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Published: June 13th 2018
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Tired. Wet. Sore. Dirty. Strong. Alive. Happy.
Push. Help. Carry. Cheer.
Have you ever been so exhausted and dirty and yet so happy? This is Bike & Build life and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! Quite honestly there is nowhere else I would rather be right now. And I am so so thankful to be here.
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Today started out by hearing NJ shuffle around and turn on music rather than the usual multiple alarms going off. Already 6:07, I pack my things quickly and got to the trailer to help pack up everyone’s bags. With only 17 bags (or bins!) it goes fairly quickly, except for when the bags people are more efficient at bringing out their bags in a timely fashion than the bins folks. But alas, 17 bags or bins vs 31 is much easier.
For breakfast we had some fruit, a piece of bread with left over Texas Roadhouse butter (?!!!) and decaf coffee (?). Talking ourselves into believing it was caffeinated, despite looking for the real stuff, we settled for what we could get and positive thinking. Carly, Jana, Kristi, & I helped take out the bikes out of
the storage closet and did our ABCs and helped overnight crew finish up their chores. Sunscreened up and shammy butter on, I cranked out some push-ups while waiting for everyone else to finish getting ready. Amanda presented town facts and relayed information they learned from their lunch yesterday with the former mayor. Despite being recruited by Carly to ride with her & Jana, our group was too big and had to split so I ended up riding with Jana, Sarah, & Colin (NC2SD11 alum!). We were the first group out and headed towards that state line and South Carolina calling us.
We crossed a few bridges and only a few miles into the ride found ourselves at the state line! We took some pics, danced & cheered, and got back on the bikes to ride out our 75 mile day. We kept a nice steady pace and were able to talk on the some of the desolate, low traffic roads two abreast. It was nice getting to know Colin & Sarah more and felt good to pound some miles efficiently. We found a church to stop & snack at mile 29, eating pickle sunflower seeds & beef jerky, and
stopped at mile 34 to slam a Salted Caramel Mocha Starbucks drink from BP.
Lunch was at mile 41 at a gas station where Raffi & Amanda set up the tent for shade and DMed pizzas from the gas station. He also offered us free fountain drinks & I enjoyed a twist off blue koolaid (yes like those from childhood in the 90s!) and I bought a pair of earrings for $5! After repiercing my middie, I happily ate chicken salad with grapes (that I cut in half with my teeth?) on a piece of wheat bread, bbq chips, and a slice of plain pizza. I sipped Diet Pepsi from Carly & Dr P from NJ before reapplying sunscreen and hitting the road again.
We rode steadily and then a rain storm dumped on us and we rode on, of course. However, we did see lightning and hear thunder so, rules of the road, we sought shelter. We ended up at Harold’s Country Club—a divey bar with pool tables and a few locals sipping beer at 1:30pm. I escorted Jana to the potty since it seemed a bit sketch and then we waited outside for a bit under
a covered oning and I did some push ups while waiting for the storm to pass. Since it only rained harder and the lightning continued, we decided to go into the bar and go rogue (again!) while Colin ordered a beer and we enjoyed the light version of the Rockies.
Feeling happy and tired, an hour later we got back on the bike ready to crank out the last 20 miles in the now lighter rain. Eventually it let up and we rolled into the host first (USC gym!) where we quickly unpacked our bags and hopped in the doorless showers since we had been in wet shams for a few hours. When we were done everyone started rolling in and we found the room with a couch & a tv with Netflix so I cued up Parks & Rec (thanks to Jana’s recommendation!) and we all found our way to this lounge room.
I, of course, fell asleep (fairly typical for me whenever a tv is on) as did many others apparently. We woke up to take a picture outside by the tree that’s in Radio and then enjoyed a pizza & salad dinner (SO. MUCH. PIZZA. !!!). There was even cinnamon roll pizza! Before (or maybe after?) dinner, we played some knock out, some people played volleyball, and I laid down again to snooze a bit on the couch—I haven’t napped much (or at all!) on this trip, even though that’s many people’s favorite pastime, so I was well overdue.
I then was able to (attempt!) to play uker—a card game that is another favorite pasttime—but was kick off bc I wasn’t playing right (I only watched Sarah play once before!) so I talked to and played Heads Up with Amanda, NJ, Jana, & Aiden. Many then started to go to their separate ways and a few of us decided we wanted to watch “Coco” so with boiled peanuts and lunch meat turkey cued up with Netflix, I sat down with Amanda, Jess, Jana, & Annie to watch what is suppose to be a tear jerker. We all started dropping like flies and heading to bed and I, of course, starting falling asleep as well. Giving in, I went to go sleep in the gym with Jana & Kristi only to not be successful in finding where the light switch was, despite recruiting Noah and others to search with me. Unsuccessful, I gave up and brought my sleeping bag back into the couch and slept there instead. What a shame....
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