Donation Magic

Me at the Dayton, OH dragrons single A ballgame! This guy and his
wife gave my friend Olivia and I their tickets for free! They also
happened to be behind home plate. Donation magic!

We also got a picture and autograph with their best player after the
game... Please note that the beard is growing in nicely.

Also, finding a good place for lunch is always key so when UK Anthony
and I pulled up to a fire station we donation magiced (sp?) a lunch
spot with full bathroom use which was capped off with a firetruck
extravaganza! I don't have pictures on my phone of us all on the fire
truck so I'll have to upload those seperately later. A big thanks to
fire chief kuntz and his fellow firefighters!

Other donation magic stories: fred's diner in Akron, Ohio. Fred
provided a free meal to 20 riders that day! I had a huge western
burger, French fries, and a milkshake! A big thanks to Fred for being
overly generous.
Also, the bike shop in wellsboro, PA gave our group a free bike pump
along with countless discounts to everyone that came in.
All of this goes without mentioning the many amazing hosts who put us
up for the night and cook us massive dinners!

Sent from my iPhoneOk so let's get this covered since I haven't talked about it yet.
Donation magic is a silly phrase that bike and build uses to describe
donations during the trip. People give us money as a donation, some
give us free food, and some give us cool stuff like free baseball game
tickets!

Pictures from the ride!

Mountain view

Same place just no Spencer.

The lake in the allegheny national forest.

Our favorite sign in the world because it always means there will be a
fun descent.

Picture from one of the bike paths we rode on. Justine snuck into the
picture.

Sam treating the Ohio sign like it's some sort of stripper pole...

Sent from my iPhoneMyself, chris (far left), and the anthonies (on each side of me)
standing at our first summit sign in the rain. We have a knack for
getting lost when I ride with this group.
"Its not that we're lost, we're just going in the wrong direction."
-Anthony Derrick

Update from Akron, Ohio!

We jumped 40 feet from that small tree above the structure on the right.

Another story of note: when riding through wysox, PA we had to ride
next to a bunch of big trucks that were going to and from natural gas
sites. Well, by the time I got to wellsboro and our next host site I
had managed to collect a lot of dirt in my daily sunscreen glaze. I
looked like a gorilla and it took a 15 minute shower of constant
scrubing to get the grit off. Picture is gross..
..
..

So there are a bunch of other things happening but it's impossible to
include them all so here are some pictures and yall can call me or
just use your imagination.

A typical applachian climb. The hill was moderately steep and it
starts at the white houses to the right in this picture (they look
like tiny dots). The next picture gives you a view from the same spot.

Next update: pictures from parts of the ride.

Sent from my iPhoneOk so this update business is frustrating because I can't send big
files with pictures with an edge network. I have to wait for wifi to
make it worth my time.

So Binghamton, NY was awesome. We had our day off there and I went to
Ithaca, NY with the Cornell kids. I thought the trip would involve a
boring college tour but instead we got picnic food then went to the
gorges to cliff diving. Here is a picture of the gorge and the cliffs.

Images from Kent to Roscoe, NY

Hudson river

Hudson

Mountain view on the way to Roscoe!

Sent from my iPhoneKent, CT

Pictures from the ride!

Between Promfret, CT and Binghamton, NY we rode initially through the "rolling" hills of Connecticut and then into the Appalachian Mountains. Specifically, on the 19th we rode 70 miles through the Catskill Mountains. It was almost unbearable. I was so dehydrated by the end of the ride, that when we got to the host site all I wanted to do was pass out. Our first climb that day was at mile 20 and we ascended over 1000+ feet. We took pictures and enjoyed the day after the descent, but things became exceedingly difficult with another 1000+ foot climb after lunch. The remainder of that day was accompanied by a constant up hill. After everyone arrived at the host site, our route leaders looked up the rides' topography and we had climbed over 3400 feet for the day. We were all exhausted, but we still had another 80 mile day ahead of us.

This is beginning to sound monotonous so I'm going to break it up with pictures.

The images above this post are from Kent, CT at our host site, the Hudson River, and points of interest along the way.