I Made it!

Hey all!

So I made it to Santa Barbara! I got my old bike in Roswell and was smooth sailing from there...well mostly. I will just regail you all with the highlights of the last few weeks of my trip. I appologize for the extended hiatus but due to various circumstances it was just too hard to blog durring the home strech.

So I got my bike back and started biking out of Roswell. New Mexico turned out to be the far and away favorite state of most everyone. It had beautiful mountains with rewarding rides and climbs. We crossed over the continental devide while in New Mexico (Pie Town). We had a 14 mile decent where we practically didn't have to pedal at all but we could maintain 30 miles an hour, it was awesome. I reached my top speed for the trip in New Mexico at 54.2 MPH which was wicked. New Mexico was filled with big beatiful climbs and descents into huge valleys surrounded by awesome mountains. The temperature was great and it was some very rewarding riding. We left New Mexico to enter in the less awesome state of Arizona.

Some of the highlights of Arizona include desert riding, 11 flats on the way into Winslow, Arizona, 35-40 MPH headwinds into Flagstaff, the grand canyon, which was awesome, and Parker, AZ/Colorado River which was awesome. The 11 flats in one day was brutal. It was a combination of biking on I-40 that had these tiny metal shards from Semi's and running out of tubes so I had to patch, which were faulty about 50% of the time. It made it into a nearly 12 hour day which was awful. The grand canyon was breathtaking and everything I could have wanted it to be and more. It is so hard to describe....go there if you haven't been! Lastly Parker...we camped at Parker which was the day before a 120 mile day...It was a cool stop and we all spent all day at this floating bar hanging out and swimming. We got in super early, because we had a really easy ride the day before. We then all had to sleep in 90 degree heat or try, and get up at 2:30 to tackle our longest day of the trip, 119 miles through the Mojave into California. The desert is not flat, in case any of you were unclear. It was a challenging day, but we all made it through. We then had a 90 mile the following day followed by a 60 miler, but then we were really on the home strech with only 3 short days until Santa Barbara!

So here I am now, in Oregon after spending a few days in Santa Barbara, then went to San Francisco for a day. I am enjoying the relaxation but I honestly miss all my fellow riders and miss the long rides...I didnt know how I would feel after the trip was over but I definately miss it. Thank you to all my suporters and I made it!!!

Cheers!

New Mexico!

So I got to bike today again. One of our leaders has a bike that I can fit on so I borrowed his today(he had to drive the van). It was awesome to get back out on the bike. It was not too bad of a day only being a 75 miler, and it was cool this morning with just a few clouds and got a little hotter but nothing too bad. We rode into New Mexico today into Portales which is where Eastern New Mexico University is (I'd never heard of it either). We are staying in the dorms, so we get to sleep in a bed, which is awesome and I will be retiring to one shortly for a serious nap.

So my bike will be covered under warranty, and I actually would be able to get it on the trip, just not until late next week, so I would miss a week of riding, which is a lot when there are only 3 left! So I am getting my bike from Columbus shipped, thanks to David, who kindly took it to the bike store for me.

We will be riding into Roswell tomorrow, where I will get my new bike! (or my old one here...). After Roswell we will begin an 8 day strech of riding. Wish me luck, and I hope I can update soon.

Texas....The state I won't bike through

I know my last few blogs have been rather down, but that is not representative of the trip thus far. The life of a bike and builder is largely awesome...all we have to do is bike, thats it. It has been very challenging and continues to be as I try and figure out my bike situation. But by and large its awesome, we get to bike all day and spend hours enjoying the sun and the open road as we see different parts of the country and meet amazing people. The days are largely consumed with pedaling and enjoying food to degrees I never knew to be possible. Today, for example, we had a build day where we sheeted a house and put up trusses on a house after which we got an amazing meal. Annie's parents drove up from austin with a huge smoker where they made us chicken, brisket, ribs and pork. It was awesome.

Since we have entered the Oklahoma, Texas area we have had amazing BBQ and lots of super churches which has been interesting. We have experienced lots of youth groups and super christian places. We experienced our first dry county last week. We have a few more days in the bible belt area and then New Mexico and Roswell....our next mail drop! (hint hint).

My bike will be replaced under the warranty but its looking like I may not be able to deal with that until the trip is over, so I may just get my old bike shipped out and use that for the remainder of the trip, and then just get a new bike when the trip is over. We will see how that works out though. Thats all for now...

Adios from Texas!

Love to you all.

Bike troubles

Just a quick update, Today we had a pretty brutal 83 mile day through Oklahoma with rolling hills and a wicked headwind. Besides these everything was going great for me until about mile 40...then my pedal snapped off my bike, sending me careening. I got some wicked scrapes and to boot I cracked my frame. I am currently trying to figure out how this situation will be rectified. I am talking to Bokoo bikes who I got the bike from to try and get my warranty into play. I will update more later when I know more. Hopefully I can get it all sorted out by Amarillo. Wish me luck and cheers!

