We arrived in Colorado Springs on Saturday, July 2. This was my first sweep day, lucky enough to have a nice short day to sweep alongside Chuck. Sweeping allows time to relax during the ride and chat with another rider you may not ride with often, as such the case with us since Chuck is a fast rider and I am average to slow. We stayed at Sunrise Church on the uphill outskirts of CoSp.
12 of us spent our first night camped at Barr Trail trailhead in a parking lot in Manitou Springs, just 15 miles from CoSp. Asleep by 11p, up at 430a, ready to hike Pike's Peak. Only on Bike & Build do people use their last day off to ascend 7000ft to 14,110ft. Another group went white water rafting. There is no such thing as solid relaxation here :) Also note, it snowed on us, twice, beginning of July. So amazing!!
We spent the next 6 days working on a Blitz Build with Pike's Peak Habitat for Humanity. Our SC2SC route is unique in that it participates in this Blitz Build every year. They are currently building houses in a subdivision near our host, giving each house a beautiful view of the mountains around it. NC2SD was in CoSp the week before for a regular one or two day build day where they laid foundation for the house we built. The house we built is for Sandy & Ian, a single mom and her 10 year old son. They worked alongside us, along with our supervisor Memo and "the regulars"- a dependable group of retired guys who usually know a thing or two about construction and will instruct you whether they know or only think that they know what they're doing:)
We arrived on Independence Day to a concrete hole. By the end of the first day, we had the crawl space, "Ian's man cave", dry walled & finished, as well as the floor laid and wall frames started. Tuesday's end had a nearly completely framed house standing. Day 3 began the rise off the ground officially by assembling scaffolding which allowed for the roof tresses to be added. Daily afternoon storms slowed work each day when the lightning started to get too close, so we'd pause until it was a safe distance away. The rest of the week was spent foaming, sheeting, siding the house and decking and shingling the roof. There were few times people were without jobs, which was impressive considering there were about 40-45 people working at any given time. We left the work site on Saturday with a very impressive house standing. We knocked off about a month or two's worth of work in one week. Hopefully they will be moved in by Christmas.
Each day started at 830a, worked hard til the train whistle blew for lunch at noon. We'd chow down on delicious food provided by various people, set up by Lindsey, the HFH volunteer director. Solid hour lunch before afternoon work until clean up at 4p. Each day was a solid work day, which meant we earned our fun afterwards. Tuesday, we had an alley cat race where guys and girls were partnered up, expected to dress in costume, and given a route where we raced to checkpoints where there was a challenge, like piggy back races and a gallon challenge. helped keep us on the bike during our week off. Friday was Prom. As self-appointed prom committee chairperson, I got decorations and decorated one of the church rooms in ridiculous discount party deco. One of the riders was DJ. People creatively asked each other to prom throughout the past couple weeks, then donned some amazing outfits for the big night. Saturday, we worked with an organization called Bikes for Kids, which worked with Habitat to make sure all the kids in the subdivision had a bicycle & helmet. Specialized donated 5 bikes for the event. We helped with a bike rodeo where about 15 neighborhood kids came to decorate their bikes, paint faces, and ride through obstacles and games to practice bike safety.
The week was the pinnacle of our summer, reminding us why we're riding across the country. Sandy spoke at the ground blessing ceremony, causing many of us to tear up. She is so overwhelmingly grateful and appreciative of our work and sponsorship. This project is one of the big ways we donate our hard earned funds we all raised before hand. Our trip alone has raised over $150,000. Between the 8 trips, we hope to *donate* $500,000 to the affordable housing mission. We sponsored this Blitz Build with, I believe, $55,000. This is what we're here for. Sandy & Ian. Thank you to them for trusting us with their house!
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