In old New York

Hello,
I'm in Fulton, NY. There are pros and cons of libraries in really small
towns. The positives are that they are usually in really cute one room
buildings with beautiful stained glass windows that were built in 1801 or
something. The negative is that they are usually only open on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 10-3 or some ridiculous times like that. Since I haven't
written in a while I am having trouble remembering everything that has
happened. Unfortunately all of the entries in my journal read - "We biked
from town X to town Y. I am tired. We are camping. I am tired. We met
neat people today. Good night."

While I was writing my last email, my friend Scot walked through the door.
I guess Dorothy and Scot started in plymouth and tracked us down asking
people in the towns if they'd seen us and where we were heading. I guess we
aren't too hard to miss since they asked in Rochester, and all the people at
the gas station replied with, "Well, they were at the cafe around 2pm and
earlier they were at the bike shop." Ahhh, small towns. We had a very fun
night with them playing a raucous game of boggle and feasting on canned
chicken surprise.

Doon, at the bike shop, attached a mountain bike rack on the front of my
bike to replace the old broken one. We saw Doon's business cards and on it
he had - Doon, the biking viking, you can see what he means and get a taste
of his personality at -http://www.greenmountainbikes.com/bikehomepage.html
He pointed out that the nice thing about having a back rack on the front is
"it gives a flat surface so you can place things there...like a puppy." I
wasn't sure if he was kidding or not.

We left Vermont and entered New York via the ferry to Ticonderoga. Now,
when i was thinking ferry, I was picturing as in Staten Island or any other
New York area ferry. This one was just a platform that you rode onto and it
took you to the other side. It wasn't that pleasant in the rain, but we
spoke with the captain the whole time and it made it more enjoyable. We
decided (as we were standing on the ferry in the rain) that we would splurge
on a motel in Ticonderoga. The captain pointed out that this might be
difficult due to the big fishing tournament plus there was a French and
Indian war reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga. He was right, but after some
magic worked by Wendy at the Super 8, we had a roof over our heads. Being a
Saturday night, we decided to head into town and live it up with a rowdy
game of Bingo at the American Legion. I think they really got a kick out of
us, considering we didn't know all of the rules. Did you know that they
have an agenda with all sorts of special bingo games? An example of one of
our conversations:
me - "How do i play this special T game?"
Bingo Expert - "you have to get bingo twice in the shape of a T."
me - "Can it be an off center T?"
BE - "No, just a T."
me - "Can it be an L?"
BE - "No, a T. That's why they call it T."
me - "oh, ok."

We started talking to Williard who told us in vivid detail about how he
could throw a 90 mph fast ball in high school. Williard is currently 64 and
served in the Korean war. At one point in the night Williard leans over and
asks, "Have you ever seen anyone get blown away?" After we shake our heads
no in confused horror he assures us "it ain't fun." Thanks, Williard.

We rounded out the night with a trip to the Walmart - yes a Walmart
Supercenter was next to the Super 8. There I bought a $5 radio that I
placed on my front rack... instead of a puppy. After 10 minutes of being in
the store, though i had to get out of there - too many choices. We've been
shopping in general stores where there are no options, and the enormity of
the Walmart kind of got to me.

On the 24th we ran into the skooter guy in the rain and chatted with him a
bit. He is touring the perimeter of the US on his scooter. He's online
here if you have any interest.
http://www.peoriametropolitan.com/miracle.htm

One of our motivational mantras in New England was - "We just have to get to
New York, then it will be flat." We assumed this because there was no
separate elevation map on the New York map. Assumptions are bad things. We
forgot about those pesky Adirondacks. Actually biking through the
Adirondacks was absolutely breathtaking. Everything was so beautiful. My
pitiful attempt to describe it is as follows - remember when you were little
and you hadn't graduated to the Crayola 64 box of crayons? Instead you were
limited by the 6 pack. So your pictures were those 6 colors. That's what
it looked like. The trees were pure green, not lime green or sea foam
green, just green. The sky was blue...etc. And as melissa pointed out it
smelled like Glade air freshener. It was great.

We pulled into Raquette Lake the evening of the 25th looking for their
general store. It was closed. Someone on the lake recommended the tavern
around the corner. You could hear the snap in the air as fifteen heads
whipped around to look at the two out of towners (in spandex no less) as we
walked through the door of the tavern. After our cheeseburgers and calling
to find out that the camp ground we were supposed to stay out was closed and
the other one nearby had no showers, the people in the tavern offered us a
room upstairs for $10 bucks each. We snapped it up and after getting
cleaned up came back down to have a few beers with the locals. Met some
really interesting women our age and were disappointed when we had to turn
down their offers to go down to the next town's bar around 11:30. The bad
thing about biking all day is it tires you out.

