my first bike tour

Our bikes loaded up












The golden gate bridge -pretty much before we started


315 miles in 5 days! I am so impressed with both me and my riding partners. We were planning on going about 60 miles a day, but on day one we didn't really know where we felt like staying in between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, so we just went straight to Santa Cruz; 101.4 miles in one day! We started across the Golden Gate Bridge and didn't take quite the straightest path (and didn't always know where we were going) which I believe is why we ended up at 315 miles, rather than under 300, but all the better! Anyway, this definitely has given me a boost of confidence, because I was getting afraid I wouldn't be able to do 100 miles in one day in two months. Now I just have to continue on and FUND-RAISE.
Anyway, on with my trip. So day 1 we did a little over 100 miles and since we had budgeted 60/day we figured we would just take it easy the rest of the trip, but we got bored so we just kept doing 60+ until our last day when we only had 20 left! We definitely could have done it in 4, I believe. Bike touring is my favorite thing ever! Along the way you happen along other tourers and form a little community. In fact, we brought someone we found along the way back with us. There was one night that three other tourers shared our campsite. I am wondering if it is just more common for us to find these people because we are riding along the pacific coast bike route or if this happens everywhere? No matter, it is an awesome thing to do and I am so stoked to be doing it. For some reason I have no idea how to format these stupid pictures into my blog. What a pain. Anyway, this is of my bike partners after we ate just chilling on the beach. Safeway pretty much saved our lives a couple of times since two of us are vegan and health food stores are hard to come by in the middle of nowhere. You have to eat a lot while you are biking. I am not looking forward to how much $$ I will have to spend on food during the trip. This whole post is rambling and I am just tired!

i don't spend enough time on my bike and build blog

I've just been thinking a lot about bike and build because....

1.) I was freaking out for about a week that I would have $2,000 by the 21st, but since there are a couple of large checks from my amazing brothers in the mail I am set (as long as they get in in time :::crosses fingers:::)
2.) I am graduating in a few days (I have two finals and one take home final--which I think I am going to take to the beach and do.. I'll bike there, of course!) and I am going to have a lot more time on my hands to ride (hopefully at least 4 good rides a week and cross train other days) rather than sitting on the (though, I've found, relatively realistic feeling ones) stationary bikes at the gym while I try to finish reading the literature covered on my finals.
3.) I am going on a mini bike tour from San Francisco back down here. About 300 miles in 5 days!
4.) I need to get a physical.
5.) I need to make my sweat equitable.
6.) I went to a bike swap meet today... these kinds of things always amp me up.

So mainly, I need to graduate! This quarter has been crazy for me with 20 units, 3 jobs, bike and build, and an animal rights campaign I was working on. It is making me all the more happy to graduate and be done with it. Once I graduate I will have time to call doctors and find out if they take my insurance and see if there is any time I can volunteer for habitat. Hopefully, they have something going on at this time of year, otherwise I will have to get tricky and find somewhere else that needs my services.

a little bit 'o fund-raising

well today i went on a little bike ride (25 miles?) which is pretty irrelevent and not why i am posting (but i do have a picture)....
THANKS, BOB!

anyway, on with something rad. i spent about 45 minutes just knocking on kids dorm rooms todays (the majority of them not being there due to it being a 3 day weekend and apparently people go home for those things; what?!) and raked in almost $40. I don't think most of them even cared what it was for, they just gave me their change and in some cases a few dollars. i am going to try to spend time in high traffic areas and ask people, too. really, the only reason people seemed to say no was due to not having change.

if anyone else wants to donate, you can go to www.bikeandbuild.org, click on the 'donate' tab, and choose 'espedal, hannah' from the drop down menu. thanks!

So today I rode 50 miles (all day) 48 of that being in the same ride, 2 of it just riding to the hospital. i now have a bike computer thing and it is pretty fun. that 50 miles took me 4 hours total, average speed being 12.5 mph. there was some knarly wind for a while today! what other fun stats can i give you? top speed was 31 mph and it was really warm (like 30 degrees C for a lot of it!). i don't think that my bike computer does cadence, though. i am still trying to figure it all out.

anyway, i like my bike computer, but i think i've decided that i need to do more 30-40 mile rides (consecutive days, too) because that 50 miles was pretty killer. now that i have stretched and gone to work i don't feel like i will be sore, but for a while i thought i was going to be hurting tomorrow.

anyway, for the ride me and my friend went to a little town called harmony, population 18. it was all closed down and stuff, so i took some pictures in the windows and outside. it's a really cute place.
there is so much nice weather and good bike places around here it is making me want to move back! i am pretty sure i am going to, because i don't know where else i would move, anyway! it isn't like moving back here would take me away from plans somewhere else.

my updates have been lacking

hey all! my updates have been few and far between because i have been so busy.
on wednesday i did a nice 35 mile ride that i remembered to take a picture during, so i'll edit this and get that up hopefully later today. i am about to go on a run because i decided to let myself sleep for as long as i wanted this morning and don't have enough time (before work) to bike for a few hours.
i currently have $630 towards my $4,000. eep.

this picture is to demonstrate the nice bike lane that i had. woohoo.

stupid rain

It's pouring here, and I don't have a fender (or proper rain gear, for that matter).

Must get that stuff.

Looks like I'll have to utilize the gym when I get time....

another ride

I biked 40 miles today, but I won't have another chance to do a longer ride until at least Friday. I also forgot to take pictures. It was raining on the way there, so once we got to the coffee shop I was concerned about warming up, not photographing things. heh.

I think my new MO for fund-raising is finding 4,000 people who will give me $1 each. Sounds easy enough....