New London, NH

Well, first blog post from the road.

We left Portsmouth yesterday morning. I'm now a little over a 100 miles away in New London, NH. Yesterday we rode out to the ocean for the wheel-dipping ceremony, except I missed the turn to the coastal spot we had picked out and rode for another few miles. So, there were actually two wheel-dipping ceremonies. One, and then another when everyone realized a handful of people were missing. I actually was able to get to the coast and see the group, but I couldn't get to where they were. Eventually, I saw them all mounting their bikes to head out again and was immediately sad. That's when people realized a few of us were missing. I think we can blame Nate for the count-off not working. Apparently, he gets a kick out of yelling other people's numbers when they're not there...

But it rained a lot yesterday, and I was kind of covered in road grime at the end of all 70 miles. Our hosts at Wesley Methodist Church were really great in Concord and fed us lots of pasta.

And today to New London managed to involve a fair amount of climbing. According to Ashley's altimeter, we managed 1,550 gain in elevation. Nothing to yell about, but not too shabby. And New London is really pretty. There's this ice cream shop, Arctic Cream, I plan on checking tomorrow or later tonight and then on Wednesday, we have a build day in Lebanon. It'll be nice to give the legs a rest.

But dinner's here in a bit. I'll try scarfing down a few thousand calories. That's the new thing. I eat a lot, and I eat all the time. But I'll try updating in a few days whenever I get another chance to use a computer.

P.S. Oh, and here's a nice story the local paper back home did on me.