Prom, Shinnanigans, and Goodbyes

Our team had prom last night, which was an indescribable amount of fun. Linda, a Habitat employee, went above and beyond for us to make the night perfect. She DM’d a pavilion in Centennial Park, a beautiful venue nestled in a flaming red canyon cradling the Snake River, even set up supper with prom-style decorations. We danced the night away (or up until the park closed at 10pm anyway), bumping tunes on the sweet sound system that Chris (who dressed as Christopher Robin) DM’d from his hairdresser in town earlier that day. Everyone was in full costume with their date (Josh and I went as Eurotrash, going by Hanz and Helga and basically just shouting, “I lohve Amerdica!” a lot) and multiple people in the park stopped and just watched us (a few even joined in the dancing!). A beautiful, beautiful evening indeed.

 What’s more, after 3 nights of camping in the freezing cold, we had an awesome roof over our head! We’re staying at the Kimberly High School and I have just been overwhelmed with hospitality. The superintendent has arrived multiple times just to check in and make sure we are happy and cared for – such an incredible person. One of the toughest things for me is to fully express the gratitude I feel for the hosts who are so generous to us. As for having to get up and roll out after a day or two, probably never to see one another again…let’s not go there.

Our build day today for the Snyder family through the Magic Valley H4H was perhaps my favorite so far. Despite our crazy antics last night, our team rallied and showed up to the build site ready to rock and roll. I spent the morning working with a small team (the “A Team”, as we were affectionately dubbed by our site director) putting up the family’s backyard fence. We worked extremely well together and had entirely too much fun, despite the 100+ degree weather.

After a brief hiatus for dinner (pizza!) and, of course, a midday nap I continued installing fence posts, but this time did so alongside one of the homeowners. It was obvious he had spent countless hours on the build site and for a moment I was unsure if he was a Habitat employee. It was amazing to have that kind of 1-on-1 time with him and really learn about his family - they deserve all the happiness this home will bring.

After 8 hours of building, we settled down in the park across the street for a nice picnic. The goodbyes were tough, especially after Mrs. Snyder started crying. She told us how thankful she was for the opportunity and choked out that she felt blessed that her family had the opportunity to spend the day with such positive people. I hope she realized what a blessing they were for our family as well.

I don’t have access to many prom pictures yet and we have another century tomorrow so I don’t have too much spare time, but below is one of Hanz and I that is super great so I suppose that will have to do until next time.

Lace

Texas, Continued.

Wow. Another really, really tough day. My bike was still out of commission but Ethan kindly let me borrow his. I’ve been a bit spoiled – my bike and I have become One as of late and every time I hop on her I am strangely reminded of butta’. (This comparison is both very accurate and very difficult to explain. It’s a good thing though!) Getting used to a new set up was pretty tough and a bit hard on my knees, but I had a great time nonetheless!

Again, a beautiful ride. I’ve never seen a sky this…big. There are no trees out here, just sky and field. I even spotted some antelope, a giant tarantula, and a HUGE toad. It’s like National Geographic out here. The ride was tough again, too – we had some strong headwinds and false flats (or very gradual climbs) all day. However, our second lunch was at Dairy Queen where they let us order all the food and shakes we could hold, on the house! I can’t remember the last time I was so thrilled.

New Mexico tomorrow – what an adventure!

Lace 

Don’t Mess with Texas

We awoke this morning excited for a new state after almost a week in Oklahoma. JD, a Texan native, really got into the spirit of things when he decided to wear his (rather tightly fitting) “Don’t Mess With Texas” shirt – if only we had known how appropriate those words would be today.

After a delicious breakfast set out by our generous hosts at Arnett United Methodist, our 90-mile day got off to a rather slow start. Within the first 10 miles, a storm started brewing just north of us, shooting off lightning bolts that sent us scurrying over to the nearest “shelter” (a bush) for about an hour. Despite our anxiousness to get moving, we did get the rare opportunity to watch a breathtaking sunrise (it usually comes up behind us!).

The ride was simply gorgeous, and I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute of it. However, our route was incredibly challenging – probably the toughest I’ve ever  completed. Texas continued the Oklahoman tradition of some dirty crosswinds while also throwing in 15 miles worth of gravel roads. The second section of gravel was quite treacherous  - an 8-mile stretch I doubt anyone will forget for a long while to come. The powers that be thought that this point would be a particularly amusing time to snap my gear cable, rendering my bike useless. However, Amanda who is unfortunately feeling under the weather came to my rescue and lent me hers!

Despite literally “scooting”, sometimes even being reduced to the humiliating walking of the bike, Austin (who I rode with through much of these obstacles) and I had a great time and often found ourselves reduced to tears at the ridiculousness of the day’s events. We even saw the long, thin ears and sinewy body of a real, live jack rabbit bounding through a giant field, a creature that we both thought was completely mythical.

After a long, long day, we were greeted with juicy watermelon, ice cold water, and huge smiles from our hosts at Union Church in Spearman, Texas. After a huge dinner, our hosts shuttled us in the back of their pick-up trucks to the local pool that they kept open just for us. They even had a waterslide!

As usual, I’m exhausted but couldn’t be more thrilled for tomorrow – another day to live the Dream!

Ride On,

Lacy

 All the cows gathered around when my bike broke. Very, very creepy.

