Day 29 – Stanton, IA to Omaha, NE

June 28^th:

Halle is our team’s Nebraskan, and she was pumped to be going back to her home state!

It was about a 70 mile day into Omaha, where we’d have a service day the following day.  We were excited to be staying in a big city!  The ride was fairly easy to begin with.  There were some hills, but it was mostly flat and we were able to have conversation all the way to the first water stop, where we had to wait quite a while for the last group to catch up before we could head out.  The group in the back was riding the “struggle bus” that day, so it would be a day of waiting around for them to catch up.

After the first water stop, the hills started getting really big.  For the rest of the day, it felt like if we weren’t going down, we were going straight up.  We were unprepared for Nebraska to be this hilly, and we all agreed it was one of the hardest days we’d had so far.  I don’t have too many photos from the day because it was certainly not a chill or relaxing ride, but a tough one.

The more exciting part of the day was seeing the city as we rode in on the pedestrian bridge from Iowa into Nebraska!

The day felt long and extremely tiring, even though we expected this shorter 70 mile day to be simple and quick.  We were welcomed in with applause and cheers from our host at the church in the Historic Dundee neighborhood.  I pulled in and asked “hey, isn’t Nebraska supposed to be flat??” to which they responded simply with laughter.

We had home stays for the next two nights!  This means that members of the church had offered to take in groups of 2-5 to sleep comfortably in their homes for a couple of nights.  We were assigned to the Johnson family.  Lisa and Rob welcomed myself, Jo, Julia, and Kellie into their stunningly beautiful and newly built home.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a nicer house.  They offered us the entire basement level of their home, which included two bedrooms, a living room space, bar, workout room, and movie theater.  I slept in a full size memory foam bed for two nights – I repeat: I slept in a FULL SIZE MEMORY FOAM BED FOR TWO NIGHTS!!!  It was much needed.  I slept for 10 hours the first night, which was crucial in helping me get over this cold I’ve been dealing with.  Here are some photos we took of our living space for those two nights:

We went to another church member’s house for a huge delicious dinner with members of their community.  It was a great event and we received such a warm welcome from their community!  It was awesome to know that we’d be sticking around for a couple of nights.

Day 28 – Audubon, IA to Stanton, IA

June 27^th:

I’m realizing that I’ve been forgetting to include how many miles we rode each day.  I think this day was a little more than 60 miles, so it was a fairly short day.  We rode on a greenway for a good portion of the ride, which is surprising because we didn’t expect there to be such a long bike path throughout the farmland and countryside of Iowa.

  

On Bike & Build, I would say that we were the climbing team.  It seemed that if there was a mountain range, we would go through it.  On this team, I would say our barrier is gravel.  We have taken so many gravel and/or dirt roads, which is quite difficult on a road bike.  Remember, the rest of the team has cyclocross-type bikes, but it was determined that I would not fit on these bikes, which only came in men’s sizing, so I was given a road bike instead.  Truly, I prefer it, especially when we’re going uphill, but the more narrow tires are not meant for terrain that is not paved road.  It’s been a struggle, but I’ve managed well.  Regardless, it’s still annoying to everyone when we hit it.  Paved roads allow for a nice, smooth ride, but you really have to work hard to keep up the same pace on gravel and dirt roads.

Sasha, the 4K for Cancer coordinator who works full-time in Baltimore for the organization, rode with us this day.  She just so happens to be responsible for creating our route before the summer began, so we blamed her for all the gravel roads we hit today and everyday.  Some of them had deeper patches of gravel than usual, causing some falls and fishtailing on the bicycle.  We got her back at the lunch stop by dumping a cooler of water on her head.

As we pulled into the recreation center where we were staying in Stanton, Kellie, one of our van drivers for the day, was prepared with a water gun as we rounded the corner into the parking lot.

As soon as everyone was there, we vanned over to a local’s house to cool off in his pond and enjoy some time relaxing in his backyard.  His name was Tom, and he told us about how he’d done RAGBRAI in previous years and even hosted about 30 riders at his house one night.  Some had slept on the floor in his house, and others pitched tents in his backyard.  He loved the hospitality of RAGBRAI and said he wanted to use this opportunity to pay it forward.  We were so thankful!

Some of our teammates played a prank on us while we were here.  Jessie and Kellie told everyone to jump in the water so they could get a photo.  As soon as we were all in and positioned with the floaties and tubes for a photo, they threw in fish food right in front of us.  We were unaware that there were huge cat fish in this small pond, so we all started splashing around and rushing toward the dock, not wanting to be there when all the fish started coming toward us, while laughing hysterically the whole time.

