First Days through New Hampshire

My cross country trip began on Fathers Day at New Castle Beach in Portsmouth, NH. At the beach the 30 of us dipped our tires in the Atlantic Ocean and we were on our way, unfortunately it was in the rain. For most of the 65 mile ride it rained. By lunch I was soaked, but I was having a blast. I was assigned to sweep (riding behind the group to make sure everyone makes it safely) with Rachel and we encountered numerous situations along the road. We had people with bike problems, flat tires, and encounter dirt road. I had fun riding through the mud, but I am not so sure that everyone else felt the same way I did. The day concluded with the raining going away and arriving at the church in Concord at 4:30. After some bike cleaning and maintenance we ate a pasta dinner provided by the church. Being exhausted after a long day, I headed to bed early only to get up at 6 in the morning to do it again.

Day two of riding began a little less rainy than the first day. After riding at a steady pace for most of the morning we decided to stop at the Foot Hills Cafe in Warner to grab a second breakfast. After a waffle, I was on my way to finish a couple huge climbs and arrive at the host church in New London. Showers were at Colby Sawyer College and a light dinner was provided by the church. Nothing too exciting happened that evening, but I got a good night rest to ready myself for the next days ride.

The following day started out with a lot of downhills and ended with some "fun" climbs in the mountains. Most of the day I was leading the group with Wade, Jeremy, and Nick. We decided to skip lunch and continue riding straight through and past the host sight. We convinced a few more to come along with us on a ride to Dartmouth College (Wade and Jeremy go there). In Hanover, we ate a local favorite restaurant called Molly's. The boneless buffalo wings and bread with honey butter really hit the spot after a hard day of riding. After lunch 6 of us continued to the river to hang out on the docks and go for a swim and canoe ride. We rode down the Connecticut River and crossed the NH border and entered Vermont for the first time. It was nice change of routine to travel using our arms instead of legs. When we were pretty tired from our adventures we finally made our way back to the host site in Lebanon, grabbed dinner, had an Affordable Housing metting (to discuss the reasons why we are here), watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail on the projector as everyone passed out and went to bed.

The next morning was nice because we got to sleep in until 7 and got a home cooked breakfast. We split into 4 groups to go and work with Habitat for Humanity in Lebanon. My group biked about 3 miles down the road and worked at house making finishing touches to a home belonging to a single mother and her daughter. While some people painted trim and siding on the house and shed, I put my landscaping skills to work, weed-wacked most of the front yard and make a mulch bed around a birch tree and planted tiger lillies. We finished around 4 loaded the trucks and rode back to the church. We then took the van back to the Connecticut River for the most exciting event yet. Most of climbed to the roof of a house owned by Dartmouth College students and jumped off taking the 40 foot plunge into the river. It was cold but refreshing and the ridiculous drop made it worth it. I went back up for seconds and thirds as did most of my peers. Having so much fun being crazy, we actually were a little late to dinner, which was provided by another nearby church where some interested church and communities members joined us. Afterward we cleaned our bikes and ourselves and the day was pretty much over as we prepared for what we can expect to be a tough uphill ride in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry