San Fran, the wheel dip, and life after Bike and Build...

This past Sunday we rode into San Francisco and it was the most amazing feeling I've ever experienced. We had planned out the day so that we'd have different meeting points throughout the day at which we would wait for the entire group so we wouldn't get too spread out and would cross the bridge together and get to the ocean together as well.

I was riding with Anne and Kristiann in the morning. Kristiann was riding in front, then Anne, then me. At one point I heard Kristiann scream and didn't know why, then I looked up and saw a foggy Golden Gate bridge and soon all three of us were screaming. We were so excited. We stopped at the Vista point right before the bridge to wait for the whole group and then all 32 of us crossed together. It was SO awesome. I couldn't help but get a bit teary-eyed because I was so happy. We'd been thinking about this moment for SO long.

When we crossed the bridge we took a route around some famous parts of the city before we all met again just before the beach. We rode to Ocean Beach together where we were met by our friends and family with signs and cameras and really really really proud faces. Once we reached the sand we all picked up our bikes and carried them across the sand to the water. At the water we all ceremoniously lined up (Just like we did back in Jacksonville, but this time facing the water), and we dipped our front tires in the water.

After this we all had the urge to jump in the ocean, so after a final huddle we all ran in the water. It was cold, but our adrenaline was pumping and nothing at this point was going to keep us from running (and yes, frolicking) in the water. It was definitely a moment I will never forget.

Post Bike and Build

It's really weird writing this because I'm doing it from my bedroom at home, sitting on my bed with sheets and a pillow and I'm not surrounded by 30 other people. I can't remember the last time that life has been like this. Having no privacy and living out of a bag wearing the same 3 t-shirts over and over had become so normal.

There are a lot of things I'm going to miss. One is the carefreeness that I felt this summer. We woke up every morning...and we got to ride bikes. Every day! Who gets to do that? And once we got to our host site...we'd have to find a way to entertain ourselves...so we'd play. Play! It sounds like such a childlike pasttime. And I know I'm not that old, but I still think it'd been a while since I was able to just play without feeling like I should be doing something that will somehow get me further in life. We'd play ultimate frisbee inside of a carpeted gym while wearing roller skates and music was blasting from a sound system. (who does that?) Or we'd play card game after card game because there was nothing else that we had to do.

I'm leaving for school tomorrow and I can't help but feel that I'm not ready. The thought of getting a syllabus on the first day and buying books and all of a sudden having assignments and expectations and deadlines seems like a really scary thought. On top of that the thought of sitting in a classroom all day gets more and more unappealing.

I've driven around a bit since I've been home running various errands. My bike is currently in the bike shop getting maintenance repairs (it was good to me on the road...but after 3600 miles I thought I'd treat it to a check-up). And every time I've driven, I can't help but let my eyes drift over to the shoulder of the road and wish I were on my bike riding on it. I think of distance so differently now. Everything's bikable! Even when I was saying goodbye to one of my Bike and Build friends, Sara, who's from Florida, we were very comforted by the fact that even though we live on opposite sides of the country- at least we know it's bikable!

That brings me to another- and the main- thing that I'm going to miss. I'm going to miss my 31 other fellow Bike and Builders who were my family for these last 9 weeks of craziness! Once we all met each other, we no longer knew life without each other. Really. We didn't. Because we were around each other 24-7. And I have to say that I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to share this summer with. It was a trip of a lifetime for all of us, and we all knew it. We really kept each other going. And although we know that we were helping other people along the way (doing our best working for the affordable housing cause) we couldn't help but be affected too.

Overall, I think I'm still processing everything that happened. And honestly I don't know if I will ever completely process it all. If you were to ask me if I felt like I biked across the entire country I'd probably say no. It really only feels like I got up and rode my bike every day for the past 2 months. The distance doesn't quite sink in.

But nonetheless, it was an amazing summer. An experience I will keep with me the rest of my life. I met people I will know the rest of my life, and I think I discovered a passion for biking that will stay with me. I want the way I felt this summer to carry over and not stop here. I want the carefree feeling and the positive relationships that I have surrounding me not to end. Ever. I think I can work on that. :)

I also feel that in order to repay the hospitality that we were shown on the trip I have a lot of catching up to do. Even though I know we were the ones building houses and raising money and doing this for a cause, I was so humbled by every single person we encountered who provided us a meal or a place to sleep or a shower. Honestly, they have no idea how much that made such a difference. It's a beautiful circle, really. When we were in Yuba City, CA we were working with Habitat on a house for a woman named Barbara whose house has been in progress for over 2 years. Last years' B&B group that came through there also worked on her very same house. She built alongside us that day and was so positive and inspiring and grateful. Very grateful. She gave every single one of us a hug before we left, and said once her house is built we'll always be welcome in her home. That's how I feel about everyone who gave us a meal...if they're ever in my neck of the woods they should come by for dinner. And if they hadn't helped us, Barbara wouldn't be making progress on her house. It's a great domino effect that starts from one spark of giving I guess. Awesome to see.

I could probably go on talking about Bike and Build all day, but I don't want this to get too long. I'd just be repeating over and over how I loved it and it was awesome. If anyone would like to talk to me about it or ask any final questions, please feel free to email me (mhighbaugh@gmail.com). Thanks for reading about my trip and supporting and praying for me along the way. I'm so grateful to all of you that donated. Our route alone (just 32 of us) ended up donating over $70,000 to affordable housing groups in the gulf coast that are dealing with disaster relief in New Orleans and Mississippi. So thank you so much!! $70,000 from 32 people is absolutely amazing. Here's that domino effect again. If it hadn't been for you who helped donate, this trip wouldn't have been possible.

