"I'm bonking..."

Okay, Friends. I've been on the road 17 days and biked 706 miles. I have found internet to be scarace on the road and therefore, I haven't been able to update often.

So far, so good. I love it. We've biked in rain, wind, over the White and Green Mountains, the Adirodaks, and accidently had around a 100 mile day (we got lost). I can't believe tomorrow I'm going to be in Ohio!

Please check out the offical blog of my route!!!

http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=NUS&year=2010

So how about them Amish?

Alright, so I've been hanging out with the Amish in Lancaster County, PA for the past week. It was nice to stay and visit with one of my favorite families, the Snaders, and bike smooth rolling hills and not East Tennessee "mountains". This week I've worked on an Amish farm (Hey there, Verna and Rueben Stoltzfus, I'm going to guess you will never read this), visited Hersey Park, enjoyed a camp fire with the locals and ate some great Pennsylvania Dutch cookin (Thanks Gram and Pop!!!).

Later this evening (Saturday) I will be taking the mid-night train to Boston and will join my Bike and Build team in Portsmouth tomorrow. We will have a 2 day orientation and begin biking on Tuesday! I have to admit that I'm curious to see how my cycling skills compare to the other riders but.... I don't mind being the caboose.

MAIL DROPS

Bike & Build groups will receive mail approximately once a week while on the road, and welcome letters and packages from friends, family, and supporters. Mail will be delivered through USPS General Delivery. Please be sure to send mail in ample time to arrive prior to the pick-up date and only through the United States Postal Service (The Post Office will not accept mail from any other carrier). Address mail to:

Bike & Build
Attn: CYCLIST NAME
General Delivery
STREET ADDRESS (if noted)
CITY, ST ZIP

Please mark the envelope or package with "Please hold for pick-up on DATE."
Late mail will be forwarded to the mail drop two weeks ahead. Late mail from the last two mail drops will be returned to sender.

June 24
319 Newport Rd
New London, NH 03257

July 01
214 S. First St.
Fulton, NY 13069

July 08
4307 Station Ave.
Ashtabula, OH 44004

July 15
75 Commerce Dr.
Grayslake, IL 60030

July 22
420 2nd St
Pepin, WI 54759

July 29
401 Irvine Avenue Northwest
Bemidji, MN 56601

August 04
361 Main St.
New Town, ND 58763

August 12
37 South Central Avenue
Cut Bank, MT 59427

August 19
204 North 4th Avenue
Sandpoint, ID 83864

August 25
600 Front Street
Lynden, WA 98264

It's gettin real...

Alright. Update time. 

1) I'm officially a UT graduate.

2) Fundraising-Donate to Liz Ball at bikeandbuild.org !!!! 

3) I've been training like crazy

So best thing I've ever done in my life- I joined Knox Revolution, a women's only bike club in Knoxville. I can't say enough about this group. Without them I probably be dead in a gutter somewhere... really, biking alone is scary. 

The women I ride with are amazing and keep me on my toes (or on my bike, I should say).  The group offers rides every weekday,

now I don't have any excuses. Not only has KnoxRev helped me physically train, I have received so much encouragement and everyday I ride, I have more and more confidence about my journey this summer. THANKS GALS!!! 

I can see the light....

On Saturday January 23 West Bikes hosted a benefit ride for Bike and Build! The weather was perfect! I still can't believe how many people showed up; around 55

people signed the roster! Nolan and I raised a little over $600!

Thanks so much Fares (owner of West Bikes) for making this possible!

I realize I haven't "blogged" in quite some time. It's not that I've been abandoning my Bike and Build duties, quite the contrary. Bike and Build is all I think about. While I'm trying to balance my fundraising efforts with my training, I have to admit I feel like I'm doing more peddling than pedaling. For some reason the actual biking is not as hard as the fundraising. I'm constantly figuring out how I can bring up Bike and Build in conversations with strangers (and friends and family, for that matter)  and gracefully hand off my "Support Liz" business cards before they realize what hit them! All the scheming!  This is what's exhausting! Shoot, I'll my ride bike all day, every day over this. And to those of you who I gently or not so gently guided to this blog... thank you. 

 Luckily, many of my fundraising efforts have been successful. Nolan Wildfire (a student at UT, who is also on my B&B route) and I sold (or should I say, "gifted" for legal purposes) "Eric Berry for Heisman" beer (or coke) coozies. I have to attribute this idea to Nolan; I didn't even know who Eric Berry was when we started this business endeavor but regardless, it worked! In a nutshell, we had around 3,000 of these coozies made and walked around the home footballs games in our biking gear giving them away for donations to Bike and Build. 

 Nolan and I decided we made a pretty good fundraising team so we have another project in the works... a benefit bike ride! Thanks to Fares Schlank, owner of West Bikes in Farragut, we are hosting 56 and 92 mile rides on Saturday, January 23. There is a suggested donation of $20 to Bike and Build. If you are interested... 

http://www.westbicycles.com/index.php/year-round-rides/hot-winter-soltice.html

The Beginning

Okay, so I'm biking across the country and building homes along the way. I've got that much figured out...now the fundraising. If anybody has any ideas, PLEASE pass it along. At this point a great suggestion is just as good as a donation. Well let me take that back, a combination of the two would be greatly preferred.