Take that, cows!

 The dead center of nowhere.

 Gravel road #1. Still Smiling.

Dan

Elaina.

Arnett, OK (86)

Every waking moment I wasn’t driving during the day today, I was conked out. My body just decided that since it wasn’t biking, it’d just shut down completely. Despite it being five trillion degrees and my having nowhere else to sleep besides curled up in the driver’s seat, I probably logged a good 8 hours today at lunch stops.

For what I saw of it, the roads today were extremely windy and extremely beautiful. We came right up on a wind farm and I just couldn’t get over what beautiful structures they were. When stopping to fill up on water, we came across one up close and personal when the road was completely shut down while moving a piece of the turbine - it required a rig with over 120 wheels!

I did, however, have a bit more energy for exploring the super tiny town of Arnett though (and I thought Watonga was small!). The church members were INCREDIBLE hosts – it really showed how much they loved having us over our potluck dinner. Afterwards, a few of us set out to chase the sunset which didn't disappoint. We were treated further when we realized there was a harvest moon out as well, which was a truly beautiful site.

On the walk back, Mike and I spied a few kids sprinting through town and decided to follow them, wondering what kids do in a town of 500. After many wild guesses, we realized they were making their way to a tiny fireworks shop run by some extremely nice folks! Despite never having officially met a Bike & Builder, they knew exactly who we were and why we were in Arnett. News travels fast, I suppose.

Tomorrow we hit Texas, which is supposedly one of the most difficult rides of the trip. Fingers crossed for a cloud or two.

May the winds be ever in your favor,

Lacy

P.S. We come across the most wonderfully random wifi passwords. “cowboys14”, hahaha.

The dirt was amazingly soft!

Watonga, OK (74)

Watonga is smallllll. Compared to OKC, this place is a ghost town! I rode with Josh most of the day, battling some very intense crosswinds, and got into the host fairly early, leaving us plenty of time to explore (and obviously DM some Sonic milkshakes!). Despite it being 2pm on a Saturday afternoon, absolutely everything was closed. Our host was amazing though, so we were more than happy to mosey back and hang out with them. (We had such a good time that they might even have us back next year, despite spilling paint all over their sidewalk! Whoops!)

The wind blew off our trailer wheel cover today, which JD took to get fixed at the house of a very nice local. On the way back, he ran into the owners of a small local vineyard who invited us to come to a taste that evening. I tagged along and we all made fast friends with one another. Check out their stuff at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Whirlwind-Winery/146027668752130?fref=ts!

It’s been a long day, but I’ll get somewhat of a “break” tomorrow when I’m driving the van. Until then.

Lacy

OKC Build Days

My explorative spirit didn’t carry me too far on that first night in OKC – I fell asleep at about 6 and was out like a light for the next 13 hours. This left me rearing to go for our build days though!

The OKC Habitat chapter we worked with over the last few days is really awesome and builds a house unlike any other I’ve seen! They include beautiful brick and stone work, even a two-car garage, and yet are still extremely affordable. Though these little details may seem like extravagances, our site manager explained how they helped Habitat communities be accepted as something more reputable and sustainable than something like “the Projects”.  Our team worked at several homes in their Habitat development of over 300 houses, mostly doing exterior trim painting and masonry cleanup. I stuck with painting and quickly solidified my dominance in the “Messiest Painter” category, as is still evident by the thick coating in much of my hair.

Though we didn’t do any rebuilding from the tornado damage, our site director did help shuttle us on a little tour of the damage in order for us to just gauge the impact. Though I had a hard time keeping my eyes open in the van, I did squeak them open every time I heard a particularly loud “Wooww” and the damage done was indeed moving.

Mail drop also happened today! Amongst my awesome notes and packages was a particularly neat gift for the team from my grandmother – “cool bands”! We had a ton of fun picking out our patterned bands and figuring out weird ways to tie them on – pictures coming soon! We also got a chance to do a bit of exploring since our host was situated right down town. One evening Cassie and I went walking to meet some B&B alums living in OKC, Travis and Jodie, and stumbled upon an awesome little canal running through Brick Town. We spent the evening listening to the dueling pianos bar across the street and swapping SC2SC stories, which was a lot of fun.

We’ve been a bit spoiled what with the 7am wake up time and not having to pack all our things, but we must keep rolling! Until next time.

Lacy 

Kevin, Dangerous Dan, and Marcus deep in thought.

Josh, hard at work.

Austin, hard at play.

Kat and Elaina, bein' cute.

Mischief.

Free socks! One of our riders got stopped by THE sock guy of sockguy socks. So awesome.

Thunda city!

OKC (92mi)

I felt really strong this morning, and it showed. After a few minor mix ups in directions, I was antsy to get moving and took off for the first 60 miles or so. After getting a flat and waiting on my saving graces Josh and Emma to lend me their pump, I ended up bringing in the ride on a paceline with a great crew of ladies. It was undoubtedly a long and tough day, but they made the last few miles a ton of fun! We even DM’d slushies from Sonic, which has become a running tradition.

It’s so exciting to be back in civilization, and I can’t wait to get exploring!

Happy Trails,

Lacy

 Some wisdom we found waiting for us at the church in OKC.

 Dream Team.

Dream Team again. This picture is comically less epic than was initially intended.