Stopping

Stopping can be one of the most dangerous things a cyclist does. It is probably one if the easiest ways to get into an accident if you don't know what you're doing. You need to yell "stopping" or stick a five fingered hand behind you so people around you know your intentions. And usually, somebody will always make the mistake of not downshifting when they start pedaling again (which slows you down even more and makes you more vulnerable).


I've had these experiences, along with everyone else on the trip. Yet, stopping on this trip has been one of the most pleasant decisions I've made. We're moving so fast everyday from road to road, town to town and it's good to slow down. Take some time to "realize" and "appreciate."


For example, on our way from Chapel Hill to Winston-Salem, Timur and I stopped to save another turtle in the middle of the road from certain death. Our official committee for roadkill is up to a count of about 120, so I wasn't about to let this guy become another number:

He was hiding in his shell, too scared to move

In his new safe location...

And then in Chapel Hill we stopped and took a seat in the planetarium to witness some stars and this giant machine... quite a marvel, but also an easy way to fall asleep if you've been building a house all day.

Upon arrival to a church in Winston-Salem, a game of knockout was considered necessary in the church gym. Sometimes you just gotta stop cycling and pick up a basketball. Even after cycling a hilly 90 miles and getting lost...

And then sometime you'll be biking and see some goats and freak out because... THEY'RE GOATS!!

Our stop in Charlotte, NC led us to Zach's house - a former Bike and Build alumni from NC2SD 2007 (the first time the route happened). He was a true pioneer and quite enthusiastic about our trip. But please, if you will, imagine 31 people packed into a tiny North Carolina home. Sometimes we just needed to stop and realize how insane that was... and then after that - PARTY! Well, not really, but at least take load off after a long travel from Winston-Salem to Charlotte.

Even when we did some remodeling with the Davidson College organization "Hammers," we needed a break to play some monkey in the middle.

And then another POOL PARTY!!!

So maybe you can tell by this post that all my time is not just spent biking and building. There's a lot of time to do an assortment of things (if you can stay awake after 5+ hours of cycling). But back to my rambling; Mornings are chaotic - we all wake up at 5AM and scrabble to clean up everything from the night before and get all our gear together. We need to eat breakfast, fill the lunch coolers with peanut butter and other foodstuffs, make the gatorade, get our cue sheets (for the route), write a thank you card, make sure everyone's bike works, make sure we haven't lost anything and then BIKE. And then biking usually takes 5-7 hours. We typically get a little lost, eat lunch somewhere along the way, and then once we arrive at our host location we need to scramble and get our shower stuff together so we can get shuttled to the local YMCA (or wherever we get a chance to shower). Then, if we're lucky, get a nice dinner from the host and then do about a gajillion other things. Maybe an exaggeration, but as you can see, we're always moving about and its pretty chaotic.

It's easy to get flustered and lost in the motion of things (especially since what I described above is a pretty typical day). But I think the most important moments of this summer are when we stop doing all those things and just take some time to get to know each other. Just hanging out. Stopping and realizing what we're doing. Sitting on the curb waiting for the van after a shower, talking about fine cheese. Everyone is slowly revealing their personalities and falling into their comfort zones. Any initial impressions have mostly been completely wiped from my brain and its interesting how different you can come to view a person after knowing them for a week.

This is the most rambled post I've made, so now I'm going to STOP. And Neel wants to use the computer..