We had purchased a kickball and wanted to put it to use!  We played Spud, a camp game that Sean taught us, and then split up into teams to play kickball.  It was an afternoon full of laughter, falling, and unexpected victories for some.

Stanton was one of our favorite hosts so far!!  It’s a very small town of about 700 people, but they have so much pride for where they live!  They rented out a school bus to take us on a tour of their 4-square mile town.

They showed us the water towers, which the members of the town had fundraised money to paint into beautiful coffee pots and cups.
They told us so many facts about their town.  They’d once been on a national news station with Brian Williams because they had used a “human chain” to move library books from the old library building to the new one, meaning they stood in a line and handed the books one by one to the new library!  It was so cute to wave to neighbors as we bussed through the town. The tour guide called out everyone he saw by name, saying hello to them, and they all knew him as well.  I’m not sure I could live in a town where I know every single person, but it was fun to experience their way of life.  We took a photo in front of the electronic screen (I feel like this isn’t the right name for it?) which had welcomed us into the town when we biked in.

They took us to their Swedish museum.  The town takes great pride in their Swedish heritage and includes it in their public school curriculum.  The museum was an old school house built in 1885.  The older lady who was showing us around the museum had attended this school as a child before it was more recently converted to a museum.

          
There was a display with all different types of barbed wire… who knew there were so many different kinds!

The books were so old but so cool!  I even found some books relevant to pharmacy school – gastrointestinal tract absorption!

We ended our tour at a bar called Virginia’s, where they served us a delicious and healthy dinner!  We had a team meeting later that night and then went to bed to prepare for our next day of riding!

Day 27 – Des Moines, IA to Audubon, IA

June 26^th:

It was kind of hectic trying to get everyone ready for the day from three different hotels across the street from one another.  We did our daily dedication circle, and Jo, Julia, and I dedicated our ride to Russell Jensen, Emily’s father.  She was the friend of a Bike & Build friend that I’d met at the hospital the day before during our service event in Des Moines.

This is usually what our dedication circle looks like when we’re trying to round people up:

The ride groups were made based on age, so of course I was in the old people group.  Remember, I’m just barely making this 18-25 age restriction.  We were given the team name “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by the babies of the team.  Within 20 miles, Adam had to be picked up by the van because his knees were fitting him, which was ironic and comical.  We got to hang out with two cute dogs in the first part of the day, including one at a local barbecue restaurant, which couldn’t be missed because it had a big pig bus sitting outside of it, and one at the first water stop!  So much dog love, and what a great day to celebrate LOVE and MARRIAGE EQUALITY!!!!!!  

  

The rest of the ride was beautiful!  The day had started off rainy and questionable as to how the weather would hold up, but it ended up being fantastic.  We rode on the same road for much of the day called the Western Skies Scenic Byway.  I loved it so much!  I would definitely come back and ride roads like this in Iowa for their annual RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa).  Photos don’t really do it justice.

Our host van drivers got sort of lost on their way to the lunch stop, so we ended up stopping for a long time before getting back on our bikes for the rest of the ride in to Audubon.  At least our location was pretty!!

Lunch legs were inevitable – this is what happens when you stop for too long and then suddenly your legs feel incredibly sore after being inactive for more than 30 minutes.  It’s always hard to get back on your bike after that.  It wasn’t an easy ride, either.  We were on rolling hills, but the kind that don’t give you quite enough momentum on the downhill to get you to the top of the next hill, so you end up climbing in granny gear quite a bit.  As we got started, Martha said “I have to say, I am less than interested in riding right now.”  It was tough to get started, but before we knew it we were back in full speed and climbing up hills at 17 or 18 mph!  I don’t know what got into us, but we were flying.

When we got into town, we saw signs for Audubon, “Home of Albert the Bull.”  We weren’t sure what that meant, until we came across this…

I’m still not certain of the story behind it, but it made for a good photo opp.

