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
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