It looks like my time is up on the computer. Hope you are all doing well.
cheers!
leigh

green mountain state - they weren't kidding

Hello,
I'm in Rochester, VT - our third state (yeah, so they were really thin
states, but still we've ridden in three states). Where did I leave off? On
monday evening I met Melissa at the bus station and we headed back to
Plymouth. We walked to Mike and Tyler's house (can you picture us - walking
along the railway tracks with our sleeping bags bungee corded around our
shoulders carrying one pannier plus a six pack each as a thank you, wearing
sandals and socks...mine with a hole in the toe. We're such vagabonds. One
guy actually stopped us and asked if we were running away from home.) We
spent the night at Mike, Tyler and Ben's(their other house mate) eating ice
cream...watching tv... good stuff. They are just really good guys - Mike
showed us his worm farm that he was raising for fishing, and Ben showed us
tips on fixing our bikes on the road. Now there are guys after my heart.
Seriously, instead of hearing the typical NYC pick up line of, "can I buy
you a drink, you know I'm an investment banker at Goldman Sachs..." how much
better would it be to hear, "can i buy you an ice cream, I can show you how
to fix a broken chain and show you my worm farm." (and that's not a double
entendre). Honestly. Anyway, we picked up our bikes the next morning and
Mike drove us back to the ice cream stand where we had left our bike route.
Which is quite ironic considering when Melissa called the bike shop the
morning after the accident to see how we could get into Plymouth, it was
Mike on the phone who responded with, "well, you've got two good thumbs."
This actually became our motto for western New Hampshire considering how
many times we got rides from other people.

We were met at the ice cream stand by Matthew and Noelle - the same chatty
kids from the day of the accident. The same Matthew who asked Melissa where
she was biking to and after processing the west coast response said,"you
know Melissa, you'd get there a lot faster if you took a plane." Wise, wise
Matthew. It reminded me of what a great prophet once said, "I believe the
children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way." After
drinking some home made soda and playing the very popular coloring rocks
with markers game, we headed on our way.

We encountered mountains... and more mountains. Then we slept at a camp
ground(on a mountain) and finally got to use our tent.

On Wednesday we ran into a guy who had just finished biking from Ventura
Beach, California to Maine. We sat and had lunch with him as he gave us
lots of tips of the road (luckily he put his 4 front teeth back in before we
started eating). The biggest tip was to lose some of our gear - he
travelled with only rear panniers...that's it. no sleeping bag, stove,
sleeping pad, anything. That night I started to throw away and ship home
some of my stuff - unfortunately this meant saying goodbye to the two purple
and green colored rocks from matthew. I had more problems with my front
rack and have decided that it's just a crummy rack. For the bikers on this
list - don't waste your money on the Topeak front lowrider. While we were
stopping to fix the rack a guy pulled over to offer help and a place to stay
on his 103 acres of land. He said that he had biked 9,000 miles in 3 years
and would love to help fellow bike tourers. We declined, but took his
number just in case we needed help. So as Toad (yes, he introduced himself
as "Toad, like a frog") got back into his technicolor jeep we waved goodbye
to the opportunity of sleeping on his grounds and swimming in his pond. I'm
not kidding, he offered us his pond to swim in.

Today our goal was to get to Rochester b/c there is a bike shop here. The
added bonus of there also being a library, the cutest cafe/soda shop i've
ever seen, a laundromat, and a backyard of the bike shop where we can camp
for free was a welcome surprise. The guy (his name is Doon, as in ... i
don't know, he's really nice) working on my bike agreed that I should just
attach a new rack and is doing that as i sit here typing. And, Dorothy and
Scot just walked in this library after tracking us through Plymouth and
asking around towns if they'd seen two blond bikers. I guess we're making
an impression b/c they found us.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Cheers,
leigh

Boston was wicked cool

Hi,
I thought I'd summarize this past week for the hell of it, even though I
wasn't really biking or doing anything all that spectacular.

It actually worked out really well that we stayed with our friends in
Boston, because it was Maria's birthday on the tenth. We went out on
Saturday night to celebrate and Maria lent us clothes so that we could go
out and hit a club. Unfortunately no one in the house had shoes that could
fit me, so with the borrowed slinky skirt and tank top I wore my clunky nike
sandals . The best quote of the day was Maria saying, "if anyone asks you
about your shoes, tell them you have a condition." Some of you who know me
are probably thinking, "Maria must be a pretty good friend to get leigh to
spend the entire night in the hip hop room and not complain." Yeah, she is,
but I actually had a really good time. It was pretty interesting comparing
the contrast of people there to our nights the prior week.

Our friend Nicole works at Harpoon Brewery and they were having a big event
on sunday night for all of the bartenders in Boston. It turned out that
they needed people to work at the event, so Melissa and I screamed out,
"we'll pour beer!" Then we found out that we would get paid and for a
moment everything was right in the world. We had a ball pouring pints of
hefeweizen for people with the best Boston accents (besides John Fuller)
that I've ever heard. My favorite quote, "Ladies! When are we gonna
pahty?!" After cleaning up we went inside the brewery and had a couple
beers with the Hahpoon sales guys and then performed some rugby songs upon
request.

