Day 1: Orientation

May 29, 2022 in Yorktown, Virginia

After months of training and almost a year of fundraising, the trip has finally begun! I keep being struck by waves of 'man, I'm glad to be here.'

My dad and boyfriend dropped me off with all my things this morning after a truly fantastic omelet and a lot of hyping me up. As soon as I met my team though, I felt pretty much good to go.

The team spent the morning, afternoon, and honestly most of the evening rotating through get-to-know-you games, policy briefings, and safety orientations. Pretty much an extremely action-packed day of powerpoints. Luckily, I read every piece of Bike and Build material I can get my hands on so there weren't any big surprises.

We're staying at St. Luke's Methodist Church in Yorktown, which is huge, air conditioned, and really quite nice. The hosts are beyond sweet too, and cooked us delicious tacos and cookies for dinner, and took us all out for frozen yogurt after! I had a mix of peach, dole whip, and cheesecake with strawberries, chocolate chips, and gummy sharks. It rocked.

After our trip to Sweet Frog (the frozen yogurt shop), we headed back to the church to wind down for bed–– big day tomorrow!

I had a couple of hiccups today, as can be expected on any trip like this. For one, as I was walking in, I decided I didn't have room to bring my knee brace. Since I no longer have to use it for biking, I thought I probably wouldn't need it. Two or three orientation games in, though, I asked to have it shipped to me at my next drop site.

I also left my super expensive quick-dry towel at the hotel we stayed at last night, which caused about fifteen minutes of sheer, sweaty panic. My friend's parents are staying nearby and will be able to bring it on Tuesday, so crisis averted. Unfortunately, panic was not.

All in all, I'm really impressed with myself for handling the goodbyes and unknowns today super bravely. Of course I miss my parents, brother, boyfriend, and dog already, but I feel at home with the people on my team. More than that, though, is a realized that everyone is deeply freaked out and feels unprepared. I'm just glad I'm not the only one!

We have another night here at St. Luke's in Yorktown, but in the morning we will be packing up our bags and performing our chore duties just like we would on any ride day to get into the swing of things. That means 6am wake-up, which I am less than excited for. But it also means getting fully dressed up and hitting the road, which I am thrilled about!

I'm ready to get pedaling!