4K owns Van!essa

Today was so much fun!

I was finally able to get a little bit of sleep and enjoy the comfort of a bed. I shared a room with Jaimie and Taylor that connected to Phoebe, Alana, and Meg Lavin’s room. It was pretty much a giant room of awesome! The team all had dinner together [Thank you Dairy Queen] in this room of awesome. We were also able to enjoy the company of each other.

ALANA KLOS’s BIRTHDAY WAS YESTERDAY

She is too cool for you, fool!

Anyways, today I did some logisitics work and went over things with my wonderful co-director Bunny Brooks. I then enjoyed a bit of alone time in the room, listened to the new Glee Album[Thank you Ryan Manning for giving it to me, you are awesome!] I was finally able to catch up on all of my social media updates. It is difficult to keep up with social meeting when you are biking and taking care of 27 other people. However, it is important for us to share our stories, spread the mission, and update all my friends and family!!

So after a little me time, a bunch of us collected into a van and headed over to the Mammoth Park Caves. We were just told that tickets sell out quickly, so we raced our ways to the park to get into a tour. We made it just in time for the 3:30 pm new entrance tour. It was actually quite fun. We had an hour to kill, so a handful of us went to get food at the coffee shop next to the caves. Oh and I bought post cards!!! So my first shipment will be going out soon! If you want to be on my postcard list, send me your address!

Then we embarked on an adventure. We took a bus to the cave entrance. Got told a bunch of safety things that none of us manage to listen to. Then we went in. It was a little chilly. We wore jeans and our 4K hoodies! The rocks were huge! It reminded me so much of our JHOC caving trips. Only it was a giant walk through cave, non of that crawling around in small tunnels that I am used to. We learned that there are over 300 miles of discovered caves….they say they are still discovering more and more. They told us about the different types of caves and the man who discovered it. It was cool. At one point they turned off all the lights and let us see how dark the darkest part of the world can be. They told us about a guy who was lost for 39 hours. He said the dark wasn’t as scary as the silence. It was so interesting. I attached some photos for you to all enjoy!

Now I am back at the hotel. Relaxing and enjoying more down time before dinner arrives[good ole’ southern Zaxbys chicken]. I am excited to bike tomorrow. I have had a lot of time off the bike due to some minor injuries and logistics [then i beasted a century], so I am super excited!!!

Day 13 was quite possibly one of the best days I have had yet. We had our usual 4am wake- up call while staying at the Harrodsburg Conference Center. As usual, I was beyond tired and not ready to awake. However, I forced myself out of bed and managed to pack all of my belongings up. Tom went out to buy bread for our usual PB&J breakfast, but returned with 13 boxes of donuts donated to us from the local walmart. [Thank you Tom Backof for having so much charisma] After packing up the van and eating our delicious breakfast we circled up for our dedications. We had a lot of minor annoncements this morning and one that shook the group a little. Our amazing teammate Jaimie Roudebush annonced to the group that she would be going home. The entire team was very understanding to her personal decision due to special circumstances. She will be missed greatly and we are all hoping she will be able to rejoin us in the future.

As we were forming teams, I decided I wanted both to change things up and to also have a slight challenge. So I joined Jessica Kraus, Rosemary Patterson, and Ilana Selli for what would soon become Team Marathon. Initially our team started as Team Gas Station because we need a bathroom to use and needed to stop at the first gas station we saw. The first gas station we found was a Marathon. We stopped in and had ice cream after using the restrooms. Then not long after lunch, we found another one…. and had more ice cream. The second marathon we stopped in was so cool. It looked super old school and had a ton of old school tobacco and coke signs. The people inside it were also funny. They told us we needed to get our heads check for deciding to bike so far. One guy even said, “Gas prices aren’t that high!” I told him he needed to check gas prices in other towns. Also, I have to mention that today I was able to stand in two time zones at once an watch my phone go haywire. HAHA!

JUST SO YOU KNOW… I AM NOW IN CENTRAL TIME!

I enjoy biking through small towns. It reminds me of growing up in Valdosta, GA. It is also refreshing to see how different people live. We have met so many people who have never left their small town of 3,000 or less people. We are kind of the “talk of the town” when we bike through these small Kentucky towns.

In terms of biking, the day started off rough for me on the bike. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. One of my breaks seem to be loose and I couldn’t catch up to anyone. About 11 miles in it became very obvious that I had a flat tire. So there I was on the side of the road without a satellite tube, but with a patch kit and a crappy bike pump. Kaitlin came to pick me up in a van so I didn’t slow down my group and took me 4 miles up to the next water stop. While I was there Mike Mahoney taught me [but mostly did it himself] how to fix my flat. I patched it up and it seemed fine. Now it was time to rock and roll!!! However, 14 miles later, my little Ilana had a sharp pain in her leg. She was scared she would tear something so she called the van while we biked the rest of the way.

I really enjoyed keeping pace with Rosemary and Jessica. They are both very good bikers who usually ride with the front groups. The terrain wasn’t too bad today, so I was able to make it through all 99.8 miles. Let’s just call it a century. It felt pretty satisfying. I’m not going to lie, I was not a fan of the giant hill we had to climb to get to our host, but it was so worth it.

