Bike and Build
I Biked Across The Country Today
Jul 31st
That’s right, we did it. All 31 riders of CUS 2010 ran frantically into the icy Pacific Ocean upon our arrival in Cannon Beach as a group. We danced, screamed, cheered, did the hakka, and popped champagne in the ocean with so much adrenaline we couldn’t even feel how cold the water was. After this, we hugged our parents and I am super glad that my Mom and Aunt Becky (and Sonya and Olivia) were able to come see me complete this journey. And we concluded this celebration with the ceremonial wheel dip into the ocean. My rear wheel went in the Atlantic 2.5 months ago, and I literally rode my Kazane into the water today. I’m going to talk about the (uneventful) ride here, and go back to talk about the past three days if I have time.
Riding into the ocean!!
Mom and I 
Bike and buuuiiiiilllllldddd!!
The ride here was again relatively uneventful, as we inched toward our goal. We set out with different strategies on how to ride today, as I was super eager to complete the journey and arrive at the Pacific but others wanted to savor this last ride for every second. We were going to ride into town and into the ocean as a group though, so those of us readier to get to Cannon Beach had to wait for the others who chose to take a two hour coffee break in the morning and ride real slow, which was some of the toughest waiting, but we all got there. It was something like a 65 mile ride today, which could have been done by 10AM any other day but we didn’t arrive at the beach until 4:30PM. After two months of working hard toward completing this one goal, I’m not sure I can say fully what it means, because it hasn’t really sank in yet entirely. I rode Kazane clear across the country, coast to coast, mile for mile.
Tonight, after we got back and showered (warmed up) we had a picnic with other family and friends who had come to witness loved ones finish. I was super hungry, about 8 hours after my 10AM lunch, and we had cold cut sandwhiches and tons of desserts, and good beer. I wasn’t so much a fan of the Inversion IPA, but would definitely recommend Alaskan Amber, of which I saved a bottle cap for my bike. We got to meet other rider’s family which was great, our leaders spoke, and then we had a fire down by the water. My Mom and Aunt left after awhile, and I spent some more last minutes with the CUS family over beer and these really cool mini-hot-air-ballon wish things before hopping in the van to come back to church for the night. Everyone is asleep by this point I’m sure, and I’ll be saying goodbyes tomorrow at Noah’s house in Portland…
To Vernonia (I can smell ocean!)
Jul 30th
Today we left Gresham and went through downtown Portland, into the mountains, and began crossing the Coastal Range on our way to the ocean. I got some great donuts in town at Voodoo, and was relieved of my sweep duty with Laura by Sharif and Heather. The hills were very steep out of town, as were the descents, and we camped tonight for the last time. Our last official night together, we celebrated with some paper plate superlative awards and drinks.
Portland, the city of bridges
Voooooodooooooo
Cool looking coffee from Stumptown....wonder if they tried to do that
Jesse chowin down on a waffle sandwhich thing haha
Sarah C got a tandem and Jake brought it out that night, so she could ride the last day. I spent some time getting seats and pedals switched onto it, and we were all really excited that she was going to be able to ride into Cannon Beach the next day. Hill-master Marky Mark was going to be on the front of the Tandem pulling up the hills, and it turned out to be a very good thing, he actually got tired!
Maple bacon bar! (at voodoo)
I slept again the hammock which was excellent, I love being creative finding places to hang it. We were so close to being done, I didn’t even sleep that well I was so excited and was ready to go in the morning. I thought I took a picture of my hammock job, can’t find any of the campsite though, oh well haha.
Building in Portland
Jul 29th
An excellent build day, we were all put to work and got a lot done! We got shuttled to the build site, which was closer to the city, and then shuttled back for showers, and shuttled downtown for dinner at a brewery arranged by an alum, Sarah, and her roommate who coordinated our build with Habitat.
Hab-e-tat (Kristen's michigan accent haha)
My group consisted of Joe, Zach, Jesse B and myself. A power build team if there ever was one, so we thought. We were putting up the siding, which was pain-in-the-@$$ off-brand “hardy board.” It didn’t cut well, and we had to try quite a few times to make some pieces that fit around stuff. By lunch, we had hung a net of 0 boards haha, as we had to take down two from the day before, but we had the hang of it by then and made some real progress by day’s end. Lots of pictures actually!
Dave with the kitten
And Sarah G
Kitten!
Christina
is
a
model
The roofs before we began
Jen loves her coffee haha...it's gross
He's also ready for a day of building!
Zach hammerin nails
Look at the concentration by Joe
Jesse must've got the short straw, he pick axed the hard ground all day haha
Noah's building at home
Caroline model shot haha
Marky Mark, he got a sweet tool belt somewhere
Finished roof!
It was a long day for the dog too haha
And here is my group’s work:
Start
Finish
The dinner was at Green Dragon Brewery, and I got have two excellent local beers, an amber and a stout. They had door prizes, and as I was leaving I snagged a t-shirt haha. I caught a ride and navigated with Debbie, Jen’s Mom up to Alberta Street where there was this HUGE street fair goin on. It’s called Last Thursday, and the last thursday of every month people come out to sell homemade stuff, play really awesome music all over the place, make food, and hang out. It was about 20 blocks long, and the streets were full of people for every one of those! At the end of the night I got a ride back in the B&B van so I didn’t have to take the bus. The concentration of hipsters was crazy, soooo many bikes and bike art and fixies…and I felt like I fit right in with the mohawk haha.