Day Thirty-Five: Tulsa Build

Our latest Build Day saw us working on a Habitat home in Tulsa, OK. A neighborhood formerly overrun by drug dealers, the introduction of Habitat homes began the revitalization of the area. We worked on applying soffits to the eaves of the house, constructing a shed, and insulating the house. We were busy for the entire day.

Numerous reporters were present through the build. We would be in the Tulsa World newspaper the following morning, and I believe we also had a good amount of news coverage.

After the build, I completed the de-aero-ifying of my bicycle. I made a few component changes:
* removed the aero bars.
* switched the Flash Point 60 wheels for my DT Swiss wheels.
* switched to 700x28c GatorSkins.
* switched seat posts.

After the build, I went for a shower at the YMCA as an equipment test. The CK wheels are so much quieter than the Flash Point wheels. They don't scream when I coast, and that whooshing sound is gone. They are a fair amount heavier, but the 28c tires make everything so plush. I also weighed myself at the YMCA: 196 lbs. I really am getting fat. It's horrible. I never know where my next meal is coming from, so I overeat. I'll start the diet at 2500 kcal in full force after the end of the trip.

We had dinner at a Roman Catholic church, one of the very few in this overwhelmingly Protestant part of the country. A delicious meal of pasta, meatballs, and ample dessert left us all well fed.

Day Thirty-Four: Tulsa on Cruise Control

I played the wake-up music this morning. I chose The Rolling Stones cover of Get Your Kicks On Route 66, since, well, we were on old highway 66 for almost all of today.

Prior to getting on the road, I stopped by Wal-Mart and procured water balloons. I filled them from my bottle, and attacked people at lunch. I had great fun, at the expense of the riders.

We've gotten to that wonderful part of the country where driving the van is really easy. All I need to do is accelerate to 65, engage cruise control, and wait.

We were able to get a bunch of donations today. A supermarket about 18 miles in donated bread and chicken, and the Subway across the street donated cookies and money. Amol, Lenny, and Kyle Rudzinski have gotten quite good at procuring donations.

I decided to skip the PowerCranks option on the trip, as Mike had significant trouble removing the bottom bracket from #5. Instead, I'm putting my Chris King - DT Swiss RR 1.2 wheels on the Roubaix, with 700x28c Gatorskin tires.

We're staying with the Bethany Lutheran Church here in Tulsa. The pastor, whose name escapes me, is a bicyclist and an overall excellent person. The food is quite good as well, making Oklahoma our favorite state thusfar.

All in all, another excellent day.

Day Thirty-Three: Two State Line Sprints to Vinita

We left St. Paul's United Methodist Church this morning to visit a restaurant for breakfast. We could order anything on the menu - and, we did! Breakfast was delicious and well received.

Our route today took us through a few miles of Kansas prior to entering Oklahoma. I was very excited to enter these new states, and won the state line sprints by default. We were on back roads, so the state lines were not marked. I used my GPS and some sidewalk chalk to precisely mark the locations of the state lines for everyone else.

Kansas was very hilly, but Oklahoma was delightfully flat. A combination of cool weather and tailwinds allowed me to rocket along at 25 MPH.

Vinita is a neat little town right on old Route 66. Its main attractions are a movie theater, and a railroad crossing which sees very regular rail traffic. I arrived at 1230, before the hosts did, so I got a burrito and came back.

We had wireless Internet access tonight, the first in quite some time. We were pleased, and promptly set up all five trip computers to be online. People were using all five computers late into the night.

Day Thirty-Two: Joplin, MO

Today, we departed Springfield, MO for Joplin, MO. After an 0500 wakeup, chaos ensued as it always does, in the mad scramble to clean a place that has hosted us for more than a single evening. We were finally on the road at 0700.

Lenny and I rode together for the first 45 miles, using our GPS units to help the entire group avoid making a wrong turn in the first mile. We rode on rolling terrain into strong head and cross winds, in hot, sunny conditions, By lunch, I had drained my 3L CamelBak, and downed two of my four bottles. I waited for the van to fill up on water, and to switch the front FP60 for my Open Pro rim on account of the wind. Naturally, the rest of the day was cloudy, cool, and not all that windy. so the change was for naught.

I arrived at our host location around 1300. Merrill from the church showed me around. I set up shop and helped unload the van when it arrived. People trickled in over the course of the afternoon, slowly but surely filling the gymnasium.

We had an excellent dinner of black angus hamburgers and homemade apple and cherry pie. The president of the very active Joplin Habitat chapter came by, and mentioned that she'd love to have us build, and also has some open spots for AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers.

