This is what B&B is all about :)

Hello all! Greetings from Lebonon, New Hampshire! :) I am happy to report that we just finished our third "ride day" in a row and I feel GREAT (my quads are a different story)! Here's whats been going on the past few days:

Wednesday 6/23 60 miles
TIRE DIP WAS AWESOME!!! It was so much fun to get all geared up in our bike and build clothing and ride down to the beach as one big unit. It was a really cool experience dipping all of our back tires together in the Atlantic Ocean (Pacific Ocean - here we come!). The first half of the ride was pretty good! We stopped a few times to take some pictures and I spent most of the day riding with Tony (from Chicago) and Sarah and we were a great team! Side note: Sarah and I now refer to ourselves as "Tony's Angels" The first couple hills hit me pretty hard. For some reason I thought I was pretty well prepared...which was obviously false. I was hurting pretty bad and had a few moments of "oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into!!!!" while trying to hold back a few tears of frustration and exhaustion. When I got to lunch halfway through the day I was happy to get off my bike and EAT. The second half of the day went pretty well...there weren't as many hills and when there were Tony and Sarah were really encouraging! We made it to Concord in one piece and I was so proud of myself for getting there! :) We did have one girl on our trip "bonk" which basically means your body doesn't have enough sugar to function and you can't do much of anything let along bike. It was pretty scary but she's okay now and we all are making sure to eat and drink enough to avoid the bonk as much as possible! Donation magic for the day was organic apple juice...yum! At night we all decided to go to the local tavern downtown and have a beer together! It was so much fun!!

Thursday 6/24 35ish miles
Concord to New London, NH
2nd day riding and my legs were already "feeling the burn" from the day before! I rode with Michael, Tony and Sarah and we had a great ride! However, the first 3ish miles of the ride were COMPLETELY uphill!!! It was sssooo hard but we all did it without walking so it felt AMAZING once we got to the top! It also helped that we got a really nice downhill after where I reached max speeds of 43 mph!!! How cool is that!?!?! All of this is going on while riding through the dense forests of NH - its breathtaking out here! After lunch we had a lot of hills too - we were all happy to get to the church and be done riding for the day. I spent the evening showering and going to a pizza place with some people to watch the world cup games (and eat LOTS of pizza as well!). It was really fun! At night we all really enjoyed spending time together...which included but is not limited to playing euchre, dance parties, shaving TWO girl's heads (yes!!), giving one of our leaders a mo hawk, eating more (obviously), telling stories and reading books! It was a really amazing bonding night for NUS'10!


Today! (Friday 6/25) 35ish miles
We rode from New London to Lebonon, NH and it was a much easier ride than the two days before. We started out (after listening to the theme song from "fresh prince"...Kolste girls approve I'm sure) with 6 straight miles of downhill! It was AWESOME! I got around 40mph and marveled at the beautiful scenery! It was so great to finally enjoy the downhill after two days of climbing :) The best part of today is that about 25 miles into the ride we found ourselves at a gorgeous lake! We all hopped off our bikes (about 20 of us!) and jumped in!!! It was SOOO refreshing! We then decided to take some pictures, crawl up on some strangers dock and begin singing Disney songs. Now, anyone that knows me even a LITTLE bit knows that I was ALL OVER that. I think my trip-mates were pretty impressed with my skills. Once everyone from the trip got to the lake (all 30 of us!) we took some pictures and enjoyed ourselves. Swimming in this beautiful lake with the White mountains in the background with all of these great people (all decked out in our B&B gear) was just ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS! I realized that THIS is what Bike and Build is all about...and I couldn't have been happier! I was literally on cloud 9 the rest of the ride ONLY to find that once we got into town there was a free BBQ going on in the cutest downtown you ever did see! Can this day get ANY better? I had a FANTASTIC "spicy sausage" and chatted with the locals. Liz and I then went over to the local market and asked if they wanted to donate anything to our trip and they gave us a free case of water! Everyone is so eager to help us out...it's so inspiring! I'm so proud to be a part of this!!!

In regards to my last blog, Doing "the Northern" is a pretty fantastic dance move that our entire group does together that can only be described in person or video so I hope I'll get to share it all with you soon! The real kicker is...once ONE person from the trip starts doing it, the rest of us have to follow (including any and all public places). Our outstanding leaders (Kyle, Angela, Kelly and Denis) made it up and I give full credit to them for the Northern's awesomeness. Donation Magic is a B&B word used when random strangers donate any and everything they can to help us and the cause! Its ridiculous how much people are willing to give to help out! Every day, someone has a great "donation magic" story. Because of donation magic, we haven't had to provide or pay for a single meal on the trip so far. I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but that means three (or more) meals a day for 32 HUNGRY adults who have been riding their bike all day...it's pretty incredible.

Tonight we're walking downtown together to a local church that is donating dinner for us - it's so great! I hope to be able to blog again soon - tomorrow we have a build day then we have the hardest day of the east coast on Sunday...wish us luck!