We got into town earlier than many other groups, so that left time for us to have some fun.  We found a local park and hard some childish fun:

  

  

  

We played around for so long that most of our team rolled in and stopped at the park with us.  Riding in a big pack into the small town at the end of the day was such a rush!!  I didn’t really make it into this selfie that Sean took (I’m cut off on the right), but it’s still a good one:

We got into the very small town of Audubon, and we tried to find a bar because we knew the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team would be playing China in the World Cup quarter final game!  One of riders went into a bar and asked if they’d be playing the women’s soccer game, to which they responded “well, we don’t have a girl’s soccer team here, so…”  Uh-oh.  Luckily, our “host moms” called them and asked if they’d save a place for us and told them which channel the USWNT game would be playing on, and they welcomed us in.  Some of the locals that were there even bought us beer!  And USA won!!  So they’d move onto the semi-finals.  I enjoyed getting to watch the sport that defined my childhood with my 4K family.

Day 26- Service Day in Des Moines, IA

June 25th:

Kendra and Zack woke up early to be interviewed live by a local news TV station about the 4K.  Their last names are Hart and Ross, respectively.  We dared them to introduce themselves as “Kendra Fart” and “Zack Boss,” but they wouldn’t do it.  Here’s the YouTube clip of their live interview:

4K for Cancer on the local news

We spent the morning of our service day in the cancer center of the nearby hospital in Des Moines.  We were scheduled to bring bagels and coffee to cancer patients and their nurses as a sort of meet and greet, if the patients felt up to it.  We prepared and brought along “chemo care packages” as well.

We split up into two groups because they decided it was best if half the group met with adult patients and the other half of the group met with patients who were children.  I went with the adult patient group and got to speak with many patient and nurses about what we were doing with 4K for Cancer.  I think they appreciated the break from talking about their chemotherapy or cancer.  Instead, they asked us so many questions about our journey, and we were excited to tell them all about it.

I had quite the coincidental encounter at the hospital that day.  When I was on my Bike & Build trip in 2013, my team met with another route in Kayenta, Arizona.  I didn’t get to meet everyone on the other team, but I did briefly meet one of their trip leaders named Chelsea.  Funny enough, Chelsea and I both ended up in Charlotte, NC the year after we did B&B – I had thane an 11 month AmeriCorps position with Habitat for Humanity and Chelsea had gotten a job at UNC Charlotte later that year.  We sought each other out through the B&B network and became friends.

Well, it just so happened that one of Chelsea’s friends and co-workers from Charlotte, named Emily, was currently visiting the cancer hospital that we were volunteering at in Des Moines.  Emily’s father had received a cancer diagnosis that same week and had begun chemotherapy 10 minutes prior to me meeting her.  Emily had seen the sign outside the meeting room that said “4K for Cancer,” at which point she had texted Chelsea to tell her that we were here.  Since Chelsea knew I was participating in 4K this summer, she told Emily to look for me!  She did, and I’m so glad she found me!  This 4K experience has been truly wonderful, but there is still (and will always be) part of me that has so much Bike & Build pride because it was my first cross-country experience and it changed me for the better.  So when my 4K teammates called me from across the room and said something that included the words “Bike and Build,” I got so excited!!  Of course, I would have loved to meet Emily under much happier circumstances.  It’s been an incredibly hard week for her family and I’m grateful that she even found the courage to seek me out in a sea of royal blue 4K t-shirts and share her story with me.  Emily and her fiancé had driven from Charlotte to Des Moines over night to be with her father, Russell, as he began his chemotherapy that morning.  I just find it to be such an amazing coincidence that Emily and I crossed paths on this particular day, during the only two hours of the day that my team was there.  What if I’d been scheduled to go with the other group to visit the children instead of the adult patients?  I hope we were able to provide at least an ounce of comfort during one of the most trying weeks she’s likely ever experienced.  Jo, Julia, and I told her we’d like to dedicate our next ride day to her dad, who is a cyclist himself!  So there you have it folks – my B&B experience colliding with my 4K adventure.

After we were finished with our service day at the hospital, we decided to walk around downtown.  As we were walking, we saw the bike path that was on our route for the following day.  After all the rain, it unfortunately looked like this:

We began to think we might need to invest in something like this:

Sasha, one of the trip coordinators who works for 4K for Cancer full-time in Baltimore, met up with us in Des Moines to hang out with us for a couple of days and help sort out any issues at around the halfway point of the trip.  She helped us re-route the trip for the next day, which was awesome… Although we’re usually cursing her name on gravel roads.  We take too many damn gravel roads.

Some people wanted to go to a restaurant called Zombie Burger, which we’d heard about from the locals.  I decided to keep walking around town a bit.

My group found a store called “The Greatest Store in the Universe,” and we obviously couldn’t pass up the opportunity to browse through.

