Day of the Miracle (Memphis, TN)

I’d like to preface this post by saying that everyone in our group is okay and doing well now. We had a really scary incident this morning when Andrew, Ryan and I were riding together and Andrew was hit by a reckless pickup truck that wasn’t paying any attention to the road. Help arrived really quickly, and after two days at Memphis’s downtown hospital, he’s doing well and has maintained incredibly positive spirits throughout. Unfortunately, he’s also going to need a good bit of time to rest up at home, and won’t be able to ride with us. He’s going to be badly missed by everyone, but we’re all really grateful that he’s doing well now and that a miracle did happen today in Tennessee.

*Some pictures from last night and early this morning:

Lindsay and one of our younger hosts, trying on helmets. ALWAYS wear a helmet.

Before dinner

Lindsay, Kaitlyn, Mike and Ryan shadow dancing

"Bolivar? That's where we send crazy people..." (Bolivar, TN)

Sorry it's been awhile since my last journal. I've had a lot of trouble finding internet access recently, and now I only have it for a few minutes. Everything's going great, though, and we've had some good days of rolling hills and met a lot of interesting Tennessee people. Here are a few pictures for now, and I'll try to catch up with journals soon.

**NEW POST!**
Today we had another good ride into Bolivar, TN—which, according to the cashiers at the Savannah Piggly Wiggly, is only known for mental institution. I was happy to find that it’s actually a big, friendly town with a cool downtown coffee shop and wireless—both of which have been hard to come by of late. I’m excited to find that I pretty fresh at the end of my rides these days, even the hilly ones—hopefully that means that we’re all getting stronger and really comfortable in the saddle. Some of the guys in the group have started losing weight, although I feel about the same as ever. We were hosted tonight by the Bolivar National Guard Armory, and had dinner served by the local alumni association of a fraternity and sorority (Greek letters confuse me when they aren’t in physics equations). Dinner was great and our hosts were really friendly; we were glad to have a good night of rest.

Bike odometer: 1105 miles

Tennessee River and me













We stopped at a cool local fast-food restaurant on Hwy 64 for milkshakes and hush puppies. Have I mentioned that I'm always hungry on this trip? (Chris C, Caitlyn, Jen)













I love church marquees. We must pass a dozen of them a day, and I love them. Sometimes they're light and silly ("Fathers' Day: A Tribute to Men Gone Dad"; "It's Better to be Humbly Grateful than Grumbly Hateful"), other times kind of disturbing ("Friends Don't Let Friends Go to Hell"), and sometimes--like this one--a mixture of both. But they're always great.

Grease Lightning (Savannah, TN)

**NEW POST!**
Or, more appropriately, grease and lightning! Oh boy, the adventures never stop rolling here with Bike and Build. We left Pulaski this morning at 7:30 after a nice breakfast at Martin College’s cafeteria. Shortly after the road it started pouring down rain. Somewhere outside of town, we stopped for a flat tire and a lightning storm came up on us really fast. Worried about our safety, we grabbed bike parts and scattered for safety—some folks in a creepy old barn and a couple at a prayer chapel up the road with a marquee saying “And the Lord Will Pour Water on the THRISTY Land”—which we laughed about later. A couple other people and I ran for shelter at the nearest place possible, the front porch of someone’s house across the street. We knocked on the door, forgetting at the moment that it was still early morning and most people don’t wake up at 5am like us. The homeowners eventually came to the door and were kind of shocked to see us, and a little nervous, I think. I was worried, because lightning was striking all around us and I didn’t care to leave, but after we explained who we were the couple living there became really friendly, and even gave us a $20 donation when we left!

We dried out over the course of the afternoon and arrived at our destination, a campsite outside of Savannah, by mid-afternoon. The campsite itself was really remote, and we were visited late at night by some sketchy characters on horseback and four wheelers, but hey—at Bike and Build we love our adventures.

Bike odometer: 1058 miles (yay, 1000 mile mark!)

Jochem at breakfast at Martin College. I miss school cafeteria days...

Awesome hospitality (Pulaski, TN)

**NEW POST!**

After leaving Sewanee, we had a nice (if hot and sunny) ride into the town of Pulaski, TN, where we’re staying at Martin Methodist College—meaning dorms (and real beds!) tonight! Those of us that arrived a little early went over to a local pharmacy/convenience store where you can get Cokes for 5 cents and ice cream for a dollar. The folks working there were really friendly and wanted to know all about our trip. For dinner, we were actually invited to the home of the mayor of Pulaski for an elaborate cookout hosted by Mayor Dan Speer’s family and the biking community of Pulaski. There was tons of really great food and even swimming in his pool. Mary Olive and I sat with the president of Martin College and his wife, and after dinner we gave a presentation about our trip and cause. We were all amazed at the really generous hospitality, and it was especially nice since it’s been awhile since we’ve given a Bike and Build presentation. Pulaski will be missed for sure.

Bike odometer: 981 miles

Jen and Ryan














Catherine (left), a Bike and Build alumna who brought us an incredible donated lunch from Nashville. We're still eating the pastries. She even baked Mary Olive gluten-free brownies and brought her other gluten-free staples. Mary Olive's look of unadulterated joy.










