Arrived!!! (San Diego, CA)

Our entire team has made it safely to the west coast, as I hope you've been reading in everyone else's journals! San Diego is a beautiful city with mild weather and gorgeous beaches. Standing with my bike in the Pacific Ocean with all my friends splashing around me gave me an unbelievable sense of fulfillment. The past two months have made up an incredible journey with some of the best teammates I could possibly ask for. To all you NC2SD'ers out there, thanks for making this journey what it was. Best wishes for everything to come.

I cannot say thank you enough to all the families, friends, hosts, and perfect strangers who have supported us in this journey. Thanks especially to B&B alumnus Todd and his girlfriend Amanda, who helped us out so much in San Diego and hosted a party for us, and to Brendan who arranged our cookout on the beach and everything important for our arrival.

The 30 members of our team collectively raised over $130,000 to make this trip happen, more than half of which is being donated to affordable housing groups that involve young adults, including UNC/Chapel of the Cross Habitat, NCSU Habitat, Arizona State Habitat, The Fuller Center, and Durango CO, as well as nonprofits selected by our various host sites.

As for myself, I'm back at home in Raleigh, NC for two more days before heading off to Tottori City, Japan, where I'll be teaching English to middle schoolers for a year through the JET Program. I'm not sure yet if I'll keep a blog from Japan, but I'll at least be posting pictures online. I'll post a link to my Japan site on this blog in a couple of weeks when I set that up.

TOTAL miles traveled: 3479!!










Playing a good-bye game that involved tossing a ball of yarn around a circle and recalling memories (my perspective along the string that connected me to Anita)










Anita's perspective along the string that connected her to me










Our first street sign for San Diego! (Anita, Liz, Ryan, Chris C, Jochem)

I had a little fall and my camera broke, so I've stolen the rest of these pictures from Anita (thanks!!):










San Diego city limits!! (Ryan, Jochem, Chris C, me, Liz, Andrew)










Our first view of the Pacific! (Jochem is pumped!)













!!!!!! (Me)










Running into the water (Anita, Chris C et al)










Collapsing into the waves










Group moment. We all started singing John Denver's "Country Roads," which has become sort of a theme song for the trip, at the top of our lungs. Got just a few weird stares from the hundreds of tourists on the beach around us.










Brendan addressing the group at the cookout

Desert century! (Alpine, CA)

Our last full day of riding was something else, to say the least! A few of us joked that today's events were like a microcosm of our entire trip, involving desert, mountains, heat, dehydration, a thunderstorm, chills, a car accident, getting ridiculously lost on the road, Andrew leaving the trip and coming back, rescues by strangers, an ambulance (don't worry, everyone's okay), and altogether 107 miles and 15.5 hours of fun on the road. You have no idea how relieved and elated we were to arrive at our campsite in Alpine! -- and in good spirits. To keep the story short, I'll tell it in pictures:

Bike odometer: 3432 miles

PS - Check out pictures for yesterday's ride to Brawley below.










After waking up at 3:30am for an early start, we started the day riding into the flat part of the desert, which looked a lot like this. Occasionally we would pass a building or two, but almost all were closed.










Group, my shadow reaching up for the picture. Anita, Liz and Ryan accidentially missed the turn for this road, and added an extra 30 miles to their trip getting back on course. 137 miles...those guys can bike!










Forty miles into the desert, we got a phone call saying that our support van (or rather, the trailer it pulls) had been rear-ended in an accident, and couldn't come out to bring us any water or food. Right around the time we were all running out of water. Amazingly, a woman on horseback comes riding up and offers to let us into the RV park she owns a mile away to fill up on water. Less than amazingly, we were in a geothermal area, so the water coming out of the tap is as hot as the air, which was 105 deg. by 10am.











We saw some fun desert critters, like a coyote and this baby rattlesnake.










Gradually the flatlands gave way to big deserty hills. Here's where we stopped at a closed campsite for more hot tap water. Somewhere along in here, Andrew (riding with a different group) blew out a tire and was rescued by someone from the fire department, who drove him to a bike shop many miles away to buy a new one and returned him to the group (kindness from strangers has never failed our group).










As the hills got bigger, we began to see more green and bushes replaced cacti (Jochem). Right before we came to our biggest, 6 mi. climb of the day, we found an open convenience store and stopped for gatorade and snacks. Unfortunately, one the girls I was riding with (Ivey) had developed heat exhaustion, and began to feel sick. Since our van was out of comission, we called the local park ranger's office to ask for a ride for her up the big hill to give her a chance to rest. The rest of us left her at the store to begin the big climb, and found that the weather had changed dramatically while we were in the store. A thunderstorm blew up and started pouring on us, much to our delight. Through the rain, we saw flashing lights, and suddenly an ambluance blew by us, followed by a fire truck and two emergency SUVs. At first we were really scared, but we soon learned that thanks to some miscommunication they were coming for Ivey (they even put her on a stretcher and took all her vitals!), who was actually in okay health, just tired. We all had a good laugh when we met up again and began pushing onward.










Eventually the climate and landscape changed from desert to cool, forested mountains (Mary Olive, horse).










We finally made it to Alpine right around sunset (it was pitch black by the time I rode up to the campsite). Alpine is nestled in a valley surrounded by beautiful hills (Mary Olive).













Seven miles of steep downhill dirt road leading to the campsite (Ivey).













Hills, almost-full moon.










The campsite was actually located on Viejas Indian Reservation, here.










My victorious riding group (we dubbed ourselves Ivey and the Tar Heels): Mary Olive, me, Ivey, Yvonne, and Emily B.

