Palermo, New York, next to Mexico, New York

These past couple days, I've been riding through some of the quaintest of the quaint towns thus far.


This is my bike parked in the parking lot of a Rite Aid in Boonville. Got my camera issues all resolved, so there shouldn't be a shortage of pictures anytime soon. As the photography shop person put it, Boonville was very Norman Rockwell, and looking at this picture now, I can kinda see it, with all the store fronts lined up.


When we get to the host site, in this case the Boonville Methodist church, we all take our shoes and biking shorts off and stretch, as demonstrated by Nick here.


Today, we had a lot of miles to cover. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures of myself, as today hurt, but the whole scenery can be expressed in a few pictures.

There were a lot of open areas with grass, lined with trees. That was the vast majority of the ride, save for the couple small towns we passed through.


Taking a short stretch/snack/drink break after a tough climb, which you can see in the background.

Early lunch! I was exhausted, and just sat on the grass til I was up for another go at the bike.


Closing in on the home stretch to the church, we mostly coasted down some hills through a lot of green til we got to the church.

Took this about an hour ago. At our host church, we met a few of the parishioners and some of their children brought their bikes for us to take a look at.

Now this post wouldn't be complete without my picture would it? Snapped this just now. It's yours truly using the littlest computer (thanks Ally) on a terrific internet connection (thanks Palermo United Methodist Church).

~T

PS With regards to the title, New York names a bunch of its towns just the most confusing names, including (but not limited to) Poland, Russia (which is actually East of Poland), Jamaica, and Mexico.

Second day in New York

In Boonville, New York right now!

So I heard that a few of my readers are family of some of my fellow Bike and Builders. How sweet of you all to join me! Now that I know this, this doesn't mean I won't stop bombarding you with pictures of ME, but I'll make sure to post more pictures of the others.

I'll start off by showing some I chose not to include in my past posts:
Jason and Physnick enjoying some New Hampshire ice cream.


One of our morning route meetings, where we go over the general plan for the day's travels.


A group picture of all of us. Jay looks ginormous.


So, today.
Today was pretty long (70 miles?). Luckily, no rain today (not the same story yesterday).

These past few days, I think the most amazing things I've seen would be being able to see the edges of the clouds' shadows and racing down the road to meet the edge, after which the whole world goes from cloudy and darker to clear and sunny. Maybe not that interesting, but I thought it was pretty awesome.

Someone even saw a bear on the road today. Wow.

We had an early, 10:40 am lunch because our leader Rachel found this beautiful place for us to take our break. It's a lake. One of at least eight, in fact. It's called "Eighth Lake". I've got something on my chin. Try not to look at it.


So until the point of taking this picture, I couldn't really tell you authoritatively that the Adirondacks were stunning, as most of the time, I was surrounded by some very tall trees through which I could only see glimpses of the surrounding beauty. There was a clearing here, though, and it was pretty rad.



So we were bearing down close to our host location. My legs hurt and I was kinda tired and my palm was sorta numb and I had to go to the bathroom. But then we crossed over this bridge with some beautiful white water underneath, and I had to take the time out to get a picture anyway.


To me, New York means Broadway and restaurants and STERN (heh) and all that stuff but today, I got to some of the other 99.45 percent.

In Silver Bay, NY

Wow, did not expect to be staying at a place like this. We've got rooms, beds, TOWELS, and internet! These past few days we've had some tough climbs, and I've definitely struggled a bit. From what I hear, there are more challenges in store in the next few days.


We've crossed over from Vermont into New York. First of all, I'm going to be missing Vermont and New Hampshire. Hopefully this is shown from the pictures, but these places are just amazing. I often talk about going to New Zealand to see all the cool places (from Lord of the Rings) but Vermont and New Hampshire took my breath away just as dramatically.


New York does not seem much different yet, but we've only just peeked in.







As I mentioned, there were some tough climbs. If I look like I'm crying in this picture, it's cuz I was pretty freaking close.





Early in the morning, mountains are everywhere. On all sides, I could see these mountains and pastures. Cows and horses, too.

Just beautiful. And the mountains are gorgeous, too.

During an ascent, I took a short break at the scenic overlook. There's Jay in the background. Hi Jay!

Some of us had a short bathroom break in a very cute little town and there was this big chair I saw. It rocked.

Ignore the unphotegenicity and check out those mountains in the back.

