Holy Crap...

Well team, it's been a few days. The internet connections in small town North Carolina are hit or miss; as such, we'll continue our promise to post as soon as possible.

Here's the skinny--since our first day (a 65 mile ride), we've gone 32, 58, 80, and 40 miles. So, if you check our route tracker at www.bikeandbuild.org, you'll see that we've actually gotten somewhere! Now, Molly and I, along with our friends Andy and Yvonne, are in a comtempo coffee shop/bar called Jack Sprats, and we're drinking. I have a Guinness, Molly has her wine, and life is good. We'll be here in Chapel Hill for three days--tomorrow, we start building--part of the reason and purpose of this trip.

It's been very humbling to ride with this crew so far--we've got a lot of talented atheletes, hard workers, and motivated souls on this trip--it's definately an environment of passion, drive, and will-power. There are wonderful people with us--we're busy making friends, getting comfortable, and building our team up to continue our success.

It's tough to know what to write at this point--I think we've both had our struggles--I'm having a hard time with getting up at 6 and moving immediately. In two hours, we need to have our bags packed, bike gear on and ready, teeth brushed and face washed, thermarest rolled and packed, sunscreen and chamois cream in place, tires pumped, chores done, and breakfast eaten. Whew. On top of that, our bodies are struggling--lower backs and achilles strains, knee and (OH!) crotch soreness, tired, dehydrated, and generally tuckered out. We eat like crap--pizza all over the place, fried food, bagels and cream cheese, cookies...all satisfying, but not helping either of us loose that weight we planned on losing. The founding of the push up/sit up club helps, but after a long ride, it's tough to hammer the sets out--part of me thinks that 45 push ups after an 80 mile bike ride is a little much! The point of all this--there are hardships, but we're fighting through.

At the end of the day, It's not hard to remember why we're doing this--a great physical challenge, a good cause, and a wonderful community of people to engage. I'll say it again--life is good. And, as the miles tick away, and we get more and more into this trip, it'll only get better.

Hope that made sense! Take good care, and we'll be in touch! Feel free to call and write anytime, as well.

Cheers,
Eric

We've started crossing the country!

hello family and friends,
we have officially started our cross-country journey. we arrived at our host site in nag's head, north carolina on friday afternoon for orientation. saturday was more orientation information and a "shake down" ride. we rode 16 miles roundtrip - our destination at 8 miles was a famous north carolinian light house. and we spent some time with our new friend john, who was one of the last people to live in it. he's 91. and full of energy and stories. our last task before we rested up for the first westward ride was to paint the trailer. the trip has a support van that pulls a trailer with all of our gear and food. we painted a silhouette of the united states with our route on it, a biker with flames coming out of his back tire (because we're so frickin' fast!), a "share the road" road sign, and the classic bike and build bike tire. if you don't know it, visit the website! (bikeandbuild.org - also on the trailer)

this morning we got up early to partake in a ceremony on the atlantic! we had such distinguished guests as the mayor of nag's head, the family who hosted us in nag's head, several nag's head police officers, the program directors, family and friends. after the ceremony we all lined up on the shore and dipped our tires in the ocean at the same time! and we were off...

we rode 66 miles from nag's head to swan quarters. into the wind. the whole day. the route was flat as flat can be so we rode hard, past swamps and forests, with horse flies and birds, along alligator river (which harbors more turtles than anything). it took our group about 5 hours - beating the van to the host site! we stretched as we waited for the rest of the group - celebrating each rider as (s)he arrived! when (almost) everyone was here, we did our push-ups and sit ups and hit the showers. now everyone is enjoying the shade under a beautiful, leafy tree, anxious for dinner to be served. our hosts are offering fresh-caught sea-food and tons of side dishes. we're sure to sleep well tonight, unless we are too anxious for breakfast: fresh strawberries and pineapple, biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon... mmmmm.... we're hungry from today's ride!

we think of you all often and we hope you're enjoying the journey along with us. if you want more general information about the trip there is a great resource on the website - the route tracker. the map will follow our location each day, it will advertise how many days we have ridden, have built and have left, someone will upload pictures, and someone from our group will journal each day.

pura vida,
molly and eric

Day One: DONE!

Well, not actually day one of the trip--just day one of getting to Manteo (actually, Nags Head). 12 hours and 833 miles in the car puts us two-thrids of the way there, and tomorrow should be beautiful driving. East on I-64 to some multi-lane coastal highways through Virginia and into the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Our departure time tomorrow is around 7:00 AM--we should be tasting sea salt by 3!

The drive was great. Molly's mother and Aunt are with us for the trip, and they are a hoot and an absolute joy in the car. At 5:30, it was beer-thrity in the car--Ginny was on rum and diets, and Di was drinking rum and tonics. No worries about breaking the law, though--we were driving across Kentucky and West Virginia.

Not much else to say for now--we'll keep on trucking 'til tomorrow night, and then, it's lobster, wine, and the Atlantic. Friday, we start the formal bike and build process, and we can't wait.

Make it a good day, all!
Eric and Molly

And we're off!!

Hello family and friends!

We have been talking about updating our blog for WEEKS now. But we have also been training, fundraising, graduating, and enjoying life in Madison! So, we don't have a beautiful page yet, but it is sure to come.... if we can make time between our long bike rides.

Our update for today is this:
We each achieved our goal of $4,000!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped us along the way. We have purchased the last of our gear as of five hours ago, we have all of our forms signed as of four hours ago, and we are officially packed.... in the next five hours. We depart Wisconsin tomorrow morning, May 23 at 6am to drive to Manteo, North Carolina! Molly's mom Ginny and aunt Diane will drive us two crazy bikers to the coast and leave us at our first host site with two bikes and two bags. We are excited and nervous, prepared and unprepared, but mostly ready for whatever is to come, the unknown.

We will keep you updated as often as we have internet access (and enough energy to journal at the end of the day!) If we aren't keeping up, you can also follow our journey on the Bike & Build website route tracker:
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/
component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,210/

Finally, if you would like to send us mail along the route, here are the pre-arranged mail drops:

May 31: Wake Forest, NC 27587
June 7: Gatlinburg, TN 37738
June 14: Maryville, TN 37801
June 21: Memphis, TN 38128
June 28: Bartlesville, OK 74003
July 5: Lamar, CO 81052
July 12: Durango, CO 81301
July 19: Williams, AZ 86046

Address mail to:
Bike & Build
Attn: Eric Immel/Molly North
General Delivery
CITY, ST ZIP


Until the next entry...
Molly and Eric