I finally figured out what has been causing all of our front derailleur problems. The Specialized Dolce bikes we have, shipped with defective derailleur housings. The housing frays at the end, into the shifting mechanism, making it impossible to operate. Simply replacing the housing permanently fixes this; Allie's bike was repaired in this fashion.

I'm considering shipping out my PowerCranks, just for fun.

Day Thirty-One: Springfield Build Day

We woke up at a refreshingly late 0630 to work with Springfield's Habitat chapter. They are building a house by the golf course and Missouri Sports Hall of Fame to coincide with a major golf tournament, before putting the house on a trailer and bringing it across town to Highland Park. Bike & Build got some media attention here from the local NPR station, as well as a local television news program.

We met Kelly, the woman who would buy this house and move in with her five year old daughter. I stereotype Habitat families as somewhat older; Kelly didn't seem much older than any of us. I wish her well in her new home.

Nancy of Springfield Habitat arranged for us to have a second van to use for the day. I spent some of the day driving people to Sunshine Cycles for some much needed repairs. The owner of the shop took over the operations after her son, the previous owner, passed away at the age of 47. She generously offered us a 20% discount, and gave us free nutrition bars and magazines. Colleen, one of the employees at the shop, is thinking of doing the trip next year. I hope she does.

Dinner was generously provided by Chipotle, which we all greatly enjoyed. Other people didn't seen to enjoy the smoked fish that my mother sent, as much as I did.

Day Thirty: Springfield Express

By the numbers:
Departure: 0650
Arrival: 1222
Average: 18.0
Distance: 96.5

After yesterday's fiasco, I decided that I needed some alone time and some hard riding today. In the scramble to get everything ready this morning, I managed to tear some skin on my foot, so I'm working to keep it from getting infected.

I left immediately after our route meeting this morning, skipping the usual dawdling. It was foggy, like the Oregon coast, which was very unusual for southern Missouri in the summer.

As I was blasting along the rolling countryside this morning, I saw all kinds of things. We're in the part of the country where cornfields have made way for ranches and dairy farms. We're also in the part of the country where the very few cars that you see on the ride will wave at you. I was helpful, and waved on passing cars if I could see the road ahead was clear.

We rode through some Amish country today. Amish country is relatively car free, but the horse-drawn buggies do little for road quality. It was a jittery ride for about 10 miles.

We also started riding on US 60 today. Much of the old US Route 66 is now US 60, and we'll be on this road for the next few weeks, until we leave New Mexico. It was exciting to ride such a famous road today.

I arrived nice and early, at 1222, with my shower supplies: a change of shorts and my Teva sandals. I showered, ate at the Sonic down the street, and slept for 90 minutes. It was just what I needed. The next rider arrived about 3.5 hours later, and the next group, 30 minutes after that.

We're working with the local Habitat affiliate here in Springfield to prepare for a blitz build this weekend. Nancy, their director of volunteer operations, helped provide us dinner and gave us a short presentation. After that, Jess Robertson gave a presentation about independent youth, technically homeless individuals between the ages of 15 and 25. It's a different kind of housing problem, and perhaps one that Bike & Build should know more about.

A good day, overall.

Day Twenty-Nine: The Rainy Bumpy Road to Houston

Today's ride featured a 15-mile section on gravel roads. It was terrible - especially in the van. I seriously question the competence of the leadership team for allowing mistakes like this to happen.

We had an excellent time with our hosts in Houston. There is an active affordable housing effort. There was good food, a good number of community members, and a few youngsters. We gave a presentation, which was well received. This host had formerly hosted HBC rides, so they knew just what we needed.

Day Twenty-Eight: Camping in Potosi

We woke up at 0430 this morning, in an effort to beat the heat and humidity. It only worked in part: it was still very humid when we rolled out at 0600, and warm, but not hot. We'll be better off in the dryer part of the country, but here on the flood plain, we're still seeing rain almost every day.

I rode well for the first half of the day, chalking turns as I went along. Unfortunately, I ran out of chalk, and ended up waiting 90 minutes for the trailer at lunch. I waited for Jane, had pancakes for breakfast before the trailer arrived, and rolled out two full hours after I stopped.

Knowing that the trailer was hours away and that I had nothing waiting at the host site, I visited the Potosi library, checked e-mail and weather, and took care of a few errands. A rider got hit by a car in the town, sending her to the hospital for six stitches on her knee.