We all took a group picture in front of the welcome sign, but I only had this picture I snuck in at the last minute.

So here's where we're staying right now. Sleeping in an actual room.

A view of some chairs. Some family reunions and a wedding rehearsals are going on. Quite a beautiful place.

kay i'm going to go shower with a TOWEL-towel.

Past three days, and a hard ascent

I've finally got a computer here in Rochester, VT!

So a few days back, I got to bike through some beautiful New Hampshire hills bordering a bunch of farms and waters and all kinds of neat stuff.

Wasn't near someone at the time, so had to take a MySpace style pic D:

Lunch time! The trailer was set up but abandoned, so I took a break to eat a few yards away.

There was a lake (river?) here, but no swimming...yet.

We arrived at our host church and they provided so much hospitality. They're so kind and very talented chefs as well. We ate things ranging from stuffed mushrooms to pasta to lasagna to rice.

Even hamburger shaped cookies. :D

~~~~

The next day, I was part of a group that volunteered to do some landscaping with Habitat. We spent time transplanting plants, clearing weeds, moving mulch, seeding the lawn...those kinds of things. We had some help with the clearing out part. The work was really tough and the sun beat down hard.

This is me taking pictures while everyone else is hard at work. On the right was the volunteer who helped us out. He was so knowledgeable and had some interesting stories to tell.



By the end of it we could really see how much progress we'd done.

Later that day, we went out to riverfront house. It was really high up and we had a great view of the river from the roof.

This jump seemed to take forever! I've never jumped from so high in my life. Today, we departed from Lebanon, heading into Vermont. We hit the border pretty quickly.

The whole ride was fascinatingly scenic. Mountains, rock formations, waters, farms, and pastures lined the ride, and it was just beautiful.

Behind me were acres and acres of pasture, with faded blue mountains in the distance.

This is a sign I always like to see!


We went up a mountain called Mount Bethel. It was breathtaking in its views and in the way that the ascent was averaging 7% for around 6 miles (or was it 3?) Either way, I was WORN OUT by the time I got to the top. I got video of me racing down the descent. That made it all worth it.

Today, we're staying at the home of a very kind family. I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that people are so willing to invite all 30 of us into their homes and places of worship and even cooking food for us.

My butt hurts, I'm gonna go.

New London in New England

So the kind folks at Colby Sawyer College got me some internet :)


The eve of our departure, a group of us volunteered at a Habitat ReStore, helping out with organization and shelving. We biked over from Portsmouth and the route between there and Dover is just beautiful. Sadly, I could only take a few pictures (like the above one of us on a nifty bridge) whilst biking but when the weather is nicer, I'll be mounting my camera on the bike so I can take more.

In Chicago, the ReStore volunteers are very kind, and in Dover, it was no different. ReStore is a fairly simple idea: they take surplus, unwanted, or otherwise donated homebuilding supplies and sell them at a markdown of 30-80 percent. It allows more people to make their homes more suitable for living, allows businesses to collect a tax refund, and saves waste by recycling.



After our work, we explored Dover a bit and took a small detour up to Maine and then went into downtown Portsmouth.




It was a weekend, so the area was quite busy. Some of us spent some time in downtown Dover.


It was a lot of fun to see all the activity going on (families eating, art festival, band playing, wedding with kilts).

~Departure!


The first day of cycling started out on a rainy day in Portsmouth.

Group picture on the coast.

Along the way, we saw some pretty nifty things (like the above sculpture). A lot of animals, most of them alive, some on the side of the road. I'm still trying to get used to those.

Heard a tiny waterfall making quite a commotion, so checked that out.


We arrived in Concord and I made sure to get a picture of myself at the capitol building.


That day, a small gym offered their shower facility for our use. It was so nice I had to take a picture.




Today, we set forth to New London, where I'm at now. Along the way, we passed through Warner and I got this picture in front of a Civil War memorial.


Chalking directions for the other bikers.


I guess the New London area's doing one of those animals on parade things, and there's on right in front of where we're staying at.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's pleasantly overwhelming to see how infectious goodwill is among people. When people hear about what we're doing, they show so much hospitality and friendliness towards us. It's something I couldn't really believe if I hadn't seen it firsthand.

The views I'm seeing on the way are incredible, and I often have to remind myself of the core reason for all of this; our upcoming build day is going to be this Wednesday in Lebanon, NH.

~T