Is this my final blog?

So the next few days will involve camping and so little internet, so this may be the last you hear from me on the interweb.

The rides have began to decrease in mileage and we have even got in the van a couple of times due to having to ride on the interstate. We are now staying in Spokane and we had a scavenger hunt due top the 38 mile distance. Today, as part of Team Celtic Cafe, I have collected pennies from 1971 to 2010, sat in a Dodge Viper, ridden a moose statue, danced with a stranger, got to perform the Bike and Build Peanut/Chamois butter chant with a basketball team and some other stuff.

To enlighten you on the Chant, which was devised by me and so everyone puts on a really bad British accent...

Caller: Bike and Build, Bike and Build!
All: Peanut Butter ( accompanied by spreading action )
Caller: Bike and Build, Bike and Build!
All: Chamois Butter ( accompanied by spreading action )
Caller: Bike and Build, Bike and Build!
All: Peanut Butter ( accompanied by spreading action )
Caller: Bike and Build, Bike and Build!
All: Chamois Butter ( accompanied by spreading action )
Caller: 1,2,3
All: (insert appropriate place name etc...)

This is a bit infamous among our group.

We began our scavenger hunt in Coeur d'Alene which is a great lakeside town, lots of art galleries, bars, interesting shops... and we got to stay there for two days due to our final build day. On which we didn't build. As the local Habitat had failed to get a build permit, we were sent to Spokane by van to work in the Re-store, a huge series of warehouses that re-uses building materials and sells on donated items for the affordable housing cause.

Thanks to Mum and Dad for the letters. My phone has not revealed itself so I will sort that out when I return to the UK.

Of course I will update as soon as I get the internet again.

Ok, so the blog continues...

We are now back on the road, cycling to Seattle covered in various ribbons that have been sent to us in support of Paige and her family. We took several days off to travel to St. Louis for Paige's memorial service, spending about 5 days in total on a bus, watching several films including 'Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus'...

I don't want to blog too much about these days but it was really helpful to talk with Paige's family (her Mum had ridden with us previously for a day and said she will join us for the final leg into Seattle).

Back on the bike.

We resumed our trip from Dubois, having entered the wild west territory. The last few days riding has been stunning, including the Teton Pass, which was 6 miles of a 10% climb followed by a hair raising descent with lots of switchback turns. I was clinging to the brakes a lot and still hit 40mph.

We have also had a day off yesterday which was spent touring in a big yellow school bus/car vehicle around Yellowstone. Saw lots of buffalo and elks but the bear is still evading me.

Todays ride into Bozeman was a 90 mile ride which was almost all downhill - we arrived before 1pm having stopped a lot; climbing rocks in the river. I fell in a little bit.

So we have a few more mountains to climb with the Rockies looming but Seattle is drawing closer.

Yesterday, on the route from Winner to Marten, Paige Hicks was hit by a truck. She was killed instantly.

Everyone on the trip is devestated by this and it is unclear as to how we are to proceed.

I would like to thank you for following my blog.

Myself demonstrating my man strength on the state border of Illinois. Since then we have gone through Iowa and we are now in South Dakota.

So today We rode 83 miles but the first 20 miles were on a cheese grater type road surface. Hence the jubilation of my riding friends. From left Ben, Spencer, Anthony D. and Sam.

Also had two flats today, sad times.

So I have managed to upload 1 photo, and now I have to go to dinner. But here is the stateline on the ride today. 65 miles of very fast riding, averaging 23/24mph when not talking. We had to get up at 4 in the morning because of the heat.

Iowa countryside = Americanised Leicestershire

Lots of rolling hills, some trees and a lot less corn fields than Indiana and Illinois. They were incredibly flat with endless cornfields. The only time that is fun to ride is with a tailwind, and that happened for about 20 miles over the two states.

We are staying in Mt.Vernon tonight, and I have just given my bike a good seeing to. Swapped tyres from back to front and vice versa but things are beginning to wear down, brake blocks, tyres etc...

