Some favorites

some memories from the summer:

-surprise century in a thunderstorm.

- biking through the drive through and getting milkshakes

- dance party at the top of Teton pass

- bump-it's and hot pink nail polish. Family dollar.

-donation-magiking chipotle

-singing the killers at the bar...Celtic cafe

-Dodgeball!!!!

-The Paige hicks memorial double rainbow prom

- getting lost and doing 113 miles on our first century day

- police escort...and poochie

-showering in the icy river of hell

-showering in the garage sale/thrift stre

-group showers in general.

- naked 9.1

-milksshakes and cuddle club (ie under 21...)

-wysox spooning

- Washington pass and diablo lake. Unbelievable.

-campfires, beer, and guitars

- 'i want it that way' choreography for the scavanger hunt

-bike cleaning parties with lady gaga

- cooler crew dance parties. Team body!!!

- friday night lights. Clear eyes, full hearts, CANT LOSE!!

- car henge, mega shark v. Giant octopus, fnl, jeopardy, 30 hours in a bus.

-mail drop Christmas. Thanks b&b!!

-watching the world cup after hammering in a storm.

- cartwheels at our first lunch.

- singing brandi.

- Brian making out with sue rice. Paige getting it on tape. Hahahah

- throwing the frisbee

- first paceline with Cameron, ben, and sam

-napping at lunch on our last day

-falling asleep during yoga

-arguing about determinism and objectivism...NEEEERDDDDSSS

-temp tats.

-the 110 mile headwind day. Really.

-riding sweep. All four times.

- running into the pacific. Unbeatable.

SEATTLE!!!

Probably the most amazing day of my life. Riding into Seattle was unreal. We rode in a huge pack all day and had a dance party on a bridge over the freeway and took a nap at lunch. We
Went around in circles to stretch it out as long as possible. And freaked out when we saw the space needle.

Running into the water was insane. We were so beyond excited. I can't even describe it. Right before we got to the beach, we heard "Here comes the sun" blaring from speakers in a store. That's been our song for Paige for weeks. And doing this without her wasn't the same, but we learned so much about taking care of each other from Paige. She was there in that.

We just biked across the country!! I guess now I have a lot of perspective on challanges and overcoming them. And I have friends forever. Friends can get you through anything. Even the tetons and cooler crew. I don't really know what to say when people ask how my summer was. Definitely amazing but also incredibly hard. I'll go with an adventure. Thanks so much to the p2s 10 team. You guys are incredible. I couldn't have done it without you. Communal showers on skyppee!! Jk. I'll miss you all like crazy. Love you! And thanks to everyone reading my blog and supporting me from home. Can't wait to see you guys.


Sorry no photos from wheel dip yet. I was too busy living it.

Lyrics to our song

To the tune of "Brandy"


There's a trip
4000 miles long
30 riders
Who are riding strong
Like a family
Where we all belong.
We're going to the west.

And there's a van
Hauling all our stuff
And she's there
In case thing get to rough
And she won't break down
Because she's oh so tough
And Edgar leads the way.

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Our family
is called p2s
In providence
we began our quest
Through cornfields,
We're heading to the west
Seattle is our goal

We cock
All the gaps and cracks
And we screw
Dry wall by the stack
We nail
Soffit with some taks
And then we all have sex

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Brian has those crazy eyes
And he loves a girl sue rice
And gabe's a crazy motherfucker
So he always adds some spice
And Paige can smell the thunderstorms
And she doesn't know the norms
And Hailey does her best to understaaaand

Double rainbow
What does it mean
After tornado
We build and clean
Poor Cameron
Almost burst his spleen
Mono really sucks

Then Kristian
Came to check on us
Hooked us up
With a 50 person bus
Helped us out,
So we'd stop the fuss
But we'll never trust the man

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Now we're here
Sitting on the coast
Drinking beer
So let's have a toast
To coeur d'alene
They were our favorite host
The anthony's are lost

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Lyrics to our song

To the tune of "Brandy"

There's a trip
4000 miles long
30 riders
Who are riding strong
Like a family
Where we all belong.
We're going to the west.

