off between 8:30 and 9am en route to Pomfret, CT.

Here in Providence

A quick thank you to all that have written over the past couple of days. Life has been full here. We got on the bikes today after a bike safety and bike maintenance workshop. A lot of people seemed pretty apprehensive about actually getting on the bikes and the real mechanics of biking across the entire country. Everyone had lots of questions and really bombarded the REI guy with pleas for help. That's why I was pleasantly surprised and impressed to see everyone get on the bikes and speed away for a short afternoon ride. There were big smiles all around and I really can't deny how childish (in a good way) I felt getting on the bike again after a couple days away. Anyway, the thought for the day: I am amazed at how many of our riders have never or very rarely ridden a bike before. It seems, for them, this whole trip absolutely must be much more about the build than the bike, and I am in admiration of that today.

Adieu, Adieu, to you and you and you

Just a quick note to thank everyone who came out to my going away party. I actually got to meet one of my trip leaders, Tommy, that night, too, who happened to be in town en route to Providence.



It was a bittersweet ending to a stressful but much-anticipated three weeks. My friend Pete came with the best gift (sorry, for me, it does top the countless bottles of beer and wine donated to party efforts, though those were still very much appreciated. Just ask Avery about his headache ;)). Anyway, Pete came with a bag and presented it to me as "the gift that gives later." He had pre-printed and stamped envelopes for each mail drop on my trip so my friends could send me letters this summer. He handed them out to everyone and I am so grateful for that. Words from friends will be much-anticipated inspiration.



I am now home in Maine and by tomorrow at this time I'll be headed back south with my dad, my bike, and my bag en route to Providence. Our whole group will be staying there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. On Saturday, we will spend the whole day working at a Habitat site. Sunday morning is the first day of biking, leaving between 8 and 8:30am from the Brown boathouse, where we'll dip out back tires in the Atlantic and leave it at our backs for the remainder of the summer.

As always, the rest of the photos are here.