Oklahoma: Henryetta & Oklahoma City. OKC, I didn't miss you over the past 3 weeks.

Day 29: 6/21 - Henryetta to OKC
Mileage - 96.3


Today was a very challenging day. For the second day in a row, we we're reminded that Oklahoma is not actually flat, and that yes, it is extremely windy. We woke up exhausted from the 106 miles previous day, and got ready and all packed up for what was probably going to be the most strenous ride of the trip.

Scott was in better shape and was able to ride Natalie's bike, and he'll probably switch up leader bikes until his settlement from the crash arrives to buy a new bike. In leiu of our extreme slowness this morning, the dance move of the day was put on hold until dinner, and we headed out quickly after the cue sheet meeting. Everyone started off pretty light around 16-18mph as we left Henryetta.

During the ride, Travis, Mike, and I decided to have a coast-off. Basically a coast-off is when you bike to the top of a hill, and all stop peddling at the same point, then see who can stay balanced on their bike the longest after the downhill turns back up hill. Mike took off first down the hill (gravity is awesome for momentum), followed by Travis and then me. Eventually Travis and I met up midhill and coasted for about a mile and a half to catch Mike. Mike was the first to fall since he hit the uphill section and stopped soonest, followed by Travis. About 2 minutes later I got to that same spot and
lost my momentum and fell too. Mike-0, Travis-0, Brian-1. After about 60 miles, everyone's pace dropped severely as the 20mph headwind and crosswind began to wear on everyone. Packs of riders began to spread out and most riders ended up riding solo, fighting the winds and hills with all the energy they has left. I bonked around mile 65 and slowly biked around 8-10mph into our second lunch stop at 75 miles. After refilling my empty waterbottles and camelbak, and eating a cliff bar and another electrolyte supplement, I headed off for Oklahoma City again, 20 miles to go.

We hit a road closure from flood damage once getting into the outyling town, and had to walk around the repair site. Once back on the road, Sebass and Brad caught up to me, and we took off racing to the host site. We averaged around 26mph and somehow found the energy to push out the last 12 miles. Brad, Sebass, and myself arrived to the church first, completely exhausted and craving chocolate milk -- what we have learned is a great recovery drink, even for lactose-intolerant riders (sort of). We walked over to Walgreen's and get some choclate milk, and then went back to the church to pass out and cool off while watching Heavyweights.

Once the rest of the group arrived and we we're all woken up from our standard post-ride nap, we headed out to a dinner provided by H4H at one of their friend's houses.

Day 30: 6/22 - OKC Build Day with Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity

We woke up at 5:45am after a great night of sleep, due to complete exhaustion by 10pm. We headed over to breakfast at the OKC Yacht Club on Lake Hefner, which was arranged by H4H of OKC, and then proceeded over to the build site. At the build site we broke up into two teams to start wall assemblies. My group spent the morning framing up the interior walls, while the other group worked on the exterior walls.

The house consisted of 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with a living room, kitchen, and garage. The neighborhood that the house was located was entirely a Habitat sub-development consisting of around 215 homes. By lunch time all of the walls we're assembled along the road, ready to be lifted into place. Thanks to the generosity of Chipotle, we got free burrittos for the entire group for all lunches during our stay here in OKC! After lunch, we started raising the walls, and squaring them up. Before leaving for the day, we started the OSB sheathing on the exterior corners to help guide the next group of volunteers that will enclose the house over the next few days. We headed into town for our standard 'bike shop trip' to Schlegel Bicycles on North Broadway Ave. It was also just down the street from the Habitat for Humanity headquarters, where dinner was provided. After dinner, we headed into Bricktown and took the group down to the Riversport Rowing Complex and National Rowing Training Center. Once given a tour of the facilities, some of us returned to Bricktown for the night, while the rest of the group, including myself, returned to the host to watch Ninja Assasin, the best free Redbox movie ever.

-Brian

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas... Done.

Done... on a bike. In writing, still missing.

So I wrote up a blog covering the past 4 states... however, due to how advanced and amazing technology is, it disappeared and never saved. In order to keep everyone up to date on where I am, how things are going, and what sc2sc is up to each day, I am going to jump forward in my blog to Oklahoma. Hopefully once in Colorado Springs (in about a week) I will have time to rewrite up what was going on for the first 3 weeks of the trip!

Thanks for your understanding, and I'll get the first half of Oklahoma posted soon.

-Brian

South Carolina... One State Down.