And there's a van
Hauling all our stuff
And she's there
In case thing get to rough
And she won't break down
Because she's oh so tough
And Edgar leads the way.

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Our family
is called p2s
In providence
we began our quest
Through cornfields,
We're heading to the west
Seattle is our goal

We cock
All the gaps and cracks
And we screw
Dry wall by the stack
We nail
Soffit with some taks
And then we all have sex

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Brian has those crazy eyes
And he loves a girl sue rice
And gabe's a crazy motherfucker
So he always adds some spice
And Paige can smell the thunderstorms
And she doesn't know the norms
And Hailey does her best to understaaaand

Double rainbow
What does it mean
After tornado
We build and clean
Poor Cameron
Almost burst his spleen
Mono really sucks

Then Kristian
Came to check on us
Hooked us up
With a 50 person bus
Helped us out,
So we'd stop the fuss
But we'll never trust the man

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Now we're here
Sitting on the coast
Drinking beer
So let's have a toast
To coeur d'alene
They were our favorite host
The anthony's are lost

The riders say Brandi,
You're a fine van
And your storage I like
But my life, my love, and my lady
Is my biiiiikeeee

Ahhhh Everett!! That's the one before Seattle!!

Lazy 65 miles today. Stopped for coffee and then hung out at lunch for a really long time. We didn't leave the capmpsite until really late. I rode with sam and Kristian and Brian (FINALLY!!). This is how I thought Washington would look. It's so pretty. Lots of green and jungly-looking trees and mountains. I'm beyond excited to bike into Seattle tomorrow. But also really sad. It's going to be so hard to adjust to life without carefree biking and all my friends. I'm going to miss group showers and lunch and crazy
Centuries...still have tomorrow though. It's going to be awesome! Wheel dip between 2 and 3 pm!!




Lunchtime dance party

# 2 and 3

Today was epic. Almost Tetons epic. We climbed Washington pass and rainy lake pass. We started late because we were camping and nobody wanted to get out of bed, but the mountain literally started 100 yards out of the campsite. I hammered up with Maddy. It was awesome, we seriously flew. The mountains were absolutely beautiful. Snow on a lot of them. The climb was about 14 miles, including the most terrifying switchbacks ever. We took some breaks to stick our heads in waterfalls. When we got to the top, we took a path to a viewing area where we could see the last swithback we climbed from above. Everything was just so pretty....except it was about noon and we were only 40 out of 83 miles in. The first miles out of lunch were really hard because it was so late and hot. And we had just climbed two mountain passes. We stopped at diablo lake, both at the viewing area and at the lake itself to swim. I loved the lake! Its this weird turquoise color that seriously glows. It was such a nice break. At mile 75 ish we hit a diner and stopped for snacks. We left the diner at 5:30. Usually we are at the host by 2... It was a long day. At the campsite we got an amazing meal provided by sam's mom. (who makes the best cookies in the universe). I cant believe it's only 2 more riding days! I never want to stoopppp




Maddy!









The crazy switchback


Diablo lake:

2 days 3 mountain passes

Omak to Early winters was a beautiful climb over loup loup pass. I rode with Theise, and we took it pretty slowly. There was a webcam at the top of the pass, so my parents got to see me. We also stopped in Winthrop, a sweet little town 20 miles away from the campground to get ice cream and play mini golf. When we got to the campsite, we showered in the river, which was as cold as melted ice...because it was melted ice. On bike and build, if there is water, you swim in it. Or you get pushed in. That night we also finally had our prom, which was something Paige was planning for us. And by 'prom' I mean we raided every thrift store on our route. There is no way we could get to the end without doing it. That was a crazy night...so much fun!


we love mountains!


Winthrop



"showers"




Me and my date, Kristian at prooom

What we do with your donations!

So a lot of you donated money to bike and build in my name (thank you!!!), so here is what we do with it. In total, with all of our pre-trip donations and during-trip donations minus what we spend on food and gas, our trip will be donating $71,000 to affordable housing. That is split up in 4 ways. We give some money to habitat for humanity: providence chapter because they sponser a lot of stuff on our trip and are generally a great organization. Each church/school/organization that hosts us gets $100 to donate to an affordable housing affiliate in the area. Each rider gets $500 to donate to an affordable housing organization of his or her choice. And finally, we give $18,000 in grants.

