Day 2

So much has happend in the last 24 hours! I arrived in Norfolk and my relatives gave me a ride to the church where we are starting out from and I met the other bike and builders. Everyone is very nice, and a few even helped me put my bike together after I got it out of the package. We spent the next few hours getting to know each other and doing ice breakers, as well as listening to presentations about bike and build. That night we were divided up into work groups that will determine who we work with on various chores throughout the week. In my group are three lovely girls named Sunny, Joyce, and Emily (however there are four emilies sobwe call her Em) as well as two guys named Aaron and Patrick. That night we all got together and started painting the trailer that would carry our gear. I suggested that we paint a covered wagon being pulled by a bycycle, as a reference to the Oregon trail, as we are going to Oregon in the end. Everyone else agreed, and we set about to work, with a smart girl named Emily (whom we call soko) doing a lot of the artistic work. Em, Joyce, and several others painted a very scary shark mouth on the front, and others painted a map of the country on the other side, with our route through the country on it. We than all called it a night and went to bed in a house next to the church. I snore.

Today we all woke up at six, cleaned, dressed, and had breakfast at the church with the local men's club. It was super yummy. We than went over safty and bike matiance. We went through an obstacle course on the nearby driveway. A nice girl named Athena filmed me with her go pro for a safty video. We learned all about hand signals and the like. Than we biked down to the navy base on a practice ride. I left with the first group and was more or less able to keep up with them. After we got back we all went to the local Y and showered off. We than hung out for a little bit, and talked to an old guy about bike and build. He thought it was cool and told is he rode a tricycle. Gnarly. We than went to a bb alums house for dinner, than came back and finished painting. I'm in my sleeping bag right now, about to sleep. Two guys, mike and Sam, are thinking about waking up early to see the sub rise, and I reckon I will join them. Tommorow is our first real ride, I'm so excited! 

Goodnight!

Day 4

Today was pretty good! We woke up at 6, packed and cleaned the church, and than went out on another adventure! Today's ride was 42 miles, a lot easier than yesterday's 56. Unlike yesterday it was cool and cloudy, and it even drizzled at one point. As we rode, the flatlands sort of became a slight incline for miles, and suburbs gave way to rural farms, with wheat fields as far as the eye can see. I got my first flat today. Soko and another Emily stayed with me as I fixed it. We saw a lot of horses on the way. Lunch was at a gas station we eventually came too. I had some bread with some of the leftover Nutella Andrew and I DMed yesterday. The second half of the ride was more uphill, and I was very tired when I got to the host site, another church. The people along the way at these places are so nice to take us in and feed us. Andrew, Michael Taylor and a few others and I went with a man named Bucky to a local BBQ place, where we had the best pulled pork I've ever had! We also did laundry today. The town we strayed at was a small place called westerly. At night we all had a great big dinner with all the locals, inculcating one who had been kind enough to let us use his shower, as well as Bucky, a super nice guy. After dinner we had some down time in which we all played a game of cards against humanity. Tommorow is a 72 mile ride, better get my rest, this pew I'm sleeping on sure is comfy :)

Day one, flying to meet the group!

My name is Connor Herrick O'Brien, and this summer I will be biking from Virginia to Oregon with 32 other young people on a program called bike and build. Right now I'm on an airplane in DC, about to fly to Virginia beach and met the rest of my group for the first time. I am very excited and a little nervous. My great friend Rachael told me about this program, as she did it last year, and so I'm going to do it too! I've fundraised over 5,000$ thanks to so many generous people, which will go towards both food for my ride, and towards affordable housing, which is what this ride is all about. We stop quite a few times on our ride to help build homes for people who really need them. We are going from Virginia to West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and finally to Oregon. I've been training these last few months to bulk up for the ride, but I'm still a little worries about the sheer distance we are going (about 3,800 miles!). My family made me breakfast this morning and than drove me to the airport, I'm going to miss them a lot! I will try to update this blog as often as I can, and keep you all up to date with all of my travels, as well as post pics! Oh, the plane is firing up, got to go!