Build day one, shake down ride and two ride days

Yowza! I feel like it was just yesterday that  I was wrote the last blog entry.. Lots to talk about!

Our first build day was so great! We went to work with an organization called Neighbor Works in Rhode Island. They are very invested in not only giving the members of the community a home but also to create a strong sense of community. We worked with people that they called "selfies", which are people who are benefit from the 

The scavenger hunt begins

Yesterday we had our third build day with Habitat for Humanity in Youngstown OH. This was by far my favorite build site activity so far because I was on the demolition crew and got to destroy a chimney! We were supposed to do it "brick by brick" so that we could save the bricks to be sold in the ReStore but once we got going, they were all crumbling apart, so it turned into a hug but super fun mess. We built up the scaffolding and then climbed up and used a sledgehammer to hit the bricks away from each other. We finished taking the chimney down before lunch and then after lunch we had to clean up the huge pile of bricks. This was such a fun day and totally worth all the weird sore things I have today. For example, my fingers are sore.. I think from holding the hammer...

After the build day, Caitlyn and I went around the town when we were finished our showers. One the hunt for milkshakes, we happens upon Suzies Hot Dogs where you could put ANYTHING on a hot dog. 

No joke.. It was so fun! Also that night, a bunch of the girls decided to shave the underside of their hair into a triangle shape and also do some cool blue and red hair dye. Don't worry mom, I didn't do it. Regardless, it was still fun to watch!

Today I rode to North Canton, OH on a 53 mile day with Thor and Jane. I hadn't ridden with Jane yet so it was a great day! We also started our P2S16 scavenger hunt!! I'll post the list later but I'm determined to win! A great thing that happened today was that I got Sonic milkshakes donated to our team and the employees were so excited! They wanted to take pictures with us. Another great thing that happened today was that I took laundry crew to do the group's laundry and we were able to make a pit stop at chickfila on the way :) it was great!

Ohio!

We are now in Youngstown OH getting all tucked into bed and ready for a great build day tomorrow! Yesterday we rode to Franklin, PA on a ride that was about 60 miles. I got a chance to have an almost leader ride with Travis and Carlee. The ride day was so beautiful and the weather was perfect. It got up to around 90 (compared to the 50/60, that's a perfect temperature for me). In Franklin, there was a Barbeque and Blues concert happening so the riders were able to hang out there and see what it's like to live in the town. Some of the bands that played were great! Others were a little interesting - one of them sang about smart phones and dumb people? I found it to be really funny but also weird. The group I was with went over to a restaurant and got a bunch of appetizers before going back to the host for a huge pizza dinner! After that, we checked out the festival and then explored the town a little more. It was one of my favorite days so far! 

Today I rode with "The Black Sheep". It was Kess, Nikki, Carlee, Brandon and I in the group. We named ourselves that as a joke to some of the other riders because the day before, we all had asked groups that were already full to ride with them. So we all banded together as the riders that weren't wanted. It was actually such a fun day! The hills were really hard but Brandon's lack of shifting abilities made every single hill hilarious! Almost to where I couldn't get up beacuse I was laughing so hard. This was also Father's Day! I had a chance to FaceTime my parents during my lunch stop and say hi to my daddy :). We are now at the host, where we are staying in a massive, medieval feeling church and getting ready for a build with habitat for humanity tomorrow. Tonight we also had a chance to go to the downtown area to watch the NBA Championship game and Cleveland won. It was wild watching this while in Ohio because everyone was freaking out. Another great day!!

The Eighth Wonder of the World?

Today, the team rode 80 miles from Coudersport, PA to Warren, PA. Usually the ride would only be about 70 but we took a detour to see the Kinzua Bridge. This bridge was originally built in the 1880s but collapsed in 2003 when a giant tornado destroyed it. Now, the remains are scattered in the valley, and you can walk on the remaining railroad tracks that were on the bridge. I was the van driver today, so I was responsible for helping everyone get there and have lunch. This allowed me to make the decision to have lunch in the park and allow all the riders a chance to spend some extra time at the bridge. Jakob and I got there about 45 minutes before the first riders, allowing us to hike down into the valley and get right up to all the destroyed pieces of metal. It was such a cool park to be in and I'm really happy we made the stop! Later that day, we also stopped in Allegheny state park at a beach so that Jakob could jump in the lake. The water in this lake was so clear, blue and beautiful, almost like a portrait. It was such a great day, and I'm just a tad jealous of the ride that my peeps got to experience but I'm happy they had such a great day. It makes me excited for the ride day tomorrow too!

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!

Trying to catch up!

Yowza! I feel like it was just yesterday that  I was wrote the last blog entry.. Lots to talk about!

