In Columbia, South Carolina

Today is officially day 3 of biking and we just arrived in Columbia, SC. So here is a quick breakdown of my week:

Monday and Tuesday: Orientation in Charleston consisted of name games and a very quick run down of how things run around here. Tuesday we did a 25 mile 'shakedown' ride to get loosened up.

Wednesday: Build day in Charleston. We tore off old shingles, laid down new plywood and then re-shingled the whole house in about 8 hours. Its amazing what a difference 32 kids can make in a single day. I'm so excited to see what else is in store for this summer.

Thursday: FIRST day of BIKING. We rode down to Fort Moultrie for our wheel-dipping ceremony. Then we headed off to Moncks Corner. Our 35 mile starter day turned into 57 miles because of switching our wheel dipping to the fort. Not a bad day of riding. Lots of sun and some headwinds.

Friday: Alright....our 66 mile day turned into 87, but very unexpectedly. We made our turn and noticed the road just wasn't there...so we back tracked and found a new route that took us 17 miles out of the way. It started getting a little rough at the end, but I pulled through and made it.

Today: Today was a 47 mile day where we hit our first set of hills. Some pretty good rollers to get us started for whats to come. Enjoyable, but hot. We're staying at USC in their 'green dorm'. This dorm is fully green. How flipping awesome?

Basically, everything is going amazing. I'm absolutely amazed at what I'm capable of sometimes. I can't believe I'm actually doing this thing. I'm sweating, I'm hot, I'm hurting but I'm loving every second of it.

Almost 200 miles down and 3900 or so to go!

First day completed!

First day of orientation down, one more orientation day, then a build day and then we are biking west. Today consisted of checking in and getting the rest of my gear (jersey's, t-shirts and a thermarest). We played a couple of name game/"icebreakers" to get to know everyone, learned how to change a flat and then learned some bike safety from a bike lawyer from the area. Quote of the day is "this is a baptism by fire...you are riding across the effing country." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Tomorrow will consist of an early wake-up followed by more name games. We're doing our 'shakedown' ride in the morning through Charleston. Wednesday is going to be a build day with the local Habitat for Humanity. Then on Thursday we bike towards Santa Cruz.

final week

This is my final week before I head to Charleston and get this trip started. I've had contact with a few of the other riders, and I have a feeling this is going to be such an awesome trip. I am however freaking out about the physical aspect of it. This is by far the most challenging thing I have done up until now, and will probably be at the top of the list for my life.

All I have left is $500 of fundraising, picking up some last pieces of gear and riding. bikeandbuild.org has information on where you can send me mail. Plus they have a route tracker that will be active when we start our trip. You can use that to keep track of our miles, build days and rest days.

I'll be trying to update this with relative precision while on the trip...but I promise nothing. Just check this and Facebook and Bike and Build for all the updates.