Sweeping with Maura

Today we got to sleep in to 6am, as everyone forgot to set their alarm clocks (some people wanted a 5am wakeup) – but it worked out well for me. As Maura and I were sweep, we let everyone leave before heading out on the route. After 1 mile, we took our first break of the day at Hardee’s (Maura wanted coffee). One of the customers wanted to know if Maura and I were married (we are not). The day started off cool (relatively) but definitely heated up quickly. The sign in Dunlap showed the temperature at 100 degrees. It seems that people along the route do not feed or chain up their dogs, as there were numerous occasions of riders avoiding dogs. A couple of squirts of water stopped some, while other resorted to simply biking faster than they could run. We are staying at another National Guard Armory, and we are enjoying the air conditioning. Tonight was the first night that we prepared our own dinner, and it was a gourmet meal of pasta, tomato sauce, beans and rice. We are living like kings tonight at the Armory sleeping on military issued cots, and I even got to eat my own MRE of chicken tortillas. The group is pretty tired from the ride so we have all just been hanging low this evening and gearing up for the big climb tomorrow!

On to Sweetwater

The ride to Sweetwater was short (under 40 miles) and we got there early (noon) to the Tennessee National Guard Armory. Unfortunately, the A/C was broken. We laid around watching Semi-Pro and Gladiator and I want to thank Lance for biking over to the grocery store and bringing back popsicles, which were appreciated with the heat.

We headed over to Pizza Hut for dinner (generously provided by Ben Ryan’s parents). I had 11 slices of pizza, which really hit the spot. Afterwards we headed next door to A&W, but I passed on dessert (for some reason I was full). Since it was still hot out, several of us headed over to Kmart to hang out in the A/C. There were several shenanigans that occurred, including riding the bikes around the store, roller-blading, skate boarding, football tossing – the things you would expect, with photos below.

I am under the lampshade...

Getting some more biking in, pulling Renee around Kmart

Testing out a new bike...it was too small

Trying on a pair of waders and a hunter's jacket while Maura models the hunter orange backpack.

Building in Maryville

We had 2 days of building in Maryville. The first day we put in the floor tresses, which was easier then when I did it with Columbus Habitat, as these were I-beam like (Columbus was 2 x 8 and we had to toenail them in). Crystal with Blount County Habitat hooked us up with a deli lunch, and since we were so skilled and ahead of schedule (and it was so hot), we ended early. Several of us went on an evening bike ride with Keith and several local cyclists. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not want us to ride as a torrential downpour started just a couple miles into the ride. We waited awhile before deciding to end the ride early and head over to dinner, which Keith arranged with Tomato Head. I sat with Keith and some of the riders, which turned out to be a good decision. After eating my meal (and still hungry), I lucked out as one of the riders offered me another half a sandwich, ice cream for dessert, half of Maura’s chocolate chip cookie and a bunch more chips.

The 2nd build day featured a good natured competition between us to see which group could get all of the sub-floor installed first on the 2 houses. Don’t worry, quality control was not an issue as we made sure that all boards were properly installed (and the Habitat crew chief inspected it and pointed out any issues). A couple of other riders also did stucco on both houses. We finished by noon and Crystal hooked us up again with lunch, this time provided by Grant and God’s Planet, a youth outreach ministry. After my afternoon nap, we headed over to Aubrey’s, a really good restaurant in Maryville, that Crystal arranged. As you can tell, the time in Maryville was awesome, and I can not thank Crystal enough, as it would not have been possible without her.

Maryville

Thanks to Charles Brinkley from Blount Habitat

Today was again my turn to drive the van. Wake-up was 9am, but I got up at 8 and ran to the Food City with Ben for some food (Thanks to Les and Food City for the donation). After cleaning up the church, several of us headed over to the Log Cabin Pancake House for breakfast. I was full after the omelete and 3 pancakes, and was glad that I did not have to then ride on that full of a stomach (although others had to - mad props to them). We stopped at the Cycology bike shop for some bike maintenance, and more importantly (to me), dinner. We also were lucky to meet Jeff Roth's widow, who spoke to us about her husband's foundation to change TN law to require cars to travel 3 feet from a cyclist. Then we headed over to Maryville college, where we will be staying the next couple of days (thanks Crystal and Blount County Habitat).

Quote of the day: Its better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Gatlinburg

So today was supposed to be our hardest climb yet, and while it was hard, we were in better shape as we have already done several climb days and the 2 descents were awesome. I did not pedal for 6 miles on the first mountain descent as it was all down hill and I was able to maintain my speed. It was also long - 85 miles and hot - 90s. It also included 3 miles on a highway, as US-19 changed from a back-road to a highway with on and off-ramps (my bad). We got into Gatlinburg, which is a huge tourist destination - very different from the ride in thru the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We stayed at Our Savior Lutheran Church (thanks Matt), who were very generous and showered at the Gatlinburg Community Center, barely making the 8pm closing time. Had dinner at the mexican restaurant and then walked around the main drag of Gatlinburg observing the sites.

Quote of the day: None, to tired. (but wake-up tomorrow is 9am - 4 hours later than today's)

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.

Altamont

Today we had our first real hard climb of the trip on US-321, and it was under construction, which made it even more of a challenge. My chain fell off while climbing, and since I was going about 2 mph up the hill, I did not have enough speed to shift it back on and was able to unclip and get to the side, before falling or running into the wall of rock. No damage done. We went thru the town of Blowing Rock, which was a cool town, and then on to the famous Blue Ridge Parkway. I hit 35mph going downhill, but the best was yet to come. We got off the parkway onto US-221, which was about 2 miles of descent with switchbacks. I have never gone so fast around such sharp turns, really having to get low into the turns, and using the brakes to avoid the cyclist ahead of me. It was such a rush, hitting 39mph on the hairpin turns.

Quote of the day: None, too tired.