Our first build day was so great! We went to work with an organization called Neighbor Works in Rhode Island. They are very invested in not only giving the members of the community a home but also to create a strong sense of community. We worked with people that they called "selfies", which are people who benefit from the organization but are responsible for the construction of their homes. When we had gotten to them, they were working on siding and insualting the houses and had started construction back in October. The had made all that progress on their own and we were the first volunteer group they had every had on that site. This goes to show how hard they were constantly working. For lunch, they were able to provide us with an awesome lunch of hamburgers, hotdogs, coffee, and many other great things! During the lunch break, I had a huge emotional wave come over me as a realized that I was back in the grind of a Bike & Build summer and I couldn't be happier. It's so overwhelming to think about the experience I got to have and now I'm getting to share that with others. This build day was a great way to start off the summer! After the build, we went to the NeightborWorks summit, where they did a huge kick off for the organization. That night, we finished up presentations and worked on the trailer more. It was a jammed packed day for all of us and we were exhausted!

After the build, we had our shake down ride the next day. It was so rainy and cold this morning, making it hard for us to want to get on the road, but we were all so anxious to get going that it worked out alright! We started with bike maintenance and drills, which took all of the morning. After that, we went back to the church, ate lunch, and then hit the road! My riders are all so amazing at calling out all of the obstacles on the road, making me feel very confident in how the summer would go. That night, we finished everything with writing our team charter and then hitting the hay.

First ride day was great! We did the wheel dip over in India Point park and then took waaaayy too long to ride 37 miles into Pomfret. Dan Kaminsky also came to my wheel dip, making my heart swell with joy! It was so great getting to see my previous B&B leader as I set off on my journey as a leader. He gave me a lot of really great advice and confidence. Dan is the man :) I love him! Getting out of Providence was a little difficult because of all the poorly labeled roads and confusing city route, but once we were out, the ride was great! Pomfret school is a prep school that we got to sleep in and have a wonderful dinner and breakfast provided. The riders had some time to play ultimate frisbee and relax, we also got to completely finish the trailer! Frank is happy.

Writing everything in retrospect is hard, but lack of sleep is harder! Tomorrow, I hope to add the rest of the days and get caught up!

The Riders are Coming!

Finally! I can post in this thing.. It's been an incredible and extremely busy past couple days and has limited the amount of time I have for doing some personal things. At this point, the leaders have been sufficiently oriented, and the riders and just about done with their orientation. For the leader orientation, we went through all the different presentations we had to present to the riders, learned how to drive the van and trailer, and got a full run down of all the generalizations of the trip. It was really great to spend some quality time with just the leaders and Natalie and get to know each other a little bit more. We did bonding activities where we learned about each other's stressors, we went shopping for 30 people, which is a crazy experience!, and we even had an opportunity to go out to a restaurant and have fun time where we didn't talk about B&B. When I learned about the van and trailer, I even took the extra bonus challenge and learned how to parallel park it! If anyone needs their boat backed into the lake, I can definitely do it! 

As leaders, we also did a once over on the shake down ride that we had planned. It was really nice to have a chance to ride with my peeps before hitting the road for realz. 

And now, the riders are here! They got here on Friday, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, and by the time Friday was over, they seemed exhausted. They got here, checked in all their gear and then had time to socialize. They also managed to completely white wash the trailer in no time, making it very easy for us to finish that sucker hopefully before orientation is over. This seems like it's going to be a very efficient and fun group of people! After settling in, we played named games, watched some presentations about "A Day in the Life" and "Safety" and then we did one on the budget and affordable housing. After all of that, we had them split up into their chore groups and come up with short skits about the B&B policies that are in place. They were all so great and hilarious!! All the names of the groups are:

Octopi

The Odd Bod Squad

Slumbike Buildonaires

Killer Whales

Backstreet Bikers

After all that was over, they were able to make significant progress on the trailer and even managed to get us a "trip pet", Frank. Frank is what we call and Unipotato and he is painted on one side of the trailer, which is hilarious! On the back we have a nice big safety triangle. The sides are still coming together but one is the map of the US and the other is the major landmarks and cities we get to see! 

Unfortunately I'm exhausted but I'll try to catch up about the build site day we had today on tomorrow's blog! It was probably the best build site I've ever been to. 

The first van day

Yesterday was our first time in the van! Travis and I got up around 8 to get the van and hit the road! From Philadelphia, we rode about an hour north to get Nate and then another hour to pick up Carlee. At Carlee's house, we had lunch with her family and took some time to relax, which was really great!

