Day 9: Hungry Mother Retreat Pt 1

June 14, 2022 in Marion, Virginia

Today, I arrived at the Hungry Mother Lutheran Retreat, where my team had already been quarantined for a week.

Jonathan and I had stopped for a quick lunch and a coffee, and swung by the post office to drop off some stuff that I couldn’t take with me before we arrived. Jonathan got to meet everyone, which was awesome because he had heard so much about them already.

Everyone seemed really happy to see me, which was super encouraging considering I had such a hard time deciding whether or not I should keep going. This made me pretty sure that I made the right choice!

When I got there, lunch had just arrived. We had pizza paid for by the host–– my team had been doing some work for him this week in exchange for staying at his cabin. His name is Chris, and he said in the future Bike and Build riders are welcome to stay with the Lutheran retreat.

Hungry Mother is a particularly beautiful host in the middle of nowhere, which is why this post will be a couple of days late. There is no service, but there are lovely cabins and facilities and simply beautiful surroundings.

I spent a lazy afternoon in a hammock and on the porch, reading my new book: "The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane." I only have about 60 pages left and I think I might just finish it tonight!

We rounded out the day with a team dinner. I had spaghetti and red sauce and lots of cheese.

Next, we moved into our team meeting, where we talked about what we were going to do, considering two more teammates had tested positive. This means that a total of eight teammates were positive (and the program Director). Ultimately, we decided that we were going to keep going on Thursday, the next day that we have Wi-Fi, and we would just contact the hosts in advance to make sure they were still comfortable with us staying with them. This might be camping for a couple of nights, but hopefully, that’s to a minimum. Since we already spent all day outside I’m always happy for some AC and a nice hard floor to lay down on.

We did our daily highs and lows and then we enjoyed some cookies sent by Ashley —very delicious and a huge hit. I got ready for bed pretty much straight after cookies, and I’m set to settle down for the night for a 7 AM wake up!