Little Things

Wow. I know I have been totally MIA. My only excuse to give you is exhaustion. Lack of reliable internet and exhaustion. Unexpected crises, lack of reliable internet, and exhaustion. The first three weeks of Bike & Build (has it really been that long?) have been really hectic for me. Between driving the van every four days, riding my bike all the other days, and trying to keep me eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time, I frequently find myself without much time to do normal things, like update my blog.

Things like naps (we call it narding or napping hard), and the eternal search for calories to shove into my mouth have taken over my life. Leading Bike & Build is super rewarding, but also stressful, so I ask for you patience if I am not as communicative as I possibly could be.

I'm trying!

Yesterday we rode from Bloomington, IN, a cute university town, to Terre Haute, as slightly less cute university town. It was my day to drive the van, which is a mixed bag. Some days run smoothly and I can take a nap while the riders eat lunch. Some days, like yesterday, I get a call from one of my riders saying that he may have broken a rib and needs a pickup. I spent 200 miles in the van yesterday shuttling between Bloomington and Terre Haute multiples times. The rider was fine, by the way, he only bruised his cartilage jumping into a quarry.

We had a fantastic host dinner, where I ate more food that I would normally consume in 3 days in the real world. Most people are pretty understanding to the fact that we burn 5000+ calories a day and therefore can eat AS MUCH AS WE WANT and still be hungry. It's a little harder explaining that when you spent all day driving a van. My excuse is that I have to eat for the next day on the bike, which is mostly true.

After dinner we hosted our first bike clinic for the kids attending vacation bible school. It worked out well for the most part. We taught the kids all the commands we use, like "stopping", "left turn", "pothole", with all the appropriate hand signals. Everyone had fun, which is the most important thing.

Afterwards, I was itching to get on my bike, since I didn't get a chance to ride all day, so I explored the ISU campus with Adam and we found this giant fountain. Long story short I ended up riding through it and he took this picture of me. It was a really quick way to shower both myself and my bike.