The most recent days of the trip were spent in Asheville, NC. Yesterday we had a build day and the group worked with two different organizations. My group worked with Mountain Housing Opportunities (http://www.mtnhousing.org) while the other group worked with Asheville Habitat for Humanity. MHO is an extremely fascinating group to work with and their goals are inspiring. It's very community driven and is worth reading about on their website. After a day of priming multiple rooms, my group joined up with the group at the Habitat build site for a wall raising.
The wall raising was one of the most amazing things I've been a part of while working with Affordable Housing Groups. We witnessed the first wall of a home being raised, the family getting to see that, and a community joining together.
The first thing this morning, my friend Emily woke me up with the words "you get to ride today!!" and the biggest grin on her face. Nearly everyone in the group hugged me or high fived me this morning out of excitement for me to rejoin the ride. Those encouraging words and actions meant more to me than my team members will ever know.
We rolled out of Asheville, NC around 8:30 this morning on our way to Waynesville, NC. Only about a 30 mile ride with some relatively hefty hills. It was such a beautiful ride coming through the mountains and getting to see some gorgeous views. Well worth struggling up those hills.
I rode with a wonderful group today that was careful to go a speed I could keep up with and would not fatigue myself too much for fear of reinjuring myself. We took a few breaks at the tops of huge hills and also at a carnival. Sadly, it was closed but we still got our picture taken!
The entire group opted to meet at Lake Junaluska instead of going straight to the church where we are spending the night since we had about 4 hours to kill. It was so gorgeous and created a time for us all to hang out without the pressures of chores, biking, or trying to get enough sleep. After a lunch of whatever we could scrounge up in the coolers, we waded in the lake, some hung up hammocks, others napped under the trees, and all just had a relaxing afternoon.
Before heading to our host site, we had our "town hall meeting." This meeting is weekly and consists of "highs and lows," switching chore groups and just general announcements or messages from the leaders.
This past week was a challenging one for everyone on the trip, whether emotional, physical, or mental. The point of sharing our highs and lows is to create an open forum where we all can be honest and share our thoughts from the previous week. It's an emotional experience hearing everyone's low because it makes people vulnerable but it's also emotional to hear their high because you know they've conquered something. At this point in the trip, we are all invested in each other. We want each other to succeed and accomplish this great feat of biking across the country.
While sharing with each other, I was completely shocked to hear a few of the highs ... That included me. I never imagined my actions towards others made such an impact and helped them. Hearing that I had a part in somebody's high moment for the week moved me to tears. Especially once I revealed my low. My low for the week was riding in the van. The rides that I missed were some of the toughest our group will encounter. People bonded over those achievements and I was an onlooker. I felt like I couldn't share those moments with them and like I was an outsider. For people to tell me I had a part in such a pivotal moment for them, whatever that moment might've been, my heart couldn't have been happier. They were all included in my high: putting on my Bike and Build jersey again for the first time in 9 days. And seeing people be completely overjoyed and excited for me to bike with them again.
These are the moments I'll never forget. These moments are what Bike and Build is all about. We all struggle differently, but we are all a group, a team, a family. We are all doing something incredible, and the best part is that we are doing it together.
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