The way grants work is that organizations send in applications for up to $10,000. We all read them over, discuss them, and choose which ones to fund. I've read about 6 out of 10 so far (we have to read them by tomorrow), and they are all pretty interesting so far.

So that's how we spend our money! Only about $6000 total goes to all of everybody's food, gas, etc... for the whole summer. We're pretty low maintenance...

Spokane, Wilbur, omak

Spokane: the ride into spokane was really short, so brittany and Kaitlin figured out a scavanger hunt for everyone. My team (sam, cameron, Katy, and olivia) got really into about 3 of the challanges, but we had no motivation for the less fun ones (like getting the most pennies from consecutive years). We did serenade the judges with a choreographed "I want it that way" and we got a huge group of 4 year olds to do the chamois butter cheer. It took everyone until 3 to ride 40 miles because we got so into this thing. Oh and we got really good burritos in town. Yummmm.




Showering in a fountain to "break a social norm"


Photo with 3 construction hats


WASHINGTON STATE LINE!!!!!!

Wilbur: another easy ride. Tailwind all day. I rode with Maddy, and we got into a huge philosophical discussion (ok argument). One of the most interesting conversations I've ever had. It was awesome. We camped last night, which is always an adventure. No rain this time, but we had to make dinner. Ended up being a fun night.


Omak: today was a really hard ride for having such easy days lately. We climbed a mountain pass without warning, and it was pretty hot. I rode with chris, though, so we shared lots of stories. The ride was intense, but it was great to have a challange. We needed to get back into it before the cascades in 2 days...




Grand coulee dam!

I heart lakes!!

Short ride today into a great town, coeur d'alene. At lunch we went a little crazy with temporary tatoos. The lightening bolt is not coming off my forehead...

We got in at around noon, and headed straight for the lake. The water was so warm. We spent hours riding these huge water bike things, swimming, playing frisbee, water ninja, etc... Awesome weather and exploring town was really fun too. We'll probably check out the live music tonight, and build day tomorrow!



Temp tattoos!!!










The lake

Location:E Wallace Ave,Coeur d'Alene,United States

Shuttle and nap and watch movies and get ice cream...and build

No riding today. We shuttled to wallace and slept for a really long time. I got up at around 3:30pm and went out to explore town. This used to be a huge silver mining town, and it's pretty neat. We got moose track milkshakes and hung around. I definitely needed the rest judging by how much I slept, and the road today was definitely not ridable. The interstate had perpendicular rumle strips, no shoulder, and lots of construction. Riding some mountain pass again tomorrow. Yay mountains!!







Awesome cake our host made

Location:Bingville Rd,Mullan,United States

Misspula...we might all move here

Bike and build LOVES missoula. It has 9 bike shops, homemade ice cream, art galleries, book stores, thrift stores, live music, and river tubing. We were obsessed. Our build day was in a Harry Potter themed neighborhood on Hermione lane. I did a lot of priming and some chisling of clay around outlets. It was a lot of fun. One of the coolest towns we've seen. They also provided us with a grief counseling session and massages, which was at least a little helpful.

Today's ride from Missoula to superior was pretty easy. 60 miles with a few scary roads but mostly calm. I rode with Amy and Brett and we stopped to swim for a while. Almost done with Friday night lights season 1!

Our leaders all met and decided that tomorrow we aren't riding. We would have to ride on the interstate (no other roads), and since we are all exhasted and kind of stressed, they decided it would be best to rest and shuttle to our next town. Probably a good call. Eapecially the part where we get to sleep in until 7.

Bozeman to Helena to lincoln

West yellowstone to bozeman was an 80 mile day. It was a little stressful because we were on narrow roads with lots of trucks, but my group took it really easy and stopped a lot. We tried to donation magic a free white water rafting trip...it didn't work. But we got pizza in town! It was really pretty following the river all day.

The ride to Helena was insane. 110 miles with really strong headwind. I rode all day with Olivia, which was great. We had a good pace going, and somehow made it. Leaving from second lunch and going up one hill for half an hour was a struggle, but finishing our last century ride of the summer was a great feeling.

