Build me up buttercup!

Sorry for the extended delay with the posts. I haven't really had access to the internet/a computer for the past few days. I am going to give a quick recap of the days I have missed. So our first real ride was into Fitchberg, but I actually broke my chain about half way into the day, so I had to go to a bike store to get that fixed. It was ultimately fixed so I could ride the next day into North Hampton, which is our leader, Ali's, hometown. I had a skipping chain that day (meaning that it would not stay in a gear consistently...had a mind of its own, that sucked) so my bike was thusly dubbed Skippy Skippy Chain Bang, or just Skippy for short. We had some pretty difficult climbs that day, or at least they felt hard at the time. I stopped at a bike store to get it fixed and turns out I had a nine speed chain on my ten speed...which turns out to be a problem, whoops.
Up to this point all of our days have been filled with rain, but our third day, a 44 miler into Pittsfield, was sunny and nice. Pittsfield was pretty awesome. We stayed in this old catholic church that this women had bought and she was working on this awesome project converting the rectory into a community living place. It was called the alchemy project. We dubbed it the hippie commune. It was really cool and we had this awesome vegan dinner. I also got my bike tuned up a bit so that shifting was smooth like butta.
The next day I had sweep with Tatiana, which was long cause it was an 84 mile day. Sweep, by the way, is when people have to ride in the very back(me on this day) to be sure that all the riders get in safely. They are always the last to finish. We got some free strawberries in the beggining of the day and we had lunch at a bbq(Bubba Beans BBQ!) where I got a pulled pork sandwhich which was awesome. The owner was really awesome and was supper nice in letting us use his patio for our lunch. At the end of the day with about 10 miles left it started to pour which was not so fun. At this point it was 6:15 and we were tired and hungry, but we powered through and made it to Poughkeepsie. Shortly after we got it we went to a chinese buffet where I actually got my money's worth(cause we all eat like machines). We stayed at a boarding school, so I got to sleep in a bed, which was awesome. We had a build day with the Hudson Valley Housing corportation. They showed us all they were doing for affordable housing like emergency housing, foreclosure intervention and from what I can tell just helping people utilize a lot of the government programs in place. We didn't build much, but we learned alot. The next day was a ride into PA and it was my birthday! We rode into Port Jervis, which was awesome. We went to this biker bar for my birthday which was a blast. The ride was awesome and totally beautiful.

The next day we rode to Mt. Pocono which was a 51 mile day, which wasn't too bad. We had a pretty big climb at the end but it really wasn't too bad. It went really smoothly and the host was an awesome church. It was a fairly typical day with food and then a presentation to the local community.

The next day was the last of the nice easy rides into Berwick PA. It was a smooth ride with no big hitches. We got into the host and there was a pool we could swim in which was really awesome. Leslies parents first brought us donuts and cookies to eat at the host and then bought us all dinner at this diner which was amazing of them especially considering we all eat like freaking horses. Then disaster struck...the van wouldnt start. It turns out it was just a loose battery wire which was annoying but we were stuck in the parking lot until 9:30 and we all had stuff to do, but ultimately it was fine.

We had to wake up at 5 the next day for our century into State College. This was a bear of a day with climbs and "rolling hills" which are actually just steep short hills, with head winds. It was brutal and we were all exhausted when we got to State College. My wheel was also crazy out of true(it was all wobbly and rubbed against my break). I tried to fix it and some kids from the area who brought us food and knew about bikes tried to help but couldn't. I ultimately borrowed the leaders back wheel for the next day. The next day was a bear too with some climbs and also our legs were tired. We rode into Johnstown, where we stayed at a YWCA which was really awesome. Matt trued my wheel so I could ride into Pittsburgh the next day.

The ride to Pittsburgh was an absolute bear. We were all tired from teh 6 previous days of riding and it was just hill after hill. We all started to get into a pretty bad mood towards the end of the day. We finally made it in though and Pittsburgh is awesome. I broke one of my spokes, which is what I am dealing with now. Last night we all went out to Station Square, a group of bars by the river which was totally awesome. It has been a great stay in pittsburgh, and I hope to update more soon.

Bike and build is awesome and I am having a great time. I am sorry for not updating more frequently, but everything is crazy busy. Love to all of you!

Cheers!