Now that we are a good two to three weeks into the trip, our schedules have settled down. With free time sorted out, and the trip computer out of the hands of the leaders, I'm now able to get online to start adding posts and photos. Thanks for your patience over the past few days, and I'm happy to be writing my first post regarding our trip. Most posts on this blog beyond today's will pertain to a particular day or a few days (if I don't get on a computer daily), but for now, I'm going to review the first few weeks and bring everyone up to speed and how I'm now in Alabama, 18 days after meeting the Bike & Build group in Charleston, South Carolina.


-Brian

Day 4 (5/29): Charleston to Monks Corner
Day one of the ride started out early. We woke up, packed up our gear, ate breakfast and then road out to Fort Moultrie for the Wheel Dip Ceremony. Once arriving, I met up with my mom and dad (who flew in that morning) for pictures and to say goodbye. After a brief speech from our leaders, some tv time with the local news, and a few group pictures, we were off, saying goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean until I return to Avalon in late August. This first day of riding started off very light, being only 58 miles on the flats leaving the coast. It took about 3 and a half hours, with a nice lunch stop to regroup everyone and make sure no one had any issues.  After arriving at our host church, we we're informed of a lake nearby, and headed off on a 8 mile side trip to go for a swim. We spent a few hours at Lake Moultrie, swimming, jumping off of the dock, and just hanging out, before heading back to the church for dinner and bed.

Day 5 (5/30): Monks Corner to Sumter
Day two of the ride was a day of firsts. We had our first experience getting lost. Our first two crashed, our first dog attacks, and our first reroute. The plan was to ride about 66 miles, and as the following day's cue sheet read... "66 miles, 88 miles same thing... right?" Yes, day two of the trip and already onto 88 mile trips. Our route planned for a nice ride into a park and along a dam, however when we got there, the dam was closed, and the river was impassable. So we turned back around, headed off on another road for a while, looking for the trailer for lunch. At lunch we we're given our reroute, and learned that the new cue sheet had to take us an additional 22 miles to get around the river and lake that we planned to cross. As for our first set of crashes, both Tyler and leader Brian showed up to lunch with new cuts and memories of the summer. Tyler got caught up in a paceline and fell, cracking his helmet and splitting above his eye, while Brian got his tire caught in a groove and went over the handlebar, currently in first place in the scar competition, splitting his elbow and ankle open and having a nice set of road rash along the left side of his torso. Both riders were able to finish up the day and got all fixed up before heading out onto the unknown afternoon route around the lake. As for the dogs, we quickly learned that they not only like chasing mailmen, they also like chasing bikes. During a straight section, the first group ran into a pack of dogs and quickly chalked the road "BEWARE DOGS" as a warning to the trailing groups. At that instance, everyone loaded up a water bottle in hand, and a foot unclipped, ready to defend. Once arriving, everyone unpacked and fell asleep quite quickly, learning the truth about how much can really be planned ahead while biking across the country.

Day 6 (5/31): Sumter to Columbia
During the cue sheet meeting for the day, many jokes we're thrown around regarding how long this route would really be. It was stated as a 47 mile ride, but everyone began to plan for the worst, and it turning into a 70 mile ride day. Heading into Columbia, we hit our first set of rolling hills and finally started getting up to speed with pacelines and riding in groups in descents. Today was also Natalie's birthday. We headed out into downtown Columbia after unpacking our stuff at USC and spending dinner with a local bike club and the Habitat for Humanity.

Day 7 (6/1): Columbia to Newberry
The  ride into Newberry was similar to Columbia. We again spent most of the day on rolling hills, through farmland and some country roads. The trip was around 57 miles, and we spent some time at Lake Murry mid-day to hangout and take a break from the heat.

Day 8 (6/2): Newberry to Greenville
Heading into Greenville everyone picked up the pace. Since we had a day off tomorrow, we took the 71 mile ride pretty aggressively. During this ride we also hit our first set of steep hills and rollers leading into the city. Not only did we get accustomed to hill climbs today, but we also dealt with heavy rain. About 10 miles before our lunch stop, the sky opened and it began to downpour. After a 30 minutes departure from lunch delay due to lightening, and a double-dutch contest under the canopy of the pump station we stopped at, we we're back on the slick roads. In total during the 71 mile ride, we had 6 crashes on railroad tracks. During our ride we quickly learned how slick oil-covered steel is once wet. Everyone that crashed was okay and completed the ride. Again, just some road rash, bruises, and small cuts as memories. Once arriving into Greenville, we headed into town and out for the night since we had a day off the following day.
 
