hours driven: 8
state lines crossed 2
its good to be back! My mom and I rolled into Portsmouth NH around 6:30pm last evening. and much to her relief i told her 'ok, fine, mom, we don't have to go and touch the Atlantic ocean tonight.'
If i was patriotic or nostalgic about my home town, i probably would have cried when my stepfather gave us this news when we got home. they had postponed the fireworks on the fourth, due to weather, and were having them that evening. But since i am not either of those things, i did not cry. I was pretty excited though. As we where standing on the edge of the mill pond with the thousand of other people, the fire works reflecting with the brick middle school building and the thin sliver of a moon in the sky, i certainly felt grateful to have grown up in this beautiful place and very happy to be standing there now.
Today I awoke and found a perfect Portsmouth day. Sunny, not too too hot and the air filled with saltiness and whispers of sea creatures. I took a deep breath and then another and another. its safe to say i missed that smell. The pacific just doesn't smell like that. Now i am contenting myself with unpacking and happily putting laundry up in my parents urbane back yard. i love how it looks. hanging laundry out to dry can feel so subversive here!
And as if life couldn't get any better than that, thanks to my pack-rat of a stepfather, i have a beautiful new bike! well, its not 'new' at all. but its new to me, and its in the new style i discovered i loved when i was in Bloomington with Adam and Ginelle. 10 speed. I will be taking some much smaller trips on it. and staying out of my car for as long as i can manage. viva la bici!
So thanks to all of you for reading. And thanks for all the prayers and well wishes along the way. I made it almost free of incident. The 'almost' was yesterday. 20 minutes after driving into New Hampshire, i got pulled over! go figure. but it didn't drain my excitement. It just made me laugh.
