Rainy Days in Lenox

Western Mass - Lenox

What an amazing time we're having! We left the comfortable church of Pastor Van's on Thursday morning after a breakfast of oatmeal. It was the end of the box of oatmeal and the raisins so Steph meticulously made sure we each had equal amounts dropping one raisin into each of our bowls in turn - 19 each in the end and none left over! It was raining HARD that morning and we gave up all attempts at keeping dry. We took refuge briefly on the back porch of an inn in Stockbridge to eat PB&J sandwiches for lunch. The ride proved to be not as difficult a climb out of Great Barrington up to Lenox as we had thought it would be. On the way we found out that it can be quite hazardous to pull the trailers in the rain. Sam had two close calls - once hitting a pothole and once making a tight turn when the trailer flipped on its side causing his bike to swerve and the nylon rope holding the tub to break. Everything was fine though. No injuries or lost equipment. This is why we allow for extra room between our bikes in the rain (this is to appease all of the worry wort partents out there!) ;) We arrived at Lynn Rist's house in the mid afternoon, our shoes completely squishy puddles. We did our best to not track in the dirt from the road though! After we settled in and a few of us showered, we briefly canvassed in the neighborhood (still in the rain).

Friday consisted of sleeping in, doing office work and canvassing. Steph and I achieved an almost 50% success rate in getting signatures at houses! That evening we had the most amazing potluck here with such wonderful people. Authors and editors of EnlightenNext magazine were here along with other local activists and friends of Lynn’s. We stayed up late into the night talking about biomimicry technology, the environmental movement, the situation in Iran, psychic parrots, and so much more. It was such a wonderful and intellectual group to be surrounded by; we were truly blessed!

Saturday, in the late morning Steph and I made a trip to Stop and Shop to buy food for the next few days. (A man we met in one isle had seen us biking there and told us we had made good time since he'd passed us in his car only a few minutes before!) After lunch, Antoine and Sam headed out to buy snacks for our symposium while Steph, Jane and myself went to Radio Shack to locate a USB for Jane's camera and an AV adapter for mac computers to connect to a projector. (We never found the latter, but we were all three asked to hang out/exchange numbers by the man working at the store who was obviously very impressed by the idea of 3 women biking across the state together. We walked out of the store with only the USB, a receipt, and a funny story for the guys.)

From there, we biked to town hall (up the newly dubbed "Hill of Death" on route 7 to Lenox center) where our symposium was held. It is called such due to its long, steep slope and we have ridden up and down it now a total of 8 times. Steph, Jane and I facilitated tonight and I must say, we worked very well together, and the guys were very supportive of us which we were grateful for. We had some technical issues with getting videos to run smoothly which was very aggravating and embarrassing and caused us to want to smash the computer and projector against the wall. However, we luckily had a very receptive and appreciative group. We got some great networking and media coverage (a newspaper reporter as well as Judy Eddy who made appearance #2 since she loved seeing us Tuesday. We look forward to seeing her at the program close in Boston!) We are so thankful for all of the work Susan Olshuff did for our group regarding the symposium and the potluck! She is truly an inspiring local leader.

Afterwards, we five were very hungry, over tired, but elated and inspired! The heavy rainstorm made for quite an adventure home. We wooped and shouted, as well as cursed the driving rain, on the way out of town. Jane and I dubbed the hill we decided walk up the "Hill of Death 2" since we simply lacked the motivation to bike so hard in the dark and the rain, but the rest of the team waited for us at the top as is our usual policy. However, going down the Hill of Death 1 was quite fun as it had been turned into a river and we were forced to follow the blinking red lights on each other's bikes as we squinted through the rain. (To anyone adventuresome or under 30 years old - it was EPIC. To mom and dad - we were very careful!) After a carbo-loading dinner and large cups of tea, we gladly welcomed bed.

Yesterday, Sunday, we had a looooooong bike ride from Lenox to Pittsfield (not really – it took about 20 minutes). I believe it was Jane who said “So when does the real ride start?” once we arrived. But we were thankful because the rides to Williamstown and Greenfield will be anything but easy. After settling in, Jane, Sam and Antoine went on an adventure to find a farmer’s market which turned out to be just a Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) and had to opt for a supermarket instead. After an extensive team meeting and dinner, we had some free time and went to bed.

Today we are spending the day at the local library doing office work and will be canvassing later. We also bought a copy of the Berkshire Eagle yesterday which had an article on us! We hadn't realized that it was being published so soon that a friendly woman in the neighborhood we were staying at in Lenox saw us on bikes and when she asked who we were realized that she had just read about us that morning! It was written by the reporter who came to the symposium in Lenox. We were on the front page of the Local News section, though not the actual front page. But it was very exciting to see our names printed and be quoted. Here's the link to it online: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_12660078 And don’t forget to visit our picasa photo site at http://picasaweb.google.com/climatesummerphotos

Stay Green!
--Leila