In Rochester now

It's been a while since my last blog, and plenty has happened.

Today we are staying on RIT campus in Rochester in some summer house dorms. Its really nice of them to open up the dorms for us to stay for free and they give us all the amenities of actual campus life here. Getting here wasn't so comfortable tho. We had our longest day so far on a bike. It was near 90 miles, and a few people got lost and actually surpassed that. The ride was beautiful but long today. I was really tired heading into the day, and like an idiot I stopped at a corner to help somebody pick up their directions sheet, and I didn't unclip my pedals which caused me to fall. It was pretty hilarious, because I just saw myself falling for a few seconds but couldn't do anything about it. Luckily, the only thing that got hurt was my ego.

So, for the last couple of days it has stopped raining on us. I am suddenly learning to appreciate being dry and not biking in the scary rain. But we sure did suffer before.

A couple of days ago, heading out of Silver Bay NY where we stayed at a resort (no joke it was sooo amazing) we headed out for a nice 70ish mile ride. Not only was it pouring on us, but there were some huge mountains that nobody expected. Worst of all, we didn't have anywhere to stay that night, so we planned on camping out. Getting to the campsite was tough, we all got lost in the rain, and when we finally arrived and set up all the tents and tarps in the rain, we got a call from a local church that would take us in. So we took everything down, and biked some more in the rain... It was an interestingly miserable day. I got my first flat tire, which wasn't too bad to fix, but then another rider got 5 flats that same day. The last people didn't arrive until 6:30 that night, and we all left around 8 in the morning.

With all my blog postings, I probably make this trip sound miserable. From other peoples blogs too, it probably doesn't sound like much fun. But so far I've loved every second of it. The people we've met along the way who have shown incredible hospitality towards our entire group have just blown me away. Also, I love the fact that my legs right now are numb with pain and every other part of my body is incredibly sore. It builds character, right? Plus, I get to eat so much food and not care at all.

Also, everything new thing about biking makes me love the sport even more. I can really see myself competing/practicing/participating or something in the future. Recently I've been learning how to pace line (which is when a bunch of riders get in a really tight line/group to block the wind and take turns drafting of eachother). I've also started feeling much more comfortable manuevering on my bike and going at higher speeds. I think it is a sport that I could be good at, and I really want to pursue it after I finish this trip. Plus, the mechanical aspects of it are also lots of fun. My bike is already making all sorts of wierd noises, but everyone's is and I look forward to fixing it tonight.

So yea, just about whats coming up next for me, we've got a build day tomorrow somewhere in Rochester (finally a break from 6 days of biking in a row -- which isn't even that much because we have a few stretches of 12 and 14) and then we're headed for Niagara Falls for the 4th. I'm really excited about that because we only have 20 miles that day, so there should be plenty of time to explore.

On a completely different note, one of my leaders asked me today if I used to be a football player because he said I looked like a monster in my spandex. I thought it was really funny and it also made me really happy. I guess I'm one of the bigger guys on the trip, but I like that he chose to call me a monster as he did some wierd flexing pose. I really enjoyed that... haha