there is lightning and there is thunder and we are in mississippi.

Hey friends.

Here I am in Biloxi, Mississippi. We're staying at the HandsOn: Gulf Coast site, which is pretty neat-o (big warehouse-like place with bunks, inspirational poster-remnants, photos, etc.), and you should be pretty thankful that I'm writing to you right now. I just tried to go out for a little "night on the town" -- meaning walking 30 paces to a pub down the street -- but alas, as my title indicates, there is lightning and there is thunder and the water is at least a foot deep on the sidewalk and water conducts electricity and... well, we turned back, and i then turned to the internet, and transitively, to you.

Deep breath.

Our ride today was a-ok. 60 miles; not a big deal after the 106 about which I will soon tell you. A lot of traffic. Cars are a little scary. But I am safe!

Going back in time to yesterday. Yesterday, we laid sod. We worked at a Habitat site in Mobile, Alabama. It is a cul-de-sac with a lot of houses, some of which are being built for people whose homes have been ruined by Katrina. The supervisors didn't have a ton of stuff for us to do -- apparently they thought a) we were motorcyclists (you'd be surprised how much we get this) and b) that we were coming in waves. What this meant was that for most of the day 30 of us were standing around raking the same patch of land over and over again before laying down our little squares of sod. It was a hot day, and we were tired, but there were ample amounts of Gatorade, Dominoes Pizza, and Walmart Cookies (DELICIOUS).

Oh yeah, we were tired because, oh wait, we had biked 106 miles the day before.

A hundred miles of cycling is called a CENTURY for you non-cyclists. I hope now that you feel that you are in the know, like I am. When it comes to cycling, I am absolutely the one who is the most in the know. Always. To quote Matthew JK Soursourian, "I am an avid cyclist."

So, the century plus six miles day, in somewhat chronological order:

The story (and what a story it is!) began at the ripe hour of 4 am, when I awoke from my peaceful slumber (on a likely ant-infested mattress), donned my spandex and "butt-butter" (see Matthew's blog for more info), pumped my tires, ate my requisite bagel, peanut butter, and banana, and set off from Milton, FL. We reached lunch at about 9:30, at which point I was starving. Lunch was great. There was meat, which was incredible (!!) after eight million thousand days of PB and J's. Additionally, we were on the BEACH, and it was pretty. It looked just like the Florida I know and love (shout out to the g-parents!) We were in Pensacola, right on the Gulf, by the by. A picture to whet your appetite:


We then proceeded to cross into Alabama. We biked about 40 more miles, arrived at our ferry (we were going to take it 3 miles across the water, I would explain in more specific detail but I'm horrible at geography) at 1:17, only to see most of our dear B and B friends cross over on the 1:15 ferry. Party. So we cried a few tears, ate delicious Haagan Daaz ice cream from the snack bar and waited until 2:45, at which point we hopped on the ferry, jumped eagerly back on our bikes, and rode off into the sunset to this lovely little bridge:

Not as nice as it looks. It gave Caitlin a flat, which we changed by the sea. Picturesque.

About 30 miles away from our destination, Matthew became dehydrated/heat exhausted (not funny then, funnier now) so we hung out outside Jeminy's Bait and Tackle. Alabama! There were many bugs, southern accents, and pick-up trucks. Also Gatorade and Snickers bars. After a little while, we headed back, just in time to see the sun descend. A day of biking! No, really, a day. 6 am to 7 pm. A day. Of biking. I have the worst tan lines in the world. But, I am also one of the more impressive people in the world. Or at least in my family.

We then arrived at Camp Christian, which looks like an abandoned orphanage from a horror film. A pink little girl's dress was hanging in our closet, to top it all off, and, as I think I mentioned before, ants were having a fiesta in Matthew's mattress.

Needless to say, a nervous breakdown ensued.

Kidding! But if one had, I wouldn't have been surprised.

In other news, I have named my bike Pilgrim, which is a bit FUNNY and IRONIC because my bike is not drab. It has a lot of "flare": multi-colored handlebars, a cow-shaped horn (Thanks, Matthew's mom!!), a green flouncy thing around the handlebars.

AND here are some more pictures, in no particular order:





ALSO, click here for more PIX! (And though it may sound like it, this is not a link to an explicit website.)

fire ants, lightning storms, aching quads, ETC

Hello loyal fans. (Judging by the comments on the blog, those include: my sisters, my father, my mother, and my grandparents. I am so hip.)

I am currently in Defuniak Springs, Florida, at a campsite semi-infested with red ants but also miraculously equipped with wireless internet, a store (!!), a pool (!!!!!!!), showers (not very exciting for you, perhaps, but !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-level excitement for me after a day of biking), and grills for eating food (which I enjoy more and more of each and every day.)

I'm not sure where I left off, so I'll probably miss some stuff, but since I last wrote we've stayed in some dirty gyms, some really clean gyms, a great church where they fed us lunch, dinner, AND breakfast (exclamation!!)... I have also continued to bike, and my odometer (which measures total miles biked) continues to grow by the day, which is satisfying.

The satisfaction of completing a long day of biking is not to be underestimated. However, the boredom inspired by long stretches of NOTHINGNESS are also not to be underestimated, nor is the agony inspired by Florida's "rolling" hills. (Note: agony might be particular to Meghan Daniels, who did not prepare in an exemplary manner for this particular trip.)

