Date: 5/26/2015
Time: 9pm
Weather: Sunny, cloudy, few drops of rain
Location: Little Falls YMCA
Wake up call was at 5.40am but I had been awake since 5pm. Finally got off my bed at 5.20am to brush teeth and packed stuffs. We got everything for van packing by 6.15am and had breakfast after. The people in YMCA offered us a yoga class that started at 6.55am.
As soon as the yoga class ended, the groups started to roll out. I had Angelica, Khrystyna, Lisa, and Hannah B. riding with me today. We rolled out at about 7.30am. The first rest stop was at mile 18. That place was a beautiful lake with a little garden. There were a lot of ducklings too! They are all sooooooo cute hehe and I believe that I took more than 10 pictures of them hahahah :D The second rest stop was at mile 45. Besides PBJ we had popsicles too!!! It was soooooo good to be able to eat these cold food when the weather was so hot. :D
We didn't have a third rest stop because the route was shorter today. However, we did stop at Shop-A-Lot (not sure if I remember this wrong, but it's beside Family Dollar). Finally had the chance to pee haha :P Then we went on a few hills and finally arrived out stayover by 6pm.
The hardest part of today's ride was going through the bike trail. It was easy to bike on that because there was no traffic at all. But I didn't like it because of the loose gravel and my bike kept swirling. I felt like I was gonna fall and I was so tensed. I held on so hard to my handlebar that my fingers actually hurt. Then it started to rain in the middle of our ride, and I was thinking that I was gonna be so dead if it rained. This is my real nightmare. :3 Another hard part was going up 4 miles on some hills. It wasn't too bad because it's not just one big hill that we need to climb. It's more of like uphill, downhill a little, and more uphills. It's just long but not that steep.
Had a shower as soon as I arrived and I was late for dinner cause I really enjoyed the shower here. :3 Had short team meeting after the dinner and we are done by like 8pm. I'm gonna sleep early tonight because I wasn't getting enough sleep last night. It's time to sleeeeeep!
June 3rd is our next rest day. 8 more days. EIGHT moreeeee. My saddle sore is getting very serious now And it hurts a lot when I bike. My shoulder, arms, and knees are hurting a lot too. Even my toes are hurting and feeling numb at times. Everyone is going through the same thing, hurt but we're all still going strong. Love this spirit! I'm taking Naproxen every day just to make sure that the pain doesn't get too bad that I couldn't bike. Side note, my tan line is getting more and more obvious! I did put on sunscreen at every rest stop though, but I guess my skin is absorbing a lot of UVA and UVB. Lol.
Pen off. Day 3, 83 miles, 10 hours, doneeeeeeee! :D
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
Day 4: From "Bacon" to Albany, NY
Date: 5/25/2015
Time: 11.00 pm
Weather: Burning, so freaking sunny
Location: YMCA Albany, NY.
Today was the 2nd day of riding. Heard from someone last night that we were gonna do like 90-ish miles today. I was kinda nervous because I could barely pull through the 70+ miles we had on the first day. I was hoping that there'll be fewer hills, less elevation for today's ride.
Left Beacon (I like to call it Bacon hehe) church at 7.30am and had the first rest stop at about mile 22. Had some snacks at this gas station stop, and rolled out again at about 10 stg am. Second rest stop was at mile 48, as usual, had PBJ sandwiches and rolled out again. The part to get to the third rest stop at mile 70+ was the toughesr part because we had to go on more hills and we were all outta water. It was way hotter than yesterday. That was 4pm. Then we managed to pull through the final 20+ miles and rolled in to the Y by 7.10pm.
It was a tough ride with hills and stuffs. But one good part of riding bike across the country is that I get to see many beautiful places. Love those tiny streams, and huge bridge. It felt so good to be able to bike on the bridge. Felt dangerous yet peaceful at the same time.
Oh as soon as we rolled into the YMCA, they serve us with great great food. There were pasta, brownies, cookies, meat patty, sausages, bread, potato salad, chicken, etc. Also they have a swimming pool, laundry room, television, saunas, showers, and a huge ice hockey rink for us to keep our bike and sleep. To me, it felt like a reward. After you bike for so long, those are exactly what Ou needed. Good food, good shower. I am extremely grateful to have such nice host. Also the people here are extremely nice and they like to tallk to us.
