Philipsburg, KS 80 miles

Philipsburg, KS 80 miles
Despite the long mileage, everyone arrived at the host church by 1:30
pm, we are all such strong riders. The highlight of today was biking
by the Worlds Largest Ball of Twine! By far the little town's main
attraction and source of income. We were all able to add some twine to
it ourselves-it was the most exciting thing (besides us crazy Bike &
Builders of course) for a good hundred miles at least. Our hosts were
very generous and friendly, I've enjoyed talking to community members
of all the towns we stop in. Meeting people and both sharing with and
listening to them has been one of my favorite parts of this trip. One
particular woman, Eve, took a particular liking to me and showed me
the secret room where the bean bags and another couch were hidden.
Also the next morning she handed me some banana chocolate chip cookies
for me to do what I wanted with. I love people!!! I also trying
talking a couple high schoolers from the community into doing B&B once
they are old enough. They looked at me like I'm crazy and said there
is no way. After explaining the awesomeness that is Bike & Build and
directing them to the website, I can only hope they may change their
mind. This trip is proving to be the most incredible experience of my
life thus far. This day was Thursday which meant mail!! Thank yous to
the Meyer family for the shot blocks- they are great! Also to my
roommates/friends for you letters, cards, goodies and especially the
origami whale and dog :). Thank you Aunt Dianne and Uncle Don for the
card and gift card, to my Grandma Dykehouse for the kind words and
cash, and to Art and Elsie Terpstra for their encouraging card. Mail
day may be my favorite day of the week- the energy I get from friends
and family is imeasursable and I can't thank you enough. If you are
thinking about mailing me something, cards are always appreciated, as
are homemade goodies and any snack food, gift cards are also great.
Just a couple suggestions to those of you who are wondering what is
best to send :) Anything fun and small is a good choice too. OR you
can also comment on my blog to say hi- I love reading comments from
people!
peace and love-Kristen

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Beloit, KS

Beloit, KS
Um, I'm having a little trouble remembering what exactly we did.
Kansas roads are great though, flat with rolling hills. On the road we
stopped in the small town of Glasco, KS for root beer floats and
milkshakes at the local small town soda fountain shop. Later when we
got into Beloit we stopped at Another soda fountain and I got a
chocolate malt on the way to the city pool. I got wet in the pool,
napped in the sun, and eventually showered and headed back to the
church for dinner. That night we went to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D which
was SO great!! Cell phone service was spotty though so I couldn't get
the phone call I was so looking forward to from my lifegroup girls!!! :(

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Clay Center, KS 40 miles

Clay Center, KS 40 miles
Short day, everyone was into town by 11:30 am, and then went to
Wendys! The gift card from Aunt Dianne came in handy, thanks!!! It was
good that we ended so early because by 2 pm it was 97 degrees in
town, plus humidity. I spent my free time calling family and friends,
journaling, exploring town and just relaxing. Dinner then bike
cleaning, more phone calling and lastly movie watching, Kansas has
been mostly flat and vast, lots of open empty fields and the ocational
cow herd staring at you from a hill. Love it!

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Manhattan, KS 86 miles

Manhattan, KS 86 miles
A fast day, the road was straight, flat and not very windy. I was
lucky enough to ride with some fast people and had an average speed in
the 20s for the majority of the ride. We were even going 25 mph for a
while before I got stopped and dropped off the line because I needed
to catch my breath and fix my contact. I figured that air and vision
were both important and necessary for biking safely. Everyone arrived
to the host church by 2pm, which is pretty early considering the
mileage. After some napping and a great dinner, we all explored
downtown Manhattan and enjoyed ourselves a little later than usual
because we had a rest day the next day!!!

Rest day!
After a full month of biking or building every day, we enjoyed a day
off! My attempt at sleeping in was a failure and I was up at 7 am,
which I guess is sleeping in more than usual. The day was spent
watching Batman, the Dark Knight, getting a free massage, eating free
Chipotle burritos, getting a new phone from the verizon store, walking
around downtown, visiting a used book store and coffee shop, and a
thrift store. A potluck dinner from our lovely hosts and group
bonding with some head and back scratching followed by trying to jump
and stay on a massive bouncy ball and watching Dirty Dancing completed
our rest day very well!

