Let the Fun Begin - Week 1

Design for one side of our trailer - it's all downhill baby!!

Where do I even start to describe the past week? I don't think my words can sum up the whirlwind that has been rider orientation and the first several days of this journey, so I'll keep it brief and let pictures do the talking. Our group quickly latched on to one another during 2.5 days of rider orientation, which involved icebreakers, presentations, trailer-painting, a shakedown ride, and a birthday celebration on day two for one of the riders. I'm blown away at how quickly we've become so close, and how much I adore and care about the 32 other people I'll be with all summer. 

On the last day of orientation we had our first build day with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland. We worked on two different homes on the same lot and completed a TON of work in one day - roofing, insulation, painting and all sorts of other build terms I'm not quite familiar with yet.  I did learn that the insulation techniques that Habitat uses can help cut annual energy costs by up to 2/3 of the average (which can translate into several thousand dollars). I also spent a fair amount of time on a ladder, hanging out of windows, and up and down scaffolding, which greatly appealed to my inner monkey. The local news station came and put together a piece for the nightly news, seen here:

Volunters Riding Bikes and Building Homes for the Summer

Bro team on roofing duty

Becca taking the saw to some blue board

Part of our crew of 33 lined up for the wheel dip. 

Then on Friday we experienced the moment we had been waiting for for so long (6+ months!) - the wheel dip ceremony in the Atlantic Ocean and the official start of our trip. We had a short ride from the church we stayed at down to the beach, and a few riders took a slight detour and added on some "bonus miles" as we like to call it. We have quickly come to find that getting lost and making wrong turns is always bound to happen and is nothing to sweat. Once everyone arrived, we lined up to dip our back tires in the water before taking off (with a lot of picture-taking and chanting in between). It's hard to believe that we'll be doing the same thing with our front wheels in the Pacific by the end of the summer.

Host-pitality 

 From Portland we made our way to Kittery, ME along winding coastal Maine roads and a shaded gravel trail. Any time my group made a wrong turn, we ended up somewhere awesome - a rocky beach with a view, a worn-down boat dock/shack covered in bouys, etc. We tacked on 5-10 bonus miles that day and arrived at the host site happier than ever. I've been blown away by the hospitality of the hosts (mostly churches and schools) that we stay with. There are personalized signs, welcoming parties, homemade meals, snacks and more awaiting our arrival. The locals have been incredibly hospitable and interested in our adventure, and I've already had countless conversations with people who felt like a good friend by the time we left the next morning. We even had a spontaneous drum/dance circle in a gazebo in the middle of a park in downtown Fitchburg, MA that was maybe my favorite moment of the trip thus far (so many to choose from!!).


Here's a few more pictures from this first week. I don't think I'll have much time to blog, but I hope I can continue posting pictures and brief updates/descriptions of how the trip has been going. I sent out my first 10 donor postcards yesterday, so be on the lookout for those! In a nutshell, I'm having the freaking time of my life.

Lucas putting the moves on the church ladies

Dug-out canoe ride at a lake in Massachusetts

Drum circle in downtown Fitchburg

Yard sale donation magic outside of Fitchburg

Leader Orientation

After 62 hours on a train and a handful more in a car, I arrived in Portland, ME this past Saturday for 2.5 days of leader orientation. Being reunited with the other 3 leaders I met back in March at Leader Retreat
reinforced just how excited I am to spend to summer with Becca, Jeff, and Emily. Joined by our fearless program director, Natalie, we didn't waste any time getting down to business. The past few days have been a whirlwind of finalizing trip logistics, going for a practice ride, stocking up on supplies and food, practicing orientation presentations, learning how to drive (and back up) a 15-passenger van with a packed trailer hitched to it, and more. There has been a lot of learning and laughs, and very little sleep or wasting of time.

Cradling our bread babies while food shopping 

The riders (all 29 of them) arrive today for the start of rider orientation, and it kind of feels like the first day of camp - lots of nervous/excited butterflies and anticipation in meeting the people I'll spend the next 80 days with. We'll spend today and tomorrow doing icebreakers, doing a shakedown ride, going over what a day in the life of Bike & Build is like, safety, health/hygiene, the affordable housing cause, B & B policies, team goals and more. On Thursday we will have our first build day with Habitat for Humanity of Portland, and on Friday we'll dip our wheels in the Atlantic Ocean and hit the road. What awaits us in the remaining two and half month adventure after that? We'll find out!!

Keeping in touch: Seeing as I won't have much time to post to this blog, you can follow along with the trip route tracker found on the Bike & Build website here. I will also post pictures more frequently to my Instagram account (katyb333), which you can also see filtered onto my blog in the top right corner if you are not on the "gram". If you would like to send me a letter or package along the way, you can find mail drop dates and addresses on the Contact page.

