First Build Day

So its been a few days since my last update. Its crazy so much happens on a daily basis I can't remember everything. So I'm going to try and tell a little from each day that I do remember. The places I have been in the past couple of days in order are; Waverly, Blackstone, Dillwyn, and Charlottesville, VA.

Waverly: The ride to Waverly was awesome, it was only about 45 miles but it was all small country roads. At one point there was gravel roads which were interesting, but a nice change of pace. I hit a max speed of 37 mph which was awesome! We found our first of many fields of wheat and took pictures of us riding in it. (would show a picture but we didnt use my camera). Since the ride was so short we had lots of time to explore the town when we got in. So after a brisk shower from the church hose we went exploring and found the Folk Art/Peanut Museum. It was pretty great, the place was tiny and there was the cutest old lady who ran it. Basically it was just a house and painted wood carvings inside.

Blackstone: The way to Blackstone was the first day we road in the rain, and the first day with actually hills. Well more like rolling hills but compared to the flat roads we'd been on they were hills. It was great though, really good practice to get in for the actually big mountains we will be seeing out west. We were staying at the Army National Guard Base, Fort Pickett. When we got to the gates we were so excited to be finished but to our surprise we still had several miles to go inside the base. But it was totally worth it, we all had our own rooms and there were hot showers and internet it was great!

Dillwyn: The ride to Dillwyn was very interesting. There were bigger rolling hills and we road about 30 miles on a highway. It wasn't a busy highway though which was good. That was just the first half of the ride. The second half was great, really scenic and pretty views. I road pretty fast the first half of the day, an average of 18 mph even up the hills so the 2nd half of the day I took it a bit easier. The town of Dillwyn has only about 500 people so the church we stayed in was tiny. Next door neighbors had 12 kids, it was a bit crazy and they came to play with us in the sweet yard we had. That night we also finished painting the trailer and it looks really good.

Charlottesville: Again the ride was a bit short, it was only 46 miles. But it was killer because our lunch stop is normally halfway through the ride but this time it was at mile 31 and I was starving!!! It was a really sweet ride though some of the best hills I've been on and we are staying in a soroity house at UVA which is pretty sweet, there are showers and I get to sleep on a couch. We are here till friday morning. Today and tomorrow are our first build days. We split up into several different groups to work on different Habitat projects today. My group worked at the Habitat Store and we were cleaning windows and organizing their donations. We got really good food at lunch which was cool.

Ok thats about it. If I am going to try and update more often so i can remember the better stories.

Wheel Dip!

So since my last post we've had a day and a half of orientation doing things like learning bike safety, how to stay healthy and clean, painted our trailer, slept on thermarests (small camping air mattresses) and eating tons of food provided by the church we were staying at.

Today was the big day though. At 8:30 this morning we had our wheel dipping ceremony in the Atlantic in Virginia Beach. From there we road 57 miles to Suffok, VA. The best part of the day was just about 10 miles from our destination. Along the side of the road was a sign that said pick your own strawberries, so of course I wanted to investigate. We pulled in and found out that we could get an entire quart of strawberries for $3. These were the best strawberries I have ever had, they were so juicy and delicious. The church we are staying at tonight is huge, and the folks here were nice enough to make us a dinner of spaghetti and salad with cookies for dessert. I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of pasta this summer... thats ok though because I like it.

*Note: I don't know how often I will be updating my blog since I don't have my own computer, but one of the guys on my trip Andy, updates every day and takes tons of pictures so you should check out his website. I highly recommend it.

http://andyreagan.com/

Road Trip w/ mom and grammy

So I've spent the past four days making my way from Connecticut to VA Beach with my mom and grandma. We've hit up lots of places a long the way.

Day 1: Washington DC

Day 2: Mount Vernon, Richmond, Williamsburg

Day 3: Yorktown, Colonial Williamsburg

Day 4: Norfolk, Va Beach

Highlight photos:

1. Aircraft carrier @ the Norfolk Naval Base.

2. Tree during a ghost tour @ Colonial Williamsburg( we were told there might be orbs in the if we took pictures of it)

3. The capital in Richmond

4. Grammy and I at Mount Vernon after I road there from Alexandria.

5. Washington Monument @ night.

First Entry

So this is my first entry into this blog. I am not really good with these things but I figured it would be the easiest way for me to keep in touch with people this summer. I am going to try and put up pictures and update when I get a chance. Lets see how it goes, I make no promises.