New Hampshire, Rumney - Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - Kancamangus Highway scenic drive

Monday and Tuesday were pretty crappy days as far as the bikers here in the campground were concerned.  Weather was in the low 50’s and either very overcast or raining.  Top that with no TV reception because of all the mountains and trees surrounding us and everyone pretty much had cabin fever by this morning.  The weather report was for nice sunny weather so bikes were headed out of here early this morning – including us.  Here we are at Pemigewasset Overlook in the White Mountains National Forest.  The ride today was wonderful so brace yourself for lots of pictures – I even managed to get some good ones going down the road.

 

 

Yesterday there was a period in the afternoon when the sun tried to come out.  We took advantage of that brief window and took a walk along the trail to Baker River that runs along the campground.

 

 

This bridge over the river pretty much heads nowhere, it looks like it used to be a railroad bridge but the railroad is long gone.

 

 

Baker River looks to be a little low but we see a lot of people in and out of the campground with kayaks and canoes so it must be deep enough in most places.

 

 

 

By the time we were heading back to the campground the clouds were setting in again giving the windmills up on the mountain an eerie look.

 

 

There are lots of ski resorts in this area of New Hampshire, I think something I read said there were 131 of them.  When we reached this one we knew we had missed our turn for the Kancamangus Highway.

 

 

Greg asked if I wanted to stop at one of the restaurants back in Lincoln, where we were supposed to turn, and eat lunch.  Sounded good, I envisioned one of the rather quaint ones with some local flair.

 

 

Nope, he was looking for a McDonalds.  All I can say is I might have been preaching the “no high fructose corn syrup and less red meat” routine a little too strong lately J

 

 

Like I said before, the day and the ride were beautiful.  These were all taken as we went down the road.

 

 

I think Greg enjoyed the challenges of this road – something different than the straight ones we have been on lately.  There were some long sweeping curves.

Some S-curves.

 

 

Even a hairpin curve.

 

 

And, steep downgrades.  I think we hit a bump as I was trying to take the “9% downgrade” picture.

 

 

We pulled into the White Mountain National Forest Pemigewasset Overlook to get some better pictures.  I told Greg when I look at things like this I just want to say, “Lord, you did good”.  What an awesome sight!

 

 

The White Mountains are part of the Appalachian chain created when the African and North American continental plates collided 400 million years ago.

 

 

Heat and pressure from the colliding continents melted existing rocks to form New Hampshire’s famous granite.

 

 

When we reached Conway at the other end of the Kancamangus Highway we turned around and came back.  This time we stopped at Lower Falls Scenic Area.  Lots of other bikers had the same idea.

I think it is the Swift River that runs alongside the Kancamangus Highway.  I noticed as we rode along the whole river is full of big boulders and the banks are lined with trees – a recipe for lots of log jams, but I didn’t see any.  Someone must work really hard to keep this river beautiful.

People are allowed to swim in this area of the river, I had to work hard to keep them out of the pictures.  I kept this guy in the picture so you could get an idea of how large these boulders are.

The water is just perfectly clear.

 

 

This huge boulder is up on the shore.

 

 

As we were coming home I glanced up and saw what looked like a rainbow around the sun.  I didn’t want to stare into the lens to get a picture of the sun so I just held the camera up and clicked – pretty good result!!

 

 

We noticed as we rode today there were lots of small motels and cabins, something you don’t see at home in Indiana.

We loaded the bike when we got home, we’ll be leaving here tomorrow morning heading to Maine.

New Hampshire, Weirs Beach - Sunday, June 14, 2015 - Laconia Bike Week

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAUGHTER-IN-LAW KIM!!

The weather was beautiful today, maybe made it up to 80.  We didn’t come up here to go to Bike Week, but we are here and it is Bike Week so we decided to at least show up one day.  We took the scenic route in instead of the interstate – what a great ride.

Lots of other people had the same idea.  This is Weirs Beach only one of the many places throughout New Hampshire where Bike Week is being celebrated.  Weirs Beach is adjacent to Laconia that is supposed to be the “center” of Bike Week activities.

 

 

Weirs Beach is on Winnipesaukee Lake (we’ve already shortened that to Lake Winnie).  There is a train that goes on a tour of Laconia and Weirs Beach around the lake.

 

We had lunch at Weathervanes Lobster in the Rough.  There was at least a 30 minute wait but it was worth it.

All of the food is coming out of this small area behind the ice cream parlor.

 

 Mushrooms for an appetizer.

 

Lobster rolls and homemade chips were wonderful.

 

The view from the restaurant’s upstairs window gives you a good idea of the crowd.

 

Lake Winnie was full of boats of all sizes today.

This beautiful house on the main drag is the headquarters for the New Hampshire Veteran’s Association.  They have a beautiful view of the lake when all of this crowd clears out.

The crowds made it darn near impossible to get set up for a good picture today.

Prudential had “Flo’s Chop Shop” set up to give haircuts and shaves.

New Hampshire, Rumney - Saturday, June 13, 2015 - Riverbrook RV Resort

We are in site 64 at Riverbrook RV Resort for the next week.  What a nice little family oriented campground – lots of little kids here running around laughing and playing, it’s a nice sound.  Site 64 is bigger than most of the sites, it is listed as a “deluxe site”.  We were supposed to go into site 63 but there was a pickup truck parked there so we pulled into site 64, no one seemed to mind.  The delay we had in getting here resulted in us getting a “bike week” discount.  The normal rate is $216 a week for full hookups, this week it was just $135.  When we decided to head to New Hampshire we didn’t know it was going to be bike week while we were here.

 

 

Leaving Massachusetts the scenery was beautiful.

We met up with our first traffic slowdown of the day just before we left Massachusetts.

 

 

Welcome to New Hampshire, pull up and sit a spell.

Once we got rolling again we could enjoy more great scenery, for just a little while.

We followed the GPS into the town of Bow, New Hampshire to the only Pilot truck stop that was on the way to the campground.  Four of the trucks hauling for the Toby Keith tour were in there also.  Had great chicken salad on croissant sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts.  I didn’t know it when I ordered but there was a coupon out that took $2.79 off each sandwich so I ended up getting them for $.99 cents each.  After buying 8 tires for the coach we need all the help we can get J.

When we pulled out of the truck stop the route back to the interstate was extra scenic.

Then we were sitting again.

 

 

Bikers were impatient to get to the festivities at Laconia for Bike Week.  And besides that the sky was starting to get dark, rain was on the way.

Not sure where this guy was going, he was just impatient.  I was just sure this was another accident waiting to happen and I was going to get it in pictures for his insurance claim – he made it to the authorized vehicles only crossover J.

There are mountains on all sides of the campground.  These backup the clubhouse.

Another range with some windmills on top is on the other side of the campground.

There are kayaks for rent.

Rockers on the front porch of the clubhouse – these were calling my name.  The weather is in the mid to high 70s today with a nice breeze blowing.

Nice recreation room inside.  Just off of this room is one labeled “ice cream social room”.  Its locked today, will have to watch for it to open up.

The pool behind the clubhouse looks inviting but Greg said it was pretty cold.  I saw some kids head up to the pool this afternoon, they are a little braver than we are.

The playground is right across the road from our campsite – it’s been busy today.

 

 

We did get some coach batteries as I suspected – Happy Anniversary to us!!