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Lawrence, KS 61miles

Lawrence, KS 61miles
This day was an adventure! It started out on a paved bicycle path,
sounds nice and easy, right? Wrong! Yes it was fun but certainly not
the "easy" ride I was expecting. The week previous there had been
storms and flooding which left the bike path strewn with piles of
rocks, fallen trees, puddles, mud, sticks, barriers and dead fish. We
compared it to a video game, getting on and off our bikes and carrying
them over the fallen trees, yelling "fish left!" sharp turns to avoid
mud-it was so great! Later there was a gravel road, which wasn't
particularly great except for the fact that there was a big storm fast
approaching which encouraged us to go faster. It felt like a scene
from the wizard of oz, windy with ominous clouds up ahead and
surrounding. After we got on paved road once again the skies opened
up. Thunder, lightning, and rain with wind so hard it felt like hail!
We stopped underneath some trees for a little while, continued biking,
it started storming again and then we stopped again, this time at a
house. We sat on the porch and played with some puppies while we
waited out the storm. The rest of the ride was beautiful! We were
literally biking into the light, with the dark storm sky behind us. It
was wonderful, the whole ride this day was surreal and amazing. Once
we got to our host, a private school, we went swimming in the great
outdoor pool with a water slide! It was perfect.

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Kansas City, MO 94

Kansas City, MO 94 miles June 16-18
Wow, what a beautiful ride. The weather was really nice and so was the
scenery. I was sweep with Kathryn so we took it nice and slow, over
many rolling hills. I very much enjoyed the hills after lots of
fairly flat land. It was the longest ride I have accompished thus far
and that felt great. Because we were sweep and therefore the last
riders in, we came in late. I need to give a shout out to Kathryn
because this was her first day back on her bike after resting her knee
for a couple days. Not only was this the longest day any of us have
done, but it had hills! I am so so proud that she made it the whole
way, even through the last couple miles of horrendous hills right
before the church. It was a great day to sweep :) Dinner that evening
was amazing and so was the sky. There was a thunderstorm and then a
double rainbow. Jen, Laura, Andy and I stood outside for several
hours, just watching the sky change. The rainbow, sky, clouds and
sunset combination was breathtaking. So beautiful. I love nature!

Build day 1 and 2
Yes build day!!!! Slept in until 7 am which was great, and then
shuttled over to the Kansas City Habitat office. From there we split
into two groups, one for the warehouse to build walls, and the other
to deconstruct and reconstruct front porch steps from one of the first
Habitat houses built in KC. The KC Habitat is actually one of the
oldest Habitat affiliates (7th) of Habitat for Humanity International.
I worked with the porch group with our great constuction leader Jim,
who was a lot of fun to work with. It reminded me of working at my
home and school Habitat build sites. We finished that project in a day
and a half, and then moved back to the warehouse to build some dog
houses and organize lumber. The dog houses were made from scrap lumber
and to be sold at the ReStore, which I thought was a great idea. Lunch
both days was amazing! They grilled for us and had kabobs and pasta
and baked beans among other great foods. At the end of our first build
day we got free tickets to the Royals baseball game! So much fun! The
ball park had waterfalls, fountains and fireworks! The night of our
second build day I was able to meet up with two dear friends from
home, Jessy and Erica, it was so nice to go out to Panera bread and
Coldstone with them. A town hall meeting with warm fuzzies and later
journaling and blogging ended the night well.

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Sedalia, MO 61

Sedalia, MO 61
This day was kind of a down day. Moods were depressed, there were many
bike problems, it rained A LOT, and the Missouri drivers today were a
little rude. They would lay on their horns and yell profanity at us,
even though we were as far over as we could be on the road, biking
safely. By a sign that says "share the road" with a picture of a
bicycle on it no less. Ah well, we made it to our host church and it
was wonderful. After sorting through our coolers and food, condensing
and organizing to make things fit better, I took a hot shower and got
my laundry together because it's laundry day! Dinner was great: cesear
salad, cheese bread, spaghetti and green beans. The best part of the
night, howerver, was the suprise the host had for us. They brought in
a massage therapist and chiropractor! Whoever wanted could get a free
adjustment and massage of whatever they needed. It was marvelous!
Several of the girls actully cried with joy when this suprise was
announced. Every Bike & Build day is a GREAT day!!!!!

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