Chillin in PA

Lots of riding days, lots to update about! I'm going to try to bullet point as much as possible so that I can finally catch up and get on track.

Pomfret, CT

Slept in a prep school in a huge gym. Got to ride with Caitlyn for the first day! It's really great and weird at the same time having one of my best and oldest friends on my trip. It's adding a lot of value to my summer and givng me a partner in crime and someone to go to when I need support :)

Granby, CT

First laundry day and another great host dinner! My group and I tried to get out of the host as early as we could because we knew there were going to be huuuge hills! There were. I rode with David, Kess, Josh, and Thor. In the middle of the day, Natalie jumped in to our group and we finished strong! That night, I drove Natalie back to Providence and despite being really tired, it was a great car ride. 

Kent, CT 

Another prep school! This was also my first day driving the van for the group! Nikki was my gary (the safety navigator) and we had a great day! We also got to go into a really weird petting zoo to try to find a good lunch spot and ended up in a massive show room with tons of animals that had been stuffed. There were animals from every continent and were all posing in "live" positions.

Poughkeepsie, NY 

Made it to New York! Unfortunately, there wasn't a state line sign, which was upsetting but it was still a sunny and great day! The day started off freezing, like in the 50s, and I am not used to that for the summer. Eventually we warmed up but it seems to be a trend for the summer. We had a shorter day this time around so we were able to explore the city a tad and go for a little walk over a bridge that went over the Hudson river. This was also one of the first times of the summer that I felt like I was able to relax and feel like a rider and not just a leader, which was really good to know I was going to be able to play both roles.

Roscoe, NY

What a day...This is when the terrain started getting insane! The first half of the day, everything seemed to be going well but then the hills started! We went up this one section of hills that is infamously known as Hunter Hill. This hill went straight up the side of the mountain.. I have never seen anything like this.. We even had an alumni text us and tell us that if anyone could make it to the top without stopping then he would ship us a prize. At the top of the hill, we all relaxed and celebrated but didn't realize that it kept going! There were three segments of Hunter Hill.. it took forever! That night we stopped and camped in Roscoe. I was exhausted and fell asleep immediately. At night it got so cold that it was almost painful but I was so tired that I was able to keep falling back asleep. 

Bainbridge, NY

Another really tough day. We had to do a huge reroute and add a bunch of miles on becasue one of the roads turned out being a hiking trail. The first 12 miles was also all on gravel roads with hills similar to Hunter Hill. After we finally made it out of the gravel, and into the next town, we stopped in a diner for some food and attempted to get back on our feet. The rest of the day was all rolling hills but Becca, Edgar, Brandon and I made the best of it! Despite it being the hardest day we did, it was one of my favorites! We were very close to being vanned that day because of it getting too late but managed to make it all the way in on time! 

Ithaca, NY

Ithaca was a great place to visit! I had the van on this day with Becca as my Gary. We had a great time trying to find a good place for lunch and getting ice cream during the day. The host was right downtown in Ithaca and was about a half mile uphill walk from Cornell University. That night we had our first family meeting and went o College Town Bagels to hang out and then woke up for the build the next day. We worked with Second Wind Cottages, which is a housing first organization that gives homes to homeless people. The homes are about 300 sq. ft and they currently have 9 homes in the neighborhood. We were working on houses 10, 11, and 12. One of the site supervisors, Carmen worked with us all day and started the organization. He has been fighting leukemia for the past few years but still gets out there whenever he can to work on the houses for his community. This really put my summer into perspective because I saw what he was going through and how generous and kind he was being to his neighbors without expecting or asking for anything in return.

Savona, NY

This was one of the best ride days we had so far! The hills were rolling and easy, the weather was beautiful, and I got to ride with Robin and Conor. We had lunch at a spot on Seneca Lake and then afterwards went to a town for coffee that was donated to us. In this town, we learned about a huge gorge that was just a mile off the route we had planned, so we took a little detour to check it out. It ended up being a really cool experience and really easy to get to! Savona was a small little town that was about 1 sq. mile so we just hung out in the host and played some heads up!

Wellsboro, PA

Pennsylvania! My first day as sweep with Sarah went great! We saw a random donkey on the side of the road that freaked out when we got close to it, which was really funny. When we got to the host, we had a great dinner and then took our hammocks to the town park to relax and listen to the town band. Little to our knowledge, it was a marching band and wasn’t very relaxing so instead we went to a restaurant and hung out for a while.

Coudersport, PA

A great ride day with Caitlyn, Shawn, and Carrie! We hustled through rolling hills all day and took a cool detour to go see PA’s Grand Canyon. The detour added on about 20 miles but the views were more than worth it! When we were riding, we also missed the turn for lunch but managed to find a great restaurant on the side of the road to get food. When we were in there, Shawn tried to get the lunch donated, but a couple over heard our conversation and offered to buy us lunch. It was some of the greatest fries and burger I’ve ever had – and the fastest I had eaten in a long time! Our host that night was a church that had an extra building that once was a barn. We got to sleep in the barn and watch some episodes of The Office before going to bed!