Starting with a Storm

June 3rd
Providence, RI to Pomfret, CT 40 miles (when all was said and done)

At 6 o’clock this morning Jose “You can’t stop the Soultrain” Soltren woke us up with his already too familiar, “Good morning Bike & Build. It’s 6 am. Today, we will be riding…” There was rain falling hard and resonating throughout the beautiful church, which housed us for our two nights in Providence.

Around 10 o’clock we mounted our iron steeds (actually our aluminum and carbon fiber steeds) and set off into the pouring rain heading towards the Main Green of Brown University for our send-off. In a moment of uncharacteristic absentmindedness, I left my brand-new fancy-pants neon-green raincoat at the showering facility, which didn’t reopen until noon. Biking does not mix well with wet and cold; I was shivering fiercely in a matter of minutes.

Luckily, the rain let up when we arrived at the Main Green, and the send-off was absolutely fantastic. There were a lot of people there: family, friends, significant others, the awesome French-guy who is the assistant director of Habitat for Humanity in Providence and even a news camera. People were really excited about what we are undertaking, and this helped to lift general morale in spite of the lousy weather.

After dipping our back wheels in the Narragansett Bay (you know, that whole ocean to ocean thing) we were off. Just outside of Providence a very small but tenacious shard of glass attacked my innertube. Apparently, road debris tends to be more ferocious when it’s wet outside (I’m assuming because things are more likely to stick to your tires).

After fixing my flat I found myself at the back of the pack. A number less experienced riders were having difficulty on the hills, and were insisting on walking up them. One of the girls, Miho, needed only a little encouragement, some minor gear-shifting instruction and the tiniest bit of goading on my part before she was conquering hills like a champion.

Lunch consisted of leftist peanut butter out of 35 lb. bucket, which was made and donated by a natural foods co-op at Brown, and jelly. This is a staple of Bike & Build. That and massages / back cracking.

New England is beautiful. The misty overcast weather was very fitting to the old farm houses and oak-studded forests. I loved the lush green moss-and-fern-covered landscape of Connecticut, with its endless stonewalls and speckling of ponds and lakes.

New England is, however, also cold. And rainy. After a day of riding in wet, cold conditions (it started raining again in the afternoon) and then not being able to find the church where were to stay for the night, two riders started suffering from hypothermia. I had noticed a couple minutes previously that Sam obviously wasn’t doing well, but he insisted that he just needed to keep biking. I should have taken more definitive action. Finn, who is making a documentary of our trip, realizing that Jay was in bad shape, stripped him of his wet clothes and gave him dry ones. I then informed Finn that we needed to help Sam as well. Sam got picked up by the van and was taken to the hospital later. It turned it out that he was minorly hypothermic and majorly hypoglycemic (and according to the doctor taking opiates… the old poppy seed bagel trick).

Oh yeah, and my friend Chip/Jeff got hit by a car. The driver of the car did not yield to oncoming Chips while turning right on red. Chip was fine, though shaken.

Later at the Church, the mother of a P2S alum came up to me and asked me if I needed a hug. I did, and she completely made my day.