Day 41: Bike & Build Prom!!

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Today is prom day!! Though I’ve been to 7 high school proms, and one other Bike & Build prom, I am still excited for this experience bc Bike & Build prom is an awesome way for the team to get together and intentionally all hang out together—while in some silly get-ups. But before any of that fun is to be had, we must ride our bikes a womping 29 miles...!

With the short mileage and the house stays, we are blessed with a 8am bags out—what a treat! But with that, we also get to take our time and spend time with our home hosts. Jess, Chris, Noah, Magpie, Ryan, and I enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of egg casserole, fruit & granola yogurt, blueberry muffins (I saved mine for later), OJ, & coffee, of course! The Patterson’s back porch provides a wonderful, warm place to relax and enjoy breakfast together, as well as wonderful, warm conversations with the Patterson’s & Jess. We talk about why we’re doing Bike & Build, what Laura Lee is up to these days, what we’ve learned so far, and our career past and future career goals. It feels like home and we only wish we could stay longer and enjoy their pool & another round of iron ball.

But, alas, we must ride bikes—what a gift for this to be our job for the day! With only 29 miles to go and me & Aiden as sweep (much anticipated!), we chill and let everyone roll out after chatting about prom details during route meeting, which was lead by Ryan. NJ & Beth join Aiden and I and we hit the trail once more to back track about 5 miles or so on the trail we rode in on. We were informed by Sasha’s boyfriend that there was a large Goodwill around mile 4 so we decide to stop there, along with about half of the team. Amanda and Sarah buy silly hats & robes, Raffi, Carly, and NJ sneakily buy surprise items, and Beth and I spend a bit too much time deciding and committing to our theme. Jess & NJ decide to wait to buy their costumes until they’re closer to Baltimore and leave with Aiden, who was ready to roll, leaving Beth and I as sweep. We don’t mind as we enjoy trying on our costumes and skating around while researching our options.

Once it turns 11 or 12, we decide it time to get a move on, so strapping skates to bikes & packs, tucking in yellow high tops, & wearing what we have to make it all fit on our bikes, bodies, & bags, we roll out slightly less aero but much more excited for the evening ahead. We rode past Baltimore airport and arrive at lunch, which is in a steamy hot parking lot right by the harbor. I eat my muffin, we eat salad straight from the bag, enjoy some left over chicken from our cookout the night before, and ditch our extra clothes, shoes, and skates with Casey and the lunch van. Since Aiden and I decided that sweep challenge was to recreate a famous picture or video of a romantic scene (somewhat prom inspired), we meme a picture of Beth reenacting the “draw me like one of your French girls” scene from Titanic...or should we say “chalk me like one of your French girls” ?

After filling up on water, we hit the trail again, only to stop shortly thereafter for snow cones. When they’re for a good cause and your prom date insists on paying, you can’t say no! We sit & enjoy our snow cones in the park before rolling on and seeing Noah & Ryan in the V&T. They encourage us & take a dope shot of us riding as we ride into the heart of the city (& traffic). It feels strange to ride in bike lanes going the opposite direction of traffic, but we’re grateful for the protected & painted bike lanes nonetheless. We stop at Baltimore City Bikes where we hear there’s free icey pops and some of our team hanging around. Sarah and Amanda joined us after they stopped for their dope coffee date and we all rolled out together. We stopped for some graffiti + bike pictures by an old railroad station before rolling the last few miles to the host. And of course, there were hills, but with the encouragement of my amazing supportive team, leading them up the hills was a painful pleasure.

Though we only had 29 miles, we arrived at the host at 4:15pm—15 minutes later than we are suppose to ride. K2C style tends to be pokey, but this was another level. Along with our arrival, was also the arrival of our team Pit Viperssss!! Thanks to Annie’s discount code, we managed to score them for 50% off! ?? So of course we had to go outside and throw the frisbee around on the luscious grass rockin our new stellar shades ?

It was then time to shuttle up and shower quickly at a nearby church that had 2 showers. While we waited for each other, Sarah ate granola bars (of course, always snacking!), and we mocked the leaders for always having whispered conversations. Sarah tried to steal Noah’s clothes, only for him to make it worse by throwing his own clothes down the stairs—the messie became the messer! So silly!

When we arrived back the church, we snagged the K2C banner from the Wanninkofs and I set it up on the stage curtains while the team started grabbing dinner. Before eating, we had a wonderful inpomtu break out sing-a-long to “I Will Always Love You” in the kitchen while sipping iced coffee & it was truly magical ? A wonderful alum provided delicious chilly and mac & cheese and salad—which was all well recieved and thoroughly enjoyed! It was then game time as those without costumes started throwing things together and I started throwing together a walk-out playlist for each couple for Promanade. Sarah helped me lay out some thermarests as our runway and I dug out all my America gear for Magpie & Ryan. I gave Jana & Mikey the idea to wear each other’s clothes and it was a sight to be seen! Just picture a grown man in a small skinny girl’s denim overall shorts ??

