Wallace, ID

Friday! The end of the week for riding! We left the Salvation Army in Spokane around 8am.  Our destination was Wallace Idaho, scheduled ride mileage: 75!  I was very excited to finally arrive in Idaho, even though our time there would be brief.  Our trek started on the Centennial Trail in Washington.  This lead us all the way to the Idaho boarder, where the team took pictures below the “Welcome to Idaho” sign... Well the sign was across the river, but we all managed to squeeze it in the background.  Our big trial of the day was the 15 mile ride on Interstate 90 over “4th of July Pass.” Well it was supposed to be 15 miles, and it was only supposed to be 36 miles to the Interstate, and another 20 after the Pass... However, as you all know these are approximate figures, and mileage adds up when you go the wrong direction on a path... So it took 38 miles to the Interstate, 24 miles over the pass, (not our fault, just bad directions) then another 27 to Wallace... Somehow the total trip ended up being well over 85 miles.  Needless to say, everyone was pretty impatient about the day, and exhausted when we reached Wallace.  I personally got off the bike at the destination (Wallace High School) and took two steps and laid down face first on the pavement for about half an hour.  This was a tough day for a lot of the riders, the van consisted of four or five riders that were having difficulty that day and couldn’t finish the ride.  (A cold has been slowly going around the group)  It was a bittersweet day for all of us.  We were blessed by the local Catholic Alehonsus Church who provided a delicious Lasagna dinner, along with chocolate chip cookies for dessert!  Some of the riders went to the carnival in town (the city of Wallace was having their weekend of Gyro, with many special events).  Afterwards we retired to the High School for a great night sleep, as well as Netflix before bed.  Watching “Titanic 2” in the guys room made sweet dreams for all!

Before

After

Saturday was our first day off from riding since Sunday.  It was a tremendous morning, we were able to sleep in until 7:30am.  As we gathered together in the front of Wallace High School to embark on our first work project, the sense of a good week’s work was in the atmosphere.  Everyone was in a great mood as we headed on the bus (donated free ride to the worksite) towards McDonalds for our free breakfast, provided by the generosity of the manager.  I enjoyed a few apple pies and Poweraid to start off the day!  We then finished the 10 mile bus ride to the Fuller house project.  As we arrived the house was not in great shape.  The workers had already started to cover the asbestos siding with 2x4’s.  The insulation needed to be put in as well as new plywood and siding.  The team of 32 of us jumped in to action! Literally! We had a group inside the house painting, a team outside putting insulation in, a team drywalling, a team roofing, and a team cutting boards, putting in new windows.  It was an exciting day!  Everyone was working hard until lunch at noon.  And the hospitality never ceases, another Church (The Silver Valley Worship Center) close by provided chicken wraps for lunch.  After lunch we were back to work for another three or four hours before calling it a day.  At the end of the day the entire inside of the house had been repainted, the outside of the house had insulation, plywood, and Tyvek wrap around the entire house!  The drywall had been put in the basement and there was a shed in the backyard that we put a new roof with shingles on!  Everyone said goodbye to the family and all the other workers  headed back to the High School.  That night we had another group come in and cook for us, and it was a delicious meal, fried chicken, green beans, the best rolls ever!  We ate our fill and rested well that night, after watching “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds on the projector we use for presentations.  

Sunday morning everyone work up for breakfast at 8am.  The Wallace Best Western Hotel provided a continental breakfast for the group for free!  Afterwards we all went to different Churches in the area wearing our orange shirts to get the word out about the Fuller Center.  A lot of the Churches gave donations towards our rides.  We spent the day going to different Museums, taking tours of silver mines in the area (Wallace is the number one producer of Silver in the World! As well as the movie “Dante’s Peak was filmed here!).  The whole weekend was still overcast, rainy and cold.  However, the times spent with the people in the town as well as the other riders made the day a great one!  Later that night for dinner the group of workers (Fuller Center in Wallace) came to eat with us and prepared a meal for us.  It was delicious, brownies and chocolate cake for dessert as well as more Lasagna for dinner!  The Fuller workers presented us with shirts for a few selective riders that helped out a lot on the house, as well as a laminated picture of yours truly jumping up in the air to staple the final staple in the Tyvek paper!  Its been a great weekend full of relaxation and recovery!  Our next 6 days of riding starts tomorrow morning at 8am! Please keep us in your prayers as it has been helping tremendously!!! Thank you all for your support, we are truly blessed!

~Blake