Three States, One Day

I was not so lucky to not get rained on during the night. It started sometime in the early hours of the morning, pouring hard, then reducing to a trickle, then pouring hard again. It made it hard to sleep, but on a whole I stayed dry. In the morning, I had the ever fun process of getting my tent dry. I didn't get out of the campground until after 9, by which point I decided I ought to be getting on the road, no warm breakfast for me.

I biked the meandering Greenway route, largely on side roads, connected by bits of highway. I got off the bike and took a short walk around Vaughan Woods park for awhile, until the mosquitoes drove me crazy. At Kittery, I crossed a bridge with a lovely view, onto a little island, then over another drawbridge. Along which Google directions chimed in to welcome me back to New Hampshire.

I navigated my way through Portsmouth and got onto 1A, right along the ocean, where I would stay for basically the rest of the day. New Hampshire has very little coast line (and I saw a good chunk of it), but what it has is gorgeous. I had the ocean on one side (though often blocked from view by sea walls), marsh on the other. And mansions. Lots of mansions. Which gave way to condos and businesses further on. My host wanted me here by 4, so that I could get settled in before he had to leave for awhile, so I had to make time, and it was thus a constant struggle not to stop for too long or take too many pictures. But the riding was flat and easy, usually with sizeable enough shoulder, and so I made good time.

Google chimed in to let me know I had crossed into Massachusetts. It wasn't much further from there before I reached my host's, right on time at 4. He let me get settled in, then gave me some time to relax on my own while he went out to do his photo shoot with his friends. I put my tent out on the deck in the bright sun that had finally come out from the clouds to get fully dry from last night, ate a little food, made a call, watched some tv, and kind of dozed off a bit. When he came back he took me into the town just south of here I'll go through tomorrow, Newbury, out to a Mexican place (apparently the best place to go in town for a vegetarian), and treated me to a really good meal (afterwards making it out into the parking lot from dinner just as the thunder rolled and the rain poured down). My host is an exceptionally kind and generous guy. Even after just working an 80+ hour week (he does one week on and one off as a nurse), he still took the time on his first day off to host me for the night.

One way or another, I am going to make it work to host when I am back in Lincoln. I have received so much generosity and had so many amazing experiences with hosts that I really need to return some of that karma.