Asheville

We got back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for an 80 mile ride into Asheville (71 on the parkway). Even though the parkway was closed for a section due to rock slides, we were able to avoid the detour. The van took the detour, which made for lunch at mile 52, longer than what we normally would like. The climbs were the hardest to date, but the scenery was the best to date. The descent was also a lot of fun, although I lost my rear light on the descent with the rough road and nearly lost my grip on my handlebars. The road was so bad, I thought I was riding in Michigan. Stayed at the Reuter YMCA, which was great, with a pool, showers on site, and a climbing wall. We had dinner at the Kovachs (Maggie and Samuel's parents), who live up a mountain. Luckily the van got up no problem.

We also had a build day in Asheville. The group split up between Asheville Habitat (stucco) and Mountain Housing (accessibility ramp) on two projects. I was with Habitat as I was driving the van and the last group went to Habitat. We got to put stucco on a house, which I have never done before. Also got to share some laughs while building. John, from Habitat was amused with our conversations. One of the better quotes from Becky to me: "The reason you don't have a girlfriend is because you treat women the same as you treat everyone else." I thought you were supposed to treat everyone the same...so confused. Habitat (Missy) also provided lunch (Little Caesar's Pizza), and Missy said that she got extra pizzas after reading how someone on our trip ate an entire pizza (it was me!). It was a good thing for the extra food as both Ben and I ate an entire pizza. The group that built with Mountain Housing made the ABC local news, as several people commented on the next day. Dinner was down the street at the Volvo (Construction Equipment) headquarters. We also got hooked up by Cane Creek with seat posts and arm warmers. 5am wake up for tomorrow's long ride.

Quote of the day: None, too tired. Only one that I could think of was: I am not a vegetarian because I love animals, I am a vegetarian because I hate plants. I didn't use this as I did not want to offend anyone and was too tired to think of any others.