They had tons of shirts, postcards, underwear, socks, stickers, etc with tons of hilarious sentences.  I say “sentences” instead of “sayings” because I think the latter implies that they were phrases that people use commonly… And they do not.  For example…

       

I bought tons of postcards and stickers, including this clever Nebraska sticker which is now on my bike:

We called it a night pretty early.  I had woken up with a sore throat and I knew I needed to get rest before I hopped on my bike for the first time in 3 days!  I have a history of getting sick when I slow down, and that was just enough of a break for me to catch a cold.

Day 25 – Marengo, IA to Des Moines, IA

June 24^th:

We awoke at 4:30am on the dusty hardwood floor of an American Legion.  The room had small windows but they were covered by blinds, so we couldn’t immediately check the weather outside.  We spent about 30 minutes getting up and packing before myself and the other usual morning front-runners opened the door to find rain, thunder, and lightening at this early morning hour.  I remember thinking to myself “uh-oh” because we’d already had a day where we only rode 35 miles of a 90+ mile day due to terrible storms.  We ate a hearty breakfast provided by our host members in Marengo, only to wait for another hour or so before realizing this day just wasn’t going to happen.  We decided to van this scheduled 107 mile day from Marengo to Des Moines (pronounced “dehs MOH-een-ehs”… LOL totes JK).  Zach decided “ride groups,” or rather “van groups,” based on who had stayed latest in the Land of Oz gas station a couple of days ago.  That included me!!  I had been part of the long-term stay crew, so now my patience was rewarded with the opportunity to hop in the van first this day.  Otherwise, I would have had to wait hours and hours for a van to pick me up.  Here’s why: we have two vans, and one of them was full of duffles and backpacks, so the leaders decided to send this van to the host in Des Moines and drop all the stuff off so that they could have an empty van to return to Marengo and grab people and bikes.  The problem was that since this was over a 100 mile day, it would take at least an hour and a half one way.  I was thankful that I had been patient a couple of days ago and happy to be catching the first van.  It was humorous how packed in we were.  At one point, someone asked “who’s even driving up there?” because we couldn’t see past the boxes of food and gear in the front row of the van.

We got to Des Moines, or really West Des Moines, where we had several hotel rooms donated for the night!!!  I texted some of my Bike & Build teammates about this, because this never happened on our trip.  Only one of the rooms was available, so we had to store a lot of bikes and bags in that one room.  Once we got everything out of the van, it headed back to Marengo to pick up the others (who, by the way, found a bar that was indeed open at the early hour of 8am and they apparently were acting reeeeeally silly on the van ride back).  We didn’t have a van to take us anywhere, and we didn’t even have all our bikes with us because some (like mine) got left behind for another shuttle to take.  So we walked to the mall, wearing our bike shorts, jerseys, bike cleats, and rain gear, because we didn’t have access to our duffles to change clothes.  I’m sure we were an interesting site to see walking around the mall in Des Moines.  Sean even broke down and decided he wasn’t going to wear his cleats in the mall, so he walked around in his socks.  We’re really classy.

We ate lunch at the food court and then decided we should see a movie at the theatre in the mall.  We saw Jurassic World, which I was not opposed to considering that Chris Pratt stars in the film.  It was cheesy, but it wasn’t like we had anywhere else to be or anything else to do.  And I mean, I could stare at Chris Pratt all day:

We were picked up from the theater when everyone else had arrived in the afternoon.  We were assigned to various hotel rooms, which we were calling “home” for the next two nights.  The hotel had a bar downstairs, and of course we were asked by many about the 4K (many of us were wearing 4K gear).  I spoke with a woman named Bridgett, who was a cancer survivor and a cyclist.  She thanked us for what we were doing and told me about how drastically your life changes in a day when you get such a diagnosis.  She said that her goal is to ride in RAGBRAI, which is an annual ride event held in Iowa every July.  Essentially, you bike across the state of Iowa in about a week.  Different towns and cities across the state host the event every year, so the route is never the same.  I think it’s a huge reason for why people actually like cyclists in Iowa (not EVERYONE, but more than usual).  It’s an event that brings a lot of money to local communities, and we’ve been told that in previous years, as many as 25 countries have been represented at the ride.  I’ve been wanting to do it since first hearing about it on Bike & Build, and I told Bridgett that she should look for me in my 4K for Cancer bike jersey (or a Bike & Build one hehehe) next year, possibly!  When I told her I wanted to dedicate a ride day to her, she teared up.  I’m so thankful to be meeting such great individuals across the country and to be supporting them in their survivorship.