i make trailers my bitch before breakfast.

at our team meeting last night Brendan informed me that i needed to get some alone time in with the van and trailer and really learn to unhitch, hitch, back up, and 3 point turn it. he says you never know when i'll have to do all that on my own.

so's i woke up at 6:15 today and went for it. and let me tell you something...i unhitched it on the first try, backed it up into the spot on the first try, and then unhitched it on the first try. take that trailer, i love you.

on another note, our riders arrived yesterday. they are awesome. we are sooooo excited. more on that later.

Meet Momgela and Gramelly

Lots of funny things to report today...like how I wore my shorts backwards all day, and no one said anything to me until 7pm, at which point I fell on the floor laughing.

We then went on a team run since we ate so much desert, and Denis and I were almost arrested by Paul Blart the mall cop for racing up a vertical hill and jumping the fence (though I skittishly and with his help) to Chucky Cheese. Then Angela and I played boot camp and we did pushups and stuffs in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

After showers at the Y, Kyle and Denis revealed our nick names to us. Momgela and Gramelly. We have accepted them with grace, and are still laughing.

On a more serious note, we had dinner with two couples from the church in Portsmouth, who were so delightful and made the best desert ever. I cried when they blessed our meal and our trip before eating the meal they made for us. I may be questioning in my own faith, but I am sooooooo absolutely thankful for this experience and for being here with my amazing team, and the people who are opening their space to us and cooking us meals. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and can only express that happiness in tears.

Then to round it out, after reviewing our group picture from dinner, we realized it looks like i have an actual boner. Again, Momgela and I fell on the floor laughing. Lots of good stuff.

food shopping at BJs

Brend-o and Denis giving us the gossip

host dinner of deliciousness (notice my boner)

D made a funny and came out of showers with HIS pants on backwards

Gramelly and Momgela...

This is a true story:

In my real life I am a good driver. I am also a good driver of larger vehicles as demonstrated by driving the conversion van in college as well as Kaitlin's Navigator.

I found out today that I am not a good 15-passenger van and trailer backer upper. It's hard and I feel dumb. Brendan said luckily it's pass fail, but I don't feel that lucky at all. He followed that statement up by saying I'm still pretty terrible and should practice. I had yo take an anger mgmt timeout after that experience.

You can't be good at everything I guess.

I bought these awesome glasses for $5 to feel smarter...it's working.

Send me stuff!!!!!

We be taking off from Portsmouth next week. I can't believe it's already happening!!

Along the trip, we have mail drops. What does this mean? It means you can send me pretty things to keep me going on the trip. You can send food, Clif Bars, cards, hats, magic wands, CDs, whatever your heart desires. Anything and everything is appreciated. Make me laugh people! Below is the list of addresses. Please send through the USPS as they won't accept anything else. Many thanks in advance!!!!!

Bike & Build

Attn: Kelly Kraft

General Delivery

STREET ADDRESS

CITY, STATE ZIP

Please mark the envelope or package with "Please hold for pick-up on DATE."

Late mail will be forwarded to the mail drop two weeks ahead.

June 24

319 Newport Rd

New London, NH 03257

July 1

214 S. First St.

Fulton, NY 13069

July 8

4307 Station Ave

Ashtabula, OH 44004

July 15

75 Commerce Dr.

Grayslake, IL 60030

July 22

420 2nd St.

Pepin, WI 54759

July 29

401 Irvine Avenue Northwest

Bemidji, MN 56601

August 4

361 Main St.

New Town, ND 58763

August 12

37 South Central Avenue

Cut Bank, MT 59427

August 19

204 North 4th Avenue

Sandpoint, ID 83864

August 25

600 Front Street

Lynden, WA 98264

Boston and Banging Drums

I flew into Boston today, as tomorrow we're heading to New Hampshire to start our orientation for Bike & Build. While waiting for Angela and Kyle to pick me up in Elvis (our van which has a sweet tape deck), I took the liberty of showing myself around the city. Here are my notable thoughts/moments from the day:

1. walking through old colonial Charleston listening to the Humpty Dance makes you cool (don't ask how i know this, but i do)
2. people still play hacky sack in the park, only now they play in suits, and they are not hippie and cool
3. Boston is so modern/old school that Old City Hall, is also the home of Ruth's Chris steak house
4. the lady doing picture retakes next to the Paul Revere statue because her "arm fat keeps hanging out and getting in the way" was good entertainment, but I don't think she got the shot she was looking for.
5. The people who are dressed as colonials for a living don't think it's funny when you ask for career advice, even if you're being kind of serious.
6. Segway tours are DUMB

More exciting for me was exploring the Boston church we're staying in with the Boston to Santa Barbara leaders. Here's what Brendan and I discovered while exploring the church:

1. it smells like poop and tuna sandwiches mixed together
2. it's really hard not to ring the bell in the bell tower when it's dangling in front of your face
3. this church is kind of weird....while kind of my dream because it has costumes, wigs, and drum sets
4. even though I don't like segway tours, the 1925 mechanical chair lift at the church is badass, and I want one in my future house, mary poppins style
5. the closet labeled "water fountain closet" is a farce, and is nothing more than a janitorial closet
6. one room is called the dance room and one is the parlor

Double Your Kraftness

So last week when I successfully changed my flat tire without any help, I thought I was ready for this trip. Then today, my bro and I ran all our last minute errands together, packed and shipped my bike, etc. Then tonight I was talking on the phone with my mom while Michael worked at packing up his bike. After assuring me he was fine, she then called back and said I should indeed come over and help as he was growing quite frustrated. When I arrived, this is what I saw...