Having a full van feels really great and it's definitely starting to sink in that I'm doing bike and build again! We have all been working so hard on this trip leading up to now and it's awesome that we can now actually talk about it and sort out everything that we weren't sure about. The van ride from Carlee's to our overnight host was full of conversation, laughs, and really great music. We also took the opportunity to jump off the highway and visit Sleepy Hollow, NY. Unfortunately we didn't see the headless horseman though. 

We were supposed to go up to Providence from Carlee's but we didn't know where we were going to sleep. Luckily we had two B&B alumni offer to have us sleep in their place at New Haven, CT. Alex and Anthony both live in East Rock, New Haven and were so incredibly kind and giving to us. It was the best way to start our trip by getting the chance to hang out with some NC2SD14 friends. It's actually ironic because when I did SUS14, we crossed paths with NC for a few days so I had met them two years ago on B&B! It was nice to catch up, reminisce a little, and talk about the upcoming P2S trip. They took us up to a huge overlook where we got a full 180 view of New Haven, went on a short walk, and then went out to a really great restaurant where they treated us to beer and food! I had pesto mac&cheese:). Afterwards we went back to their place, worked on some last minute stuff, and then got some sleep.

Now we are on the road again and making our way to providence for our first day of leader orientation with Natalie. Alex and Anthony made a full breakfast and sent us on our way. They were so great for everything they did for us! I'm so excited for today to get started!

Cheese steaks and crab fries

Woohoo!! I made it to Philly! Started the day with a mommy made breakfast, 3 hour car ride with Zachary, a super short flight, and a ride from my little, Justine! Justine picked me up at the airport so that she could give me her little tour of Philadelphia. We first stopped at the steps where the famous Rocky scene was filmed. Then we went over to love park and city hall. For lunch/dinner, we got crab fries and cheese steaks at chickies and petes. And lastly got some of the best cannolis I've ever had at termini! Now I'm at travis' house before leaving for RI tomorrow. It's been quite a day and we finished it off with pizza and editing cue sheets! Great start to a great summer. 

Here We Go Again!

I can't believe this is happening and I get the opportunity to do Bike & Build again! I never thought I would be in this position but I leave tomorrow morning at 8am for a flight for Philly! From there I will be driving our van and trailer to RI where I will be meeting up with Natalie for leader orientation. This year, I will be completing B&B as a leader, rather than a rider, meaning I am organizing the entire trip, along with my three other co-leaders. My co-leaders are Carlee, Nate and Travis! It's going to be very interesting to see how this trip might be the same or different than the Southern route trip I did in 2014. Thank you so much to everyone who donated this year and in 2014, B&B has changed my life and has impacted dozens of families who got their new homes. Also, thank you to The Right Gear bicycle shop for all your hard work getting me the gear I need for the ride and Lending Tree for so graciously funding the gear I need for this trip! I could not do this without each and every person's donation and support, from both 2014 as well as this year. Affordable housing is a cause I'm truly passionate about and I'm so grateful Bike & Build showed me that.

Photos from my sweaty equity day with the ReStore

My bike getting all ready to be shipped off to Rhode Island!

Photos from my sweat equity day with Charlotte Habitat for Humanity while the NC2SD route was in Charlotte. This was also AmeriCorps week for Habitat!

My first training ride day in the rain!

Hopefully this time around I will get a chance to blog at least everyday! Let's do this thing!!

We Got the Band Back Together

I sit in my room in Columbia with tears in my eyes as I write this... The worst part is that I dont even know what kind of tears these are. I just got back from the first SUS reunion in Raleigh at Greg's house and my heart is so full and happy, I am overcome with all of the emotions and I can't handle myself. Over the weekend, I was reminded of how much Bike & Build has impacted my life, me as a person, and my future.. and it's an amazing feeling. I was reminded of the way my thinking was shifted after my trip, how I changed, and how much unconditional and true love I have for my team. We had so much quality time together and laughed so hard and yelled so loud that I do not have a voice right now, and my cheeks are actually sore from smiling so much. I didn't realize how much this program effected me until family meeting where we got to go around our circle and say what our highs and lows were since we left Monterey. I thought it was going to be hard to come up with my high and low but honestly, I know exactly how I feel:

Low - my quickly approaching graduation date and extreme fear and uncertainty for the future. The second I walk off that stage, I have zero plans, I have no agenda, I have nothing prepared and it is a crippling and awful fear. At the same time, it's amazing.. I can do anything! I just don't know where to begin. I don't want to get sucked into the job hunt and have to put aside my dreams and goals but I also want to be financially stable enough that I am able to do what I love and chase it.

