> I just felt like throwing something out into
> the abyss that is know as the rinkworks forum.
> Does any of you like to bike? Regularly? Share a
> tale, would ya?

heh. you probably didn't want to ask that. But you did, so, those of you who are sick of hearing about Bike Trip, don't read this.... I thinhk it'll be a more complete description of it than I've given on here before, though.

This summer (end of july/beginning of august) I biked from Washington DC (approximately) to Nags Head, North Carolina with my youth group - a distance of 360 miles, about - in 5 days. Deciding to go on the trip is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done. I had known about it for a while and really wasn't planning on going, but in a moment of stupidity, I changed my mind and signed up. The funny thing? I didn't own a bike, and I didn't really know how to RIDE a bike. My mom was getting a bike anyway, so she decided to let me use it for the trip, so I was all good on that account.

So, I got the bike, and I started biking a LOT in preparation - the trip was about a month away at this point, I suppose. I went biking with my counselor from church one day and on a 20-mile bike prep day the next, and had one heck of a time. My dad checked the bike out in the next couple of days and we discovered that the brakes were screwy - the front brake was basically on the front wheel all the time. So, he fixed them, and it was much easier after that. For the next couple of weeks I rode (usually) at least 12-14 miles per day. We live really close to Rock Creek Park (the biggest National Park inside a city in the US) so I would ride down the RCP trail from my house to downtown, then back. I still had no clue how I was going to make it on Bike Trip, though, considering that the shortest day was 45 miles, the longest 100.

The first day did eventually come, though. We got up way too early - it was like, I dunno, 3 or 4 something in the morning - because we had to be at the place from which we were leaving, which was 45 minutes away at least, by, I think it was 5:30. Way too early, anyway. You'd be amazed at how quiet 100 people (teenagers and staff, who were mostly early 20s) can be when they're all very tired. We eventually left, though - the feeling I got over those first few feet was amazing - but nothing compared to the way I would feel sometimes later on in the trip. But I'll get to that later. When I left I was still fully planning on having to ride in the van at some point during the trip. I totally mispaced myself the first few miles of the trip and ended up tired and way ahead of all of my friends. oopsie. I ended up walking my bike up one hill, but so goes it. First break I was within the first 5 (out of about 25) girls there - I was very proud of myself. I made it to the second break towards the middle of the pack - and the front of the girls - as well. My brother wanted to ride the third leg with me, which was very nice of him, considering he's a lot faster than I am, so we took off with everybody else. About half way through, we came upon Janice, who was a somewhat good friend of mine, and she rode with us to lunch, and actually rode with me the rest of the day - and the rest of the trip. We discovered that we went the exact same pace, so why bother trying to ride with anyone else? The first day was 55 miles, I believe - although maybe it was 65, I get the first and second days mixed up. That night we stayed at a community college in Fredricksburg, VA - thank goodness there were showers there. We slept on the floors of a couple of classrooms (not very well, actually) and got up early the next morning to take off again, this time for Ashland, Virginia.

The second day was one of the worst of the trip. There were lots of hills. Hills hills hills. Arg. The day started out well - I got into a nice draft line of 4 people towards the beginning and we were flying. You go so much faster in a draft line, it's incredible. By the second or third leg, we had a lot more than 4 people - I think our draft line was up to ten at some points. People who could go a lot faster than us would hang on the end for a while, then shoot off ahead. There was one very nice break after some biggish hills, we were there for at least 45 minutes waiting for everyone to catch up. It was the very end of the day where things got nasty, though. There were some huge hills with no downhill before them to get some speed on. I made it up all of them, though - I never would have done it without one guy, Tom, though. he stuck with me through all the hills - we took breaks together when we needed them, and we made it. The SHP was marking the last turn before our big break toward sthe end (a turn marker being the person who stands at the turn and tells you to turn). I was exhausted when I got to him, and when I asked him how much farther it was, he told me 2 miles.... I almost fell over. Then I almost killed him when found out that it was 20 feet past the turn. So we had a nice long break there - I was towards the end of the group, but there were more people behind me - before we biked the last mile to where we were staying that night (a small church). We got enough time to change into our bathing suits, and then we biked a mile to a swimming pool. That night some of my friends and I managed to grab the room with the air conditioner - heavenly.

