Boyd

Today we had to take a little but if a re-route. We were supposed to go to Decauter TX but the church we were staying at accidentally double booked and we couldn't go there anymore. Luckily, some of the riders were talking to a man who wins for AtmosEnergy in Boyd that allowed us to stay in their office for the night! Today was out third century of the trip and I was really feeling it. The first day on the bike after being sick isn't easy but I managed to finish the whole thing! Despite being in pain and exhausted, we had a fun ride. The first luck was at an awesome gas station that doubled as a grocery store and also had a froyo store in it so we had an extra treat. We also had all the food that Sally sent us off with so this might have been the best lunch stop in all of Bike and Build history! During the ride, I also got my first, classic B&B pic of being on a hay bail. We also stopped at the biggest sunflower patch I've ever seen. It had to be 100 acres (and I'm not exaggerating.. This was a debate during the ride of how large this plot of land was!).

The biggest bummer of the ride put a huge bad taste in my mouth for the end of the ride. We were on an open, clear of cars road and riding in a single line taking our own little space. But then a flat bed pick up came up behind us blairing his horn and cussing his head off at us. I've never felt so unsafe in my life as I did by how this man made us feel. He didn't back off and rode my back tire until he ran us off the road. Greg had to duck in order to avoid being hit in the head by the rear view mirror. Needless to say, a slight inconvenience on his part was more important to avoid than our lives. It amazes me..

With the ride behind me, I'm ready for bed and ready for a, hopefully, better ride tomorrow!

Build Day 10 and 11

Finally building again! I woke up the morning of this build feeling good and ready to go! Me and Claire definitely drove the best car to the site because we got the Ford F450, heavy duty, special Texas King Ranch edition, Dooley with the tool trailer attached to it. This thing was everything. We called it the HH (Head Honcho) and felt like total bosses in it! the very first song we listened to in it was Bawitdaba by Kid Rock and I don't think we could have found a better fit for it. Everyone else thought they had the best car because they were in convertibles but they had no idea...and I think that reality hit them when they saw us rollin up in that baby. I don't think I've ever hd so much fun in a car. The build site was really cool. We showed up to a high school, very confused because we didn't think people lived there but then we realized that we build the foundation to the home at the school and then the home is taken to the lot where it will permanently stay. This is so that the kids in the big school can become involved with it and work on the home as part of a class in school. When we got there, all that was done was the walls so we were planning on putting up the trestles for the roof, installing windows and putting up insulation on the house! I started with the roof project but realized that I was still too sick to be pushing around huge structures of wood in the hot sun so eventually I moved to window installation and, once again, got to play with the electric drill! We got all of the windows screwed in by the end of the day but they weren't fully screwed in so that was a job for the next day. We only worked until 2 that day because there was a lot that was planned for that night!

On the ride back to Sally's, the HH, Claire, Connor, Colleen, Megan and I all rode together and made a few pit stops. First, we went to Sonic and got some happy hour slushies! And then, we went to Goodwill and got some awesome outfits for the boat ride we were going to do later that night. Little did the other, inferior cars know, but those who ride in the HH have the most fun. If they hadn't passed us while riding back to Sally's, they could have come too! But it was a lot of fun getting to play around in Goodwill and enjoying some time feeling well and healthy! I think that's why everything was so awesome at that time: we were having such a blast and I finally felt like I could keep up with the rest of the group! I didn't realize how much the plague took out of me until I started getting my strength back. In Goodwill, I managed to score some sweet floral pants and a jean vest to rock over my bathing suit that night.

By the time we got back to Sally's, it was time for family meeting and then we had fajitas for dinner! And she made queso con carne which I loooooove, so I was very very happy. After dinner, we all got ready to go and loaded up in her several cars and drove out to a lake where she set up a sail boat ride for us! This is the first time I've ever been sailing so I was so so excited for this! The boat was so nice! I think the Hilton Hotel was the ones that put on the ride and it was awesome that Sally was able to come with us and party on the water. This was definitely one of my favorite days of Bike and Build. I kept saying "can you even ask for a better day?" and everyone seriously thought about it... we couldn't! It was awesome! When we got back to the house, we all just hung out in the pool and hot tub until it was time for bed. Unfortunately for me, my stomach started messing with me again and I was having a hard time staying asleep. Despite the pain, I had an amazing day with everyone and I wouldn't and couldn't have asked for a better day. Everyday I become more and more grateful for this experience and can't believe I'm lucky enough to be able to do this.

