First build day and first two ride days

Yesterday was very busy. Our group of 32 roofed an entire house in one day! We woke up early and headed out to the site. The family was a retired couple living in a house just outside of Charleston. At the site, there were a few Americorps people and a few worksite foreman. The weather was quite cloudy and a few sprinkles in the morning, but Mother Nature held off when we worked. We scraped off the old shingles fairly quickly. My job was to pick up the loose shingles and chuck them into the dumpster below. During one of my loads, I scraped my thigh. The scratch was extremely minor, but thanks to my genetics, I bled enough that I had to get off the roof and ask for the first aid kit. Simple pressure was not enough for the minor scratch. So yes, I managed to be the first one to be "hurt" on the worksite. Since I was already on the ground, I decided to help out one of my teammates who was picking up scraps that had fallen to the ground. Later, I used a magnet find all the nails off the ground. When I was done, I headed up to the roof to help pound nails. I did that for the plywood, the felt tarp, and finally the shingles. The felt was my favorite because the nails were short and easy to pound. I felt really bad when I pounded in a nail crooked, but I got better as the day went on. I'm still not an ace at hammering, but I definately got better as the day went on. Once we finished, we went back to eat dinner at Sticky Fingers, a local BBQ joint that has been mentioned on "The Colbert Report" several times. For. B dessert, I visited a local frozen yogurt shop with three of my teammates. To finish off the night, I made some last minute alterations to my bike and packed up.

Another early morning on our first ride day (I'll be really good at waking up to exercise after this summer! I helped with breakfast because that is my chore group's job this week. After a hearty breakfast, we headed out to the beach near the fort for our wheel dipping ceremony. The local news crew came out to wave us off as well (Charleston ch. 4 if you want to search for the footage). Once we dipped the rubber of our rear wheel in the Atlantic, we hit the road! I was one of the last to leave the beach, but the drawbridge was up and I caught up to most of the group. 9nce there, I rode with Karen most of the way to Monks Corner, SC. The 44 mile route from the beach was very flat and simple. I had fun looking at everything though and thought of Matt as I passed Highpoint Ct. We made it to the church by 2 and most people went swimming at a nearby lake (but I was a party pooper and took a nap instead). I was quite tired and didn't finish my blog, even after my nap.

Today was an interesting day. A 66 mile ride changed into 90 miles! We had a great breakfast cooked by several church members. I headed out on my own for the beginning of the ride. I didn't find anyone going at a good pace until around mile 20. I was not a big fan of the road as igt had many potholes and rough parts, which aren't fun. I rode with a large group for ia while. for about I rode with them for about ten miles until we saw something odd; some of our teammates riding in the opposite direction! The directions were to a dead end and we had to backtrack 8 miles. And our reroute ended up being a little longer than the original route. I skipped around groups again because I kept taking breaks in the shade. I was alone when I pulled into Sumpter and I wound up going 2 miles past it. Thankfully, a man was nice enough to use his GPS system to help me find the best way to the church. I finally made it in around 6 pm. Long day with lots of heat and humidity, so I'm off to bed now!

Second day of orientation

This morning was pretty uneventful. We woke up at 8am for breakfast and had more basic orientation about rules and regulations. We met our chore groups and discussed names for our groups. My group is "The Chomps". After morning orientation, we went for our 23 mile shakedown ride around Charleston. I started out pretty well and had no problem staying with those in the middle of the pack. Our route went north over a cool new suspended bridge and out towards a fort on an island and back. About halfway through the ride, I managed to get my first flat! Of course I would be one of the ones to manage to get a flat on the "warm-up" ride! And to make things worse, the flat was on my back tire. I have never changed my rear tire before, so I was very embarassed and nervous. But my teammates were very nice and helpful. They helped me change out my tire and we got back on the road. The fort area next to the beach was really cool and apparently we will be doing our tire dipping ceremony out by this area. After returning to the church, we had pizza and tacos for lunch. Then we had free time and I took a nap because the humidity drained me. Hopefully my body will adapt to the climate quickly. Later we had more pizza for dinner. We ended the day wih an alumni presentation, which made me more excited about this trip, Looking forward to our first build day tommorow, which will be roof shingling. Hopefully no rain!

