"Nail it, Lady!"

Day 12-

What a day. When a hill says a 13% grade, it has nothing to do with a test score.

Aside from that accomplishment, we did cross state lines into Ohio.

Riding into Youngstown, the roads were terrible, but the church we stayed in was beautiful. It recently celebrated it’s 150^th birthday. Stained glass lined the walls of the sanctuary dating back to the late 1800s. I love exploring churches; it’s something I have come accustom to. Not coming from a religious background, I always get surprised by the basement kitchens and the hallways full of Sunday school classrooms. They all have a similar feeling, but very unique to the church. The only downside to this church was that EVERY 15mins the bell tower would go off. Not just from say 7am to 10pm, no, all hours of the day the bells would be ringing. Logic? Who knows.

Day 13- We finally deserve the title, Bike and BUILD

So Saturday was our first real build day on the road. We met up with two volunteers, Sunny, a spunky Italian man who wasn’t afraid to say he loved you and talk about the local mob scene, and Rick, a interesting fellow who liked to use the phrase, “Nail it, lady!” every time I used the nail gun. By the way, I was dominating the nail gun that day when we put a whole new roof on the house.

Though I was stuck on a roof all day in the hot sun, this was one of the most fun experiences I have had on the trip thus far. Everyone was in great spirits and three different news affiliates came to interview us. Check out this link below, there is a great news clip from our work day! The next day we even had strangers ask if we were the people on the news! We are famous!

http://www.wkbn.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=10506@wkbn.dayport.com&navCatId=10

Day 14-

An easy 50 miles from Youngstown to Akron, OH. Despite a downpour half-way through, the ride amazing. Limited hills kept my knees happy and I was not drenching myself in sweat for once. A group of us stopped at a house to check out a massive Turkey wondering around. Before we knew it, we were petting a turkey, a toy rat terrier, a white fluffy cat, and a goat. The owner of all these animals was a bubbly woman who was eager to hear about our cause as well as have us bowl in the bowling alley. Yes, she had a bowling alley. She took us up to the top floor of the at least 150 year old barn and gave us a little history. Apparently her house was Rutherford B Hayes’ summerhouse back in his presidential days. It started out as a log cabin by the lake, got moved to this location and built up around. We rolled a couple balls while Winston, the dog chased and barked at them. Tom, the turkey was very friendly and liked all the attention.