Laconia Trip; Sunday June 10; Day 3

Okay, I'm going to preface this one by saying that I had my Canon XT with me but no CF card! What a rotten photographer I am! So, we thought okay, we will just pick up a CF card at a local Rite Aid. Well, we get half way down the Kanc and I realize that I hadn't even brought my camera!! The camera was back at the condo. URGH!!!!!

Well, we were meeting some of dad's friends from the Harley forum so we got up pretty early to head down to meet them. Right in front of our condo is the Kancamagus Hwy (I still can't say it and I'm not the only one - everyone calls it the "Kanc"). We rode that down to where we were meeting the guys. The "Kanc" is a very picturesque ride in the middle of the White Mountains, there are little parks and hikes all along the route. Once again we thought we were going to get rained on. It had poured at the condo in the morning and it was really cloudy and misty when we first started out. After about 15 minutes the clouds broke and it was beautiful!

We met 2 of Dad's friends and they were both from around here. After talking in the parking lot for over an hour my back was killing me and I was hungry (remember I hadn't eaten since 5 the night before!) so I suggested we all go INTO the restaurant. We wound up eating on the porch and it was really nice. Dad's friends were really nice. One of them had to leave at 12 to attend something for his daughter's graduation but the other one George became our tour guide for the day. He was great. I mentioned my camera dilemma and he went to his bike and got his camera which was a little camera the size of my hand. He gave it to me to use all day. Which was really nice. The only problem was that he set it up for the pictures to have only 2 MP so although we took a lot of pictures that day I doubt they will be any good except for posting on the internet. He is going to email them to me later.

We started off riding to a place called Ellis Falls. We drove into the park and parked. There was a pedestrian tunnel that actually went under the road to the other side. We actually started out at the top of the falls and walked down some stone steps to get to the bottom. It was beautiful and the mist was very cooling. The climb back up was not so pleasant especially in my riding boots. But we made it and we headed back out.

We stopped at George's parent's house where he is staying (he actually lives in Maine and is here for bike week), he was burning up and needed to get a cooler shirt. Well they live in an aviation community like the one that the Haydens live in in Fredricksburg. So, as you can imagine Dad was in Heaven. But it got better. George's step dad is building a P51 in his hangar. So, they talked for quite a while about that and then Dad found out that their house was built with styrofoam building blocks like Legos. Well, that fascinated Dad and we stayed there about an hour and a half while Dad talked. George's mom was really nice and it was a nice visit.

We then set out and rode for another hour and a half or so and wound up where the main action is for bike week. It is down at a place called Weir's Beach. That is the only place that we hit any kind of traffic. We got some ice cream at Weirs (that is my only requirement this week is ice cream every day) and then headed to a place called the Broken Spoke which is a saloon. They also have a bunch of vendors selling t-shirts and other biker stuff. They also have one of those mechanical bull things. There were other things going on that we quickly decided we wouldn't be staying very long. We left George there, and we left and headed back to Lincoln where we are staying. Right before we got to our condo we stopped and ate at a Chinese restaurant. We were the only ones in there. The waiters were so cute they were two chinese guys that I don't think had been in the states for very long. They just smiled the whole time and I could barely understand them. They reminded me of the guys in the Chinese restaurant in "A Christmas Story". Dad's food was good but mine was burnt so I felt like I hadn't eaten.

We got back to the condo in time to watch Brian Regan but I fell asleep after the 3rd joke. I'm glad it was taped so we can watch it when we get home.

Dave and Lee arrive tomorrow! They had stayed in Hartford for a memorial service/ash spreading of Lee's dad which was on Sunday.

Miles covered: approx 250

Laconia Trip - Saturday, June 9; Day 2

Well, we woke up to pouring rain! Great! So, instead of heading right out we went to breakfast with Dave and Lee and then went over to Ralph's house and visited all morning. Ralph has a small reef tank and he is relatively new at it so your dad helped him out a bit. They wound up splitting one of the zinnias and rubberbanding it to a rock in order to grow some more. Ralph thought that was great. He had heard you could do it but had never been brave enough to actually do it. By about 2:30 the sky looked like it was cloudy but the rain had stopped so we decided to head out.

Once we got through the Hartford area it was pretty much clear sailing through Vermont. We stopped for "lunch" at 5:00 in a place called Bellows Falls. It reminded me of the town in "It's a Wonderful Life" - Bedford Falls. We were starving and stopped at the first place we saw that was opened. After we got inside we realized we were in an old railroad car. The place seated maybe 20 people (if they were small :-) ). The food was outstanding and the waitress was the owner who had moved there from Richmond. So when we left out of there, it looked like rain again and we debated putting on our rainsuits but Dad was confident so we didn't. Although the rain was on our peripheral all day it never rained on us until we got about 15 minutes away from our destination. It rained on us but not enough to get us too wet. The ride was absolutely beautiful. Even though we were on the interstate the scenery was gorgeous! Mountains all around us. I keep hoping we will see a moose but so far we haven't.

We got to the condo and I laid down for a little while thinking we would go to get dinner. About an hour later Dad woke me up to ask if we were going to dinner and I was just too doggone tired! I just couldn't get myself up and I dragged myself into our bedroom and slept with my contacts in and my make up on!

Miles covered: approx 218

New England Trip Day 1 June 8

Hey kids! I thought it would be fun for me to write every day and let you know what all we are doing. I will also be posting pictures.

As you know, Dad left home about 6:15 am on the bike. I went the cozy way and flew to Hartford, CT with Lee. Lee and I arrived in Hartford after riding a "puddle jumper" (seated only 35 people - we're talking little - you can imagine how I enjoyed that!) Lee and I picked up our rental car and went over to her brother Ralph's house where her mom was staying. Her mom, Beverly, Lee and I then went and had lunch - at 4 o'clock. We ate at a place called Giovanni's which was a little mom and pop pizza place. It was very good. We then headed over to Lee's sister's house. Her name is Deb. She is a real hoot I really enjoyed her and the rest of Lee's family too. Deb has a daughter who came over, her name is Joanna and she is an upcoming junior at Manhattan College in NYC. She is at her mom's for the summer. We only heard from the guys at 10:30 and then again at 4:00 when Dave called Lee to say that they were 120 miles from Hartford. Well, about 7:30 we were beginning to get a little worried. All the sudden I heard Harleys and looked out - we were sitting on a screened porch - and we see them come rolling into the condo subdivision entrance. YAY!! They had been stuck in traffic for over 2 hours outside of NYC. But they were here and we were glad!

After the guys relaxed a little we headed out for dinner there in Glastonbury which is the name of the town that Lee's family lives in. We had a really good time. After dinner we headed over to Nick's house (Nick is Lee's oldest son) where we were staying the night. We headed into the bedroom and I crashed! I'd been up since 5 and was exhausted! Dad took a shower and then joined me we slept until 7:45 the next morning planning on leaving for New Hampshire in the morning.

The group picture is (left to right) Dave, Lee, Deb (Lee's sister), Beverly (Lee's mom), Joanna (Lee's niece/Deb's daughter) and you know the rest. :-)

Miles covered: approx 539.7