Arriving in Myrtle Beach and Travelling to Charleston

I arrived in Myrtle Beach on Saturday evening after a short week of last minute preparations after graduation from Willamette. Although orientation didn't start until today, I wanted to visit an old friend and get acclimated to the east coast timezone. I believe I am the only one from my group who is used to PST. Plus it was nice to just relax for a day playing games, walking on the beach, taking my time reconstructing my bike (which did arrive unharmed despite a hole in the box!), and playing minigolf with a friend I haven't seen in 6 yrs. (She beat me twice in putt putt and even managed to sink a hole-in-one using the opposite side of her putter!) This morning, Amanda was nice enough to drive me to Trinity United Methodist Church, the check-in point for B&B and my temporary home until Thursday. I was one of the last ones to arrive. After claiming my "bed" (Thermarest) and jersey for the trip, we played a name game and icebreakers. I was "leaping Lizzy". Then more downtime before a local bike lawyer came by to give us some bike safety tips. We ended the day with dinner from a local BBQ place. If all the host food is just as good, I might gain weight this summer despite cycling 65+ miles a day! Finally, the Charleston Habitat group presented about their organization. They told us that we will be working on roof shingles on Wed. Tomorrow is more orientation and a short ride around Charleston.    

P.S. I will hopefully figure out how to post pictures from my phone onto the blog. Please be patient as I work through the kinks and learn how to blog from a phone.

Mail Drops

Hey everyone!!
As I promised in my earlier post, here is the schedule for our mail drops this summer. Every week, we receive "snail mail" at one of our stops. Personally, I LOVE getting letters (or if you're feeling really ambitious..a care package). Since I will have limited access to e-mail (and possibly no phone service at times), mail will be an important connection to family and friends. After a hard, 70-mile day, I'm can't imagine anything better than sitting down to enjoy an encouraging, inspiring, or "just plain fun" letter from family or friends. When sending mail, please use the following format.

Attn: CYCLIST NAME (Lizzy Whittemore)
General Delivery
STREET ADDRESS (if noted)
CITY, ST ZIP

And please mark the envelope or package with "Please hold for pick-up on DATE."

June 01

300 East Washington Street
Greenville, SC 29601

June 08

1814 Beltline Road Southwest
Decatur, AL 35601-6259

June 15

304 West Michigan Street
Stuttgart, AR 72160-3122

June 22

305 Northwest 5th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-9998

June 29

301 East Main Street
Trinidad, CO 81082-2712

July 03

8585 Criterion Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80920-1045

July 13

235 Puppy Smith Street
Aspen, CO 81611-9998

July 20

95 West 100 South
Provo, UT 84601-6099

July 27

770 South 13th Street
Boise, ID 83708-0001

August 03

240 North Main Street
Alturas, CA 96101-4047

August 10

18 Oak Street
Brentwood, CA 94513-1301


Only a week left before the start of orientation in Charleston!! Cannot wait to start this adventure!!

School is done!! Next stop..Charleston!!

Hello everyone!
      Well setting up my blog has been on my "to do" list for almost three weeks now (big surprise, huh??). Yesterday I turned in my final paper of my undergraduate career, which meant I could no longer find any excuses to procrastinate any further on my "to-do" list. Anyways, everything has been okay preparing for my trip. Thank you to everyone who has supported my fundraising efforts so far. I still have $1,000 left to fundraise, but I'm confident I can make it. There was an article that ran in the Statesman Journal (Salem's local paper.. check it out here http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100508/NEWS/5080327/1001/news ) and I was lucky enough to receive a few donations from generous Salem residents. And I'm hoping my "donation matching" fundraising will put a dent in the remaining amount.
      I can't believe I am going to be in Charleston in less than two weeks! For the most part, I feel mentally and physically ready. This spring, I tried my best to get out on a bike as much as possible. Although I haven't tracked my total miles, I know I have been over the 500 mile mark for a while. And my 65 mile ride hasn't happened yet (will be done within the next two days), but I've been very close on several occasions. I'm still intimidated by the idea of going up the Rocky Mountains, but I keep telling myself I have 2/3 of the trip before I have to face that obstacle. Plus, my Mom keeps telling me "you start at sea level and end at sea level..what goes up, must come down!"
      Well time for me to start packing up my room now. These four years flew by! Now onto my next adventure..biking across America!!

P.S. If you would like to donate, please visit http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/3766 and click "DONATE". Everything can be done online in 5 minutes or less! Instructions for donating by mail is also on the site. But if you plan to donate by check, please do so soon as they need to receive the funds by May 24th.

P.S.S. For those of you wondering if this blog will turn out like my "Semester at Sea" blog, do not worry. (I was quite upset with myself that I did not do a great job keeping up..) I have promised too many donors that I would keep them updated about my trip. Although Internet accessibility will be limited on the trip, I will get to a computer as often as I can to put up a little bit about my amazing bike trip.