andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Charlottesville, VA!!

On Tuesday we biked here, and for the past two days we have been helping build with Habitat for Humanity here in C'ville.  A handful of group members, including two of the leaders, went/are going to UVA so they know the area which is cool!

The ride here

We took 15N for like 25 miles which wasn't super fun, but for the last 20 miles we turned onto some nice country roads which were awesome.  Emma and I were both reminded of Blacksburg, as the roads were shaded by the trees and there were some small hills!

Going up one of those hills, I happened to be riding with Caroline for the first time when she broke her chain! Luckily, Mark also showed up with a chain tool and I was able to get here bad link out, a new one in, and she finished the day on it!! First time I've had to do it on the road, and glad that I knew how to help her out.  She also happened to take a slide off the road, and I got to use those four bads of medical supplies that I brought to hook her up! The supplies are now in the group med box, which is where I had hoped they could go all along, and I haven't tried to put my box back together yet but it should be roomier!

Coming into town, I was riding with two wahoos, Will and Emily.  Emily was suuper excited to be back in Charlottesville and lead us all into town fast haha.  We stopped at the "lawn" and got a UVA history lesson.  I was okay being on the road with four UVA people, but as I got closer I had to put my Hokie arm warmers on and hold back to boo's haha.

I overcame my predispositions though, got a bottled cheerwine, and admit that it is a pretty cool town!  We got dinner at the Haven, and went out to Southside bar (or something like that) and then to a karaoke bar.  They couldn't talk me into singing, but it was a lot of fun haha.

My favorite quote of the trip so far was the night before, when we all laid down on our thermarests and I heard this psssssst sound and was like "Someone is deflating!" Definitely had to be there, but it was great lol.

Hanging out the day before leaving for Charlottesville

The nice country roads to C'vill

The UVA lawn

Build Day 1

Our trip is partnered with Habitat in Charlottesville, and we give them a yearly donation of $35,000 in addition to two days of labor.  That (32x2x8) 512 man-hours, one person would have to work for 13 weeks to match that!

There were three sites that we went to: a mixed income community close to the town, a house they are reselling out in the booney's, and the Habitat ReStore.  For the first day I worked on a house in the mixed income neighborhood, and put up fireproofing external drywall because the houses were too close by code.  It was pretty heavy, and we put up scaffolding for the second floor and put Tyvek wrap over the whole thing.

It was good, I really wished I had taken a time lapse of the whole thing, it would've looked so cool going up!

The whole group at the build site, we biked there!

Ready to build!!

Build Day 2

We switched up the groups and I went out to Louisa to help get a house ready for some new occupants.  The grass hadn't been cut this year, and it was up to my shoulder almost! When our person, Andrea, asked us who wanted to mow I thought of how I liked mowing our yard and riding around, so I volunteered.  She said the mower was in the shed, and I headed to get it.  I was first thrown off by the fact that the door was a foot off the ground...and when I opened the doors, a push mower!! And I looked for that sticker that says "self-propelled"...but it was nowhere to be found.

So, I spent all day today doing what I think could be best described as cutting through the Amazon forest with a push mower.  By lunch, there was not a dry spot on my shirt! I worked that mower right into the ground, until it starting spewing white smoke from burnin up all it's oil.  The house looked way awesome after our group was done, with the others mulching and spreading stone onto the pathways and cleaning and weeding and weedwhacking while I was mowing.

Tonight we had dinner at Bike and Build alumni's house, and it was delicious! Our town hall meeting was great, and I'll end this post by sharing my own highs and lows.

Lows: missing out on streaking the UVA lawn and the sprinkler park today, and my performance in thumper lol

Highs: helping Caroline with her bike, and geniunly enjoying myself in Charlottesville over the last few days

Looking forward to: climbing hills tomorrow, leaving this time zone, and the beard off that has begun with the men shaving tonight!!