The second build day wasn't as fun for me because I woke up still feeling under the weather so I had to stay back and get some more sleep. Around 12, I started waking up and trying to be productive but kind of failed.. But luckily, Claire was still in the house and wanted to go to Starbucks to get some wifi. So when the builders got back, Colleen, Claire and I took the mustang and drove with the top down, jamming out to the radio all the way there and back! It was nice to get away from the craziness of the group and have a little group to hangout with for a while. That night consisted of a lot of packing and getting ready for a long bike day the next day! I changed me rim tape, hoping for less flats, packed my bags and got some good sleep!

Dallas, TX

DALLAS!! The famous Bike and Build house is in our sites! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to enjoy the ride in because of the plague but I did get to ride straight there in the van that morning and sleep for a good 3 hours before all the bikers started to arrive! By the time everyone woke up, there were 11 people total who were sick and 14 people in the van. And the total count as of right now is 16 total people with the stomach virus and two people with a pretty nasty cold/flu symptom sickness. It was a tough day for Bike and Build! But, thanks to Dan, the sick ones were shuttled straight to Sally's house and taken care of very very much. We all got a bed to sleep in and plenty of time to relax and get a little bit stronger. When the bikers started to arrive to Sally's, she was greeting them with either a chocolate or a vanilla milkshake and all the food you could ever imagine. There was an entire counter covered with entirely candy, another counter covered with entirely fruit and another counter covered with all of the ingredients she needed to make dinner that night. She had a smoker going in the backyard and was making brisket, barbecue ribs and pulled pork with baked beans and potatoes for dinner. And then literally anything you can imagine was for dessert. She also has a huge backyard with a pool, hot tub, fire pit, a huge slip and slide blow up toy, five different furniture sets to hangout in, all in different settings, and in the very back of the yard, she has a little farm with goats and donkeys. This house is so awesome! She also has a Volkswagen Beetle, Mustang (both convertibles), and three huge trucks that she is allowing us to take whenever we need them. Sally is everything the team needs right now, especially with half of us being so sick. It's a great time to recover and a perfect time to have some fun! That night, everyone just hung out and played in the slip and slide and the pool. I kind of had to hang back and watch because of the sickness but I had a great time being able to relax and not have to worry about anything. By the end of the night, I was starting to feel so so much better than I did earlier that day and I was thinking that I was going to be 100% solid the next day!

Sally was so gracious and wonderful for opening up her home to us like she did and allowing us to do and take what we needed in order to be comfortable and happy. If we had been camping or even if we had been in a church without couches that day, I would have been miserable and not had a good time at all. Thanks to the circumstances and the timing of the virus, I was taken care of so well and ready to take on the next day!

Carthage and Athens TX

We are finally in Texas!! I'm definitely glad to be out of Louisiana. The roads were rough and the drivers were not very nice! Now in Texas, the roads are hilly, hot and windy but much much nicer quality and the drivers are way more gracious in the room they give you. The lunch stop for the way into Texas was right before the border so we all were buzzing with excitement of a new state! For lunch, I made an awesome banana, Nutella and peanut butter taco.. That actually was a great meal! We love having Nutella and were able to have some thanks to the care package Sally from Dallas sent us the other day. The Texas border was awesome because everyone always tries to make the best picture in a competition. This time was a little more difficult because of how tall the sign was but it is still awesome crossing a border! The roads were noticeably different immediately. Super smooth! One of the cool things that happened while riding was we came across a persons yard that had a bunch of donkeys in it. But even cooler than that, there was a zebra too! We don't actually think it was a real zebra, just some cool cross breed but we still got off our bikes to go over and pet it. There was a little confusion for me with the que sheet and right when I was in the middle of two groups, trying to catch the one ahead, they turned without me seeing and I kept going straight. So, before I knew it, I was about 2 miles off the route and feeling a little but lost but luckily for me, Rhys got lost too and we ran into each other at a perfect spot. Because this happened, we actually cut the route shorter than what everyone else did and beat everyone that I was trying to catch up to! The house we stayed at that night was awesome! Right when we got there, there was a ton of coolers of Gatorade and water waiting plus a ton of delicious food! They had a hot tub and a pool that was just a short walk away. Me and Rhys got there so early that we were able to just relax on the front porch and be the welcoming committee. The host was a family that had a daughter who did bike and build a long time ago and what happened was the host the daughter was supposed to stay at flaked out so the parents allowed the bike and build team to come stay at their place. They've been hosting bike and build ever since! The family was very nice and welcoming and they had a really cool house with all different Aztec and Native American decorations in the house. That night, I was very very sleepy and fell asleep during the World Cup viewing at 7:00. So, I got lots of sleep that night!

