I'm in Boston now! It ended up taking me 3 days from Franklin, Maine to get here. Along the way I met some more great people and shared with them why an Alaskan boy is cycling from Montreal to Orlando at such a hot time of the year. For the first time this trip, I knocked on someone's door to ask about putting a tent in their backyard. I had arrived in Bath, Maine around 9:00pm. I had thought I could tent behind a church there but downtown Bath was much more of a city than I thought and the church had no grass anywhere since it was butted up right against the surrounding buildings. Tired and not in the mood to wander around the city in the dark looking for a place to sleep, I went to the first house I saw with lights still on and knocked on the door. Fortunately the couple who answered was very kind. They talked to me for a while in the doorway asking me about my trip. Finally I put up my tent in their backyard and went to sleep.

The next day I planned to bike to Hampton Beach but came up short about 20 miles. I was tired and felt like stopping for the day so I pulled into a nearby church planning to tent again behind the building. To my surprise there were actually people in the church this time. I went in to find an AA meeting about to begin. After talking with some of the people there, I was invited in to eat some snacks and sit in on the meeting as a guest if I wanted. I did. The way my night played out was not at all how I had imagined when I first biked into that parking lot. Instead of setting up my tent and going to sleep alone, I spent the night listening to people talk about their lives, their struggles, their successes. I met some wonderful people there and made new friends. Afterwards I had multiple invitations to leave my tent packed and sleep in their homes. I say yes to M's invite. He was very interested in my trip and my cause. I was encouraged by his interest and support. After staying up a while chatting I took a shower and went to bed once again amazed by how my day ended in such an unexpected way. The following day I headed out for Boston bright and early.

I was awake at 4:15 and decided to just hit the road nice and early. The morning was nice, but the day turned out to be one of the hottest yet. At 3pm as I was rolling into Boston it was 95F and humid. Slightly lost in Boston, I tried to cross a bridge that apparently is not open to bikes. Just about every car honked at me and an ambulance told me over the loudspeaker to get off the bridge. Well it was really busy traffic and only one way so I wasn't about to turn around and go back. I continued on desperately looking for the other side. Halfway across the bridge (which seemed ridiculously long at the time) there was a toll booth and an ambulance waiting for me. They frantically waved me down (which I thought was a bit unnecessary because it was obvious that they were waiting for me). The guy looked at me and said "What are you doing? Are you crazy?" I smiled and said, "I guess". He helped me off the bridge and listened as I told him what I was doing and where I was going. "You really are crazy" he said when he heard I was trying to get to Florida at such a hot time of year. We both laughed about the whole bridge event and he pointed me in the direction I was trying to go. Hot, tired, and thirsty I got to my friends A's house. I've been here a day now and plan to head out in the morning. It has been so nice here visiting A and getting to know her roommates. They have all been very kind to let me stay here and sleep on their couch. My next stop is Connecticut and then hopefully New York City by Monday afternoon.