Family, friends, let me tell you: life is great. I've thoroughly enjoyed my first three days of riding. We're currently in Columbia, South Carolina, having biked slightly more than 180 miles. We also had our first build day in Charleston before we set off, during which we completely re-shingled an elderly couple's house.
So, I imagine you all have a lot of questions about how this whole Bike and Build shin-dig works. There's a whole lot that goes into the process, so I figure I'll try to explain one or two things in each post.
One question that you're probably wondering - I certainly was before our first ride - is how in the world we figure out where we're going. One hundred eighty miles is a long way, and as you all know (if you know me well), my sense of direction isn't my strongest attribute.
Well, the way it works is quite simple, but far from flawless. Every morning the leaders give us a "cue sheet" with our directions for the day, along with a joke and the contact info for our host. All the riders have an odometer that tells them how fast they're going (I'm averaging about 14 mph, with a high of 36 so far) and distances, which helps us to follow the directions.
Unfortunately, the directions are all taken off of Google Maps, which is not infallible. Twice so far (remember, we've only been riding three days) we've been led astray onto roads that don't exist or don't take us where we need to go. Yesterday was supposed to be a 66 mile day, but we ended up doing 88 miles because we got lost so many times. And, for the record, none of this getting lost was my fault.
I have to head off now because a group of local affordable housing enthusiasts is on their way to bring us dinner. I'll try to post again next week. Love you all.
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