a vacation from my vacation

Hello,
I'm in Boston. I know some of you might be saying, "wasn't the plan to head
West from New Hampshire? and isn't Boston southEAST from the last place you
wrote us from?" Well, yeah...you're right - here is our long saga.

We left the little town of Lincoln on Thursday, waving goodbye to all of our
new friends as we headed down Main St (Jared from the ski place, Joanne from
the motel, Mary at the post office...I met more people in two days in
Lincoln than I did during my first year in Manhattan). We had one major
mountain to cross over and with some serious effort finally went up and over
(I've found belting out classics such as Sister Christian, Piano Man and
anything from Madonna helps me take my mind off of the steep grade.
Unfortunately for Melissa...I'm belting out songs like Sister Christian,
Piano Man and anything from Madonna).

The plan was to camp in Orford, NH that night, but about 20 miles from
Orford we had a setback. We both have been having problems with our front
racks (different problems for each of us), and when Melissa was going down a
hill her rack slipped down, pinched her front tire, and thus pitched her and
her bike over her handlebars. Miraculously, she escaped with just a scrape
on her shoulder and elbow. (Wear your helmets boys and girls - they are life
savers!) I was behind her at the time and honestly it was one of the
scariest things I've ever seen. Unfortunately we discovered that her front
fork was destroyed. So, I biked into the next little town and asked around
to see if someone could drive out and pick Melissa and her bike up.
Finally, at an ice cream stand (the only place in town that had people
around it - yes, the police station closed at 4:30...must be nice to live in
a town where all crime ends before suppertime) the owner said that her
husband would bring the truck around and drive us. I started thanking her
profusely, but she interrupted me with, "Well, he's got the kids with him so
it's not gonna be a joyride." As soon as I got in the truck I was met with
little voices screaming, "What's your name my name is matthew i'm in
kindergarten how old are you i'm six and a half this is my sister noelle
she's three my mom is one thousand years old where do you live..." Actually
they were a good diversion from the ugly situation that we were in. The
only place close by to sleep was a bed and breakfast, so we had the happy
family drop us off in Haverville, NH at the B&B.

We walked inside and were met by Keita (who is the owner, an artist and self
described "old hippie"). I do not have the vocabulary to describe this
place, so here is the website, but the pictures don't do the colors of the
rooms or the colorful personality of Keita justice.
http://www.gibsonhousebb.com
It was quite a night drinking shiraz on her deck as Keita told us stories of
her days living in the village with Bob Dillon as her landlord and
describing her conversation with Mother Nature while she was tripping on
acid in Haight Ashbury. I got a little concerned as she explained that the
reason she had designed her gardens in the circle, cross, circle, cross
pattern was so that when the aliens come, they'll know she's there - but my
hesitation quickly passed with another glass of wine. Breakfast was quite
surreal, eating french toast off of Wedgewood china in her lovely dining
room, with new age music piped in all around us.

The next day we got a cab to Plymouth, NH - the closest town with a bike
shop. The problem was after we handed our bikes over to them, we were stuck
on the sidewalk with all of our stuff and no place to sleep and no
transportation. We ended up staying at Tyler and Mike's house - two guys
who worked at the bike shop and were absolute sweethearts. We went back
into town that night to find a computer and something to eat. All of the
computer places were closed, but we saw two women walking into a building on
Plymouth State College's campus so we followed them in thinking that there
might be a computer inside. Instead there was a women's poetry and song
recital (for free and with free food - jackpot!). After the performances,
which were quite good (my favorite song was "Oreo Cookie Blues"), we hung
out with the women and explained to them our situation. We made lots of
friends and they were really concerned about us - "Tyler and Mike, now do
they have last names? Are they nice boys? Would you like to stay with me
instead?"

Our bikes are going to be finished today probably, but since Melissa had a
wedding that she was going to be attending in Philadelphia on friday anyway,
we decided to take a week off, go down and stay with friends in Boston (for
Free - we dropped some serious cash at that B&B, so are trying to make up
for it). So, here I am at Maria Go, Nicole, and Byron's place in Boston
(which is perfect b/c i wanted to work seeing them into the trip anyway but
couldn't) and Melissa is currently in Philly.

So that is the end of my novel. I've got to learn how to be more succint.
cheers!
leigh