Day 9 (6/3): Greenville (Day Off)
With a day off so early in the trip, most of us spent time finishing up bike maintenance, getting new parts and upgrades, and learned how to fix anything we could possibly break on the road. I headed to Tri-Cycle Carolina with a few other B&Bers and we spent some time checking out new bike seats, grip tape, and tubes.  I got customed fitted for a new seat, and wow did it make a difference. After our first of many "bike shop trips" that we'll make this summer, we we're surprised with a trip to the Hincapie Headquarters. Hincapie is the company that designed and produces cycling attire, and was the outfitter for bike and build. The company is named after the Hincapie family, most notably George Hincapie. George is a teammate to Lance Armstrong and lives/trains in Greenville. While there we got to see many trophies, medals, won by George and Lance (along with the 7 Tour de France yellow jerseys), in addition to Hincapie's new cycling kits. After the tour we B&B board member) treated us to dinner at Barley's Tap Room. Once dinner was finished, we headed back to the host to clean our bikes before our ride tomorrow... Our first State Line.

Day 10 (6/4): Greenville to Hartwell, GA
Today was our first state line. After 10 days in South Carolina, we we're excited to head into a new state and start crossing off our remaining 13 written on the trailer. During the cue sheet meeting, we we're given our first "Donation Challenge". 
Side note... Donation challenges consist of a necessary item that is usually difficult to get donated to our group. Being a non-profit and on a fixed budget, we rely on local donations of almost everything to help reduce costs and keep our trip comfortable and moving smoothly. Typical "donation magic" consists of chalk, food, Wal-Mart gift cards, Piggly Wigglies food donations, etc. In order to up the excitement and really make us work our B&B speech, the leaders get together to find larger items that would be awesome to have, but not so easy to convince someone to donate. Today's challenge... POP UP SHADE TENT. Picture a 10' x 10' canopy tent that is commonly used at soccer games, picnics, rowing races, etc. Yes, our challenge was to convince a store to donate a $150+ tent. By the end of the day, we had TWO... yes two shade tents. One was donated by Wal-mart, and the other was actually purchased by a worker at a Home Depot for us.  
Okay, so back on to our ride for the day. We had a 59 mile day to Hartwell, Georgia. After coming out of some South Carolina hills, we hit some flats around Hartwell Lake Dam, a few miles short of the state line. In order to cool off and enjoy the short ride day, we decided to go for a swim at the lake. After hanging out for a while for Sebastian and Kern to return from their 1.5 mile swim out to an island and back... we headed off to the state line to celebrate and get some pictures. The rest of the ride through Georgia was pretty easy and we arrived at the host early mid-afternoon to set up our newly acquired shade-tent and hangout. After meeting the Pastor and community members, we had a B&B presentation, dinner, and then we played some basketball with some of the kids (shout-out to Trevor) in the group. One state down... the rest of the country to go.



Slowly getting caught back up on my blog...
-Brian

Traveling though 8 states, before biking through 13 states

= 19 different states by August 12th. 
(Yes, Oklahoma and Texas are the only repeat)

After 20 hours of van travel to Oklahoma City, OK -- after 3 races in the heaviest cross-wind at the National Championship, and a 3rd place finish -- and finally after 6 hours of plane travel and airports, I arrived in Charleston, SC to meet all my gear for Bike & Build, and set out on the best summer of my life.
-Brian


Day 1: Orientation (5/24): Charleston, SC
After waking up in Oklahoma City after ACRA Nationals for PSU Crew, Lance, Brad, and I headed over to the airport for a 6am flight to Charleston, SC. Once we landed, we met up with my mom who drove down all of our bikes, gear, and bags for Bike & Build - Thanks again mom!


We headed to downtown Charleston, into the College of Charleston campus, where we met up with the rest of the group at the host location. After unpacking our gear, setting up our bikes, eating lunch at Five Guys and saying goodbye, we went into your typical ice breakers and then dinner was provided by the Charleston Habitat for Humanity. After dinner, our four trip leaders (Megan - MOB, Natalie, Travis, and Brian - B$) hosted a training sessions for our Bike & Build presentation that will be presented to the community members and hosts along our route. We then picked up all of our new riding kits (jerseys, bibs, hats, and socks), along with our Thermarests (think 1 inch inflatable pool mattress) and headed off to bed.

