I eat mountains for breakfast

5/30 Gatlinburg, TN

Me: "So how are the two hills that we're climbing?
Gabe: " They're not hills, they're mountains."

The Smokey Mountains were exhausting, painful, and oh so beautiful. I loved it.

On our way towards the Smokey Mountains!

Drew, Andrew, and I took pictures with the elevation signs when we were ascending the mountain. We lost Andrew after the first one. Our bad lol.

These are pictures from close to the top/top of the Smokey Mountain and at the very top was the state borderline =].

It finally feels like we're really moving now that we've crossed into a new state.

It was strange coming from the the simplistic nature of the Smokey Mountains to the tourist attraction environment of Gatlinburg, but it was a nice crowded welcome.

P.S. I wonder what the little hero that exists in all of us looks like.

Week Recap

I haven't had time or internet connection lately so here are my previous posts!

5/26 Charlotte Day 2: Davidson Build Day

Working with Hammers, a local affordable housing group for the elderly and disabled, we helped restore a deteriorating ceiling. It was a smooth progression with the helping hands of 31 cyclists and 2 construction site supervisors. In the evening, we enjoyed a nice pool party at the courtesy of Zach, one of the initial trip coordinators when our route began, while Anna's parents provided dinner. Thank you guys!

5/27 Forest City: If that makes any sense

I've been feeling burnt out lately from the sheer amount of biking we've been doing. Our mileage has been about 90+ for the last couple of ride days because of reroutes. I think its mostly mental exhaustion so I'll just need to remember to take the hills one at a time.

So, here are a few moments from today:

In the morning, while riding with Andrew, Cindy, and Sarah, I took a quick stop and figured I'd catch up with them. 15 miles later and physically exhausted from trying to catch up with no success I take a quick stop to check out where lunch is. Andy and Dennis at this point catch up to me and told me I was at the front of the pack...Hmmm...my bad.

From ahead, all I heard was someone screaming in a sort of crazed lunatic way. So, maybe a lunatic was chasing us? Nope...just Andy chasing a dog that was chasing us. Awesome.

We passed by a house with a mechanical cyclist model made of all sorts of scrap metals that had a motion sensor. When we passed, it waved to us. I dig that.


1+2) 31 of us decide to uproot a tree with our tremendous strength, while close by baby huskies are frolicking.

5/28

Asheville: A change in scenery

The ride to Asheville was quite amazing. The scenery was beautiful. I dig the outdoors. The towns we went through were small and quaint in nature. The ascent was several miles long, which well was mentally brutal, but the descent was worth every bit of it. Cruising down the hill during warm weather, under the shade of the surrounding tall trees, on a perfectly paved road that twisted and turned was sweeeeeet =].

1) Danielle and Michelle are biking up a steep hill...and no they aren't usually smiling when they bike up hill

2 + 3) We reach Lake Lure with its beautiful scenery. group and single pic

4) Brother bear and me at Chimney Rock

5) The continental divide where the awesome descent began as well

6) Shout out! Hollah!

5/29/09

Asheville Day 2: Ramps are us

A group of 10 of us biked to the site 3 miles out. Our project was to construct a ramp for an elderly disabled woman. Although she didn't like to pose for pictures, I took them anyways lol. She was very sweet and kind. Starting around 8am, we finished at 3pm.

When I was younger, I use to help my parents fix and restore a couple of properties that we owned. I never liked it back then because I always though it laborious. Who wants to fix a house up when you can play outside with your friends? But, here I am biking across the country and the doing the same thing. I didn't realize at the time how much my parents needed the help nor how much it meant, but I do now.

One last thought. Working with several local affordable housing groups has been great. I do it because I enjoy it. I get to meet new people, learn new things, and help others. Yet, sometimes I wonder if our efforts have really made a contribution. All of us have relied on someone, and in the future will mostly likely need to again. We are all very similar in that aspect, but I think what really counts is what you take from that experience. I truly hope that the people we are fighting for are helping themselves out as well. It's just the honest truth that perhaps a significant amount of the people we will be helping out are taking us for granted. They'll meet the statistical credentials, but won't try to recover from their current state. They may even be discouraged from getting a job because once they do they'll pass the limitation on income and will lose their aid. I don't believe doesn't apply to everyone though. Some people are doing everything right, but everything wrong may just be happening. This is our cause and it is for these people that we will continue to hope to make a genuine difference.