I got a little cut today from my wheels. Heh no biggues, Im more worries about my knees. Oh I got stung by a bee today while riding. It stopped on my finger for less than 5 seconds I swear, but my fingers are alreadt swollen now. :/ Regardless of what happened, it was a great ride! I always thought that we'll not be able to pull through those hills especially when we're towards the end of ride, getting exhausted and all, SOMEHOW, just somehow we did manage to pull through. I don't know how it happened, but it's amazing. To those who fell terribly- Bryan and Corinne, take care and recover soon!
We're all fighters! We're strong!
My quote,
"Never stop pedaling"
Hahahah that was what I said to Lizzie but somehow it became like a quote. Gotta love these amazing friends!
Gotta be up by 5am tmrw, so off to bed now ! Ciao!
Again, pictures are on insta and fb. :) fewer pics today cause we were rushing through. 11 hours of bike ride, 90 miles, that was crazy tbh.
Time: 11.00 pm
Weather: Burning, so freaking sunny
Location: YMCA Albany, NY.
Today was the 2nd day of riding. Heard from someone last night that we were gonna do like 90-ish miles today. I was kinda nervous because I could barely pull through the 70+ miles we had on the first day. I was hoping that there'll be fewer hills, less elevation for today's ride.
Left Beacon (I like to call it Bacon hehe) church at 7.30am and had the first rest stop at about mile 22. Had some snacks at this gas station stop, and rolled out again at about 10 stg am. Second rest stop was at mile 48, as usual, had PBJ sandwiches and rolled out again. The part to get to the third rest stop at mile 70+ was the toughesr part because we had to go on more hills and we were all outta water. It was way hotter than yesterday. That was 4pm. Then we managed to pull through the final 20+ miles and rolled in to the Y by 7.10pm.
It was a tough ride with hills and stuffs. But one good part of riding bike across the country is that I get to see many beautiful places. Love those tiny streams, and huge bridge. It felt so good to be able to bike on the bridge. Felt dangerous yet peaceful at the same time.
Oh as soon as we rolled into the YMCA, they serve us with great great food. There were pasta, brownies, cookies, meat patty, sausages, bread, potato salad, chicken, etc. Also they have a swimming pool, laundry room, television, saunas, showers, and a huge ice hockey rink for us to keep our bike and sleep. To me, it felt like a reward. After you bike for so long, those are exactly what Ou needed. Good food, good shower. I am extremely grateful to have such nice host. Also the people here are extremely nice and they like to tallk to us.
I got a little cut today from my wheels. Heh no biggues, Im more worries about my knees. Oh I got stung by a bee today while riding. It stopped on my finger for less than 5 seconds I swear, but my fingers are alreadt swollen now. :/ Regardless of what happened, it was a great ride! I always thought that we'll not be able to pull through those hills especially when we're towards the end of ride, getting exhausted and all, SOMEHOW, just somehow we did manage to pull through. I don't know how it happened, but it's amazing. To those who fell terribly- Bryan and Corinne, take care and recover soon!
We're all fighters! We're strong!
My quote,
"Never stop pedaling"
Hahahah that was what I said to Lizzie but somehow it became like a quote. Gotta love these amazing friends!
Gotta be up by 5am tmrw, so off to bed now ! Ciao!
Again, pictures are on insta and fb. :) fewer pics today cause we were rushing through. 11 hours of bike ride, 90 miles, that was crazy tbh.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Day 3: First ride ! Manhattan to Beacon
Date: 5/24/2015
Time: 10.15pm
Weather: So damn hot, sunny
Location: Stayover at Beacon, NY (air-conditioned church)
We were all up by 5am (I wanted to be more relax so I was up by 4.20am). Had the van packed and breakfast (there was cereal, dried strawberries, and milk, YAY!), and were all out to the subway station by 6am. We took a subway to Damon Runyon to collect our bikes, headed to Battery Park and were ready to roll by 8am.
Personally, I think it was a hard ride today because we climbed like 9 hills (Or more) and we were going at 2mph at the steepest one. I actually fell cause I was going wayyyy too slow and I lost my balance. We ended up pushing our bikes uphill though.
The first rest stop was at mile 22; the second one was at mile 45. As usual we had PBJ (peanut butter and jelly) sandwiches for lunch. I had a super bad stomachache today and really wanted to poop. Lol. Everyone kept telling me to poop in the woods, but I didn't want to do that. Geli lor @@ I sprinted all the way to the stayover, going at about 14-19 mph so I could poop lol.
