Wake Forest

Nags Head to Swan Quarter to Belhaven to Greenville to Wake Forest. What a week! The last few days have been a blur of riding, eating, and sleeping. Not much else. The group usually starts our days between 6:00am and 6:30am. After eating breakfast and loading up the trailor we have a group meeting, where we are given our directions for the day. The rides are an absolute blast. The routes that we have be on have been mostly back country roads with little car traffic. We can sometimes ride two abreast which allows the riders to talk and joke. The conversation along the way makes the rides go by a lot quicker.

Our host sites have been incredible. The hospitality that we have been shown has been truly amazing. I can't remember the last time that I have eaten this well. At least not in college anyway. The churches have have greeted us with open arms and been strangely eager to welcome 32 sweaty bike riders into their nice clean building.

The other riders have are great. I have been trying to make a point to get to know all of the other people on the trip. Everyone is here to achieve a common goal and that definitly shows when we are interacting and joking around. We can all have fun and joke, but when it is time to get serious and give our presentations to the communities in the different towns everyone gets down to work and doesn't loose sight of the goal that we are trying to achieve. After only a week on the trip it is hard to imagine how this summer could get any better. The scenery, the riding, the people, the service have all come together to make this trip fantastic.

It would be to much to give an overview of every ride that we have done so far, but I do want to give a run down of our ride today. This morning a fellow rider (Sam) and myself went to Starbucks for some coffee before heading out on the ride. The scheduled milage for today was 85, but I think I ended up going around 90-95 total. The first 40 miles went by in a flash. After leaving Greenville we went through a few small towns and stopped for lunch just past Wilson. After filling up on PB&J we set out to finish the final 40 miles. Unfortunatly that is when the hills started to make their presence felt. As a resident of Central Florida for the majority of my life, I consider anything over an overpass a fairly substantial hill. Around mile 60 the group that I was with found a neat old gas station and rested for about 30 minutes. Filling up on ClifBars, GU and Gatoraid. The 25 miles heading into Wake Forest were really fun, but in a sadistic sort of way. The ache in my legs was present, but never a hinderance. I have truely found a new love for the sport of cycling. Riding at 22 MPH in a pace line brings an uncontrolable smile to my face everytime.

Tomorrow we are riding into Chapel Hill for our first 2 Build Days. There are a few of the riders who know the area well and are excited about showing everyone around. The past 7 days have been amazing and I can't wait to see what the next 63 have in store