Day 2 started early in the morning, waking up to the rat-ta-tat-tat of the woodpeckers. There was a storm coming, so we had to try to get our riding hours in before noon. We were on the road before 7:00 am, our butts still sore from yesterday. We passed through Laconia, a cute little town, and stopped to take a few pictures (and rest). Today’s ride had several elevation challenges (HUGE hills…. I’m going to have nightmares of Fellows Hill Road for awhile). Mark is always saying “Never give up; never surrender” (Galaxy Quest), so I kept saying that in my head as we pedaled until we had to walk to make the final ascent on the last two. It took awhile for the temperature to get comfortable today, and I had trouble shaking my chill from the night before.
What I noticed today were lawn decorations. Folks up here have some very rustic ways of decorating their lawns. Lots of stuff you would see on American Pickers. Wishing wells and windmills everywhere. Rusty wheel barrows in the middle of gardens. Old stationary bikes and plows that had been converted to mailbox stands. Old horse drawn carts and tractors that had been converted to planters. Lots of old stuff; I didn’t even know what some of it was. Passed lots of farms and friendly folk starting their Spring clean-up. In the rural areas, everyone waved and drivers gave us wide berth (not so much in the larger towns as people were rushing to work and we were definitely in their way).
We were making good time, and were only a few miles from our campground when we found a place for lunch, “The Hungry Buffalo”. Had to wait a few minutes outside as it wasn’t open until 11:30 AM. It was the only restaurant Google could find around Loudon and it doubled as the local tavern and pool hall. The regulars started lining up at the bar by noon. LOL. Great food, especially if you have a hankering for some less common meat choices (bison, elk, wild boar, venison, alligator).
After a great lunch, we made it to the campground with only a few sprinkles. Set up camp, showered and did laundry already as we are only traveling with 3 sets of riding clothes. Tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer and drier which should make for a much more pleasant day.