It wasn't too bad overall. The day felt so long. We reached our stayover at 7.30pm. It was a 11-hour ride. There were stops, flats, and stuffs, plus those crazy hills. Oh did I not mention how fast were we while going downhill? It was a good 30mph! Love love those speed!
Once we arrived at the stayover, we changed, unpack stuffs, and had dinner. The church was so kind that they donated 3 huge roasted chicken, cakes, breads, and salad to us. It was supposed to be just spaghetti and lentils :3 I even washed my hair in the sink so my hair smells super good now haha :D #seconddaywithnoshower
The thing I like about this ride is that no matter how exhausted we are, we always managed to pull through it. Waking up at 4.30am and biked for 11 hours? That's definitely not something everyone can do and is willing to do. Uphills downhills remind me of how life is always like that. Going through good and bad always make us a tougher person in a way. This is what you've to go through in life. If there's no uphill, no difficulties, there will be no downhills, and you'll not appreciate it when good times come. One last thing I like about this ride is that we're able to bike through beautiful places that you don't always see or go. I'm trying to make a video of it and will definitely try to combine and make a nice version ofthese amazing memories when the ride ends!
Everyone is already asleep and I should be sleeping too. I'm totally exhausted. Again, sorry that I can't post pictures in this blog cause I really need to sleep.
Follow me on instagram: @janelepooh this is where I upload photos from time to time throughout the day. Or just visit my facebook Jane Phang (sorry no link attached).
Good 73 miles for today! 90+ miles tomorrow! Hopefully there'll be fewer hills/mountains :3
Good nights lovelies!
Time: 10.15pm
Weather: So damn hot, sunny
Location: Stayover at Beacon, NY (air-conditioned church)
We were all up by 5am (I wanted to be more relax so I was up by 4.20am). Had the van packed and breakfast (there was cereal, dried strawberries, and milk, YAY!), and were all out to the subway station by 6am. We took a subway to Damon Runyon to collect our bikes, headed to Battery Park and were ready to roll by 8am.
Personally, I think it was a hard ride today because we climbed like 9 hills (Or more) and we were going at 2mph at the steepest one. I actually fell cause I was going wayyyy too slow and I lost my balance. We ended up pushing our bikes uphill though.
The first rest stop was at mile 22; the second one was at mile 45. As usual we had PBJ (peanut butter and jelly) sandwiches for lunch. I had a super bad stomachache today and really wanted to poop. Lol. Everyone kept telling me to poop in the woods, but I didn't want to do that. Geli lor @@ I sprinted all the way to the stayover, going at about 14-19 mph so I could poop lol.
It wasn't too bad overall. The day felt so long. We reached our stayover at 7.30pm. It was a 11-hour ride. There were stops, flats, and stuffs, plus those crazy hills. Oh did I not mention how fast were we while going downhill? It was a good 30mph! Love love those speed!
Once we arrived at the stayover, we changed, unpack stuffs, and had dinner. The church was so kind that they donated 3 huge roasted chicken, cakes, breads, and salad to us. It was supposed to be just spaghetti and lentils :3 I even washed my hair in the sink so my hair smells super good now haha :D #seconddaywithnoshower
The thing I like about this ride is that no matter how exhausted we are, we always managed to pull through it. Waking up at 4.30am and biked for 11 hours? That's definitely not something everyone can do and is willing to do. Uphills downhills remind me of how life is always like that. Going through good and bad always make us a tougher person in a way. This is what you've to go through in life. If there's no uphill, no difficulties, there will be no downhills, and you'll not appreciate it when good times come. One last thing I like about this ride is that we're able to bike through beautiful places that you don't always see or go. I'm trying to make a video of it and will definitely try to combine and make a nice version ofthese amazing memories when the ride ends!
Everyone is already asleep and I should be sleeping too. I'm totally exhausted. Again, sorry that I can't post pictures in this blog cause I really need to sleep.
Follow me on instagram: @janelepooh this is where I upload photos from time to time throughout the day. Or just visit my facebook Jane Phang (sorry no link attached).
Good 73 miles for today! 90+ miles tomorrow! Hopefully there'll be fewer hills/mountains :3
Good nights lovelies!
