Lebanon, NH

Ride

Nice weather brought a quick ride and great day. Road 34 miles from New London, NH to Lebanon, NH on a great warm sunny day. At mile 26 in the front of the pack, we hadn't seen the lunch van that usually stops about halfway along the route and decided to skip the PB&J and ride through Lebanon to Hanover and Dartmouth college for food and a swim. Wade and Jeremy led us an extra five miles to their stomping grounds where we hit up Molley's Bar and Grill for a ridiculously large meal--6 loaves of bread included. From there we headed to the Connecticut river to a dock for a swim and canoe ride. Back to Lebanon for an amazing meal by the first congregation church.

Build

The next day we woke to a much appreciated hot breakfast supplied by friendly church members--the break from the begals and otmeal was great. The group went 4 different directions to do Affordable housing work. I biked three miles to a Habitat house on its final stages. I painted the porch and trim while others did landscaping. A cute little girl that lived in the Habitat house across the street put some little painted handprints on my shirt--made it worth the work. Back with the group, the van made runs to the river where Will--one of the leaders and another Dartmouth guy--knew of a roof to jump into the river. The 40 foot drop was awesome! Both times. The Lebanon Methodist church provided an amazing pot luck spread and my chore group did the first housing presentation. Couple facts: the frist bike and build group in 2003 had 2 routes and raised $70,000. This year there are 8 routes raising $540,000 for Affordable housing distributed in on the road donations--donations made in the name of those that house us, grant applications--grants aplied for by affiliates, $500 from each rider to the organization of their choice, and $35,000 to the church that lets us use the van.