Fall Foliage Ride 1997
AHHH, Columbus day weekend in New Hampshire. The foliage is at it's peak, the sun is out, the temperature is in the mid 60's, and there's 100,000 New Yorkers (leaf peepers) driving the back roads looking at the trees instead of the road. A perfect time for taking a motorcycle trip. My friends Brian and Larry, (Bo and Lumpy), showed up at my house Saturday around 5:00PM, both on '96 Road Kings, we would use my place as a base. We headed out back roads to Mont Vernon and picked up Purgatory Road, then onto N. River road to Lyneborough Center, to route 13N. We fueled up in Greenfield, headed up 13 to Bennington, NH right on 46 to Francestown, to 136 and back into Greenfield. It was getting a little nippy so we blasted down 13 to Wilton and over to the Ram in the Thicket (a friend of mine's bed and breakfast), for dinner. They were packed, I walked into the kitchen to say hello, and Andy greeted me by saying, "Tend the bar and keep these people company." So after mixing some drinks for the customers, I poured one for each of us and while Bo and Lumpy sat at the bar I stood behind it mixing whatever and chatting with the paying folks. All three of us ordered the mushroom soup (WOW), salad, and the Pork tenderloin. I ate, standing up behind the bar, whilst chatting up a storm/harrassing the patrons. We paid our food bill (drinks were gratis), said our goodbye's and took back roads to Milford, were we each had a drink at the Colonel Sheppard House. (another bead and breakfast that yet another friend of mine owns). Then back home for a hot tub, some cigars and more beer. (or beeahs as they would say here in NH). We left here Sunday morning at 9:00AM, took my road to rte. 13 to New Boston and onto 77, were we stopped in on a friend, Steve (a.k.a. the Hammer), to say hello, check out some cute puppies and sample his keg of Loon Ale. Then up 77 to 114 and into Weare, NH (pronounced where), and had a great breakfast at the local American Legion. One of the older locals asked us where we were heading, and we replied, "we don't rightly know." He said, "Well right now you're in Center Weare and No Where is right up the street." Off to nowhere. We blasted some very secluded back roads over to the Vermont border and to 10 north, too much traffic. Lumpy found 25-A, a secondary road heading back east and it was great. No leaf peepers, twisties, and lots of color. I throttled hard through a corner an boom, my left muffler came off. After checking it out thoroughly, we found some old baling wire and within 10 minutes we had it back together. We jumped on 118 (a great road) and followed too much traffic to Truants Tavern in Woodstock, NH for a pint of Guinness and a few minutes of the Patriots football game. Then on to rte. 3 south through Ashland and into Merideth. It was a traffic jam of leaf peepers. We took 104 from Merideth to New Hampton and onto route 132 south, WOW, fresh blacktop, no traffic, and LOTS of twisties. EEEE-Hah. We blasted 132 at a steady 50 MPH to Loudon Road in Concord and headed over to Chuggers for some coffee, some munchies, and the end of the NLCS (I was happy to see Florida win it). By the time we left it was dark and cold. We bundled up said our goodbye's and headed over to 93 to blast home. We split up in Manchester, were I took 101 west and they continued down 293, heading towards Concord, MA. It got a little chilly once the sun went down, but what a great day. I wouldn't have changed a thing. Hopefully some of you can join us next year.
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