As everyone was finishing the last touches on their costumes, I played some jams to get everyone fired up. When “Trumpets” came on, Rally Aly came out in full swing with some line dancing and hat twisting. It felt good ? Once everyone was ready to roll (figuratively & literally), we cued up the playlist & began Promanade. Rally Aly continued in her element and gave a huge intro & welcome to each couple as they emerged from the curtain onto the stage. In no particular order the couples & songs were as followed:

-Jana & Mikey,dressed as each other, struttin’ out to “Wild Boy” by Machine Gun Kelly
-Raffi & Kristi, dressed as football players complete with burpees, “Eye of the Tiger”
-Amanda & Sarah, dressed as morning gardeners, dancing to “The Hamsterdance Song”
-Ryan & Magpie, America themed and Ryan squating with Magpie over his shoulders to “The Time is Now” by John Cena
-Noah & Carly, dressed as parental tourists, selfie takin to “All Star” (of course)
-Chris & Aiden, dressed in button downs & bow ties, with a dance off to “Sexy & I Know It”
-NJ, Jess, & Casey, dressed in mix-matched button downs and patterned shorts, posting up while mean muggin’ to “Woman” by Kesha
-Beth & myself, dressed as a California burger girl & California bro, skating out to “California Girls” by Katy Perry (and “graciously” skating down the steps to the thermarest runway ?)

It was all very silly & everyone was cracking up the whole time! It was probably my favorite part of the prom experience! It was so fun to use my “Booster Voice” and announce everyone! Beth and I also bought some toothbrush awards (because toothbrushes clean bikes, and clean bikes are safe, and safety is sexy!) to give out as awards for the couples that are “Most Committed” “Most Creative” and “Most Charming”. Though we planned on awarding them based on crowd applause, we forgot about that in the midst of the hype and quickly decided (with some debate) to award NJ’s crew “Most Creative” Raffi & Kristi “Most Committed” (though stapling skates to your bike is committed, we can’t award ourselves!) and Noah & Carly easily winning “Most Charming”

With a bit of a walk ahead of us, we started making moves to ubers or walking to Stoneleigh Lanes. We stopped to pet dogs (of course) and I’m sure we were quite the scene to behold with all of us rocking our prom costumes down the street, though skates were traded in for the yellow high tops. A few peeled off to grab some drinks since the bowling alley is BYO and the rest of us walked on. We arrived to find some of our teammates, Kristi’s boyfriend & friend from home (who surprised her!!), and what looked like was an underwhelming bowling experience. A little disappointed, I apologized to the team that I didn’t know it was duckpin bowling and they were gracious enough to not mind at all. And in typical Bike & Build fashion, we made the most of it! I love this about Bike & Build culture!

I talked to the guy running the place and managed to get some sing along songs cues up on Pandora (think American classic rock & old school hip hop), Kristi’s boyfriend & some of the leaders took care of picking up alcohol, and we made a competition out of the the three lanes we had, teaming up with a partner and racing to see which team could knock down their 2 sets of pins first! We played a version of flip cup, minus the flipping of the cup, and took over the place, par usual. It may sound like we got rowdy, but honestly it was pretty respectable for what I know this group is capable of. While not competing, we enjoyed some nice conversations with one another, including one where Jana told me she thinks she saw the real Rally Aly from real life for the first time tonight during my dance, announcing, & costume. I don’t think she’s wrong ?

Once our 2 hours of bowling fun had expired, we started our walk back to the host, which seemed to take 3x longer. Mikey, Sarah, & myself took care of a first-timer box-wine drinker Magpie on the walk back and thereafter. I felt an immediate shift from buzz to big sister taking care of the little sister, force feeding her water the whole way home and helping kee her walk safe & straight. I pumped up her themrarest for her as the others tended to her water needs. Jess & Beth also rotated in taking turns to soothe her and get her to sleep on her thermarest, though she insisted on sleeping on others. She kept asking “Where’s my friends?!” and though we insisted that we are her friends, she only responded with “no my other friends!” We had an inkling of who she meant, however with that person feeling uncomfortable with the whole situation, I monitored between the two and made sure everyone felt safe & comfortable.

In my attempt to turn out the lights, I ended up making it worse for our friends sleeping on the stage (sorry NJ! She always finds a quiet corner to sleep alone) before successfully shutting down the place, which tends to be my norm most nights. Eventually Magpie settled down and some time after the rest of the team had settled in, Jess, Beth, & myself were able to settle in as well. Grateful for a fun night and a wonderful team and day in general, I snuggled up into my sleeping bag, eager for my 5 hours of sleep...

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