Orientation and a Shakedown

Where my bike was shipped to!

I'm staying for a few days at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. This is the longest time we'll spend in one place until Colorado Springs, CO. Here we had check in and orientation yesterday. The 27 other people in this team are some of the coolest people I've ever met. As a team, we've raised over $140,000 for affordable housing, and we're all really psyched to bike across the U.S. and build homes and spend our summer together. We all assembled and fixed up our bikes last night. More on Calliope later.

Bikes on bikes on bikes.

Charleston is also known as Chucktown and "the holy city" because it has so many churches. In just a few blocks there are four Methodist churches. I also learned that South Carolina is pretty racially segregated, as churches tend to be separate and there are two different motorcycle weeks. Anyway, this whole church is so hospitable to Bike & Build. Pastor Daniel already knew my name, and informed me there was a young girl also named Madalyn who is praying for me. We also listened to a lawyer who specializes in cycling cases speak to us about safe riding. I had no idea that half of bike accidents occur when bikers are riding against traffic.

One thing we learned at orientation is how the team will communicate with each other on the road. Chalking! I have a big blue stick of chalk to mark directions and affirmations on the pavement. The biggest thing we learned, as Ethan will tell you, is "don't suck at life.

You've probably heard me talking about "supported touring" - that means we have a van for our stuff! My 33 lbs, 18.5 gallon plastic bin is what I'm living out of this summer. This is the van we'll be using for our gear. It's pretty cool now, but just WAIT because the paint job is from a previous trip, which means we'll be painting it our own style very soon.

That route painted on the map is not SC2SC.

One part of orientation was a crash course in basic bike mechanics. Confession: I did not know how to fix a flat tire until yesterday. Before riding, we'll be doing our ABC's every morning: checking air, brakes, and chain.

I stayed up really late last night fixing up Calliope, since it was a little dinged up from the shipping. I installed water bottle cages, front light, computer (thanks Travis!), a laces on my saddle and tied them into a bow :)

Isn't Calliope just adorable?

Cue sheet and computer.

So I haven't biked in the past week which has been such a drag. But today was our first ride! It was not a part of the official trek to the west coast though, merely a "shake down ride." Before that, we went through drills: clipping, signalling, and agility. I think biking in Boston has really prepared me in street smarts.

Note the car crossed out in the back.

So, the shake down ride. It was a 30 miles ride around the Charleston area. We all broke out into groups of 2-5 riders at a time for safety. I biked the first half with Marcus and Pastor Daniel. We went over this huge bridge, and at the top Past Daniel pointed out to me some historic spots from the Civil War. This ride was also my first time using a computer, which shows your speed, and going down the bridge I reached 43 mph! 

We stopped at this place that was a Civil War fort on the coast. We had to go swimming before a huge storm hit!

But we had just enough time to do the "wheel dip." This is a ceremonious tradition of Bike & Build, which involves dipping the rear wheel into the Atlantic at the beginning of the trip, and at the end of the trip dipping the front wheel into the Pacific.