Day 2

Waking up with slugs (everywhere but on myself) and freckles of rain on my face under a tree in a mini-forest in "Anytown," New Hampshire; Mariah and I loaded up our panniers and bikes, ate energy bars and set off for our first long day of biking. We biked 80 miles through light rain, grey skies, intense sun, heat, humidity and fog. We accidentally detoured through the Hamptons and realized we had gone the wrong way when a gentleman with a sweater tied around his neck gave us curt directions before he zoomed off in his Jaguar.

Before we went slightly off track at the Hamptons, we had (mostly) adhered to the adventure cycling route (which is a series of maps we bought online to get us across the country); but quickly ascertained that it was the best route for us to waste a lot of time in small towns on short surface roads. We have since decided to stick to highways and bike trails.

Luckily, while eating a snack outside a grocery store after biking 75-ish miles in Mass. we met a woman who directed us to a bike path that cut our final distance in half (5 miles instead of 10 miles) and meant that we ran into our Ayer, Mass host family.

Julie, Henry and audacious young Aleister helped Mariah and I recharge, before we traveled to Providence, Rhode Island for Water Fire - a cleansing ceremony of 100 bon fires on the water's surface at the confluence of three rivers in downtown Providence. Crippled with exhaustion, I squinted out of lazy eyes onto the fires and enormous crowed in a daze with a half smile while the crowd grew and then thinned until we decided to leave.

Finally, Mariah and I have spent most of the day with Julie and Henry sculpting a new route that will shorten the distance we must travel to get to Nevada. Our new daily goal is 65 miles a day, to get to Denver/Boulder, CO by July 4th and then 40 miles a day to get to Reno, NV by July 29th. We still plan to bike south to Baltimore, MD and D.C., but will head west there, instead of biking further down the coast to West Virginia. We're absolutely stoked on our new route, it means we get to live while riding our bikes cross-country, instead of just cranking out the miles.

It starts here:

After three and a half days of cramped Greyhound Bus riding, bus station water sampling (perhaps the most adventurous aspect of our journey), pb & j munching and a riduculous number of bus transfers and layovers (mmmm fast-food and gas stations - gotta love convenience food); my cycling partner and I finally made it to Portland, ME.

Shortly after arriving in Portland we picked up some almost forgotten supplies from a bike shop in town and biked about 20 miles into rural Maine to stay with a friend of a friend and her 4 billy goats.

Waking up a bit late (I think we both need to learn how to be morning people), we set off on our first day of biking. About ten miles from the border of New Hampshire, we became entrenched in the rain madness that we've been hearing about. The storm itself wasn't bad, the rain was warm and the visibility was decent, so we merely put on our neon-yellow rain gear and continued pedalling. Crossing the Piscataqua River from ME into NH, I led us onto an incredibly slick, lattaced, steel bridge, which was NOT bike friendly. Mariah quickly sensed this and jumped onto the nearest walk way, while I brazenly (stupidly?) zig-zagged my way across.

About 20 miles after crossing the border, just past Portsmouth, we began looking for a place to set up camp. In anytown, New Hampshire, the houses were so big that they could eat my Denver house for a pre-dinner snack and the lawns were typically untamed mini forests. Desperate for a place to call "home" for the night, we lugged our gear across quick-sand and a small stream into someone's "yard" and camped in the rain under a tree.

Greetings!

Life is too short to spend your time doing anything but living & boredom is definitely a poor excuse not to live.

My name is Mary, and this summer I'm trading my messy room for some panniers (which are essentially saddle bags for you bike) & a home for the road, so I can ride my bike across the U.S.

For many Metro students, the decision to attend Metro State is precursed by hardship and struggle. In many cases, students who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to pursue higher education are presented with that option through Metro's open enrollment policy.

In fact, if it weren't for that policy, I may not have had the chance to go to college. When I was in high school I partied too much. I was afraid that if I missed one opportunity for fun, I'd miss them all.

Because of this attitude I neglected my studies and was forced to graduate a year late from an alternative school. After graduating, instead of wasting any more time, I immediately applied for Metro State.

Without a clear idea of what I wanted to do when I "grew up," I tried a little bit of everything and took more or less classes depending on how much I liked what I tried.
Although, you could definitely say that I have prolonged my college career more than necessary (contrary to what I was hoping to do after finally finishing high school), but I've been able to acurately determine who I was and what I wanted through much personal exploration.

Finally, about a year and a half ago, I formulated a plan and directed my passion towards school in the hopes of joining the Peace Corps in Africa after I've finished my bachelor's and then, after that, seeking my master's in international affairs.

Currently I am a Metro State junior pursuing a major in political science and minors in french and environmental science.