Happiness is riding a bicycle

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."- Ernest Hemingway

This has been an incredible weekend, and I honestly feel happy. Not that "yeah I've having a good day" type of happy, but actual happiness. It all started with a trip up to Yellow Springs to get some breakfast with my friend at the Sunrise Cafe. Though I frequent the ' Springs often, I realized that I usually only eat pizza and ice cream when I go up there. To say that my breakfast was delicious would be an understatement. Everything was cooked from scratch with organic, local products, and you can definitely tell that it's different from the usual "oatmeal from a box" that I eat for breakfast each morning. I will definitely have to make it up there for breakfast again! It was also great to get a chance to hang out with someone I've been fortunate enough to meet at my favorite coffee shop in town. You can't beat great food, an awesome atmosphere, and wonderful company. After breakfast I got a chance to find out some secret spots in Y.S. that I didn't know about before, and have some interesting conversations. I love getting to learn about other people, you can learn so much from other people that you may never learn otherwise.

Saturday was another awesome day that included an awesome bike ride to get tea. Why I had never biked to get my tea before, I don't know, but I think I'm going to try to do it more often. It was great riding down there, got a chance to start re-reading Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer (I forgot how awesome that book is), and of course enjoy some delicious tea. When I travel places, even when its a shorter ride such as my ride to get tea, I feel empowered by what I was able to do (even if its only a total of 20 miles), and it makes me happy. After I showered, I decided to treat myself to a wonderful dinner of BBQ and Virgil's rootbeer (aka the best rootbeer in the world). I also stopped back at the coffee shop on the way to get my food to say goodbye to my friend who is leaving for South Africa for a trip (and pick up a drink for my friend). Saturday was filled with spending time with great people. I truly am blessed to have such wonderful people in my life, and I hope that they know how much I appreciate having them around.

Now we get to Sunday, which has been a day of reflection (and working on homework). Though I spent the first part of the day being lazy at home, I ended up heading to the coffee shop to work on some homework. I managed to get some of it done, but I will probably be spending a good portion of the evening working on the rest. After doing some homework, I came home, and picked up my bike and rode out to a park in Kettering to do some more reading (for pleasure, not homework). The ride was fun, though the way to the park included a very big hill (which I slowly, but steadily climbed up), and hanging out at the park, cooling off with my feet  in the water, and just reading and relaxing was very nice. I've also heard from some friends from the trip, which always makes me happy.

This has been an incredible weekend, and I think its going to help me get through the long week of classes I have ahead. Not only do I have the class that I've been going to for a while now, I am also starting another class this week. I'll be commuting about 45 minutes- an hour from Monday through Thursday this week. My Tuesday Thursday class is three and a half hours long, and I'm not sure how it's going to go yet. I just keep reminding myself that taking these classes now will lead me to graduation in May. Less than a year to go! The finish line is just ahead, but I have to climb a big hill to get there.

On this day in B2SB'10 History

Day 6
North Hampton to Pittsfield

Ride to Pittsfield:

• Hilly/Mountains for 40 mile ride
• Started at ~100 ft. elevation, maxed at around 2000 ft. 
• 40 mph downhill
• Tough ride, but did pretty well
• Learned to lube chain
• "donation magic" dinner
• MA Dance Party! 
• Last day in Mass., tomorrow NY! 
• Stayed in interesting church
• Town fairly boring, not much around. 
• Tomorrow sweep with Steve

Miles Rode: 40

Sleeping in: Chapel

Cue Sheet

Furry Friends

Well hello there! 

Inside of Church we stayed at in Pittsfield. 

