Portsmouth, NH

Summer is here.  I've graduated and am ready to start on a new adventure.  I seem to be quite predictable in my adventuring these days, as this summer I will ride my trusted bicycle from sea to shining see across North America for a third time.  Since 2010 I have proudly been involved with a great non-profit organization that spreads money and awareness for affordable housing, and does so with groups of young adults crazy enough to pedal their way from coast to coast.  I am one of those young adults, and I couldn't be happier about it.  I just packed up my car in Atlanta, made a pit stop in Brooklyn, and arrived in New Hampshire with great anticipation and excitement.

I am one of four leaders on this cross-continent route.  We begin our trip in Portsmouth, NH, coincidentally just six miles away from where I grew up.  My co-leaders and I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our team, and today marks the first full day the whole team is together.  We've got a whirlwind couple of days full of presentations, exercises, and information to prepare the group for what our summer will look like.

Aside from all the logistics, I am over the moon excited for this summer.  Typically, this organization only allows you to participate in two cross country adventures, but I am lucky enough to get a third.  I've already had the time of my life cycling from Providence, Rhode Island to San Francisco, California and from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to San Diego, California, and now I will take to the streets to ride from New Hampshire to Vancouver.  Along the way, our group will stop to volunteer with affordable housing organizations and help with their efforts in any way that they could use us. 

There are thirty of us in total for this particular route, and the group seems amazing.  Bright eyed, excited, and enthusiastic, our group comes from all over the states, and we even have a rider joining us from Turkey.  I can't even believe the summer we are about to have together.  I can only imagine I walk away from this summer with another wonderful experience, and newfound inspiration from these now strangers that will soon become family.

Time to fine tune the bike and get ready to hit the road.