Day 4 of 69

First day of pedaling: done and done. We had a 6am wakeup call and got ourselves pumped up during breakfast and route meeting with Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA. We were all so excited! We had a delicious hot breakfast cooked by some of the members of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. It was delicious!! Then, we were off! We biked 6 miles over to the beach where we dipped our tires. Francie, Luke, and Matt Osgood (my surrogate family pre-Bike & Build orientation) came to see us off! We all got together and dipped our back tires and set off on a 60 miles trek. Some of the best miles I've biked thus far. It was so much fun and I had so much pride riding as a team!

However, after all of that great excitement and riding, I am exhausted! Having trained in Madison, I didn't get a whole lot of exposure to hills. Today was just a taste of the climbs to come, and already I thought my legs were going to burn off my body. 60 miles of which I felt like I rode 90% in 'granny gear' (aka the lowest gear).

Kate Terry, Tony Bohr, and I (midwest represent!!!!) formed a nice little group since we all kept the same pace today and dubbed ourselves Tony's Angels. True love already. We're now in Concord - New Hampshire's capitol. It's a really pretty, historic town.

Yesterday, I blogged before dinner and now wish I  would have waited to blog after dinner, because one of the highlights of the trip thus far occurred: the local Habitat for Humanity of the Portsmouth area delivered the news to an unsuspecting family that they had been chosen as recipients of a new, affordable home. Almost everyone was in tears - it was so moving and really showed us the impact of our efforts. The family was so gracious and we all enjoyed a great meal together. I am so proud of everyone on this trip - we get along great and we're really accomplishing some amazing things.

Now, I'm going to try to distract myself from the anxiety I have for tomorrow's climb. Missing everyone back home already!