High - I have never felt such a high and love for life since I left Bike & Build. I have an overwhelming amount of joy and love in my heart for my life and for myself and I never thought I would find a place of so much self-fulfillment. I know exactly who I am and I know exactly what I want and I love who I am. I KNOW that without Bike & Build, without my B&B family and without the wild adventure I got to go on, I would not be nearly as happy, I would not be nearly as confident and it is such an awesome feeling to know that.

I want to chase my dreams. I want to find the most exciting and insane opportunities and go for it. I want to live my life the way it was meant to be and I want to really truly be successful by loving me, what I'm doing and my community. Some one once told me to grow up and let go of these thoughts because they're impractical.. if that's the definition of growing up, I want to be a child forever. I never want to lose the joy in my heart and I never want to lose the excitement of falling in love with everything I do and everyone I meet. It's so easy to forget what's important in life and I never want to forget. Life should be a whirlwind tornado of excitement. My heart is so full right now.

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us"

-Joseph Campbell

Reflection

When I was on the plane home from California to Charlotte, I wrote a reflection in my computer so that it would be fresh and right after my experience. Here it is:

As I sit here on the plane, I’m in awe of my country. I’m in awe of my experiences, my friends, what I saw and what I learned about myself. I’m able to just look out the window, down on the earth, knowing that there are so many things to be seen and there is so much down there to be explored. I used to just look out the plane window and think nothing of what I saw but now I know there is so much to see in this world. And so many things to do! We are going 600 miles an hour (way faster than 15-20 that I usually went), speeding past so many awesome places and I realize how open my eyes are. I’ve learned that I can do anything and be whomever I want. I never in my life thought that I would ride my bike across the country but I just did!! I rode from Jacksonville Florida to Monterey California on my bicycle and didn’t even go the most direct route. I rode over four thousand two hundred miles…that’s such an insane number and idea to grasp. I started with 31 other strangers that quickly became some of my best friends and favorite “roommates”. Not only did I do all of that, but I also went to Jacksonville, St Augustine, the Gulf, New Orleans, crossed the Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, Dallas, Amarillo, Cadillac Ranch, Santa Fe, Ghost Ranch, Durango, Antelope Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Zion, Las Vegas, Yosemite, Monterey, Big Sur, San Francisco, Death Valley, Mount Whitney, and Monument Valley!! There were so many things in between all of those huge places too! It just blows my mind at what I did when I look at the big picture because day-by-day, you’re just riding your bike to the next host but when you look at the summer as a whole, it’s unreal. I biked so far! I learned so much about the need for service in this country. Our group helping out for 7 hours on a Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida allowed a family to move in that next weekend and also saved the organization thousands of dollars in fees they don’t have to pay anymore because they will be able to make their checkpoints now. It wasn’t a hard task for us but it made a world of a difference for them. In Las Vegas, at the Veterans Village, the woman who helped a lot there and volunteered a lot of her time cried tears of joy from all the work we were able to do for them. They worked solely off volunteers so having such a large amount of people come in and finish several projects in only a few hours was huge for them. It’s amazing to me how many problems there are in this country, specifically surrounding housing, and it can’t be fixed fast enough. There are so many organizations that work off volunteers and it’s so easy and rewarding to go out there for the day and just give your time. Everyone that we built houses for cried when they talked to our group because they were so extremely grateful for the support and for help changing their lives for the better. This is one of the best causes to work for because the reward is immediate and the money that is donated is spent directly toward the supplies for building or for the organization to function and continue to house families. Community service should be a priority for everyone. I also learned more than I could have imagined about myself and what I’m capable of. The trip was more of a mental challenge, for me, than it was a physical one. There were so many days that I would wake up and tell myself that I knew I wasn’t going to finish or that I couldn’t do it. I thought I was going to get in the van because of pure exhaustion and just being so over it. I didn’t want to look at my bike! But, every day, I still did it. I got on my bike and made my way host to host. Some days were better than others but I managed to get there everyday. I managed to get on my bike and push through the pain and the struggle and enjoy the day. I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the other 31 people I was with. Biking across the country is not an easy task! I am way stronger than I could have ever imagined and I know that I am capable of a lot more than I gave myself credit for. I hope that I always remember that because it was one of the most valuable lessons I learned. I also learned that people are amazing and there is so much to learn about people. I no longer want to settle for the surface information about people. I want to get to know them. People are complex, dynamic books that are waiting to be read, you just have to put forth the effort to learn. Everyone also has such a complex set of skills that I do not and there is so much that I can learn from others by talking to them. All I have to do is try. There is no reason to ever be lonely because there are a lot of people in this world! The most valuable lesson I learned is that adventure is out there and it’s waiting. All I have to do is step outside my front door. There shouldn’t be a day that goes by where I’m bored all day and have nothing to do. I can read a book and learn something new, I can go somewhere I’ve never been, do something I’ve never done and I can meet a new person. Life should be fun and exciting and that’s how I plan on it going for myself. I hope to look back on my life and feel like I made everything out of it. The world is a huge place that’s meant to be seen and I want to see it.

