Our ride out of Frederick was rough. I've ridden most of the Frederick area, but I admit, I typically avoid the large hills. Our ride took us through Thurmont, an area I'm familiar with, but our leaders (and those before them) threw in a curve ball... a small mountain. As we rode out of Frederick, we had a steady incline. These I feel are the worst types of hills because you can't really tell you are going up hill, yet riding is difficult. I've heard it compared to the feel of riding through dirt. You feel you are struggling, but have no reason for it. As we came to the realization that this gradual incline was our issue, we hit the real hill - a four mile hill/mountain with a 5% grade and 1200ft of climbing. While this isn't considered a "hard" climb by most cyclist, our group had some issues. Only four of us made it to the top without walking (me included!). The road was windy and narrow, but thankfully all motorists that passed us were courteous. There were also a lot of places to stop.. drive ways, pull offs, etc. Caroline and I made it through the climb taking breaks every quarter mile or so. Amusingly enough, Jillian walked most of the way and made it to the top at about the same time we did. We also had a cyclist (not with our group) fly by us. He was likely going 10mph up the hill... we were going about 5mph. I am now determined to go and attempt the challenge again sometime soon! The reward at the top of the hill/mountain was an adorable 10 week old border collie/lab mix. Of course I had to love on him.
As we made it to the top of the climb, we hit gravel roads. They weren't terrible at first, but the van then caught us and told us that the road got a lot worse and suggested we ride in the van for it. This was a major dilemma for me because I really wanted to ride my bike the whole way, but no one else wanted to ride it and we aren't allowed to ride alone. So I got in the van. Everyone buy Bryn and Daniel ended up riding in the van. They only escaped it because they were pretty far out in front of the group. Eduardo and I were both pretty bummed about riding in the van and got out as soon as possible. We rode the rest of the day together.
As we began riding again, both of us started having problems clipping into our pedals. His cleats were completely worn down from walking through the gravel and mine were partially worn down. I had been having some issues since my crash on the first day, but it seemed like walking through the gravel made it 20x worse. We rode a downhill through Catoctin Mountain Park and it was absolutely beautiful. I had been on that road before, but its a much different experience on a bike! We reached a gas station and played around with our cleats, but we continued having issues the rest of the day.
We also rode through Gettysburg. Riding through the battlefield was an experience I won't forget in the near future. It was my first visit to Gettysburg and it was just amazing. Thinking about the events that occurred there 150 years ago made the ride somewhat surreal. Eduardo and I caught up with Bryn and Daniel and continued the ride with them. Daniel DM'ed frosty's at Wendy's and they were delicious! As our group was flying down a hill near our host, I hit a pothole and ended up with a flat tire. Sadly, my tire tore.. which caused me to get a pinch flat when I tried to blow up the second tube. I ended up sticking a energy bar wrapper in my tire and thankfully, it lasted until we reached the host.
When we got to the host, we were offered drinks, candy, food, etc. It was awesome! Daniel and I played some knock out with some of the kids at the community center. It was pretty evenly matched, and I even won once! Whoo! Haha. Crispus Attucks (our host) has a cheer squad and a drill team. Both performed for us and it was awesome... makes me miss the dance classes I used to take!
Almost everyone went to bed really early, but Bishnu and I stayed up talking for a long time. It was great getting to know him better :) We eventually headed to bed and I was out as soon as I laid down.
Build Day 3!!
We were split into two groups today to work with Crispus Attucks, a local affordable housing group in York, PA. One group worked on painting the walls of a house and my group helped rebuild/paint a porch. Our group used Daniel's iPad for music and sang/danced all day. We also found out that one guy is extremely scared of stinging insects. I don't blame him, but it was fun to make fun of him all day running away from bees (ok, really big bees). We had a lot of fun with the porch and I'm hoping our last build day on Saturday is as fun as the last three.
Tonight we are doing dinner at one of our leader's friend's house and he has a pool. We are all pretty excited to swim! Highlights from the pool:
"Racing" up the slope of the pool
George Washington impressions
Julia tipping Eduardo off his raft... twice
SO MUCH FOOD!!!! :D
Bish getting hit in the nose with the frisbee (aka, disc)
Tomorrow we head to Reading!
During the climb, this is how we felt
Puppy loving!!
At Roundabout!
Daniel working on the steps
Great job! Can't believe there are only three days left.
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