On Wednesday friends of mine, Dorothy and Scot, who are starting their own
cross country adventure (you've got to love the economy when about 50% of my
friends are out travelling on severance...well, and some without severance)
came up to hang with me during the day around Boston. I finally got to see
Shackleton's adventure at the omnimax and recommend it to everyone (it's at
the museum of natural history in nyc also) or at least read the book
Endurance for a true adventure and test of strength.

Nicole had another Harpoon event on saturday, this time up in Quichee, VT at
the Quichee hot air balloon festival. The event was supposed to draw 30,000
people, but only about 500 showed up (and that includes all of the vendors).
It was still fun to see all of the balloons launch and to talk to the few
people that did go through the beer garden. Probably the most interesting
guy I talked to was Doug who just retired, moved up to Vermont and started
working at a winery that makes only non-grape wines (like pear, apple, and
rhubarb wine). Granted most people call that expired apple juice, but
apparently if you slap a fancy label on it you can make a nice profit.

So, I've watched a few videos (gotta love a house that owns Mallrats and
Tommy Boy), did some laundry (ahhhh, blessed, blessed electronic washing
machines and dryersssssss), ate about 6 chili verde enchiladas from Anna's
(you've got to go to anna's if you are ever in Allston/Brighton) and hung
out with really good people. It was nice too b/c I got to see a lot of
different neighborhoods of Boston. Thanks again to Maria and Nicole for
entertaining us and letting us crash at their house for an extrememly long
time!

I'm about to go meet Melissa at the bus station to catch a bus up to
Plymouth. The plan is to stay at Tyler and Mike's tonight and be off
tomorrow with our bikes. However, if there is one thing I've learned so far
on this trip is to not waste too much time making plans, b/c they never
actually happen.

And thank you to everyone who pointed out my spelling error on Bob Dylan in
my last email - I apologize to anyone who was offended by my act. I could
blame it on automatic spell check... but then i'd be lying. Hey, I'm on
vacation, I'm allowed a mental meltdown.

Thanks to everyone for sending me emails of encouragement, they really mean
a lot!
cheers,
leigh

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

vacation land

I'm in Lincoln, New Hampshire. We left from Portland, Maine on Sunday June
2nd. Some of you might be saying, "hmmm, weren't you supposed to leave on
SATURDAY from BAR HARBOR?" well...yeah. We (ok, not me I was in the back
seat) ended up driving straight through on rainy friday night and crashed in
a motel at 5 am. The next morning I woke up and asked, "what town are we
in?" Melissa said, "Portland!" I replied, "oh, I thought we were leaving
from Bar Harbor, that's where my maps start." Melissa said, "I thought we
were leaving from Portland." Looking back, every time we talked about the
launch we said Maine and never discussed the actual CITY. funny stuff. No
problem, we ended up on the adventure cycling maps two days later.
Also, we woke up on saturday and it was raining. I mean pouring. Both
Melissa and I said, "THIS is not how I pictured our first day. It's
supposed to be sunny and happy." It got worse with us not being able to
find the IHOP for lunch and Mac's car (who drove us) had the engine light go
on. So, we took these as signs and said let's leave tomorrow instead. Then
Mac, Travis and Patti - the kind souls who agreed to drive up with us -
decided they would stay too, so it was the perfect send off party with lots
of shipyard beer and pizza in Portland saturday night.

The actual launch was perfect, no rain and we dipped our rear tires into the
Atlantic ocean with lots of surfers behind us. First night was in Standish,
ME and second night we stayed in Conway, NH. The area up here is absolutely
beautiful and the people are so nice. The motto the first two days was - "I
love Maine!" But, it's hilly. I mean really. There are these mountains
called the Appalachians up here that are killer, you might have heard of
them. We travelled yesterday on the Kancamungas Highway. At one point we
got off and read the history of who Kancamungas was - "an indian chief who
had a violent temper and would unleash the furies of the gods on his
opponents when he went to war." yeah, he unleashed the furies of the gods
on my quads. The motto that day was "We've GOT to be almost at the top." For
23.3 miles we weren't. I explained how the day went to my parents, and they
said, "leigh, that was a really good strategy stopping to take breaks and
eat every 100 feet while you were going up the mountain." I"m thinking,
STRATEGY??!! it was necessity!" I wasn't going to make it straight
through. At least now I know what it's like climbing 2,300 feet in elevation
in one day. It was quite fun going down the other side of the mountain (for
the 10 minutes it lasted)- got up to 28 mph (of course we were going about 4
up the mountain).

Last night we were going to stay at a campground, but when I called I got
this on their answering machine, "Hi, this is Earl. If you have a question
about the campground please leave a detailed message with your address and I
will answer your questions by post card." Looks like Earl's son bought him
an answering machine one Father's day and installed it, but forgot to teach
him how to use the phone. We took that as an indicator not to bike the 2
miles out there to check it out. So, we stayed at the Lincoln motel last
night and after Melissa blew out 3 tubes in the parking lot when we were
trying to leave today we decided to rest our tired mountain climbing legs,
stay an extra night here, and find the public library to catch up on email.
very good decision because we have another 2,000 feet in elevation to climb
tomorrow.

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for your emails, it's nice to hear
what's happening back in your world.
cheers!
leigh