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
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