All Aboard the Empire Builder

My bags are packed, the hard goodbyes have been said, and I'm headed eastbound on Amtrak's Empire Builder. I boarded in Whitefish yesterday at 4:45 am for a two and a half day marathon ride to Albany, NY where I'll spend a few days with one of my best friends before making my way to Portland, ME for leader orientation. My dad thoughtfully upgraded me to a sleeper car for my birthday, so for the first leg from Whitefish to Chicago (36 hours) I am living in train luxury. After 10 minutes of fiddling with the seats, I had them converted to a bed. My nervous excitement battled my grogginess as I fought to stay awake to take in the scenery for the beginning of the trip - perhaps the best of the entire ride. Starting at a slow roll, we quickly sped up along the high waters of the Flathead River with the dramatic snow-capped peaks of Glacier National Park bordered in the golden hue of the rising sun in the background. Past every row of trees and every tunnel awaited another impressive view. I kept my sleepy eyes peeled for wildlife along the rocky riverbanks and fields of hovering mist, but no sightings to report. I found myself getting irritated whenever we'd pass another train that blocked my view of the show for several minutes. The scenery would probably get old after a couple more days, but in the meantime I was mesmerized.

All smiles at the start of my long journey aboard the Empire Builder

When I tell people I'm taking the train across the country, they generally respond in one of two ways. Some give me a confused look with raised eyebrows, saying "why the hell would you do that?". Others light up with excitement and say something like "I've always wanted to do that!". So why the hell would I want to be stuck on a train for 2.5 days straight? It's cheaper, for one. Everything smells and feels clean, or at least sterile. But mostly it's because I love the feel of train travel. It forces you into a slower-paced life than the every day hustle and bustle (as I write this, we are stopped at a standstill). Passengers are open to long conversations with a stranger, and the train attendants are warm and friendly, although particular about their ways. Within my first few hours I was gently reminded to keep my shoes off of the blankets, which apparently don't get replaced, and for sitting down at one of the many empty tables in the dining car ("wait at the door until greeted and seated"). I haven't taken the train since I moved to Montana from Memphis, and I always said I would do it again when I had the time and flexibility. I'm very glad that I did, and I'm hopeful I'll still feel this way after another 30 hours.

The Flathead River and Glacier's peaks whizzing by

In my first day on the Empire Builder I quickly determined my strategies for staying sane and even
enjoying the next two days (it seems a disproportionate number of people on trains talk out loud to themselves). Having a sleeper car with privacy and meals included for the first leg has been a total luxury. My own coat hanger? Sweet! Showers? No way! I'm definitely not "roughing it". I've also tried to stick to a normal routine by sleeping at regular hours and not throughout the day, eating at regular mealtimes, keeping myself entertained with books and journaling, and making friends with everyone I meet. I made a buddy to share all three meals with on the first day until he departed at his hometown of Minot, ND (slogan: why not Minot?).  At every possible stop that I am allowed off the train, I do so. I've made it a game of seeing how many laps along the platform I can power walk until I hear the "all aboard" call. I share a smile and a nod with the other regulars that cruise the platform.

Things flatten out in eastern MT and North Dakota 

If anything, traveling by train has made me appreciate the sheer magnitude and distance of what I'm about to do by biking across the country in the other direction. It's given me plenty of time to reflect on the many changes I recently made in my life (leaving my job and home in Missoula, saying goodbye to friends and loved ones, moving all of my belongings to Whitefish) and focus on the road ahead. And the road is wide open.

The Empire Builder himself, J.J. Hill

History of "you can have her" Havre, MT 

Cross-Country Packing 101

How do you fit everything you need for 3 months on the road, on a bike in one 20-gallon bin? Just the right combo of stuff sacks, Ziplocs, strategery and full-on shoving got everything I need into a bin weighing less than 50 lbs. With 35 of us on the trip and one van/trailer, we can't afford to bring on too much extra "stuff" - just the essentials (ok, and a Frisbee and a bocce ball set). Needless to say, this is a lot more than what I would bring if the trip was self-supported. Here's what it looks like:

Clothing:

• 1 pair jeans
• Bathing suit
• Sweatshirt
• 2 t-shirts (this was especially tough)
• 1 pair sneakers
• Pajamas
• 2 pairs shorts
• Chacos (duh)
• Hat
• 1 skirt
• Versatile "sport" dress (comfy!!)
• Socks, sports bras, etc. (2-4 each)
• Lightweight buff

Cycling Clothing:

• 3 pairs cycling shorts (1 bibs, 2 shorts)
• 1 Under Armor layer
• Rain jacket
• Rain pants
• 4 pairs cycling socks
• Cycling shoes (MTB style)
• Cycling gloves
• 1 pair arm warmers
• Cycling sunglasses

Personal Items/Equipment:

• Sunscreen, lotion, chamois butter, etc.
• Toiletries
• Giant bottle of ibuprofen
• Cliff/Luna bars
• Quick-dry towel
• Journals and a book (Travels with Charley)
• Sleeping bag, Thermarest, camp pillow
• Headlamp
• Compression sacks
• Mesh laundry bag
• Frisbee, travel bocce ball set
• Ipad, phone, chargers

Cycling Equipment:

• Bicycle (boxed up for the train)
• 2 water bottles and cages
• Camelbak backpack with safety triangle attached
• Seat bag
• 4 spare inner tubes (I'll need more than that)
• 2 spare spokes
• Patch kit, bike tool tire levers
• Helmet (DUH!) with mirror
• Mini-pump
• Cycling computer
• Lube, degreaser, rags cleaning tools
• Bike lock
• 2 spare tires (foldable Gatorskins)

I think that does it. To this list, I'll add two Bike & Build jerseys (must be worn every day) and a Bike & Build t-shirt for build days. 

Packing: BEFORE

Packing: AFTER!!!