Misery oh I mean Missouri

So the state of Missouri is awful to bike through, or at least has been for B2SB 2009. We had 3 95 mile days back to back which is just hellish. The ride out of St. Louis was my Worst yet. It started off with two flats in the first 2 miles then another about 15 miles out which always puts a downer on things because it just slows you down so much. Then at about mile 60 it just got a little rough wiht some climbing and for some reason my legs just died on me. The last 15 miles were down this little road trying to find this boy scout camp by myself. This was the end of a 95 mile day, and just really sucked all enjoyment of the ride out of me. It was the first ride I truly didn't enjoy. Then the next day out of the boy scout camp we had soem gravel roads to bike on, which are really not fun on a road bike. There were some flats and I ended up behind. I ultimately met up with Jodi and we biked together for the rest of the day. The ride wasn't bad and we ended up stoping at sonic at the second half of the day. The day was super hilly and due to a rule implementation and me, Leslie, Denis, and Jodi running a bit late, we ultimately didn't finish the ride which is alright. I also had more flat issues which just sucks. Then our ride into springfield was rough too. It was a pretty day but brutal riding with some serious climbs and just hills all day, as well as being a 95 miler. We also got sent on a 10 mile detour, which would have made it a 105 mile day, but at mile 95, only a few miles from the host Jodi popped her Chain off and it got kinked and we couldn't get it unkinked. It was such a blow, cause we were both stoked to finish the ride. I didn't want to leave her by herself to wait for the van and I was getting a flat on my back tire as well as the fact that by the time we got it sorted out it was 6:40, so I rode the last miles in the van. To top it off all of the food at the host had been eaten when we got back. We went to Sonic to get dinner ultimately, but it was a rough and discouraging day.

Todays ride from Springfield to Joplin was redeeming though. It was ultimately an 85 mile ride but it was beautiful and It went well. I felt great and my legs had a little spring to them after our build day(day no biking) in Springfield.

The trip in general is going great. We eat obscene amounts of food and just laugh so hard all the time. We are frequently on the point of hysteria, but its just great fun and lots of laughs. My body is startign to feel the toll of all this riding. My left hand doesn't work right and I frequently have trouble shifting my front chainrings(left side) because of some numbness and just tingling. My legs are never as spry as they used to be just cause they can't fully rest. But I am having a blast.

Also, if your so inclined...send me stuff! The mail drop info is on the right. I would love to hear from any of you and any food or anything is always appreciated. Much love!

Cheers

-Robby

Indiana, Illinois, and St. Louis

My build day in Bloomington was great and I always enjoy being in this town. It just has good energy and I got to spend some quality time with Aunt Marilyn which is really nice. Something sort of familiar while we are always traversing across the states is really nice. Nothing exciting to report from the build day, but it was a great time.

Over the course of the next three days we traversed across the state of Illinois which was not bad. They were all fairly moderate days at around 70 to 80 miles, which isn't bad, especially when they aren't too hilly. The ride into Lawrenceville wasn't too bad and we were all super stoked cause we got Hardees for dinner for free, anything we wanted, which was exciting. It was quite the fiasco, but it was nice. We also got to stay in a super ACed church so it was nice and cool which was also a treat. The ride into Salem, IL was fairly uneventful if I recall correctly, although everything begins to blur a bit. The ride into St. Louis was anything but. It started out great with me and Amary busting out the first 50 miles of an 90 some mile day in the first three hours. We missed lunch(due to a little detour from the cue sheet, whoops) but it was fine. We then got to 70 and we could see the city and everything seemed so sweet and we figured we would get in by 3 tops. We spoke too soon. Then the cue sheet fell apart and kept getting us lost. An epic storm rolled in that would have blown us off the road of not for the BP poping up in the nick of time. After the storm we biked over the Misissippi, which was freaking sweet. Then Amary broke a front spoke, but that was alright, the wheel was ridable. Then she almost got hit by a car as we were crossing the road on a bike path. The road we were supposed to turn on didn't seem to intersect the bike path as advertised though....we ultimately ended up biking up and down Riverview drive, which was fairly flooded due to the storm only a few hours before. We finally found the road only for Amary to get a blow out flat that we had to patch the tire for. At this point it was now 4. We got back on the road and got lost some more due to some confusing streets in St. Louis. To top it all off I got a flat with no tubes left about a quarter mile from the host site. I walked the last quarter mile of our 99 mile day. It ultimately turned out fine and was actually a fun day of riding despite all our misadventures.

The day off in St. Louis was awesome. It was the All Star break in St. Louis when we were there so we headed downtown to the ball park to enjoy the festivities. There were a bunch of booths and activities going on downtown which was a lot of fun. We got to enjoy a lot of free Budweiser through a little booth from the kind People at Anheuser Busch. We had to cheat the system a bit, but after they found out what we were doing they let it slide. I went to dinner with Sara after we got back which was great, and it was really awesome to see her. So all in all St. Louis treated me well and I hope I get a chance to go back.

Bloomington

So we made it through the great state of Ohio. Ohio was a great break from Pennsylvania and all its hills. I am currently in Bloomington, IN, where we have a build day tomorrow. We had an 80 mile day into the town today.

I have had a series of follies recently. I am still dealing with my wheel constantly going out of true, my cyclo computer broke, I scratched my cornia two day ago, which I had to go to the hospital for. I took off our ride into Indiana, which was good and my eye healed and I could ride today which was a great ride.

I got to see Dad, Cindy, and Libby in Yellow Springs which was great. Yellow springs was a great little town. All the people that we have been hosted by have been so amazing so far. We have had amazing meals and just extraordinary hospitality.

We have some plans to explore Bloomington tonight and tomorrow. Many of us will be running all over trying to get our bikes back into working order.

All for now, I'm up for the shower! Love to you all.

Cheers!