We stayed just outside of a Boy Scouts of America camp 9 miles west of Potosi. At the camp site, we advised people to take down the tents, as there was a huge thunderstorm headed for Potosi. People grumbled, but when the storm finally did hit at 0230, they were glad. We were able to sleep inside an unfinished building, which provided a roof over our heads.

Day Twenty-Seven: Day Off in Saint Louis

Jane and I spent much of today exploring the city. Much to my amusement, I discovered that Saint Louis has a fully functional light rail system, using high-platform light rail vehicles that are mostly identical to the rolling stock Pittsburgh uses. The Metrolink, as it is called, re-uses old railroad right-of-ways over the Eads bridge and in Missouri, so it must have been comparably cheap to build.

We visited the St. Louis arch, Big Shark cycles, and the St. Louis Zoo.

The arch has a viewing platform at the top of it. To get to the top, you ride in an elevator-tram, which contains eight small pods each holding five people. From the top, about 650 feet above the ground below, there is an excellent view of the city, of Illinois just across the river, and of the overflowing Mississippi river. The river was still high enough to completely bury trees and roads that are usually at the river's edge.

I wanted to try a new seatpost, since, as a result of overtorqing over the years, my Roubaix's seat post has a kink in it and clicks when I ride. I tried a new (carbon) seat post, but that did me no good, as the clicking didn't go away, the offset was wrong, and I wasn't able to return it before I left. Thumbs down. I just hope I don't need to replace that Roubaix frame after the trip. There are some small cracks at the top of the seat mast, under the seatpost clamp, and I've never been able to get the seatpost torqued just right on the frame. Carbon compound helps, but doesn't solve the problem: it's either slipping or clicking.

Jane and I then spent a sweltering afternoon at the St. Louis Zoo, a huge zoo in the middle of Forest Park with many animals. We ran out of photographs, since the camera's batteries died.

All in all, it was a good day off.

Day Twenty-Six: The Winding Road to St. Louis

We woke at 0500 this morning. Jane was kind enough to save me some breakfast, as I was busy sewing my Zipp shorts. They have a bad habit of bursting at the seams, which means I need to attack then with a needle and thread once every few weeks. I can tell the three pairs of shorts apart by exactly where the holes are. Hopefully, my repair job will hold.

I started with an eight mile warmup this morning, still donning my aero helmet in the cool morning weather.

Jane and I played a game. I sprinted for 5 miles, and she tried to catch me. After 5 miles, I turned around until she caught me. We played this game exactly once. Afterward, the van passed us, and I managed to draft the van at 40 MPH for a few miles.

At lunch, the proprietors of the local gas station gave us free donuts. Some police officers from Trenton, IL chatted with us for a while about bicycle safety. The officer, a cyclist, informed us that in the state of Illinois, cyclists may ride in the lane, albeit on the right side of the lane in single file.

Jane and I took the lead after lunch. The route to St. Louis was complex, with lots of tricky turns in an effort to avoid East St. Louis, and the cue sheet was tricky as a result. With the help of my GPS and three sticks of chalk, we managed to route everyone onto a beautiful bicycle path and onto the McKinley Bridge. Formerly an interurban rail trestle, with some of the overhead wire hangers intact, this structure made for a very sturdy bridge and a dramatic way to cross the flooded Mississippi River.

The bridge had Missouri/Illinois painted on it at the state line. At least, this is where the painters thought the state line was. Using GPS technology, I correctly chalked the state line about 100 feet to the east! These things matter for things like state line sprints, which I won uncontested today.

We took the Riverfront Trail until it closed, then used busy local roads to route us to the Centennial Congregational Church here on Olive St. After a hurried shower at the YMCA, we had a few hours to kill before the homeless shelter provided us dinner. There were about 200 homeless individuals present.

In casual browsing of some weather reports, it looks like the parts of Nevada and California where we will be in just a few short weeks are suffering from record temperatures, with lows in the high 70s overnight and highs in the 105-110 degree range.

I'm looking forward to some rest tonight and tomorrow. The city will be livelier on Monday, and things will be open.    

Day Twenty-Five: The Prologue to Salem, IL

 Today was the first day I got to ride after our mail drop day in Bloomington, where Mike Short sent my aero helmet. Today also happily coincided with the Prologue of Le Tour de France.

Mwa ha ha.

I set off this morning, donning my aero helmet and a big grin, just waiting to attack the flats with my highly aggressive aero profile. I would mount my attack in various stages, various bouts of wind cheating and related awesomeness.

The first stage was the breakfast rush. I decided to push it to breakfast at about 27 MPH, which is tough to do on cold muscles. My reward for the effort was sausage and vegetarian biscuits and gravy - delicious!

