The END of Orientation...we ride west tomorrow morning.

Well I survived orientation. I met everyone, learned bike maintenance, did a shake-down ride, have been successfully getting up at 6 (and running too), ate some ice cream (Americone Dream, not really a fan of the flavor but I did it for the trip), and the color that I had previously been getting on my shoulders and chest is fading fast. Oh and I crashed too, so I guess that makes me an official cyclist.

The past 48 hours have been spent getting to know our group and eating lots of carbs. There are 32 riders, from various colleges throughout the country --mostly Brown, Harvard, one other kid from Kenyon, a few from RISD...and then other small crunchy liberal arts schools like Mt. Holyoke as well as some larger schools like Cornell, Texas (GO BUCKEYES), and Minnesota (hi Ricky). We also have a rider who served in the IDF, a rider who returned from Africa just last week, and two riders who had never used clipless pedals before yesterday. There are guys in our group who cycle for their school teams, and one of our leaders biked xc two summers ago. I felt at home when I realized that Ohio is well represented -- not only are there two Kenyon kids ('06 and '09) but two girls from Cincinasty and another from Cleveland who went to Baldwin-Wallace. So yes, it goes without saying that we will be able to have a Graeter's party (or three) when we roll thru the Buckeye State. In addition there are several New Jersey kids, and even though I haven't lived there since '02....since I am moving home at the end of the summer (I know, ouch) I better appreciate them too! Seriously though, it's a great group of young adults and I am super excited to spend the next nine weeks with them.

We took our first ride as a group yesterday, biking 20 miles of the East Bay trail outside of Providence. It required about a mile on a highway bridge, complete with high-speed winds (no big deal), a wrong turn, and beautiful scenery. Those three things are only a glimpse of what is to come!

Today was our first build day, we built a fence at a Habitat home on the west side of Providence. Let me tell you...building a fence is NOT an easy thing. Apparently it really does matter which screws should be drilled in which holes, the way each post goes, AND the way each of the horizontal posts go. Also, even though we were using teamwork, it really is counteractive to use two people to drill. By accident I drilled through (well ok, not through) Mary's hand. Oops. She is ok though!

Tomorrow we will ride 37 miles to Plainfield, CT, our shortest ride of the trip. I'm sure we'll still have kinks to work out, but I have confidence that every single rider is well-prepared. Everyone is so eager to roll (literally) out of Ptown and get this show on the road!

Bring it on, United States...here we come!

HOOTIE.