Staying with the Pope at Yale

Yesterday we rode 80 miles to the Catholic church on Yale's campus. They have a full sized cardboard cutout of Pope Francis. I was giddy about it. I was also really tired when I saw it for the first time. 

I spent the morning riding with Macy and Natalie, which was perhaps the most hilarious ride ever. Natalie fell off of her bike. There were lots of hills. Etc. At Lu h I switched over to riding with Brandon, Josh, Nate, and Sweizy. 'Twas a blast. When we were about 5 miles from host we. Saw a storm start to roll in. It started sprinkling about 3.5 miles from host. Then started pouring buckets and lightninging when we were 1.6 miles away (I was in countdown mode). We were doing some weird/movie scene-esque city riding when Josh got a flat, changed it in record time under a bank awning, and then we got to host. 

Explored the area a tad. We have a build today. Prom tonight. Yippee. 

I'm really bad at updating this year

Yesterday, we rode 40 miles through rain to Little Compton RI and it was surprisingly my favorite ride yet. We were one of the first ones into town, got some coffee and lunch, and chilled around host. Rode with a really solid group and enjoyed a lot of fun stories/conversations throughout the day. 'Twas grand. 

Today we rode 80 into North Stonington CT. Joe and I dropped off from another group due to flats n such, but we just chilled the whole way into town and surprisingly made it in to host before anyone. Got to know Megan a tad which was nice. That's all. Super tired. Super super tired. 

Many days in a row

Really good at updates. Rode a few days, rode on a ferry, built in Nantucket, currently waiting on another ferry, then 40 miles today. 

Woot. 

The end. 

Salem Build

Today was a build day in Salem/sir rebounding area. We demoed a 3-story house. I was on dumpster crew for the first half of the day where I breathed in more insulation than humanly possible. After lunch I was inside bring buckets of rubbish etc out. Legitimately could not see because of the amount of dust in the house. 

My snot came out grey. 

That's all you need to know. 

Bae to Bae (Bay St Louis. Boston Bay).

En route day 2:

I've learned that if I'm planning for 130 people, there's no problems. If I'm planning for myself, chaos ensues. When I booked my ticket to join my team somewhere near Boston, I had apparently done the math wrong and was going to arrive a day too soon. Booked a hotel. Planned a bus ride. (All on 5 hours of sleep in about 72 hours).  I woke up in Boston, finally rested enough to comprehend the English language, and learned I was actually 2 days early. After a quick meandering around downtown Boston, a series of text messages where I'm positive I've already made a bad first impression on my leaders (sorry bout my scattered brain), and a lot of strange looks at the girl walking around the city with a camping pack and bike helmet, I hopped on a bus and am set to arrive in a very random city by 6:30ish tonight. (After one more bus/train/something transfer). 

I blame the Woods for rubbing off on me.

Also I asked a stranger to take my photo so I could tell my mom where I was. My voice was so gone that he had me repeat myself thrice and said "you must be one of those Nashville singers." Before I even stated I was from Nashville. 

En Route to Boston

A little update for y'all. After a week of the tiniest amount of sleep in my life, 13 hours at home, and 7 hours of airplanes & airports - I'm in Boston...and I realized I never really gave any explanation or simple "hey I'm doing this" about Coastal Drift/ Bike & Build round 2.

So, here goes:

For the next two weeks I'll be joining somewhere around 30 (haven't actually checked numbers) other young adults riding from Bar Harbor, Maine to New York City. I'm joining them a tad late in the game, as I spent this past week in Bay St Louis with 80ish high school students, 10 middle schoolers, 9 amazing college workers, and a number of chaperones all working to serve a community that is still recovering from the devastation of Katrina. But that's a whole different story, that I should definitely elaborate on later.

For those of you just now tuning in: bike & build is a non-profit that facilitates 8 cross country, and 2 regional, bicycle trips to benefit the affordable housing cause.  Riders have to raise money to participate, train on the bike, and work a number of hours with an affordable housing organization, and study certain topics and issues surrounding the affordable housing cause before the trip starts.  Last year, I was a leader on Central US (from VA to OR), and this year I'm just along for the ride (but I'm pumped because one of my riders from last year is leading us on drift this year). 

Other FAQs: 

How did you get your bike there? 

I shipped it.

Did you quit your job at HFam?

Nope.  After a year of part time work supplemented by part time coffee serving, I'll start as a full time staff member working with both high school and middle school students as soon as I get back (meaning I have an event planned not even 24 hours after my flight comes in from NY). 

How long will you be gone?

2.5 weeks. I fly home on June 30. 

So you just bike? 

Nope.  It's got that "&build" in the name for a reason.  The coolest part is that we get to stop in some cities and work with Affordable Housing organizations on building affordable housing. My first day on the trip will actually be a build day in Salem MA.

Will you keep us updated in any way?

I'm going to try my best, but this year I'm not making that a priority during the trip.  I'd love to talk to anyone about my experiences, and I might Post some photos, but with drift being such a short trip, I don't want to waste any time that I have typing when I could be sharing time with some humans that I've yet to meet. I might suck at responding to texts.  And I will definitely suck at answering emails.  But when July 2 hits, I'm back to being 100% reachable as I've been in the past (excluding last week because retreats are hard/awesomely distracting). 

But for now, I'm en route to Boston/probably just landed considering I needed internet to post this. The kid next to me has never been on a plane before. And I sat next to a pilot and a super chatty guy who is doing some big things for veterans returning from war through his work in the music industry. (I'll post some kind of information later where you can check out his project). 

I did the math wrong/ ran out of days on the credit I had with this airline and had to fly up a day too early, so tomorrow I'll explore Boston a bit before heading out to Salem to meet up the team. I have no clue what I'm doing but I'm pretty sure I've learned how to waste time in a new city after that one thing with the Woods this year - I just hope this adventure is a tiny bit less eventful (or not. It's whatever). 

Updates to come...eventually. Unless I get bored and decide to fill he in on Bay St Louis.