I love Bike & Build!!!!

Hello, hello from Lebanon, New Hampshire! We had absolutely the best day today! For one, the ride was short (35 miles) and it was almost completely downhill, with the exception of a few moderate hills. What a relief, as I actually cried during some of the hills we climbed up yesterday - that's a whole other story, and I'm trying to keep this thing positive!

The weather today is absolutely gorgeous. Last night, we stayed at Our Lady Fatima Catholic Church in the very hilly city (seemed more like a village) of New London, NH. We had a delicious dinner and were able to stroll into town to check out the place. Since yesterday was kind of rough for me (note: eat lunch, even if it's at 10:45 am when you're doing strenuous hills), I was pretty anxious about today and nervous we might have the same type of climbs. However, it couldn't have been any better!

I was assigned the role of sweep along with Mark Broz for today's ride. Sweep means that we ride behind all of the other riders to make sure no one gets left behind. This is a great "job" because it means we get to stop when all of the other riders feel like stopping, which today meant swimming in a lake, stopping for ice cream, and taking awesome photos along the way. (Promise I'll upload those things soon). It only took us about 2.5 hours to get to our destination, and when we arrived there was a small city carnival of sorts happening in the downtown area of Lebanon, right next to the church we're staying at.

I have been having major issues with my seat moving, and I was getting really frustrated that it kept happening more and more no matter how much I was tightening it. I was worried I was going to have to fork over a lot of money to get a new seat and post (biking = expensive hobby), but fortunately there is a bike shop half a mile away from where we're staying. The whole group of us stopped in and I had my seat post replaced for only 20 bucks - awesome! I hope this will be the solution to my seat problems. Seriously a pain in the butt. ;)

Tonight, we're going to be eating at a community dinner in Lebanon. Up until this trip, I never loved food as much as I love food now. I seriously feel like my days consist of sleeping, biking, eating, eating, eating, building, biking, etc. The food donations have been amazing and I am still completely overwhelmed by all of the generosity.

Tomorrow, we have our second build day in Lebanon. While build days are definitely not days off, I am looking forward to having a day off of my bike to let my legs kind of recover from the grueling hills I've been forcing them to do.

Tonight, the group is going to go out together after dinner. I'm excited to wear something other than athletic shorts and cotton t-shirts.

Well, my time on the library computer is nearly up, so I'm going to get going.

3 weeks until Janesville!!