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.

~Herman Melville

With only a little more than a week in, you can already notice improvements in everyone. I mean the sheer amount of mileage we do is bound to make us better, but it takes a lot of mental discipline to pull you through. It’s a great feeling to see people who were struggling at first to finish on time come in a lot earlier in the last few days. Biking to Charlotte was a bit tiring today since I’m still getting used to the amount of biking that we’re doing. The hills, however, were pretty awesome. I’m starting to get a feel for the fast descents and so it’s become more enjoyable. I loved when we biked through the downtown of Charlotte. I can’t wait to come back and bike through center city of Philadelphia =]. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, our second build day =].

The first picture is the church we stayed at that was on UNC's campus. The whole campus was really nice. It had a very historic feel to it along with a nice little garden (the second picture). Third picture is a big hand I saw on my way to Winston-Salem (yesterday). Fourth picture is a large milk carton. Milk does a body good!

Congrats to Fatty and Jamie on their graduations! Good luck on the job search lol.

I don't have a good quote for today. Feel free to post me one =].

Project Badass

Heading into Wake Forest was quite the treat. Instead of doing 79 miles we completed almost a 100. Harvey Narron road, why did you have to disappear?It was a pretty intense day for some of us since the mileage jumped so high so soon, but after a while it was basically all mental. The next day we headed into Chapel Hill, which was a short 39 miles. Here we did a bike clinic for young kids in the Carrboro community. Definitely was jealous of the kids who could signal better than I could!


















The following day was our build day, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It was a great feeling though to see the house begin to come together though. So now another goal of mine is to construct my own house when I'm older (with the help of some of you guys of course lol.)

"I was drunk once and I lost my wallet, but then Jesus saved me and I never got drunk again,"

Random passerby during our trip to Wake Forest. (not quite sure he was sober though)

Enemy Thy Name Is Railroad Track

6:00am: Wake up call

- Clean up and pack your bags

7:00am: Nurture your body

- Eat a good breakfast

8:00am: Bike!

- Start biking to Greensville

8:30am: Enemy thy name is railroad track

- Slam straight into the railroad tracks, fly a bit, and tumble a bit

8:40am: Bandages galore

- Kristian helps bandage me up and fix up my bike

8:50am: Catch up

- Bike fast to catch up with a couple people

1:00-3:00pm: Arrive at Greensville
- We painted the trailer white and people came up with ideas to design it (to be finished)
5:25pm: Homing missiles!

- That bird definitely aimed for me, sorry coworkers and kiddoes that poop stained is a little hard to get out of a white t-shirt lol

6:00-8:00pm: Dinner and Presentations
- A great meal provided by our host and presentations about affordable housing by our fellow bike & builders

Happy Birthday Ginger! Her bike was ballooned and plastic wrapped.

"We have tried to conquer you and failed; we tried again and you beat us; but we shall beat you, for you cannot grow bigger, but we can."

Quoted by one of the team members of a group of mountain climbers who had attempted to climb Mount Everest before the first successful attempt in 1953 by Tenzing and Hilary.

Wheel Dip

Nags Head has been our host location since our route began three years ago. 8:30 am we "officially" begin our trip from east to west coast by dipping our back wheels into the Atlantic waters.

Before leaving, the mayor of Nags Head remarked that the times ahead may prove difficult, but the causes that we fight for demand it. It's amazing how a group of people with a common goal can come together to make such a difference.

66 miles we bike towards Swan Quarters and then 34 miles the next day (Monday) towards Belhaven. Our receptions at these local communities have been nothing but warm and friendly. After riding through cold weather, rain, and strong winds you realize how much hot showers and home made meals are really worth.

One of my fellow riders, Kelly, said that one of her goals is to step out of her comfort zone. Sometimes it's necessary for us to move away from the comfortable to realize what impact we are truly capable of.