MONTEREY! The Final Day.

Monterey.. The day we were all counting down to and waiting for but also wishing it would never come. Even now, 4 months after arriving at the beach, it's hard for me to think about because of how much I miss it and how I would give anything to go back to such an amazing day.

It's crazy to think that I can officially pinpoint and name the all-time best day of my life.

The day started off cold. It was freezing when we woke up. We were all buzzing with excitement and high energy but we knew how the end was coming. We got ready as we always did and met outside for route meeting. The final route meeting...Josiah, Emma, Rhys, and DK had made a surprise for us and wrote a rap that summed up the whole trip. It was really fun and so creative and perfect for the last route meeting. We are very much a fun crew that loves to mess around so I think it was perfect for summing up the summer. After meeting and delaying the biking as long as we could (longest route meeting ever), Natalie talked to us about what we had done this summer and put everything into perspective for us. She said so many amazing things and really gave us a sense of what we had accomplished. By the end of her talk, she had half of us in tears. After a prolonged and delayed start, we finally started biking, Colleen and I finishing out the last ride together. We didn't make it very far before we found a grocery store where we stayed and gathered as many team members as we could so that we could continue to stall the ride. We hung out there for about 2 hours, just eating, drinking coffee and talking and then actually started biking. The leaders were sweep that day so Colleen and I rode with them for a little while before some of the boys came and kicked us out of the leader group. After that, the ride dragged on. We couldn't wait to finally get to the beach. We were able to start smelling the ocean, which only tortured us further. When we were riding next to route one, we would see little glimpses of the water and get really excited and start to cry a little bit. Finally we made it to the van, where Natalie had parked it two miles from our final destination. We anxiously awaited sweep to get there and then all headed out as a massive group of 32, together to the water. We rode the last two miles on a bike trail, which had its downfalls due to tourists but when we finally got there and saw the water, we forgot all about that and freaked out.

The second I saw that ocean, I lost it. I immediately started crying, harder than I've ever cried. So hard that I had to get off my bike because I could no longer see the ground in front of me. I picked up my bike as high as I could and ran down the stairs to the water as fast as I could. What made it even worse was when I looked up behind me and saw my mom and dad smiling and waving at me and I lost it even more. At this point, I was sobbing from being so happy. I ran to the water and got in line with the rest of my team, tires ready to be dipped. Claire yelled "1, 2, 3!!!" and on 3 we all dipped the front wheel of our bikes into the ocean. The feeling I had at that moment was unreal. Words cannot be used to describe the amount of joy, bliss, and euphoria I felt. I had made it. I rode my bike across the entire damn country. 4,220 miles of pedaling, 18 days of houses being built and one tired tired body. I was finally there and everything hit me at once. I accomplished what seemed impossible. Colleen and I grabbed each other, hugging and crying uncontrollably. We all got our bikes to move them and do our last celebration but I threw mine down into the sand, ran to my parents and got the best hug of my life. Finally after 81 days of being away from my parents, they were back. Even though I was 4000 miles away from Charlotte and my house, I was finally home. Being in my mom and dad's arms was the absolute best feeling of my life. After I got to see them for a quick minute, the team all got together in a huddle in front of the ocean and we put "turn down for what" on the speaker. As soon as the bass dropped and the music went crazy, we all ran into the water, jumping and splashing, screaming and laughing, and just celebrating how happy we were and what a great feeling it was to be done. We didn't even realize how freezing the water was or how much the rocks were cutting our feet. We were just happy to be done, together, and safe.

The excitement and joy took a very very long time to wear off and we stayed out on the beach taking pictures, telling stories and meeting each other's families. I got to talk to my parents face to face for the first time in almost three months. Everything in the world was good on this day. There was not one single thing that I would have wanted to change or would change, even in hindsight. They say hindsight is 20/20 and that you could think of lots to change when looking back. Not on August 3rd, 2014. That was a perfect day. 110% the best day of my life. Even now when I'm writing this 4 months later, there isn't a single detail that I need to search through my pictures to try to recall. Every second of that day is crystal clear. Like it happened yesterday. I would do anything to do Bike & Build again. Even when I realized how lucky I was for the experience during the summer, I didn't realize how much it would affect me and how much I would think about it afterwards. It really was the best summer ever.