Sunday, June 21, 2009

Quesadilla Deluxe Please!

Day 18 - June 21, 11:05pm

57 miles. Marietta, OH to Portsmouth, OH

We had more deserts than we knew what to do with packing up this morning. I'm on cooler crew this week meaning we are responsible for packing up all the food into the coolers and bins every morning, keeping everything organized, and then storing them in the host's refrigerators overnight. In addition we have to fill the group water and gatorade coolers. It's probably the most annoying chore given how long it takes.

Everyone was so pumped about todays short ride and it did go by pretty smoothly despite some more right knee pain. To be honest nothing is really happening on the rides since we are getting into more farmland where there is less to see and do. The headwinds were gone today but the sun was out and the flat roads made for beautiful riding. We took lunch at a pretty lake only 20 miles in and it was the first time we've all ever eaten together which was fun. The knee felt much better afterwards which was great, i hope the day off will help us all heal properly.

I rode with Rob pretty much all day and loved it. He's pretty much the calmest, nicest person on the trip and I feel like he just somehow has great unique conversation with everyone. We talked at one point about what how we think we will be different after bike and build. I thought about this more during some silent riding and it was really nice to be introspective for a while on such a pretty day of riding. I think you can't necessarily control how experiences like this shape you exactly, but to an extent you can form a conception of where you would like to be at the end. Doing so, might help it become more of a likely reality since it will guide your outlook on the trip, which in turn guides your overall experience. At least i think...


Got my second flat today and fixed it in about 12 minutes which was decent. Since we all finally got in early we headed over to El Toro Loco for some fun quesadillas. Didn't have guacamole this time but my day will come. Also, finally got my credit cards cancelled, though customer service suspiciously keeps dropping my call when i try to fill a fraud claim...

We are at our first Catholic Church here and Father Dwayne has been so gracious in opening up the entire activity center for us. It has this awesome stained glass window from an old hospital. He gave us a tour of the Church which is gorgeous and even did some latin chanting to show off the acoustics. We also got to give the organ a trial run. He generally gives off a very cool vibe.

Had our weekly town hall meeting tonight to cover all of the issues over the past week and afterwards Meryl and Noah treated us to an interpretive dance of James Blunt's "Beautiful" which involved prancing, a chair, a bike lock, and gold bond. Don't forget that Noah is also the man whose shampoo is called "Mane n Tail"

I'm looking forward to the Build with Habitat tomorrow, and to tuning up my bike and fixing my fuzzy dice which ripped. But most of all right now i can't wait for sleep!