Florida's been fun and very very different from the beachy Florida that I know and love. There continue to be amusing church signs and lots of fruit stands. I have also seen a chain-gang-type deal outside of a "correctional institution", of which Florida has many, which was really surreal and a little bit disturbing. Men in rows, guards on horses... yikes. Especially considering the percentage of false convictions...oy.

I had my first "bike in the rain" experience -- lightning, thunder, power-outages, oh my. Not the funnest of fun, but also not the worst. I survived.

This morning a Baptist church provided grits (not the biggest fan) and biscuits (delicious) for us, and we listened to an 80 year old church member's "breakfast dinner theatre" which comprised mostly Christmas songs. WONDERFUL, dare I say. And hilarious.

More things have happened. I have eaten more peanut butter sandwiches and many more bananas; I have not read any more of my book; I have continued to go to sleep early and wake up earlier. I will add pictures WHEN POSSIBLE.

I miss you all
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

BICYCLES

I am now sitting in a beautiful public library in LIVE OAK, FLORIDA, home of _____. I'm not actually sure what Live Oak is home too, but there are a couple of things I do know: it has multiple fast food restaurants, multiple grocery stores, and multiple sporting goods stores, which makes it bigger than ALL of the towns we passed through today. Or at least most of them.

Today was many things. Today was the day that I got a flat tire (!!!!!!) I needed a lot of help changing it. But I assisted in at least 25 percent of the endeavor, and I think 25% is an honorable percentage. PLUS if that isn't enough for you... I still have grease stains on my legs. Delicious. Tangentially, I also have a great farmer's tan.

Today was also the day we biked for 55 miles on one long flat road known as I-90. We stopped for lunch at a great petting zoo with poor helpless malnourished mistreated exotic animals. There was also a Christian rock band.

Which brings me to my next topic: Christianity. IT IS EVERYWHERE. "Happy Father's Day; Real fathers love God" is my favorite billboard so far. There have been about 400000 churches so far along our route. We have also been staying in churches and showering at megachurches and basically, God is very present in my life. Which is great.

As for biking, I am a member of what we have dubbed, alternately, Team Tardy, Team Terrible, Team Terrific, and Team Tenacious. Basically what we're trying to say is that we go slowly. See the scenes. Snap some shots.

Yesterday we biked 60 miles, from Jacksonville to Glen St Mary, a town which was the smallest of small. We spent about 15 of those miles on a Rail Trail with, get this, NO CARS. Hilarious jokes were cracked, lifelong memories were formed.

The day before that we had our first "build day", working with Beaches Habitat in Jacksonville. I felt very magnanimous at the end. I laid sod. WOW do I dislike laying sod. But at the end we had created a lawn where only dirt had been before. TEAMWORK IN ACTION. Matthew and I also put up shutters. I even used a powerdrill and I only messed up 3 times. We put one shutter on upside down. Then we realized our mistake, fixed it, and proceeded to put the next shutter on upside now. The shutters were blue and beautiful, and they really tied the house together.

IN CONCLUSION, I hope all of you are well, and don't worry about praying for me because the whole state of Florida seems to be already.

this is a blog about me and my bike

hi family, friends, anonymous people who can but probably will not read this blog. i am a little afraid of the idea of a blog (self-indulgent?) but here it is. a blog!

background: this summer, i am riding my bike three thousand and something something miles from jacksonville, florida to san francisco, california. i have raised over $4000 for affordable housing/this trip (thanks guys) and the trip will give me an opportunity to meet the people who will benefit from that money, raise awareness about issues surrounding affordable housing, build some houses (yikes), get some great tan lines (yikes), clad myself in spandex and swelter in the southern heat.... etc.

i am flying to jacksonville tomorrow via charlotte, where i will unite with my dear friend matthew (from cityterm) so that we can strategize about how to present ourselves to "the group." i think i have it in my head that bike and build will be like survivor without the coconuts, or big brother without the mod houses, or celebrity fit club without screech. anyway. perhaps matthew and i will color-coordinate our outfits.

and then i will be off (!)

here is our full itinerary

and here is a link to the communal and perchance more neatly polished and less biased/judgmental group blog

and here is a link to a minor secondary news information source if you find our/my reporting inadequate

and i believe that that is all, for now.

except if you want to send me food or gifts or other tokens of affection here are our mail drops:

June 21st Milton FL
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
5111 Dogwood DR
Milton, FL 32570-9998

Jun 28th New Orleans LA
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
610 S Maestri PL
New Orleans, LA 70130-3429

Jul 5th Natchitoches LA
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
240 Saint Denis ST
Natchitoches, LA 71457-9998

Jul 12th Wichita Falls Tx
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
1000 Lamar ST
Wichita Falls, TX 76301-9995

Jul 19th Las Vegas NM
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
1900 Hot Springs Blvd
Las Vegas, NM 87701-9997

Jul 26th Ship Rock NM
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
91 Highway 491 S
Shiprock, NM 87420-9998

Aug 9th Lake Tahoe CA
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
7005 N Lake Blvd
Tahoe Vista, CA 96148-9800

Aug 16th San Francisco CA
General Delivery
C/O Bike and Build- Rider's Name
450 Golden Gate AVE
San Francisco, CA 94102-366