Cows and algae










Reeve's Pharmacy where we went for ice cream and Cokes and met a lot of cool people










Ice cream and me













Ivey and Risa showing off their five-cent Cokes










Relaxing at Martin Methodist College, waiting for the van to arrive










Incredible cookout at mayor Dan Speer's home










More cookout with some of us swimming in his pool

Sewanee! (Sewanee, TN)

Hello from the campus library at Sewanee University, or University of the South! I'm having a bit of internet trouble, so I'll finish this post late tonight or tomorrow.

**NEW POST!**
We rode up to Sewanee pretty early today, before noon and after only one difficult uphill climb. The campus at the mountaintop (Sewanee University or University of the South) is just beautiful; I think Jochem described it best as “kind of like Dook, only prettier and with fewer trees.” We’re camping tonight at nearby Lake Cheston, but we biked into the main campus this afternoon to take a look around. I think of Sewanee as somewhat of an Episcopal mecca because of the famous seminary here, and it was really nice to see at long last. Jochem and I wandered around the All Saints’ Chapel, which has some of the most intricate stained glass windows I’ve ever seen. Jean DeSaix claims that one of the windows has a Volkswagen in it, but sadly I missed that detail. Sewanee is also famous for its carillon—four and a half octaves of bells that hang in a tower and are played from a keyboard that looks like it has broomstick handles for keys. Anita and I lay on a sunny sidewalk and listened to the bells for awhile, and it was really peaceful and refreshing.

Thanks so much to the Sewanee outing programs for cooking us an awesome dinner of quesadillas, beans and rice!

PS- Happy birthday Andy!

Bike odometer: 896 miles

Amanda on the early-morning climb

Vegetable garden, scarecrow

Liz; a couple others playing with a horse in the background

All Saints' Chapel, Sewanee...the architecture all around the campus looked like this

Jochem inside the chapel...this photo doesn't remotely do justice to the architecture and stained glass windows

Flat Tires and Central Time (Dunlap, TN)

We crossed over into Central Standard Time this afternoon, somewhere along Hwy 11 in Tennessee. We were hoping for a big blue stripe across the road, through the trees and so on, but sadly, real life is more mundane. We’ve decided to take advantage of the time change to push our daily schedule back by an hour, waking at 5am and cutting the lights at 9:30 to avoid more late afternoon heat. By “we” I mean “the group,” because I mostly just cringed and went along…

Today was definitely an adventure. Liz and I were sweeps, which means that we rode at the back of the group and stopped with anyone having trouble or flat tires. And there were a lot of flat tires, about fifteen among the whole group. Kim won the prize with five flats, Mike with four. The culprit was probably all the glass and gravel along Tennessee highways, but everyone stayed in pretty good spirits despite the trouble. We had some help along the way, though; an Officer Kinsley stopped at least three times to check on us and “keep the rednecks from throwing beer bottles at us.” He was pretty funny and really sarcastic, but very nice too. He’s right about the rednecks, actually; we’ve had some bad encounters with drivers, and sometimes it’s difficult to figure out which are friendly and unfriendly when they honk at us, which happens a lot. In the worst cases, we’ve had drivers yell curses, throw cigarettes, and even stop, get out of their cars and confront us about being on the road. There are a lot of really polite drivers, too, who politely get out of the way or let us cross lanes, and it’s a shame that a few bad ones have to ruin the bunch.

The 74 miles today were hilly, but the worst part was only three miles of 6% grade which was rewarded by four miles of steep downhill with a gorgeous view of the valley and someone hang gliding over it, so it wasn’t too bad at all. We’re staying in Dunlap, TN, at the Sequatchie County Rescue Squad center, a base for volunteers who assist with water and mountain rescues and missing persons searches. The folks we met here are really nice, and they arranged for dinner donated from Sonic (yumm). CVH’s mom and sister also visited and brought us fruit and veggies, which I’m sure completely made up for all the greasy food I’ve eaten today (thanks, VonHedemans!).

Bike odometer: 846 miles

TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant and me










A familiar site from the day (Zach, Molly P, Kim)










Those tiny yellow dots are "steep downhill" signs and have become our best friends on the trip










The crew again with Officer Kinsey













Home sweet Sequatchie County Rescue Squad center

On the Road Again… (Sweetwater, TN)

We left Maryville at 7:30 this morning, Friday, for a short ride (34 miles) over to Sweetwater, TN. We took some back roads leaving town that wound through rolling, pastoral hills that were really beautiful. In the early morning light they reminded me just a little of Tuscany, where Betty, the coolest godmother ever, took me after high school graduation. Okay, it was still Tennessee, but still. The ride was really nice and easy, except for a handful of flat tires. The girls I rode with are really cool, though, and soon we were changing tires like a Nascar racing team. In Sweetwater we’re staying at a National Guard Armory, which has nicely put us up in their training room. After a trip to the bike store and cutting up salads for dinner, it’ll be light’s out.

Bike odometer: 772 miles

Near Sweetwater













Close-up of that goat with a horn problem in the picture above













Stopped for some fruits (Ivey)













Mmm watermelon, no knife (Melanie and Mary Olive)










Our professional tube-changing team

*Anita and I went for a ride in the neighborhood around camp yesterday at sunset, and I’m falling in love with this place. Here are some pictures I took trying to be all arty:

These cows starting running as a herd in the same direction as our bikes when we rode by. Now we're friends.










(It's art! Don't laugh!)