After about 15 minutes of trying to fit his bike into the box, we finally figured it out (and now I wish I could have packed mine as gracefully, but practice does make perfect). So we were feeling joyous, and I decided we needed to take another photo portraying our victory with muscle poses, which you will see below.

Of course, that turned into a photo shoot using any prop found in my mom's garage. The rest is what happened. So happy I get to spend my summer with my 'lil bro. Look out northern United States, we're coming, and with 30 other similarly hilarious people.

if you were wondering...

what our stand (and by our, I of course mean Judy's that I'm helping with) looks like at the farmer's market, take a look. so bummed that I won't be here for the rest of the season, but i got bikes to ride across the country and stuff...

a message from my frustrated chest

Whoever the F Makes Swim Suits?

Please, for the love of everything holy, can someone make cute bathing suits for people with big boobs? Seriously. Just because I have a large chest does not mean I necessarily A. also have a fat ass or B. have a lack of taste or C. Want my huge knockers hanging out or down to my knees.

I have been trying to find a new traje de bano for my travels, and...no dice! Anything that I can find either has no support, looks like something my grandmother would wear, or is ugly. Just because we are well endowed does not mean we also need to wear diaper-like bottoms. I also do not want to wear a swimsuit that looks like a minimizer beige bra. Eww. That is not sexy or attractive in any way. You find a cute supportive top, and the bottoms would fit me and my 5 best friends and the suit is made out of the ugliest material you've ever seen. If you don't get the supportive top, then your body starts to look like that of an 80-year old and the girls start sagging to the floor. That is also not the look I'm going for.

I need support, style, and sexy. Why is that so much to ask for?

Why hasn't anyone cashed in on this market yet? From now on when people ask me what I'm going to do after traveling, my new answer is "become a millionaire by selling cute swim suits for women with boobs as big as your head". You can say you knew me then.

No yelling on the bus

I am the DD. (sung to the tune of I am the Walrus?)

Now that I'm back in a town with cars and such, I'm offering up my designated driving services. I figure for all the years I made my friends drive my severely intoxicated ass around, or all the times I tried to fight them for my keys, it's time for me to return the favors.

People always ask me how I can do it, be the sober one with all the drunk people. I want to ask those people, how can you not? I used to agree, but drunk people are funny. I mean, drunk people can be soooooo entertaining, and while sometimes annoying, I say the benefits mostly outweigh the downside. And I especially have patience when it's some of my bestest friends.

I drove Mike's massively big SUV downtown full of some of my favorite people to see a show at Radio Radio downtown last night, then on to the Slippery Noodle where I learned to play the bowling video game where I got a higher score than I do in real life. This is a pointless post. But I liked being the drunk bus driver, made me feel needed.

And the funniest comment of the night from the back seat drivers was when Jon told me I was turning the wrong way down a one way street in a huge car that made me nervous. haha Jon, funny.

I am soooo happy to be home with all my homies from the Ville.

down on the farm

California ain't got nothin' on us - that's how Judy puts it. And right she is.

So I'm helping my mom's good friend Judy on her farm while I'm home. She is getting ready for the first market in Zionsville, and I want to learn more about gardening, growing your own food, farming, etc. I help her, she teaches me. Wednesday night I went over with my mama and Cam and we helped Judy make gazpacho. It is hands down the best damn gazpacho I've ever had (and yes, I had to look up how to spell gazpacho).

Today I went over and picked asparagus and Boston lettuce. I can't get over how f-ing cool it is to pick real food out of the ground. That must sound sort of weird, but it's so awesome to a. be outside all day working b. pick real food out of the ground c. know that this food will feed other people d. get sooooo dirty working outside e. not be working at a desk....the list goes on and on.

They are growing everything, from broccoli to raspberries, apples, peaches, watermelon, herbs, and more, even blue potatoes. Who knew there was such a thing as blue potatoes!? I'm going back tomorrow to help her finish getting ready for Saturday, then I'll go help out at the market. It's all so badass, I can't get enough!

got put right to work driving this lil' tractor while Jude watered all the plants

yes, asparagus growing right out of the ground (as if it would grow out of anywhere else)

jude picking lettuce

the asparagus i picked all by myself!!!!