Another day, another destiny. So sings Jean Valjean (actually when he sings it on my parents’ recording, it sounds much more like “another day, another desh-tiny…”). And indeed, here in the Intergalactic HQ, those words ring true every day during the summer.

Kevin and I had the always pleasant experience of being present for another trip start today — this time our new Downeast Explorer trip. Drew, Rachel, and their 11 newest, closest friends are headed out for two weeks of the best Maine has to offer — kayaking, hiking, hopefully a moose-sighting or two, and if they’re really lucky, a bottle or two of Moxie (the soda of choice among real Mainers).

Of the other trips in the field right now, we received nothing but good news today (and heard nothing from one Cape group — which is good news). Wyatt and Chrissy sent in another artfully constructed group shot from the foggy seaside at ‘Sconset on Nantucket. We did not hear from Lucas and Danika on the Cape today — but when I chatted with Danika yesterday, she said everything was going really well and that the group had loved their 40-mile ride around Nantucket before they left the island yesterday. They’re making great progress towards Provincetown now (in fact, they’ll probably be moving considerably faster than most of the folks crawling along on Route 6 tomorrow afternoon).

Our NEMC-ers, led by Anna & David, were on the ropes course today, but also found time to encounter some of the local wildlife, too! (Look closely – yup – the world’s smallest snake…) When I talked to David, he said the group was getting along fantastically. They’re off for the Whites tomorrow, where we’ll likely lose cell phone/picture contact with them for a couple of days.

And in Texas, our group enjoyed their third, always much-anticipated rest day today in Jacksboro, Texas. The first picture below demonstrates that perhaps they don’t need quite this much time off of the bikes… The second picture is post-Post Office — not only did they get a huge haul of packages from home, but the Post Office staff had welcomed our guys with the posters and balloons you see. I love Texas