The plus or minus 10 rule

yesterday was our first day out on the road and let me tell you my body felt the road. We left RI and we were supossed to ride 30 miles to connecticut, 46 miles later, we were there. Apparently there is a plus or minus 10 rule where the directions could be way over or way under mileage. I ran out of water, the van never made it lunch, i was sore in every place possible, and in case you didnt know this state is full of hills! But even through all of this it was an amazing experience. Riding behind, in front and beside people who were motivating me and feeling the same way i was made it so much more rewarding and even a little easier. And the best part was arriving at a beautiful church in woodstock where we were welcomed with a BBQ chicken dinner, grilled veggies, potatoe salad etc..we had a wonderful time meeting and greeting all the wonderful people of woodstook. Later on my friend from ithaca, a bike and build alumn, Todd, had his parents drop off amazing ice cream to us for dessert. Today we are in massachusetts rooming at our trip leaders house. this beautiful farm house where we will be camping in the backyard. and today went a lot better than yesterday, i had a snack, a good lunch, didnt run out of water, AND my tire blew on th eroad and i knew how to fix it!

The Build Part

After a strenuous couple of days of orientation games,

Learning how to change tires, spokes, and the bike man using all sorts of words i dont know, i am just hoping nothing goes wrong with my bike from here to seattle...

We did get an amazing dinner last night from the lovely folks at a local church


Although i did eat heartily it was not enough to make me a strong builder as was seen by todays events. We awoke at 7:00 am and were bussed over to our first project site of the trip. A house that already had a basement and a first floor, but obviously there was still a lot to do.

My first job was to move a lot of wood from one pile to another. This i was good at.

My next job was to wrap the house in tyvek. This is something I can say I will never really want to do again. After that i took on a lot of odd jobs like hammering, raking and moving dirt. By 11:30 it started to rain too hard and we had to stop working altogether. So the rest of the day is ours! I have to to say on our next build i hope we are painting!

The Smallest State

I have finally arrived and met everyone and I cannot tell you how excited and happy I am! Everyone is so nice and different and exciting, i love it already. Today we got to know each other and went over what our day to day life is going to be like and we played those really great ice breaker games...well those could have been left out. The high point was painting our bike and build trailer in which painting Nazi derrick made all final decisions and squealed at me every time i messed up and rolled over the wrong section with white paint. I'll post before and after pictures later. Tomorrow we are eating group breakfast at 7:30am and a packed day of events continues from there.

PS: I seemed to be the only one concerned about confronting a tornado in the Midwest - apparently its no big deal.

And so it begins

My first blog. My first post. I even taught dad how to use this thing today, so dad i better see some comments! Well i am leaving for Rhode Island tomorrow and I think I am ready to bike. Starting on the 10th I will be on a bike for almost everyday for two months. I will stay connected through this blog and my cell phone. So leave me comments, call me, email me, bridget.sheehan85@gmail.com ...stay in touch! On the sidebar you will see all the dates and locations of where i will be and weekly mail drop information. Well I am off to Rhode Island, 7 hour road trip with mother and grandma, more to come!