Day 27

Day 27; Conway New Hampshire to Littleton New Hampshire

If you have read all my posts, you should remember one about a few guys we met at a motel a while back. While trading stories and chatting with them, one of them told us about a place called Mount Washington. It's the highest point in the US this side of the Mississippi River (and a great road). He said we had to go ride it, and we did. First, let me back up.

When we talked to the ranger yesterday, he told us that it would be closed for a bike race until 1:30pm. We were pretty close to the mountain already, and didn't want to wait around all morning. We took the scenic route through White Mountain National Park to see what we could see (nature and covered bridges were on the agenda). Unfortunately the covered bridges were quite a trek that wasn't about to happen if we wanted to make any progress for the day. We found a nice spot by the river to stop for lunch before heading to Mt Washington to ride the auto road.

Back to my story...  This guy Barry told us to ride up the mountain. There is a sign before you enter that warns you about sharp turns, steep grades, no guard rails, and basically everything that could be wrong with a road. It is also a 5000 foot elevation gain in 7 miles! How could we resist?! We paid to go up the mountain and then got stuck behind (what I am hoping was) the slowest person on the road. I can drive ten mph in first gear with the clutch engaged, and I had to feather the clutch to stay behind this guy. For those of you that don't know motors, it's not good.

We made it slowly, and not so surely (a few times I thought I wouldn't make it). The view from the top was spectacular! Mountains as far as you could see, almost on the same level as the clouds! Apparently having your head in the clouds makes it easy to make friends. A woman from Ukraine walked up to my dad (who was wearing chaps, a vest, and a skull cap), and asked if he was a gypsy. I couldn't believe what she had said because... well because I've never met a gypsy and never thought of my dad as one. Then she said I look like "Russian boy". We took some photos with her and parted ways. She made my day.

The trip back down was almost as frustrating as the way up. Once again stuck behind slow people who don't know how to use lower gears to slow down their cars. This leads to burning breaks which has a heinous smell. Two people we got stuck behind would come to a complete stop every time a car would pass them going the other direction... It's a two lane road.

The trip up and down the mountain could have been made better by getting rid of some of the drivers. Given the choice, I would rather ride the mountain than not.

Then we found a KOA, met some neighbors, took showers, went in a hot tub :), and then made spaghetti for dinner. My dad wanted a rematch at horseshoes, but I don't want to ruin my one game winning streak! We played cribbage instead. Now, as it always is when I finish writing, it is past my bed time.

Bye now, LB