Day 76

Seventy six days down, 5 to go.

It was our last build day. Sixteen whole days of building with Habitat for Humanities all across the country and our last one was in beautiful Chico, CA. It was a fantastic day.

We woke up, had an excellent breakfast and were shuttled to the build site by about 8. They planned for us to pour concrete all day, but we didn’t know what what exactly that would entail. So when we showed up they gave us shovels and rakes so we could level out the ground for the sidewalks. There was also a team that went I the back yard to dig holes for the fence posts.

There were more people than there were tools so I spent the majority of my morning taking pictures and video of our last build day. I got plenty of material there to help preserve those memories. Luckily, we were efficient and were able to finish the job around 1.

We loaded up into the can and went off to the showers. Somehow I had managed to lose my shower bag so I bummed off of Elle in order to get clean. We hurried through the process since we had an exciting day filled with activities after showers.

The first van load rode back to the build site, which was across the street from the Sierra Nevada brewery. We all walked over to the brewery to wait for our 3 o’clock tour. After we went through the gift shop some of us passed out in front of the building (they actually took a picture of them and put it in their tour sideshow) and the rest of us went on a not so successful search for affordable food. Even though when we looked though the brewery’s menu we decided to forego food we still got a few posters as souvenirs.

By that time the second group had gotten back so we signed in and began the tour. They split us into the “pale ale tour” and the “tumbler tour”. We were shown the guys of the brewery. I was particularly blown away by the tour simply by their openness and their willingness to let us touch the hops, drink the whort, and stand there in the hallway as the owner of the entire company strolled through on the job. I really loved getting to see the brewery in a much more intimate way than that of some of the larger ones.

After the tour we went to the park for dinner. I went back with Sarah to the church to pick up a few stragglers. When we finally got back to the park we had about 15 minutes to eat and get ready to go to Hulleywood. Unfortunately, that meant that we didn’t have time to swim in the river pool, which looked pretty incredible.

Once we annihilated the tacos and then loaded back into the vans. We were invited to go to the Hulley’s home, which they’ve cleverly turned into Hulleywood North. When we walked up to their home the yard was intricately landscaped. The koi pond and pagoda made me feel a bit at home because of the ponds in our backyard. Seeing that brought a huge smile to my face and instantly excited me to go inside.

When we walked inside the whole place was decorated as if it was a movie theater. The arcade in the back room really topped it all off. They prepared us popcorn and served us the “largest soda selection around”. I proceeded to destroy Barrett in a game of Cruisin’ USA, my favorite childhood arcade game, which taught me that speeding is in fact fun.

When the movie was finally ready, all thirty of us set an attendance record and piled into the theater. They had authentic seats, a projector, a stage, curtains…even the lighting was perfect. I actually felt like I had just walked into a movie theater. Then, when the lights turned off and the film began to roll, on the screen a news clip and a welcome reel began to play. They turned back time. It was an incredible experience. My favorite part was that they showed us Wild Target, a movie none of us had seen or even heard of. I loved not going into it with any preconceived notions and ended up liking it a lot. Ron Weasley, you were awesome.

Once the movie ended we all hopped in the van and went back to the church. I quickly got ready for bed and laid down. There was chatter for a while, but eventually I fell asleep. We had a comparatively short day ahead of us and Nates birthday to look forward to.

Off to Colusa in 48 miles!