After breakfast, I decided to take the first few miles slowly, as the standard warmup, before pushing. Once I did get up to speed, I was able to hold about 24 MPH until, well, I got bored. Here in the corn flats of southern Illinois, things get pretty boring pretty quickly. I used my high-speed superhero skills to chalk the route for everyone else, and waited at lunch for some people to ride with.

After lunch, I helped chalk an alternate route, then, in the town of Xenia, I decided I wanted to ride with Jane. She was in Flora, some 9 miles back, at the Dairy Queen.

Time trial time. Zoom!

I got to Flora about 19 minutes later, holding good form and wishing I were more powerful and in better shape. KRud mentioned later that I looked pretty awesome, in the aero position, with the helmet, zooming along. Skip later told me that he was worried about me, since I was breathing really hard and looked to be in a fair amount of pain after my little stint. Jane, of course, knew I was just fine, and gave me a couple of minutes to ride around the block and cool down. I rode about 20 more miles than everyone else, what with all the back and forth of the day's riding. Riding fast and turning around is a good way to both get exercise and be social. I'll start doing it more often.

I finished the ride with Jane, which was fantastic. She's getting so much stronger, I can ride with her comfortably on a good day. We got to Salem, IL, and - surprise - found that, instead of staying at the city park, the First Christian Church would be willing and able to host and feed us. Excellent!

We finished the day with an affordable housing meeting on the state of housing in every decade for the past few decades, and with planning the route into St. Louis. Apparently, East St. Louis is bad enough that we should seriously consider a reroute. Hm. This turns a 70 mile day into an 80 mile day. 

Day Twenty-Four: Flying Plane! The Drive to Illinois.

Today was July 4th. While most riders prepared for a roughly 80 mile day to Lawrenceville, IL, I prepared for another day in the van. I played Ride of the Valkyries and the USSR anthem this morning; no one seemed to appreciate Valkyries or recognize the USSR anthem.

It was an exceptionally rainy day. The weather to date has been less than ideal, and we can only hope that the rain clouds subside as we head further west. Until that happens, we don our raincoats and try to ward off hypothermia. I ran the van's heater at lunch to help people stay warm.

As we passed through Vincennes, IN (where townspeople were making preparations for a parade later that day) and into Illinois, we entered a part of the country where flooding had very recently devastated the land. At the Illinois state line, we found three Piper two-engine aircraft parked, since the local airport had been flooded. (These planes look unimpressive from the inside, where they look like shoddy cars.) I stepped out of the van to chalk a turn onto Old US 50, and was overwhelmed by the stench of manure and overrun septic tanks, spread over once-thriving corn and soy fields, now dingy brown. The roads, now open, still took on a brown color, ravaged by the floods. Later this evening, some townspeople would tell us their flood stories. One woman, age 79, had never seen anything this bad. Geez.

We stayed in the Gas Lite Motel, which doesn't have an address - it's just on IL Route 1, south of town. People were glad to get beds, even if the majority of rooms were smoking (Jane and I pushed for a nonsmoking room).

As a complete surprise, Ericc Powell P2S'06 drove down from Chicago to visit our group! I was so excited to see him, though as always, I wish we could have spent more time chatting.

We went to bed early, in preparation of the 0500 wakeup for an 0530 sunrise and 0630 breakfast. Welcome to Central Daylight Time. 

Day Twenty-Three: Build Day in Bloomington

We had our first non-riding day in some time here in Bloomington, IN today. Our group of 31 is large enough to overwhelm the local Habitat chapter, so we worked in two shifts, from 0830 to 1200 and from 1300 to 1630. As a result, Jane and I spent the morning working at the Habitat chapter headquarters, doing some fun demolition work. Lunch was provided by Habitat at the church we stayed.

I spent the afternoon loafing, going to a bicycle shop, and exploring downtown Bloomington. In the evening, we had dinner provided by Chipotle, and watched the movie Real Genius as a group. All in all, today was a quiet day.

Day Twenty-Two: Bloomington Express

We woke at 0530. With my bag pre-packed the night before, I was able to do my most sensitive clothing changes in my sleeping bag and be ready faster than usual. I used my extra time in the morning to download Keith's PowerTap data, since I had lent him the PowerTap wheel yesterday (much to his amusement).

After what will likely go down as the very best breakfast of the entire trip, and a short prayer led by the pastor, our group departed Rushville, IN. I rolled out at 0730. I decided I was excited to see Bloomington, and would likely battle the headwinds alone.