I'd like to leave you with two of my favorite quotes from the summer. Every morning we'd have some sort of inspirational quote on our cue sheets (directions for the day), and these were my favorite.

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." -HG Wells

And one more thing! One quirky thing about our group that I don't think I've mentioned yet is our BIKE & BUILD CHOIR! No other group in the history of Bike and Build has had a choir...and ours came into being one day and has been growing in numbers every since. Here's a (quite shaky...in the sense of at times you might think an earthquake is occuring) video of our Bike and Build choir performing at our celebration dinner in San Fran after our wheel dip. The song is called "Happy Ending" by Mika, and it was a favorite among our group. One morning it was playing on a church sound system while we were packing up doing our morning chores- and pretty soon a spontaneous dance party erupted. So go to the link below to see us perform. I hope you enjoy. Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EONkk_dgj3w

I missed you, California!

Every morning one of our leaders, Rebecca, walks around with her laptop and wakes us up with music. It changes every day and a few days ago we were in Fallon, NV and she walked around playing the song "California" by Phantom Planet, inwhich the lyrics say "California....here we come!". And so we came.

We rode to Lake Tahoe that day, which was absolutely beautiful. We camped there for two nights, and had a day off there yesterday. We spent our day off on the beach of the lake, lazing around and playing in the water and the mud. It was a wonderful day, and then today we left lake Tahoe and rode to Downieville, CA. The ride was tough, but beautiful and I realized how much I missed California! We climbed a lot of the Sierras and the last 15 miles of our ride was a beautiful downhill right along a river. Gorgeous!!!

We're staying at a family's house tonight who are letting us crash in their yard/house. They've been great and are so nice to let us into their home.

It's hard to believe that we're finally in CA. We've only got 4 more biking days until San Fran, and we'll be done! It doesn't really feel like I've ridden my bike all the way from Florida. Taking it a day at a time, it's amazing how far you can make it!

I want to thank everyone who's been reading this and has cared about what I'm doing! I'm hoping to write a couple more times before San Fran, but I never know when we'll have internet. So if this is the last post, I hope to talk to you about my trip when it's over!!

San Fran or bust!

Nevada!

So it's been a while since I last wrote on here. We've been camping a lot more and haven't been in civilaion. We are now in Ely, Nevada. (pronounced Elee) A lot has happened since our ride into Las vegas, New Mexico...and by a lot I mean the entire state of Arizona, Utah, and two days of Nevada. Where do I begin??

Let's start with Arizona. We had some tough days in Arizona. Our hardest being our ride to Jacob Lake which was an 83 mile day. The first 60 miles were extremely hot and windy...and the last 13 miles were uphill...a lot. Our lowest point that day was around 3500 ft, and when we got to Jacob Lake we had reached almost 8000 ft in elevation.

The day after that we rode to the Grand Canyon!! We camped there for two nights, so we had one day off there. On our day off we thought a first we would take it easy...relax by the beautiful views. Hah! That didn' happen. Me and 6 others ended up going on what turned into about a 14 mile hike, which was really awesome. I guess we just don't know how to sit still.

After the Grand Canyon we headed up to Utah, which was gorgeous. We were ony in Utah for 3 days, and on our third day we reached our highest elevation of the trip. We climbed for 25 miles until we reached 9910 ft in elevation. It was an awesome feeling, and the 15 miles of downhill that followed was absolutely amazing.

After Utah we headed into Nevada. Yesterday we rode 94 miles, and today was 108 miles (which is the most we've ridden in one day) to Ely!

Just to tell you a bit about today's ride, I have to first explain a Bike and Build tradition that we've heard about since Florida. The tradition is known as the Naked Mile, which consists of a single mile in our 3600 that you choose to ride naked! Of course you don't have to do it, but it's definitely presented as a milestone that you want to conquer. You get to choose when you want to do your naked mile, so today as I was riding down the straight Nevada road with Anne, Kristiann, and Shap, and we decided that it was now or never. We made sure no cars were in sight, and we waited until we had a stretch of downhill so that it would go by faster. And we did it!

Hopefully nobody's opinion of me is changed by the fact that I rode a mile on my bike naked, haha. Nevada was a great state to do it in given the fact that...there's really not much here. After we finished we signed our names in chalk on the road that we did our mile, which apparently inspired almost the entire group to do their naked mile at some point on today's ride as well. So it was definitely a day of conquering for many of us.

Tomorrow we have a day off here in Ely, and given the fact that there's nothing really here we will probably just laze around all day and eat. I am curently writing this sitting with 3 other people eating a half gallon of ice cream with humongous spoons because it's all we could find in the kitchen. I continue to be amazed at my appetite these days, and don' know how I'm going to adjust back to real life eating habits.

We only have 9 more riding days left, one day off, and one build day. San Francisco is coming up soon and I can't believe it! This trip is flying by, and it's going to be over before we know it. Hopefully we will have internet in the next week so I can keep this more updated. This is going to be a busy couple weeks, and we've all got San Francisco on the brain!! I hope you l are doing well! Hopefully there will be more stories to come!