Portlandia

Believe it or not, there wasn't a soul who had to van-it-up on the ride into Portland because of the stomach flu. Dare I say we are rid of it? I certainly hope so. Still, it was a very difficult and very long day. We didn't even make it to first lunch (we have 2 on days over 90 miles) until a whopping 11:30 thanks to some nasty headwinds and a long climb. My hours still passed rather quickly as I decided to do on-bike interviews to keep myself occupied. You can check out the fruits of my ventures (along with a few other silly videos I made in the last few days like Ryan eating a bug and Kareem and I talking to sheep) at http://www.youtube.com/user/happygoluckify?feature=mhee. Oh, there are some morning pump up videos there too. So techy, I know. Anyway, we finally rolled into the host and we greeted with an actual finish line to break and a bar-b-que to satiate our ever-raging hunger pangs. Though I haven't seen much of it, Portland is really beautiful and culturally kind of like a really big Urban Outfitters.

Our build day today with Rebuilding Together went smashingly. We scraped, primed, painted, and trimmed an entire house for a really nice fellow named Roland. Under the leadership of Louis, our supervisor, we had one of our funnest and most productive build day yet.

Unfortunately, the day took a turn for the worst when my tennis shoe slipped off my clip and my my foot grazed the pavement, twisting my knee and likely re-tearing my ACL. Though it was a bit of a downer for a while, everyone has been super encouraging and helpful and I haven't quite ruled out riding the last few days somehow or another. We shall see.

Until next time.

Lacy

 "Blorange" Gatorade. 

 Pump up

 Ride to Portland