There is a daily question for me, between getting to socialize (and riding slower than is comfortable for me) and getting exercise (and riding faster than everyone in an attempt to raise the heart rate). I usually choose exercise, as it's safer with this group of riders.

I made my way to the front of the pack in about 20 minutes. Along the way, I made my rounds, saying "Good Morning" to everyone I passed and checking in on previous issues.

Life up front is good. I get to maximize the amount of mileage I cover in the mornings, before the heat and wind really set in. It's also quiet, and somewhat lonely, but the endorphines from riding at power help with that. I bypassed lunch, stopped in a McDonald's in Nashville, IN to cool off and rehydrate, and arrived in Bloomington at 1243.

Tomorrow is a mail drop day, but since the Post Office is across the street from our church, I collected everyone's mail. We got some goodies, including a (plush) tetrahedral tack from Dave Miller, chocolate covered edamame from Tracy Heckler, and best of all, my aero helmet, courtesy of Mike Short! The aero helmet is my latest weapon in the war against wind, and worn backwards, it's a chicken hat.

After dinner, we watched Breaking Away, which was filmed entirely here in Bloomington, IN some thirty years ago. There are thunderstorms in the forecast tomorrow, preventing any potential visits to quarries or trips to draft tractor trailers down State Highway 37.

In the evening's ensuing silliness, I told some riders about my quoting policy. I decided at some point that I got really sick of stupid references to popular culture, videos on YouTube, the television, and the like. I decided that I was probably clever enough to say interesting things without other people's help. Some of my trademark quotes, like "Oh Boy!", "facebreakers", and "a world of unpleasantries" are original. I don't need a conference room of advertising and marketing executives in some faceless New York skyscraper to generate quips and jingles. An example:

Accu-Trac (describing Facebook.com, sung to the tune of the old Spiderman theme):

Accu-trac, Accu-trac
Once you sign up, you can't go back
Follows you, knows where you live
Your information, you did give
Watch OUT! Accu-trac's watching you.

Accu-trac, Accu-trac
Once you sign up, you can't go back
You gave up your privacy
So everyone can clearly see
That NOW! Accu-trac's watching you.

Accu-trac, Accu-trac
Once you sign up, you can't go back
Put you pictures on the net
So that no one will forget
You FOOL! Accu-trac's watching you.

(I have strong feelings on this topic. See my Facebook paper.)

Today was an excellent day, with much socializing, and perhaps insufficient sleep.    

Day Twenty-One: No Rush to Rushville

We woke at 0600 this morning. After a delicious breakfast and a quick route meeting, our group hit the road. I was running a number of errands, so Lenny and I left almost last, just ahead of sweep, chasing Jane and Keith at chase pace.

At around mile 20, we got a phone call from Jane. They took a wrong turn a few miles back, so we ended up passing them. Lenny and I waited for Jane, Keith, and Kyle Rudzinski (KRud). Jane and Keith rode with us until just after first lunch, then Jane and Keith dropped back as the rest of us took off for the state line.

We have state line sprints on this trip, with brownie points going to the first people to enter a new state. My GPS navigation system lets me know exactly where the state lines are, and plan accordingly. Unfortunately, Lenny has the same exact system, so he can use the same information. The sprint comes down to tactics. For the New York state line sprint, I dropped behind Lenny and Dave Miller, let them gain some space, downshifted, and sprinted past them with enough of a speed difference that the could not catch me. Well, I knew Lenny would use this same exact tactic, and he did. With about 1200 feet to go, I listened very carefully for his downshift. When I heard it, I sprinted, drafted him, and passed him just in time. (KRud came in third, a couple of minutes later.)

We waited at the state line for 15 minutes for Jane and Keith, and took some photos. When we were set to leave, Jane's chain snapped! Keith and I combined our bike repair powers to get her on the road.

Not too long after that, KRud took a spill after slapping my butt and hitting Lenny's tire. I'm weary of unsafe riding.

With 18 miles to go, we met Ellen, and Keith got a flat. The four of us - myself, Jane, and Jane's parents - rode together for the very first time, and were the second group into Rushville. I still can't believe how strong Jane's parents are on the bicycle! I can see where she gets her talent.

We had a lovely time with our hosts in Rushville, IN. I organized a bicycle clinic, where I taught adorable youngsters the ABCs of bicycle repair: air pressure, brakes, and chain. I had the pleasure of speaking with Sam, a very bright man who gave us all kinds of useful information about our route to Bloomington. After a fantastic dinner and a short town hall meeting, I even got to pre-pack my bag and sleep at a reasonable hour.