I just ate at a Chinese Buffet in Oklahoma

Today was an "easy" day... we rode 73 miles from Arkansas, hit the state line of Missouri, and then came through to Grove, Oklahoma - where I am now. 3 States in one day, not bad, huh? I'll post pictures of the signs later tonight. There were a lot of Walmart trucks on along the way.

Riding gets easier every day and its nice to have these days of riding where the mileage goes down everyday. First we had 102 miles, then 85 miles, today 73 miles, and I think tomorrow is something in the 60's. Wow that's crazy. I remember training and thinking a 20 mile ride was long.

A couple of things, dear readers, that you may be interested in.

If you go here - http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=NC2SD&year=2009 - you can see where we are in the US, and in addition, you can find links to other rider's blogs, read the 'official' journal of what we do everyday, and view some photos that have been uploaded. I think its really neat to look at that map - we are nearly HALF WAY through the US. I have literally traveled from host to host on a bicycle - no car ride or walking or anything. Just good ol' biking. It's amazing what we're capable of.

I mentioned it in an earlier post, but here are some links to some videos Ben posted - they're pretty cool. It's one thing to read about what we're doing, but when you actually see a video of us on our bikes - where we are for about 5-6 hours a day - its pretty neat. Its us in our element.

Watching Timur descend down the mountain from atop the mountain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFomf5V53_8

Just another day on our bicycles (we don't normally ride with this many people together, so maybe its a little misleading, but it happens sometimes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsKcHfUOs_o


List of 10 Reasons to do Bike and Build:

10. The massive amounts of food you eat because you burn 2000+ calories a day

9. The constant high of endorphins everyone is on because you're biking so much

8. The places you sleep; so far - an armory, camping out in front of a church, and in various churches (there's a tae kwon do class going on in the room below me right now). What an adventure

7. Peanut Butter Jelly Time. All the time.

6. The views you see and the speed you feel (or don't feel because its windy) on a bike. Ernest Hemingway:
"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."

5. The 5AM wake ups. Maybe not so much a good reason, but it leads to basically being done with your responsibilities for the day by 2.

4. All the armadillo's you see. Unfortunately, they've all been dead. I have yet to see a live armadillo and have seen about 20 dead ones.

3. It happens everday we arrive at a new host - Duffel bag diarrhea:



2. POOL PARTIES!



1. *Drum roll please*
The people. The other 30 people with me and the all the generous, curious, and doubtful people we've met along the way.

(And views like this):