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Day 2: Living the New York Dream
Date: 5/23/2015
Time: 10.10 pm
Weather: Chilly, sunny
Location: Stayover at Brooklyn (church)
There were some complications with last night's stayover-Ben found out that it was connected to a homeless shelter and it was unsafe for us to pull a night there. So we had the chance to stay in a hotel in Manhattan instead. I believe the hotel was Belleclaire. There were 5 rooms in total, and we had to fit everyone and all our stuffs and bikes in the rooms too. We reached Penn Station at about 12am, took subway to the hotel, and finally got everything settled by 2am. I took a short bath last night before sleep.
I woke up at 7.50 am this morning just so that I could take another nice shower again. I spent about 20 minutes just taking that shower. You never know when you'll get to shower again. :/ Then everyone in my room was awake by 8.30 am and we were all gathered by 9.30am. We were running kinda late this morning. There was an event at Damon Runyon Research Center at 10am but we were late. They served us with super good breakfast-bagels with cream cheese, cakes, fruits, orange juice, and coffee. We got to meet 2 scientists who are currently postdocs at Rockefeller University. Heard that this university has pretty cool research programs!
The event ended at about 12pm and we were free to explore NYC on our own. I was in a group with Angelica, Lizzie, Khrystyna, Alex, Corinne, and Hannah B. We went to 9/11 memorial, see Statue of Liberty from afar, Rockefellar Plaza, Times Square, Central Park, and walked on Brooklyn bridge. We walked a lot today, well I guess that's a prep for tomorrow's 70'mile ride.
We met outside of the church by 8.30pm. Got our stuffs, unpacked, had group meeting, and now we're finally ready to go to bed. We've to be up by 5am tomorrow and get off by 6am. We'll be going to Famon Runyon Research Center to collect our bikes because we stored our bikes there today.
One story I want to share with you guys before I end this post:
I was in a subway this evening. There was this old man named Richard, despite his age, he stood up and gave his seat to one woman. I was sitting beside him and I felt bad cause I don't think young person like me should get the seat. So I stood up and told him to have my seat. Then he was like you're fine, I know you needed the seat. When I sat down, he looked at our quarter zip and asked so you guys are fighting Illini? Then I started talking to him about who we are and what the team is doing. "There are 28 of us, we're from the UofI, we bike from NYC to San Fran to raise fund and raise awareness for cancer. We chatted a little and before he got off the subway, he gave me $20 as donation. Isn't it amazing how people like him are so supportive and willing to put in $20 with just 5 minutes of chat? I'm so thankful for these amazing people I met and will be meeting. This is definitely gonna be a life-changing experience!
Tomorrow will be our first ride day! Time to get everything started! It's also time to say goodbye to my favorite city :( Bye New York! Off to bed now! Lights off!
Loves.
Time: 10.10 pm
Weather: Chilly, sunny
Location: Stayover at Brooklyn (church)
There were some complications with last night's stayover-Ben found out that it was connected to a homeless shelter and it was unsafe for us to pull a night there. So we had the chance to stay in a hotel in Manhattan instead. I believe the hotel was Belleclaire. There were 5 rooms in total, and we had to fit everyone and all our stuffs and bikes in the rooms too. We reached Penn Station at about 12am, took subway to the hotel, and finally got everything settled by 2am. I took a short bath last night before sleep.
I woke up at 7.50 am this morning just so that I could take another nice shower again. I spent about 20 minutes just taking that shower. You never know when you'll get to shower again. :/ Then everyone in my room was awake by 8.30 am and we were all gathered by 9.30am. We were running kinda late this morning. There was an event at Damon Runyon Research Center at 10am but we were late. They served us with super good breakfast-bagels with cream cheese, cakes, fruits, orange juice, and coffee. We got to meet 2 scientists who are currently postdocs at Rockefeller University. Heard that this university has pretty cool research programs!
The event ended at about 12pm and we were free to explore NYC on our own. I was in a group with Angelica, Lizzie, Khrystyna, Alex, Corinne, and Hannah B. We went to 9/11 memorial, see Statue of Liberty from afar, Rockefellar Plaza, Times Square, Central Park, and walked on Brooklyn bridge. We walked a lot today, well I guess that's a prep for tomorrow's 70'mile ride.
We met outside of the church by 8.30pm. Got our stuffs, unpacked, had group meeting, and now we're finally ready to go to bed. We've to be up by 5am tomorrow and get off by 6am. We'll be going to Famon Runyon Research Center to collect our bikes because we stored our bikes there today.