The next day, we got ready to head out for a 90 mile ride into Carthage TX. Here we were going to stay in separate homes and get split up into separate groups because there were several families that wanted to help. This ride was the hardest ride I've been on yet. I started off the day feeling ok but as the day went on, I felt increasingly weak and my stomach started hurting pretty badly. I was basically in the struggle group until first lunch because Micah was having serious stomach problems, and Colleen was having problems with her hip from the crash we had gotten in earlier that week. Come first lunch, we rode in with sweep because I had gotten 3 flats and were running very behind. Ashley let me borrow her back wheel so that I would stop getting flats and we could finish the ride a little bit faster. There wasn't very much bread in the lunch boxes so we were also hungry leaving first lunch. Finally back on the road and everything continued to go downhill, Micah and I started to feel worse and Colleen was starting to feel the hills (and may have possibly pulled a hamstring). We finally made it into second lunch and there were three people throwing up and I was definitely next. Micah had to van himself because his body was shutting down too - there was obviously something going around in the team. Unfortunately, after huge internal debate, I vaned myself and got driven into the host site where I had all the lovely symptoms of a stomach virus along with 6 other of my team mates. Everyone else went off to their individual host homes and I fell asleep around 6:00 without dinner and on a very empty stomach. I was up and down all night but got looooots of sleep hours which was well needed! It was a tough day for Bike and Build and the leaders really pulled through and helped us out. Greg shuttled the sick and injured people all day, which I can imagine was extremely stressful because of all the people who couldn't stop throwing up. And then that night, Dan K was in charge of looking after us and making sure that we all had medicine and were comfortable. It wasn't quite the power of my mommy but it sure was helpful and necessary! Dan even managed to get a prescription called in so that we would stop throwing up and it was a good muscle relaxer. I'm still a little sick but feeling much much better!

Nachitoches and Elm Grove, LA

The ride to Nachitoches (pronounced nack-a-dish) was a lot of fun! I wasn't able to ride as fast as I normally would at first because if my hip being sore from the accident the day before so the first half was a little difficult but I was able to get a group that was happy to ride with me! Before lunch, I was with Dan S, Marlee, and Angela. I really liked this part of the day because we were on a really empty road and were able to ride two across so I got to have some good conversation with Angela and have a little but of story time! At lunch, Colleen bought me a strawberry shortcake ice cream pop, which was perfect! And so sweet of her :). We had a pretty short lunch and then I got on the road with Kirsten, Gaurang and Shayan and we hammered out the last twenty miles really fast to get to the host! I'm glad that we were able to get back so quickly because the town of Nachitoches is really cute! It's very historic and kind of small but there were so many little shops and it's home to the oldest general store in Louisiana. We had some extra time to walk around and check out the place and then we ended up in the Pioneer Pub for a dish called a Wookie.. And it was so good! It's fries with cheese and brisket on top. I dipped it in ranch and it was everything I could have asked for. Afterwards, we did a bike clinic, which is where little kids from the town we are visiting come and we teach them about bike safety and we set up an obsticle course. The obsticle course is just a bunch I chalk drawings where they have to stop at stop signs, stay in the lines, stop for pedestrians, avoid the debris, etc. but it's really fun because the kids are so cute and really enjoy it. This was also an awesome day because I got mail!! Huge shout out to my parents, Mom-mom and Pop-pop, Grammie and Grampie, and Wendy! Also, I forgot to do shout outs from earlier weeks so thank you again and also thank you to Aunt Martha!! I love getting mail and reading everyone's letters to me. It makes me super happy!! On top of all that, I also got to sleep on a couch that night because my thermarest has a hole in it. So overall it was a great day!

