Goodbye North Carolina, Helllooooo Tennessee!

Hello from Maryville Tennessee! We have made our way from Chapel Hill, NC - Where I last updated the blog - all the way to Maryville Tennessee for a week of building. It has been a very challenging week for the Bike and Build NC2SD team, but we are all stronger for it, have come closer together and I think learned more about ourselves.

Starting out leaving from Chapel Hill we rode Winston-Salem. What was slated to be a 72 mile ride turned out to be in the mid 80's on our direction sheet and in the end (after getting lost) washed out to be over 100 miles - in the rain (Photo left of Kim Webber). It was a very long day with over 32 turns,which doesn't sound like much but when streets don't always meet up the way they're supposed to and every mile in a wrong direction is doubled when you make your way back to the correct route 32 turns is a lot. The day was long, slow, and wet. In all it really wasn't that bad until the end when I just wanted to be there and we were all tired and moving slowly up hills. When we finally rolled in a bike shop across from the church we stayed at had set up a tent in the parking lot and was grilling up food for us and giving free tune ups/lubes. During the day's ride I broke my 3rd bike computer (the first one which I had had for awhile broke at home the day before I left for the trip, the second one never really worked well, 3rd one which I purchased the night before leaving chapel hill for winston-salem worked for a little while, stopped working, jiggled loose and then fell into my front wheel, was ripped off by the spokes and thrown across the street), so I bought what will hopefully be my last one for this trip and had them put it on.

As we sat and ate more people made their way in. As they rolled in I realized the slight detour - due to confusing directions - my group had taken wasn't as bad as I had thought. Some people had ended up on the freeway, gotten two flat tires (at the same time), had small emotional breakdowns or were just to worked to finish the ride and had to end the day with a ride in the van. The truly awesome part (besides the amaising hummus at the bike shop) was that as each person rolled in - some in tears - our entire group surrounded them for a big group hug and show of support and celebration for our first century ride. I've been a part of a lot of teams and organizations in my life but this one is a truly tight nit and supportive group. It is awesome to be a part of it.

The next day was another tough day for me. I was sweep. Each day two people are designated as sweep. They stay at the back of the pack and aren't allowed to pass anyone. They carry extra water, spare parts, and food, as well as a phone, so that they can provide help to anyone who has problems along the way. I am usually in the front group of riders. Not because I'm particularly talented, but because I like to get on the bike and go. I'm not sure why but it's just part of my mental make up. The sweep day was difficult for me because I was riding off of my normal pace, which believe it or not can really mess up your energy levels. While Caitlin vonHedemann (CVH) had a great time taking pictures and making little detours - to check out the fields of a wine vineard for example (picture right is of CVH and Andy at the Vineyard) - by the end of the day I was exhausted and like a five year old child cranky.

This now brings us to last tuesday I believe, our ascent into the Apalachan Mountains! We had been told that they day would be hard, involve some tough climbing and the leaders had also implemented a new rule that if people weren't to the host site by 6:00pm - the usual dinner time - the van would come around and anyone still on the road would have to get in. Because of this I was so I started off determined to push myself through and make it in before six. My achillies tendon had been swelling up to the point where I could feel it rubbing when I walked and would give me some pretty significant pain when riding. Luckily CVH had a ankle brace she wasn't using and I decided to give it a whirl for the day. I started off taking it pretty easy but found may ankle was doing well and decided to start pushing. The route was hilly and I like to shift to a harder gear, slow my candence and pedal lightly down hills to try and build up some more kinetic energy to help push me up the next hill. A lot of people like to glide down the hills to save energy. Because I was anxious to go and ride this way I ended up making my way through most of the hills a bit faster than the rest of the group. I made it to the first water stop in great time and my ankle was feeling real well so I just kept on pushing. I ran into a problem however when I missed a turn on cecel road. The que sheet said that it was something like 5 miles from the first water stop but it was actually around 1 or 2 miles. Needless to say I flew right passed it and continued on for another 5 miles before I called the van saying I couldn't find the road, found out I was passed it and turned around. I finally made it back to the correct route and caught up to everyone right at a 3 mile gravel road that we had to ride down - the leaders didn't know it would be gravel when they planned out the route. Let me tell you riding a road bike with 23mm wide wheels 3 miles up and down hills on a gravel road is a rush. It was bumpy but overall fun. After the gravel road we had a few more hills and then stopped for lunch.

At lunch we spoke with some road workers about what the roads we were taking in the afternoon would be like. They re-iterated what we had expected. US 181 was a steep winding road that would not be much fun. We were pretty sure that it would only be about 4.8 miles long - the distance our que sheet said we'd be on it - so we were confident we could manage. When after lunch we hit 181 it was very steep and windy, but also closer to 13 or fifteen miles long. Really the only thing worse than climbing uphill on a bike is climbing uphill on a bike for 3 times longer than you thought you'd be climbing. It was hot and definately the most physically challenging thing I've ever done - way harder than running 13 miles in 100 degree heat while training for a marathon last summer - but the great thing about climbing up a mountain on a bike is that you then get to ride down a mountain on a bike! Whoooo Weeee! That was a good time. But, as you'll see was a theme for this week, minor disastor struck again - direction problems! At the bottom of the mountain we were supposed to take a left on to a road called Bugger Hollow. Bugger Hollow however turned out not to be labeled and we couldn't find it. After riding back and forth on 181 about 3 miles in each direction looking for the road my group decided to try and find our own way to get to newland - the town our que sheet said we were staying in. We went to a gas station, looked at a map and planned out a route. Along our new route on our way to Newland we got to cross the Eastern Continental devide - pretty cool!

When we finally ended up in Newland we discovered that the church we were staying at wasn't actually in Newland. It was in a town called alcott (I'm spelling that wrong), about 7 miles outside of Newland's downtown. So we got back on the bikes, made the 7 mile trek and arrived at the church right around 5:30 to find almost everyone else was already there! We had called the van earlier and explained our trouble finding Bugger Hollow and they had chalked a different road (US 183) to guide those behind us to the correct destination! We were just happy to be in but definately wished we had had better directions. The real kicker of it is that Mike Madormo and I had stopped at US 183 and debated taking it but it wasn't on our que sheet and we didn't have any cell service so we couldn't ask the van!

Well there is more to tell but the library is closing so I've gotta run. I'll hopefully post some more words and some picture tomorrow. I want to say in closing however that while there have been some fairly big problems with the que sheets I think our trip leaders are doing a great job. This is a completely new route and they're doing the best they can with the maps they have. Navigation is quite a bit harder when you're taking small no-name roads to small towns to try and avoid traffic.

Thats all for now! I'll hopefully write again soon!