Day 2: Orientation (5/27): Charleston, SC
After our first night of learning who snore, how uncomfortable Thermarests really are, and how stiff sleeping on the floor it, we did a practice run on packing up all of our gear, setting our bikes up, lubing the chain, checking the breaks, and inflating the tires. After breakfast, we reviewed the five chore group rotations (Dinner and Presentation, Laundry and Breakfast, Cooler Crew, Trailer Crew, Clean-up) and got changed for our 23 mile shakedown ride. After the cue sheet meeting (review of the ride's directions) we set out into Charleston towards the harbor and headed over the Authur Ravenel Jr. Bridge (the longest cable stay bridge in the western hemisphere) and out to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan Island. After spending some time on the beach finding a good wheel-dip ceremony location and taking pictures at the Fort, we headed back into town for dinner, donated by Sticky Fingers. 

Day 3: Orientation (5/28): Build Day
Before setting out for California, our last day in Charleston was spent working with the West Charleston Habitat for Humanity. This H4H has begun a new rehabilitation program, and assigned our group to reroofing one of their projects. The house location was located about 30 minutes from our host location, so we shuttled the B&B team over to the house and began our "Build Day Orientation". Once arriving, we met the home owner, the construction manager, and our project mangers. After a safety review, we climbed up onto the roof and began demolition. Our assignment was to demo all existing roof shingles and felt paper, replace roof sheathing, and then install new felt paper and roof shingles. After about one hour, the roof was bare, and construction began.  By the time lunch arrived, the first few levels of shingles we're completed, with the roof being capped off around 4pm. Once back at the host, we went over to the College of Charleston's basketball team's facilities to shower and clean up for dinner. After dinner we finished packing up, made last minute adjustments to our bikes, and headed to bed early in preparation for our first official ride day.

Let the 4200+ mile countdown begin...
-Brian

Day in the life...

Riding Days:
- Wake up around 6:30am
- Pack up our bins and take them out to the trailer
- Finish up any bike maintenance
- Eat breakfast and complete chore group tasks
- Cue sheet (directions) meeting and departure from host around 8:00am
- Typically at the midpoint of the ride we meet the trailer and stop for lunch. If a ride is over 90 miles, we'll have 2 lunches along the way.
- Arrive at the new city/town around 4-5pm, and unpack our gear and shower
- Dinner is usually provided by the host, and after we eat, we usually make a presentation about Affordable Housing and the Bike & Build organization for the community.
- Lights out around 11pm

Build Days:
- Wake up around 7:00am
- Eat breakfast
- Departure for the build site around 8:00am
- Spend around 8 hours at the build site working on new construction, renovations, or demolition for local Habitat for Humanity projects
- Return to the host location around 4:00pm
- Dinner is usually provided by the host, and after we eat, we usually make a presentation about Affordable Housing and the Bike & Build organization for the community.
- Lights out around 11pm

Depending on the town/city we are in we may also spend time with the new home owner, media/film crews, and community groups, talking about our trip, bike safety, or affordable housing.

Also, during the ride we usually stop off in small towns we pass through, lakes, waterfalls, tourist traps, etc. to meet the community and explore the area, along with breaking up the 80+ miles of travel.

-Brian

What is Bike & Build?

Bike & Build is a non-profit organization that raises money and awareness for affordable housing. They operate 8 cross-country cycling trips, and donates their funds in four different ways to the cause. At the end of this summer, Bike & Build will have donated around 3 million dollars, with about $500,000 from this summer alone, and over $142,000 from my route alone (South Carolina to Santa Cruz).

The four donation outlets are as follows:
1. A Competitive Grant Application - Organizations can apply for funding on housing projects executed by students and young adults. Each route will host team meetings in order to decide which candidate is awarded their requested amount.

2. Rider Designated Beneficiaries - Each rider is required to raise a minimum of $4000 to participate in the program. Of this amount, $500 is earmarked for the rider to distribute to an organization of their choice.

3. On the Road Donations - Without the help of generous organizations (such as a school or church) donating space for riders to stay, B&B would not be able to operate. In gratitude for their kindness, B&B makes a small contribution of $100 to a local AH organization of the host's choice.

4. Pre-arranged Donations - Prior to the summer, B&B makes arrangements with certain parties in order to assist with trip planning. As an example, our route (SC2SC) has coordinated a week long build in Colorado Spring with Pike's Peak Habitat for Humanity. In return for arranging this opportunity, along with housing for a week, our route will completely fund the housing project, approx. $65,000.

I would again like to thank all of those who contributed in my name to the Bike & Build fund, allowing us to channel funding to Affordable Housing Organization throughout the United States. With your help, I was able to raise over $6000.

Thanks,
Stay tuned for updates from the road...

-Brian