We have been in St. Louis for the last few days and the ride into the city has been nicknamed "The Death March", if that tells you anything. An alumni who lives in St. Louis offered to reroute us so we could see the highlights of the city (there were approximately zero, if you ask me - not a huge fan of St. Louis). As fate would have it, this Jesse fellow apparently didn't know his way around very well at all and got everyone completely lost. By 4pm, we found out we were still about 15 miles out from the host, at which point Kareem talked me into stopping and cooling off in a public fountain, which was loads of fun. We ended up wandering around St. Louis, lost, for about 2.5 more hours. We asked directions to UMSL from 4 different people, all of whom pointed ominously and encouraged us to "pedal hard" through what was apparently one of the worst parts of town. We finally made it back safely, though the leaders were quite displeased that we arrived 45 minutes behind Sweep (who, in our defense, followed the 15-mile-shorter cue sheet as opposed to said Death March) and were suspicious of a rumored pizza run on our part (which, was completely unbased, might I add. [However, no one ever asked anything about burritos with extra guac...]). Beat from 12 hours in the saddle, I hit the sauna and went straight to bed.
The next morning we worked with Rebuild Together, an organization aiming to revamp houses that oftentimes belong to the elderly. Though I got less than 3 hours of sleep the night before thanks to a cold I developed on the rainy ride into Effingham, IL, I am really glad I decided to go. Pam was one of the most thankful hosts I have ever met, tearing up practically every time she began to thank one of us for our help or talk about how it would change her family's life. Though we got a good bit done, there was still a lot of work left at Pam's home and I sincerely hope and pray that her house gets the renovations it needs now and proper maintenance in the future. By the end of the day I was narding every 10 minutes and coughing the rest of the time and generally feeling awful and bummed that everyone else was having fun exploring the city. However, Cat hooked me up with some awesome meds that allowed me about 4 hours to feel human again. During that time, Natan and I gave our Affordable Housing presentation, teaching the group about how AF causes are tied with education levels, and good times were had all around. That night, a group of B&Bers were waiting for the metro when between 15 and twenty shots were fired from the bank above them, leaving them flat on their stomachs with the rest of the crowd and scared silly, a reminder to be thankful for the safe shelter we have been provided with night after night.
Unfortunately, I was vanned today, missing out on the 60 mile ride from St. Louis to Washington thanks to my cold and a lovely knot on my knee that appeared after I slipped (quite gracefully, as I am sure you realize) on the metro last night. I slept virtually all day other than waking up to eat, buy meds, and migrate inside. I am happy to say that I am feeling a good deal better, well enough to wander around town for an hour or so after dinner and find an awesome river to sit beside and watch the shooting stars and be utterly consumed by mosquitos - quite a good night in my book. I am very much hoping to ride tomorrow and am currently heavily medicated and iced up, so keep your fingers crossed. I am supposed to do Sweep with Kyle tomorrow, 95 miles on a gravel road, so it should be interesting. Blessings to all!
Also, I just took a gander at Ryan's blog where he posted some of the harder day's elevations in WV or somewhere. Take a gander: http://hereimliving.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/days-6-12-charlottesville-va-to-huntington-wv/
Also also, I learned how to legitimately ride with no hands during the ride into St. Louis. It was a pretty iffy skill before (I made only timid ventures during downhills and easy flats) but I definitely got it down pat during that ride. Yesssssss.
Goodnight.
The next morning we worked with Rebuild Together, an organization aiming to revamp houses that oftentimes belong to the elderly. Though I got less than 3 hours of sleep the night before thanks to a cold I developed on the rainy ride into Effingham, IL, I am really glad I decided to go. Pam was one of the most thankful hosts I have ever met, tearing up practically every time she began to thank one of us for our help or talk about how it would change her family's life. Though we got a good bit done, there was still a lot of work left at Pam's home and I sincerely hope and pray that her house gets the renovations it needs now and proper maintenance in the future. By the end of the day I was narding every 10 minutes and coughing the rest of the time and generally feeling awful and bummed that everyone else was having fun exploring the city. However, Cat hooked me up with some awesome meds that allowed me about 4 hours to feel human again. During that time, Natan and I gave our Affordable Housing presentation, teaching the group about how AF causes are tied with education levels, and good times were had all around. That night, a group of B&Bers were waiting for the metro when between 15 and twenty shots were fired from the bank above them, leaving them flat on their stomachs with the rest of the crowd and scared silly, a reminder to be thankful for the safe shelter we have been provided with night after night.
Unfortunately, I was vanned today, missing out on the 60 mile ride from St. Louis to Washington thanks to my cold and a lovely knot on my knee that appeared after I slipped (quite gracefully, as I am sure you realize) on the metro last night. I slept virtually all day other than waking up to eat, buy meds, and migrate inside. I am happy to say that I am feeling a good deal better, well enough to wander around town for an hour or so after dinner and find an awesome river to sit beside and watch the shooting stars and be utterly consumed by mosquitos - quite a good night in my book. I am very much hoping to ride tomorrow and am currently heavily medicated and iced up, so keep your fingers crossed. I am supposed to do Sweep with Kyle tomorrow, 95 miles on a gravel road, so it should be interesting. Blessings to all!
Also, I just took a gander at Ryan's blog where he posted some of the harder day's elevations in WV or somewhere. Take a gander: http://hereimliving.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/days-6-12-charlottesville-va-to-huntington-wv/
Also also, I learned how to legitimately ride with no hands during the ride into St. Louis. It was a pretty iffy skill before (I made only timid ventures during downhills and easy flats) but I definitely got it down pat during that ride. Yesssssss.
Goodnight.
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