See, initially we were suppose to be camping at Mammoth Caves, but thanks to Mike Mahoney’s mother [the wonderful and amazing woman that she is] we are staying at the Park Mammoth Resort. Mrs. Mahoney worked her magic and got them to donate 110 rooms to us for 2 nights. So we will be spending our amazing day off relaxing in a hotel and exploring the caves or Mammoth. It was nice to be able to take out time showering and then all hang out and just realx in the hotel. I think our team has been over due for some fun bonding times. We all ate dinner in one of the hotel rooms together and just had a good time all talking with one another and telling funny stories. It  really did bring the team closer together.

It is amazing to see how much our group dynamics have changed over the past 14 days. Our team has gone from 28 strangers to 28 riders, a unified team, and a large group of friends. I can honestly say I would do anything for these people [ and not just because I am their ride director]. I truly feel like we are becoming a giant family that can lean on each other for anything.

I <3 TEAM SAN FRAN!

So I am just going to upload an entire album to my facebook and you guys can re-direct to there for them. I’ll try to be better about this in the future. haha….

Oh hello there!

So after 45 miles of uphills and majestic mountains of Virginia, we made it to Kentucky!

I was so excited to cross a state line. Although, I was a little surprised to see the confederate flag waving high and proud next to the welcome sign…. We got to go down an awesome grade that helped me finally go over 40 mph!!! It was sooooo much fun. I love feeling the wind in my face.  

Kentucky provided less hills and more of a speedier route. We entered a ghost town that seemed to fit the perfect stereotype of Kentucky. It was very sad to see what some people live like. It was also sad to see abandoned houses that had caved in. 

As we continued through Kentucky we met some interesting people. When I stopped at a BP to use the restroom a group of people followed me out. They asked us (my group: Meg, Lisa, and Kaitlin) about the ride. One of the men (who was missing quite a few teeth) said, “We don’t get out much.” It was like the circus came to town and they were all gathering for a good show. We truly had a great time riding around kentucky, until we managed to pass the final turn. We ended up being shuttled to the finish (after 77 miles of biking) because the roads were not in the best conditions to ride on. 

Safety first!!!

Today was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication on the location of our camping (cooking) gear, so I had to hop in the van with Adam to go to Walmart and buy some camping stoves and pots and such. Initially I was pretty upset about not being able to bike. Yesterday was such an accomplishing day; I didn’t want that feeling to end.

Adam and I decided we should go straight to the campsite for the night and make sure that our site was reserved. It was quite funny. We were on the way to Haysi when Adam saw a Walmart Supercenter. I told him to pull in because I realized that we were off the route to the campsite, but magically it worked out for us. We went in to buy the camping equipment and  Adam managed to get donations from the manager. We were given a case of waterbottles, 2 giant bins of Gatorade, and 4 boxes of cliff bars. I would say that was pretty successful. As our adventure continued Adam and I bonded over Musical Theatre songs.

After thirty minutes of driving in circles around Haysi and being unable to locate the campsite, Adam and I decided to ask for directions. I hopped out of the fifteena turner and went inside a police station to ask for help. There accents were ridiculously intense and it was difficult for me not to start picking it up. They told me the original campsite we were heading towards was not feasible, but gave us directions to an even nicer campsite. At this point, we realized we needed to re-route everyone! So we hopped back in the van and made our way to the campsite to check things out. It looked good. We took I-80 all the way back and began evaluating the road conditions.

I didn’t finish this post because I fell asleep. LOL. 

So it’s day 8. I haven’t updated in…8 dyas. hahaha.

4K has been BUSY!!!!!

It has been a roller coaster of emotions and accomplishments.

Today I had my first day of completing a ride from start to finish [all 80 miles]

I have had to get off the bike for being lost, being sick, and to do logisitcs

and today I did it!!!!!!!!

It feels absolutely wonderful!!!

Some funny notes about today:

1. I got chased by a horse and almost trampled (the woman riding the horse was a little off, but it was hilarious0

2.I was able to keep up with the fast group

3. I love mountains

Seriously, being director is a lot more work then I anticipated, but Bunny and I are figuring out things as we go. Also, the group is really coming together and stepping up. Every single person on our ride has something to bring to the table, whether they are good at getting food donations, fixing bikes, locating showers, driving vans, or just being motivational. I truly don’t think I could have asked for a more awesome team. While we might all have our bad days, we are able to support one another to make them better. I know I have been having a rough time with a cold and a lot of details to take care of, but a select few of special people have really been able to push me through all of the hard times. 

So today we arrived in Marion, Va. We are staying at the First Methodist Church of Marion. They didn’t have showers for us, but we are currently experiencing some serious southern hospitality.  The pastor and his family have opened their homes to all 28 of us and are letting us shower before we go back to have a great sleep in the church itself.

We have found great hospitatlity most places we have been.  Last night we stayed at the Fieldstone, a methodist church in christiansburg, VA. They hosted us for two nights. The people their were so friendly. We helped them pull apart some lumbar for a project they were working on (getting our community service on). I had so much fun working with my hands. I climbed on top of a little wooden building to get lumbar and toss it down to my fellow riders. I had do much fun climbing around up there. [pictures coming soon].

The day before we landed in christansburg, we stayed at SVU in Buena Vista. The night before that we were in Waynesboro at the YMCA. The YMCA was a lot of fun. We slept in a dojo that a blind sensa built. Talk about legit! 

Okay, so it’s my turn to take a shower in this very lovely home. Hopefully, I’ll be able to update more later …. with pictures!