Ninety miles of desert (Brawley, near El Centro, CA)

Hello from Brawley, California! We had a tough 90 mile ride today through the Imperial Valley, but everyone made it in to our host site. The early morning was cloudy and nice as we rode through fields on flat land, but the sun came out soon after we hit the desert and the day began to heat up. The desert itself is pretty, with lots of rocks, some steep hills, and funny looking plants that looked more like sea coral than something found on land. We also saw lots of Border Patrol vehicles and went through a checkpoint, which struck me as a little bit eerie. I didn't think we were very close to the Mexican border, but regardless I can't imagine walking through this desert or riding in the back of a truck in this kind of heat. At point we hit several miles of sand dunes where, I heard later on, the desert scenes for the Star Wars movies were filmed in the seventies. By the time we arrived in Brawley around 1:30pm, the thermometer on Anita's bike was reading 113 degrees off the pavement. Fortunately, we're staying at a nice rec center in Brawley where we've been enjoying the pool and showers and trying to rehydrate for tomorrow. Our last big ride tomorrow may turn out to be the most challenging of the trip--110 miles with weather like today's and a several thousand foot climb. We're all pretty psyched for the challenge, though, and we'll be taking extra precautions to make sure everyone stays hydrated and no-one rides alone. I probably won't be able to post again until San Diego since we'll be camping tomorrow night, but thanks to everyone for the encouragement! We're almost there!

Bike odometer: 3325 miles

**NEW! Pictures:**










Early morning, fields.










"No Cross Country Travel" (Mary Olive and me)










Sand dunes (think Tatooine)










Aw, we look like a happy family! (Andrew, me, Anita, Mary Olive, Chris C, Jochem in the back)













Tony talking on his phone













Anita's clever idea to leave chalk messages for today's sweeps, Liz and Ryan (Anita and Jochem)

Californ-i-a! (Blythe, CA)

It's another exciting day in the life of Bike and Build as we crossed our last state line into California. We've been really lucky and the storm that came through last night and cloud cover this morning kept the weather bearable until our arrival in Blythe just before noon. We're waking up at 4am these last few mornings to beat as much of the heat as possible, and the plan worked today; we'll see about tomorrow! Blythe is a large town just over the state border, and a few of us went out to a great Mexican restaurant for lunch here. We're hosted by the Stream in the Desert Church, a Foursquare church in Blythe, and staying as much in the air conditioning as possible. Two more stops until San Diego!

Bike odometer: 3236 miles













Sunrise reflected in a puddle along US-60 this morning










Anita and mountains










Snapshot taken over my helmet










Lee Anne, Melanie and others










Mountains behind us










Welcome to California! Right after crossing the Colorado River (Anita, Liz and me)










Our host site, Stream in the Desert Church, at sunset













More sunset

Arizona sky (Wenden, AZ)

Somehow or another, the sky in Arizona is bigger and more beautiful than anywhere else I've seen. The clouds, colors, and shape of the horizon change all the time, and it's especially obvious when we're riding in the desert and the sky is sitting on us like a huge dome. Last night in Wenden a thunderstorm blew up right around sunset and the sky was pink and grey with flashes of lightning in it...a bunch of us sat outside our host church just to watch the show. The ride into town was pretty short and fast, so we all meet up at a local diner for our third breakfast of the day (or milkshakes, as the mood struck us). Wenden is a tiny community of a few hundred people, mostly in trailers, but our host--Wenden Bible Church--is cool, carpeted, and has a nice shower on site. Good news since it was 103 degrees when we arrived! We spent the afternoon doing chores or watching movies, and went to bed early for an early start on Tuesday.

Bike odometer: 3168 miles













Zach, who is the heaviest sleeper I have ever met, and the inflatable moose we found at Mt. Hope Assembly of God in Wickenburg













View from the front of Mt. Hope










Arizona sky (Wickenburg, 7am)










Most of today's ride looked like this










Snapshot taken over my shoulder










Chris C and Jochem hitching a ride on Liz










Me again










Breakfast #3 of the day (milkshakes and ice cream sundaes) at Crystal's Cafe in Wenden ("where friends meet and eat")

Cacti! (Wickenburg, AZ)

Arizona is a state full of surprises. It cannot decide on what kind of geography or weather it wants, and today we passed through a mountain range with evergreen trees and hit a chilly thunderstorm before riding into a hot, arid desert. It was a blissfully short day (58 miles), though, and we lost about 3000 feet in elevation, making it a really easy ride. Andy and I were sweeps (assigned to ride in the back of the group; we all take turns sweeping), and still arrived by 1:15pm. We're staying in comfortable rooms at the Mt. Hope Assembly of God, and after stuffing myself with lunch at Denny's I helped myself to a celebratory nap. One more stop in Arizona tomorrow, then we're California bound!

Bike odometer: 3116 miles










Road winding through the White Tank Mountains...beautiful views, gradual hills and smooth asphault made it an awesome road for biking













Andy hugging a Saguaro cactus (at last, proof that we're actually in Arizona!)

Last Build Day (Prescott, AZ)

We spent our morning doing some landscaping work for the Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity chapter, a great group of people who have expanded their work a lot in the past few years. Prescott is building eight houses this year, up from only one annually a few years ago. Like almost all the other Habitat chapters we've met with, Prescott's biggest challenge is finding affordable land in town, and they expect to start building townhomes and condominiums soon. We spent the morning moving rocks and shoveling gravel, work that made our biking days feel pretty relaxing! I'll get some pictures up soon. Tomorrow we head to Wickenburg, AZ...six days to San Diego!