Cycling Coast to Coast

Today was our first day of riding on our coast to coast journey.

Wake-up time was 6am this morning, and Skip blasted Dropkick Murphy’s (again) to get us up. After packing up all our gear and loading the trailer, we were treated to a delicious breakfast of scrabbled eggs, pancakes, french toast, sausages, cereal, and OJ.

Around 8:30, friends and family started showing up at the church, and we had a group photo on the church steps before heading to Revere Beach, where we dipped our rear wheels in the Atlantic and Kristian (one of the B&B program directors) gave us an inspirational send-off speech.

Because this was our first day of riding and it’s pretty hairy getting out of Boston, we rode in larger groups with our trip leaders. It was a short ride (23ish miles), and we got to Andover a little after noon.

We’re staying at the Pike School in Andover for two nights (tomorrow is a build day). The B2SB route is dedicated to the memory of Chris Webber, a former Bike & Build director who was killed in a car accident in New York last year. Chris was from Andover, and attended the Pike School. We’ll also be biking through Poughkeepsie, NY, where he went to college at Vassar. His family met us at the wheel-dipping ceremony this weekend, and we’ll be going to their house later today for dinner. When he died last year, it was only a couple months before the first trip left that summer, and Bike & Build almost went under. It was only with the help of many Bike & Build alums that the trips that summer were able to get underway, and B&B survived.

Have to go now for dinner, but as we have access to the library at the school, I should be able to blog again tomorrow, after our first build day.