finally the Midwest

So, the last time I posted was in Poughkeepsie, which means that lots has happened since then.

On the 7th we biked to White LakeNewYork in the pouring rain. It was rather terrible. but the people at White Lake were excellent and after dinner they took us to see the site of Woodstock, which is becoming the Bethel Woods Center for performing arts, kind of similar to Tanglewood. The New York Philharmonic is supposed to play there soon.

After that we went across another state line and headed into a long trek through the hills of Pennsylvania. We got into Scranton on the 8th after a refreshingly nice day of riding. and to celebrate that I was about to get a day off, I went to bed early.

The 9th ( my birthday ) was spent at a restore near Scranton. Restores are an extension of habitat that gets donated building materials and uses them for habitat houses and sell them to benifit habitat houses. The person at the store heard it was my birthday and got me a very nice cake and after a rendition of happy birthday, I failed to blow out all 20 candles ( I missed 4 ).
That night I went out to a nice Thai reasturant down the street, to get a break from whatever form of beans were being served. At the Thai Reasturant ( which was amazing ) I ordered a fried ice cream for desert which was them set aflame with a flambe sauce. and the 12 bike and builders in the reasturant started singing to me. Then the lights dimmed and a disco ball turned on and all of the waitresses started dancing and singing a disco rendition of happy birthday. It was perhaps the funnyist thing ever.

The next night we stayed in a really pretty chuch near Tawanda, PA. there was a really nice farm dog. the weather was absolutly perfect. It was very gorgeous in every way.

I am now in Iowa and Internet access has been scarce and I am far behind in my blog. I just wanted to send you some news. You can stay posted at the Bike and Build site http://www.bikeandbuild.org/follow/journals/P2S06.php.

If I don't find internet soon, I wanted to make sure I wished everyone a happy 4th of July.

From the cornfields of Iowa,

Jeffrey

Poughkeepsie

So far so good,

The trip started a little bumpily in providence as we headed out in the pouring rain, but after navigating out of the city with only small incident ( I got a flat ) we headed out to pampered Connecticut where we spent the night at First congregation Church. We made ourselves a small dinner, and a few bike and builders from last year stopped by and brought us ice cream.

In the morning we woke up far too early and headed to pampered, Connecticut. Where we got a very friendly welcome, and the church we stayed at had a pot luck supper for us. We gave our first presentation on affordable housing which went really well. The next morning they made us breakfast and we headed on our way to Kent. Kent is a beautiful little tourist trap catering to the people who wander around Connecticut antiquing. We stayed at the Kent School , a gorgeous little private school that more closely resembles a small liberal arts college.

Today we got into Poughkeepsie, ( where I was born) and we're being put up in St Pauls.

The entirety of northern Connecticut is beautiful. The scenery has been amazing and my trip so far has been wonderful. I'm looking forward to heading through New York and into Pennsylvania.