My legs are feeling pretty good, although we had a dodgeball game against a local YMCA team last night which left me with a few bruises from all the dodging.

Got to go to Chicago last day off. There were 4 of us and we had the strangest conversation with a guy on the train. Along the lines of this...

"So we're going to Chicago for the day, where should we go?"
"Well I'll tell you where not to go. Don't go to the ghetto"
"Ok, we weren't planning on it"
"You won't stumble upon it, you'll notice it getting gradually worse"
"Ok, we won't go to the ghetto then"

Very strange guy. But we did meet someone else on the train, DJ Hiko, who navigated us around the station and then gave us 60 dollars in donation.

In other news, good luck Paulo Sousa.

Three days of hard riding have past. 105 miles, 95 miles and 82 miles today, all in the 90s temperature wise. I was trying to list highlights of this week in my head last night to blog about on here, so voila...

1) 4th July. We had a 4 car police escort out of Dayton, with 'We are the Champions blaring out of their speakers.

2) The random dog that decided to run for 2 miles in front of the police escort. Dog escort.

3) Free tickets to Dayton dragons baseball, courtesy of me asking. Also free baseball caps.

4) Breakfast at Kenyon College. Unreal.

5) My Bike and Build Graduation.

6) Fred's diner. Free dinner and 30 dollars in donations from the customers. Myself, other Anthony and Hassan recommended the diner to the rest of Bike and Build. Fred gave them free dinner too.

7) Being able to watch the world cup. Which is why I have to leave.

Build day today. We hung drywall in a house just outside Dayton. There is a city folk festival tonight which everyone will be going to and then we have VIP seats for a big fireworks display.

Last Tuesday would have been my graduation from Edinburgh University, so Bike and Build through me a surprise graduation after dinner. I got my face pushed in a cake, my ears ahave never tasted so good.

The riding is getting easier as we enter the mid-west, as it is incredibly flat. Although tomorrow brings up back to back century mile rides. My bike is starting to wear down with my brake blocks needing replacing, and had to replace a part on my helmet as that had begun to snap.

Current odometer reading sits at 1034 miles. I will try and get some pics up as soon as I find a card reader.

I currently reside in Youngstown, Ohio. Its incredibly humid and pretty hot. We had a build day today so spent most of it fitting skirting boards and sweating a lot. Legs naturally are grateful for a day off cycling!

Ok, funny story time. Hope you are sat comfortably. Couple of nights ago we went to a very cheap bar. We were back in bed by 11 so we had enough sleep for the next day. However, I woke up in the middle of the night needing the 'restroom'. I was sleeping in the basement underneath a church, but had positioned myself on the opposite side to where I knew the toilets were. In trying to avoid waking everyone up by tiptoeing past them, I wandered through the double doors at the end I was sleeping. Up one flight of stairs, no toilet. Yet I didn't want to admit defeat and turn around. Another flight, no toilet. Beginning to get pretty desperate, I found myself in the church. Obviously not a great place to be, so I swallowed my pride and hurried down the stairs and due to the complete darkness and my current state, I never saw the level change of four or so stairs coming. So I fell flat on the floor.

( Unhurt. Anthony 1 Floor 0 )

Today we arrived in Wellsboro, and we are staying in the centre of the town. It's pretty small but has a few nice shops and food places. The ride today wasn't on a great route so we thrashed it out and got to lunch by 9.30 and to the church by 12. So I have slept, swam, bought some white bar tape. Off to read about England...

http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=P2S&year=2010

Bike and build route tracker

Also Stat of the day:

Hit 47.3 mph today

Right, I have prolonged internet access. So big blog time! I can't be bothered to write this properly though so here are a few things I would talk to you about.

1) My ridiculous tanlines. Brown fingers, legs, head, forearms. White body, hands ( minus fingers ) and everything else. My leg is a bit burnt and also mainly on the left side because of travelling west.