Now, I'm in Elm Grove at an alumni's house for the night!! It's amazing!! Her parents live on 150 acres of land and there's a lake.. So we are having a blast. The ride today was frustrating but I got to ride with fun people. There were a lot of really terrible drivers, a lot of dogs (none that got too close though), and A LOT of horrible roads. We also came across a huge construction zone and I'm amazed that there wasn't anyone in my group that ended up with a flat. Despite all of that, it was a good ride and we made it to the best host yet! Collyn is the girl that did B&B in 2011 and did the P2S route. Their family hosts every year and they are so awesome! Right when I got in, I jumped off my bike, took off my helmet and shoes and ran straight into the lake. They also had chips, gauc, salsa and hummus for us! Everything was perfect. And we are staying in a house for the first time since I was at home. It's pretty nice to lounge around like I used to. 

Alexandria

Today was another tough day... I had an amazing ride and really enjoyed it but got into anther spill! Two for two I guess. Once again, I'm grateful that no one was seriously injured but just some cuts and scrapes. This time, Colleen went down in front of me and I ended up going over her and wiped out. Now I'm bent up on the opposite side of yesterday! Other than that little thing, it was a good ride! The scenery was beautiful even though the quality of the roads was low. I think I'm just ready to get to Texas at this point. I'm a little worn out and beat up but with two short days coming up, it will be good recovery and I will be ready to go again soon! 

For a fun laugh, visit the bike and build page http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,461/ and check out the shenanigans we are doing! We are meeting up with NC2SD in Durango so we want to mess with them a little but first. We noticed that they changed all their bike and build profile pictures to them in their jerseys trying to look tough so we also decided to do a mass theme across our pictures! 

Opelousas, LA

Today was the craziest ride day I've had so far for sure! We were originally going to be going into Melville but there was a re-route and changed!! Everything started off completely normal and we were getting ready to head out. It was told to us that it was going to be a beautiful day, kind of hot, but only 30% chance of rain. Well that was completely incorrect. We stood outside for the route meeting in a total downpour and had to get on the road because at mile 5 and 40 we had police escorts across big bridges. The first one, we got to ok but more than half the riders got stuck at a train for about an hour. So they waited inside a warehouse for the train to pass and everyone who made it to the police meeting spot just sat under an awning and hung out for a while, trying to keep warm. I was pretty nervous about riding that day because there was a lot of lightning and thunder but by the time everyone else made it to the place, we waited for a break between storms and headed out! The police escort was really awesome because we crossed the Mississippi River on a huge bridge during an epic storm as a gigantic group. The cops were able to block off all the traffic so we had all of the lanes and full range of the road. It was an exhilarating feeling and probably one of the coolest things that have happened. The only bummer was that there was about 6 flats on this bridge because of all the uneven bumps along it so some people had a more difficult time crossing. From there until mile 40, we were on our own again and then we would meet and get another police escort for crossing a 4 mile flat bridge that was just nerve wracking to be on (especially if there's a flat). Me, Dillon and Gaurang rode there together and had a really great time because there was a nice and wide shoulder. Around mile 37, we realized that we had been on a certain bridge for an extended and abnormal period of time and then at that moment, the van driver went past us in the opposite direction. This is when we realized that we were on the bridge that we were supposed to be escorted across.... So.. We just pedaled as hard as we could to the end of the bridge and all made it across completely safe. We also met up with Molly B and Micah who made the same mistake as us. We all rode to a gas station and the van brought us some lunch since we passed the supposed to be lunch. I was kind of bummed about this because I was looking forward to getting to lunch first and taking a long time to hang out or take a possible nap before our last 27 miles. Things happen and worse has definitely happened!! On the way to the gas station, there was a raise in where the two blocks of concrete meet on the road and my tire got in there really badly, taking my bike out from under me and causing a tumble. Thankfully, I'm totally ok! And my bike isn't even damaged. I'm amazed and so grateful that I wasn't hurt and that Molly didn't get involved by crashing into me too. I just have a little road rash and a pretty good scrape on my elbow. Nothing serious! After that fall though, everything about the ride became a huge struggle.. Molly and Micah got a flat, we thought we got lost and kept having to stop, we had to walk the bikes into the host for a mile because we didn't have any tubes to change the tires, the pump on Molly's bike fell off while we were riding, the road was so so so unbelievably rough and annoying to ride on... I could go on but all I know is that everyone made if safe and sound and that's all that matters!! 

Once we got into the host, I took an amazing shower and went for a nice long walk with Colleen. It was a nice way to end a crazy day!