On This Day in B2SB'10 History (for June 23rd)

Day 6- (June 23rd)

Fitchburg to North Hampton

Bike to North Hampton: 

• Pancake breakfast
• Stop for Ice Cream
• Very frustrating ride until lunch break, though Brandt and Kristine (sweep) were very encouraging. 
• Great view at lunch and during ride. 
• Lots of major hills, slow climb better than frustration with trying to push too hard. 
• staying in awesome church that Rev. Jonathan Edwards preached at. 
• Great dinner at Ali's house (former B2SB leader)
• Good info from Ali (painful, but worth it!)
• 2 more days until next build day
• Gigantic slice of pizza
• nice talk with Susan outside. 

Miles Biked: ~60

Sleeping In: Chapel

Cue Sheet

Break at the Park

Of course we stopped for Ice Cream

Gorgeous view for lunch

Largest slice of pizza I've ever eaten... and it was delicious! 

On This Day in B2SB'10 History (for June 22nd)

Day 5- June 22nd

Ride from Andover to Fitchburg

Bike to Fitchburg: 

• Lots of hills and valleys (some tougher than others)
• Stopped at woods for a few.
• Made pit stop at park for photos
• Rode a lot with Susan and Anne
• Saw Puppet Theater
• UPS Truck Parade
• Neal Anderson- former teacher- talked about science of "bonking" (not enough glucose for your brain), religious affiliation of early Presidents (Unitarian Universalism), and everything else. 
• Celebrated Kelsey's birthday. 
• Candlestick Bowling. 

Miles Biked: ~45 + detours

Sleeping In: Sanctuary

Cue Sheet

Hanging out at Groton Woods

The Puppet Theater! 

Apparently Red Riding Hood was the performance that day

Agreed. Sign outside of church we stayed at in Fitchburg. 

On This Day in B2SB'10 History (for June 21st)

Day 4- June 21st

Build Day: Andover

First Build Day: 

• Built with Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity at old convent that is being turned into a 10 family space. 
• Demo galore! Took down plaster and wood for 2 rooms. Covered in plaster but we did a lot of work overall and really helped the group out. 
• Long, cold shower (I was covered in plaster)
• went back to Webbers for Thanksgiving dinner, literally. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. 
• Talked as a large group with family about why we are doing Bike & Build, and about Chris. 
• Ate cake
• came back to Pike to chill and get ready to ride tomorrow! 

Miles Rode: ~ 0

Sleeping in: Library

Group Outside of the building we were going to work on that day. 

We did that. There used to be old drywall and tiles. 

No more old drywall. 

On This Day in B2SB'10 History (for June 20th)

Well... I am already behind on this... but I am going to catch it all up.

Day 3: Boston to Andover, MA
June 20th

First Official Ride Day!

• Dipped our tires in the Atlantic at the beach. 
• Headed out for a short 24 mile ride to Andover. 
• Ride turned into about 30 mile ride with lots of hills. (got very, very lost)
• Slightly frustrating ride, but made it through. 
• Got to Pike School (K-9). Best school ever! 
• Showered, played with parachute, kickball, Bball, and watched Brasil vs. Ivory Coast in World Cup Soccer in huge theater. 
• Went to Chris Webber's parents house, and had the best food yet! Great time filled with lots of games! I think we have an awesome group... things are looking good. 

Miles Traveled: ~30

Slept In Library

1st Official Cue Sheet! 

Group at the Wheel Dip Ceremony (Photo Credit- Michael George)

Parachute! (Photo Credit- Michael George)

One of the First Group Sing-a-longs (Photo Credit- Michael George)

On This in B2SB'10 History- Shakedown Ride

Entry for today:

Boston
Day 2
June 19th, 2010

More orientation stuff:
- got to have our first breakfast together
- learned new bike maintenance tricks, though I still need practice
- learned bike safety stuff
- went bike shopping after few missed turns in a hot van
- got new tires on the bike
- sleeping in the chapel of the church, interesting
- Also, had awesome shakedown ride to Deer Island and Water Treatment Plant. Absolutely gorgeous!
The Big Day is Tomorrow!

Miles Traveled: ~10.4
Slept in Chapel of church

Group Photo near the Water Treatment Plant.