2) Our generous hosts. We have so much food provided it is ridiculous.Mainly lasagne but I am just stuffing my face with crisps, brownies, bananas, cereals, fruit and salad... Our current host is Binghamton, and we are here for two days as tomorrow is a day off. Thankfully, because it is...

3) Really hot! I rode sweep yesterday which means I ride at the back and make sure no-one gets lost, injured etc... but this means I cant pass anyone. The sun was intense, one poor girl had to be collected by the van due to dehydration.

4) World Cup. Watched the England game in a bar. Terrible stuff although this world cup is generally a bit of a surprise by the results I've heard.

5) Yoga. We did yoga in Granby, but it was after dinner ( where people eat as much as possible ) and a few people got into some comprimised positions!

6) Chamois butter. I have gone without for the last three days and have been fine whilst riding. However, close inspection in the shower revealed a need for it.

7) The scenery is great. Today a deer ran alongside us in the bushes.

8) Press-up challenge.
120 - number of miles cycled = number of press-ups for that day. All lads participating.

My body now needs a rest, up at 5 in the morning today for 85 miles. Hardcore.

2 days of biking have passed. I have been lost four times, had two free ice creams and free pizza for lunch. All this alongside the food that bike and build provide and the host meals provided by the churches where we stay. The food is awesome. We are now in Granby, CT, having passed into a new state yesterday.

My cycle computer currently sits at 140 miles including the 20 mile practice ride, and so far my legs are holding up. The tanlines are already developing as we have had a fair amount of sun, with the temperature about 75 degrees each day.

Dinner at our third host is around the corner; everyone from the local community comes and cooks various dishes.

Missing the world cup.

Today was the first build day and we were painting two houses (semi-detached) just a short bike ride from our host location. So at the moment everyone is making final preparations for the big-off, the big Daddy O, (the first day of cycling). In demonstrating that I could change a flat tire, I managed to give myself a flat tire in the process ( not my fault, dodgy tube valve) and so on my list of things to buy at the bike shop is some new inner tubes.

Food here is pretty incredible. We get given a lot of free stuff, including free ice-cream from this random van which just pulled up outside the build site. Just waiting until we start burning these 5-6,000 calories a day and can eat the equivalent in snickers.

Quote of the day: When biking, snickers is the best thing for you.

First day of Bike and Build!

Today is the first day of Orientation in Providence, so I will be checking out of my hotel shortly and making my way into Brown University. The plan today is to seamlessly blend checking in and meeting everyone, with running off and watching the England v USA game. No-one will ever know...

So I made it into the States. I'm currently stuck in the middle of nowhere and have to travel back to the airport just to get a bus anywhere. After I'm finished typing this, I will hed into Providence and hopefully meet some Bike and Builders for a picnic dinner.

My shaver has decided to break, and I am half shaved. So I've really got to pull off the eccentric Brit today.

So folks,

I bid you a farewell/hello?, as I leave home for the US. Hopefully have packed everything, although we have loads of kit, there is something enjoyably minimal about it ie. 2 months cycling = 3 pairs of boxers ( as recommended by Bike and Build, I'm not being the sole dirt merchant ).

Broke 100 miles for the first time yesterday with my Dad, probably not the best way to finish your training but its given my ego a bit of a boost. Although I do actually think my arse has changed shape... its now a triangle.

Probably would be a good idea to give Bike and Build a post. I found out about this in the pub in Edinburgh and I owe a thank you to Taylor Hesselgrave for telling me how awesome will be.

www.bikeandbuild.org

Providence to Seattle 2010

Ok folks,

Welcome to my blog. I thought this would be the best way to stay in contact with everyone, at least on my part whilst I am pedalling away. I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have on the trip so apologies if you check this everyday (you know you will) and there is nothing new.

I fly out on Thursday and I'm desperately trying to get together as much kit as possible. I have got hold of some St. George Cross cycling socks for the trip; I've never been so proud of my socks.

So once again, welcome to the blog, sit back and relax, and prepare yourself to read about my pain.