Lincoln was a short day with one big climb. I rode with Theise and Mallory, and we took it really slow and played games all the way up. At the top of the pass all 30 of us chilled for a while. We played some over-competative four-square and blasted music. The Rockies are a lot less scary than I anticipated. I feel like we can get over any pass at this point. That night we camped in tents, which was an adventure. We made s'mores and hung out around the campfire. Lots of frisbee and guitar. Awesome night.


110.46 miles.

DAY OFF

So since my mom just texted me about updating, I guess I should get on this. I'll start with our day off in west yellowstone. It was absolutely beautiful! I spent the day with Maddy and her aunt and uncle who live in the area and know it really well. We started off with breakfast in the park. Then we drove to a trail leading up to mt. Jefferson. It was an amazing trail with a million wildflowers and crazy views. We took a lot of detours to climb up rocks and stare back at the tetons and other surrounding mountains.

I really wanted to go into yellowstone since I've never been there, so after a nice lunch at a wildlife observatory, we headed into the park. We walked around painted pots, bubbling mud, steaming hot springs, and geiser. I saw old teller erupt over 100 feet in the air. I also got to see a ridiculous amount of bison, which was cool. Overall really amazing day!

Location:E Mt Highway 200,Lincoln,United States

Tetons!!!!

One of the most epic days of my life. It was really amazing. I woke up crazy pumped (probably a defense mechanism to block out extreme fear of climbing to a 9000 ft. elevation). I rode sweep with spency and Olivia. We started the day with the climb up Teton pass, which has parts as steep as 12% grade. It was really incredible. We were on a bike path, which had lots of switchbacks and the most amazing views (see facebook soon). We took it really slowly with the last group back, yelling the whole way. Since sweep rides in the back, we got up to the summit last. And EVERYONE waited for us at the top! When we rode in, everyone popped out from bushes yelling/singing. Some peole ran up the last part with us. It was so sweet that everyone was out there supporting everyone else. We took a million pictures and had a huge dance party. I can't even really describe how amazing it felt to reach the top if the mountain and celebrate with everyone. The 10% grade downhill was fun too. The rest of the ride was pretty chill. We got ice cream and hammered a lot of it. Definitely the most amazing ride day so far.

Better photos will definitely be on fb soon...

Togada pass!!!

Beautiful ride day! Like ridiculous. We started with a pretty crazy climb, but we got a ride up the last part because of construction. Pretty flat after that. We rode up to the tetons all day, which we are riding over tomorrow (ahhhhh!!!). My team (Maddy, Kaitlin, me) totally dominated the scavanger hunt. We got a photo inside an RV, spelling teton, a buffalo, etc...

Really proud of everyone for getting back on our bikes and getting through a hard (88 mile) day! keep on keeping on everyone!




Hitching a ride through construction.









The Tetons are behind me...my phone camera sucks.



Ninja...we're kind of obsessed.





Tetons...scaaaryyy.

Photos

Woman we helped out in Chadron



Double rainbow after the storm.
It's almost like a TRIPLE RAINBOW!!





Cat spency and I found while raking leaves.












Chalking for Paige.

Going craaazyyy!!

So I've been on a bus for 3 straight days heading to Dubois, WY. We've watched Friday night lights for 5 straight hours. It's the worst show ever. And the highlight of the trip is seeing car henge. Yeah. It's a replica of stone henge made out of cars. We stopped there twice. But actually the ride has been pretty fun. Lots of games and food challanges (Anthony ate a pound of spam). We've played ultimate frisbee or basketball every night.

We are planning on getting into town early today so we can go on a shakedown bike ride and do some drills like we did during orientation so that we get comfortable on our bikes again. Bike and build has been amazing through all this. We have the trip coordinator, Kristian, with us to help out. We had food and accommodations all this time, and they are even giving us bike mirrors so that we are a little safer.

The next two days are the steepest mountains of the trip. Tetan pass is on our second ride day. It's going to be beautiful and awesome, and I'm really excited. And totally nervous. Facing huge mountains and just being jumpy on a bike will be tough. We have such a strong team/family here, though. We'll all be great.




Wyoming is beautiful!