One story I want to share with you guys before I end this post:
I was in a subway this evening. There was this old man named Richard, despite his age, he stood up and gave his seat to one woman. I was sitting beside him and I felt bad cause I don't think young person like me should get the seat. So I stood up and told him to have my seat. Then he was like you're fine, I know you needed the seat. When I sat down, he looked at our quarter zip and asked so you guys are fighting Illini? Then I started talking to him about who we are and what the team is doing. "There are 28 of us, we're from the UofI, we bike from NYC to San Fran to raise fund and raise awareness for cancer. We chatted a little and before he got off the subway, he gave me $20 as donation. Isn't it amazing how people like him are so supportive and willing to put in $20 with just 5 minutes of chat? I'm so thankful for these amazing people I met and will be meeting. This is definitely gonna be a life-changing experience!
Tomorrow will be our first ride day! Time to get everything started! It's also time to say goodbye to my favorite city :( Bye New York! Off to bed now! Lights off!
Loves.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Day 1: Can we get off the train already?
Date: 5/22/2015
Time: 7.00 pm
Weather: Nice and sunny out, but it's cold in the train
Location: Still in the train
The train is moving so slow. The time is moving even slower... It has been 25 hours since we boarded the train yesterday. There was no stop, so it means our butts have been sitting on the same spot for this long.
It turned out that we're taking the longest possible route, going to south and go all the way back up to NYC. I don't know where we are now. I don't know what to do in here. I've been sleeping the entire journey haha. I slept at 6pm yesterday, woke up at like 10pm, then slept again at 1am; sleeping on and off throughout the night and finally woke up at 10.30am. Brushed my teeth and had my last lau sa pau for breakfast. Then I slept again till 5pm.
Some boring photos to make this post less boring:
There's no wifi here, and my battery drains so fast. There's nothing I can do to kill time, well except for sleeping. It's finally time to pay off all of my sleep debt, I guess.
The plan for later tonight is to get off the train station, grab a metro card, and travel for about an hour to our stayover location. We'll have a rest day tomorrow. There's an event with Damon Runyon research center in the morning, and we're free to explore NYC later in the afternoon.
Went to NYC last summer, and fell in love with it immediately. I'm glad that I'm back here again after one year! Hopefully I'll have the chance to go to NYC for one last time next summer before I leave the States. *cry a river* NYC is definitely my favorite city thus far. Maybe I'll change my mind after visiting San Francisco. Or maybe I'll love both cities. But isn't it awesome that this ride will be starting off from my favorite city and ending in my possible favorite city?
That's all for now! Will update more when more exciting things happen later tonight. If you read it tomorrow and nothing changes, it means that I fell asleep again! Hahaha
Time: 7.00 pm
Weather: Nice and sunny out, but it's cold in the train
Location: Still in the train
The train is moving so slow. The time is moving even slower... It has been 25 hours since we boarded the train yesterday. There was no stop, so it means our butts have been sitting on the same spot for this long.
It turned out that we're taking the longest possible route, going to south and go all the way back up to NYC. I don't know where we are now. I don't know what to do in here. I've been sleeping the entire journey haha. I slept at 6pm yesterday, woke up at like 10pm, then slept again at 1am; sleeping on and off throughout the night and finally woke up at 10.30am. Brushed my teeth and had my last lau sa pau for breakfast. Then I slept again till 5pm.
Some boring photos to make this post less boring:
And we just went pass DC!
Hi monument
Hi Dome!
There's no wifi here, and my battery drains so fast. There's nothing I can do to kill time, well except for sleeping. It's finally time to pay off all of my sleep debt, I guess.
The plan for later tonight is to get off the train station, grab a metro card, and travel for about an hour to our stayover location. We'll have a rest day tomorrow. There's an event with Damon Runyon research center in the morning, and we're free to explore NYC later in the afternoon.
Went to NYC last summer, and fell in love with it immediately. I'm glad that I'm back here again after one year! Hopefully I'll have the chance to go to NYC for one last time next summer before I leave the States. *cry a river* NYC is definitely my favorite city thus far. Maybe I'll change my mind after visiting San Francisco. Or maybe I'll love both cities. But isn't it awesome that this ride will be starting off from my favorite city and ending in my possible favorite city?
That's all for now! Will update more when more exciting things happen later tonight. If you read it tomorrow and nothing changes, it means that I fell asleep again! Hahaha
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