The third day was probably one of the nicest of the trip. I'm now going to take a little time to talk about the wonderfulness that is biking early in the morning. We left every day by 6, I think - before the sun rose, anyway. That early, there's no one out - we had to be extra quiet while packing and loading up the Ryder (we rented a Ryder to hold our luggage and the food, then the bikes on the way home). It was always slightly light out, and chilly, at least comparatively, which made for easy riding. This was the beginning of August, which is hot enough in DC, and it got even hotter as we moved south. We usually went at least 20 miles on our first leg, and we often wanted more. But ANYhoo.... the third day had lots of nice rolling hills, and as we drew closer to Jamestown and Williamsburg, there were lots of Historical Markers, old plantations, stuff like that. For the last couple of legs Janice and I drafted off of one of the staff guys who was absolutely HUGE, which made for relatively easy riding. About 3 miles before the end of the day, my bike got a flat tire. Janice stopped with us, but the guy we were drafting off of kept going. One of the vans stopped for us, and the guy who was driving it picked up my bike, but offered to ask someone who had finished if I could borrow their bike so I could finish the leg. I hadn't ridden in the van yet, and I didn't want to then. While we were waiting for him, my brother passed us. The entire group of junior guys passed us. I was furious - we would have made it before them. We really would have. We hadn't made it anywhere before them prior to that, and we didn't for the rest of the trip. A girl did let me borrow her bike, though, so I finished the day - among the last people, but I finished. We spent that night at a campground in Jamestown.

The next day we had a break. We got to hang out at the campground, go to Busch Gardens, or go to a Water Park. 3 of my friends and I, along with most of the junior guys, stuck around at the camp sight. We had an absolutely awesome day. The morning was weird, but over the course of the day, we did what can only be described as bonding. For those of you who have read the poems on my webpage, that day is what "Ten" is about. I'm not going to describe the day, because that poem does it pretty well.

The next day we biked, um, I think it was 3 miles, to a ferry which took us across, oh jeez, whatever body of water Jamestown and Williamsburg are on. After a few Titanic jokes and many pictures, we realized that it was beautiful - moving across an open stretch of water as the sun rose, watching the clouds change colors.... wow. The other people on the ferry with us were all sitting in their cars reading their newspapers. we thought they were silly, ignoring such beauty. That day was nice - only 45 miles, mostly flat. We got to the place we were stopping (Suffolk, Virginia) in time for lunch. Then we piled into the vans (took us 2 trips) and went to "The Barbie House" (looked more like Dreambuilders to me, though). These people who attended the church where we were staying at that night offered to let the whole group come to their house, a cute white thing with pink and teal trim. They had a swimming pool, tennis courts, a half-basketball court... it was amazing. We had a lot of fun there, but eventually went back to the church.

The fifth and last day of biking was our longest - 106 miles. It was basically flat, but the wind was going stright against us most of the day, as we were getting closer and closer to the beach. The beginning was pretty good, we had a nice draft line going, but later in the day - towards the very end in fact, when we were already worn out, I fell over. There was some weird change in the pavement, and bam, ow! My knee and elbow were all scraped up. I got a couple bandaids from the next passing van (although they came off, since I was all sweaty), and started biking again, only to discover that my bike was awfully messed up. We flagged down the NEXT van, and the guy driving it fixed my bike, at least somewhat (the front brake had broken). We only had a few miles to go until the beak before the bridge, and it was hrad going - the wind was directly against us. We made it, though, and we didn't have near enough time to rest before it was time to tackle the bridge. For those of you who have been to the Outer Banks before, you know that the bridge would be vicious for bikers. My brother rode it with us, and we went really slow, just because Janice and I were scared out of our minds. WE made it safely over the bridge, and suddenly we were ten miles away from our final destination. Those were probably the ten easiest and the ten hardest miles of the entire bike trip. It was amazingly windy (we made my brother take the leasd the whole time)but just knowing that we were almost there made it a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. Coming in at the end, realizing that I had ridden my bike the entire way (except for a couple hills the first day), was probably one of the best feelings of my entire life. It was amazing.

We spent 2 days down in Nags Head. They were nice, but kinda odd, because we were all worn out and a tad on the emotional side. We had much fun, though.

I learned so much on the Bike Trip. A month before the trip started, I did not think I could do the whole thing. There was no way little old me could bike 360 miels. It was just plain impossible. But I did it. I discovered that I really can do things when I put my mind to them, as long as I ask God to help me through. The trip really was a bit of a metaphor for life. t's hard sometimes, sometimes it's straight uphill, but reaching the top is worth it. Sometimes you need to take a break and ride in the van, but there's ntohing wrong with that. You can't do it without friends to help you through. One of the days in Jamestown, I forget which, in the evening meeting, anyone who wanted to was invited to stand up and share what they had learned so far. I shared what I just said there - about how I didn't think I could do it before I started, but if I could do this, what couldn't I do - and our youth leader commented on how, after the struggle I had had on the prep days, he and the Senior High director had discussed talking to me about whether or not I was really able to do the trip. I'm glad they didn't - if they had, I probably wiould have given up - but it was a mark of how far I had come. The trip made me walk with Christ so much stronger than it had been before, and I am SO thankful that I did decide to do it - now I'm sure that it was God prompting me too, against my good judgment.

So, that's my biking story right there. I can't wait for spring so I can get MY bike (Christmas present) and start riding to shcool every day =)

uni"sorry it's so long..."peg