I was in Lebanon NH for about 23 hours. 23E has a great friend there in Adam Blue, who most of us know from grad school in SF. He and his wife are caretakers for a substantial land trust. And he is the Education Director at a pretty amazing arts institution in Lebanon, AVA Gallery & Arts Center.
Adam picked me up at the Greyhound/Peter Pan bus terminal, and while he finished up work in Lebanon, I dropped into their info center and asked the two ladies working there,
"Is there anything special I should do while here in Lebanon?"
The ladies looked confused and replied,
"No."
That's straight up New England honesty for you.
Left to my own devices I wandered around, finding a faboo Asian market run by an Indian woman. We chatted about Lebanon for awhile.
I also spent some time in the local comics store (couldn't resist a half price Poison Ivy action figure, who is now my trip mascot) and rummaging in the The Old Yankee junk store.
After work, Adam and I headed back to his place, where we ate with his wife and kids (all stellar company, and a pure joy to be around. His kids are wild yoginis, who demonstrated numerous poses for me. Nothing is cuter that a 4 year old and a 2 year old doing yoga! Their dog, Sadie, must also be mentioned, as she was freshly shorn, and looked and felt like a big happy teddy bear.) Then we looked at two possible sites for an EbM install - one is along a snowmobile path, and the other in a very isolated field. We chatted about the project, and I'm pleased to say that I am writing up a proposal for his land this month. An install in Lebanon could happen as early as 2011!
As if this wonderful news weren't enough, and baby yoginis weren't enough, and a bouncy teddy bear weren't enough, Adam let me drive his tractor (see top), took me for a row boat trip around his pond, and almost lost a shoe running when I kicked a wasp hive that made me curious. At the end of all these adventures, I duly examined myself from head to toe in my first tick check as an adult. Necessary, as NH is the current national leader in Lyme disease cases.
48 hours later I rolled into Portsmouth, NH (from Boston, where my uncle is hosting me) to meet with Carson's cousin Charlie. He and his family have a couple acres, and are very excited about being involved with EbM. We're talking about a 2012 install there.
Our goal is ten sites in ten years in New England (all within a few hundred miles of each other, so that a bike tour of the set could be completed in a week or a car tour in a weekend), and this gets us off to a very strong start! So, yeah, New Hampshire, Earthbound Moon loves you.
