Tag: Camping

Well, we didn’t move today. We decided to take a rest day in our heated cabin at Boston Minuteman Campground. It wasn’t as rainy as predicted, but we still enjoyed the rest. Slept until 10 AM (guess we were tired), did laundry, and read most of the day. Mark read the Mueller report (some of it aloud). I’m reading “Looking for Palestine”, a young Arab woman’s search for cultural identity.

Great campground. Clean, great bathrooms, rec room with video games, ping-pong, TV. The pool was not yet open, but I would highly recommend this place to any of our Boston friends who still have young kids and are looking for a great place to have a stay-cation. Even if you don’t have camping gear, you can rent a cabin. It looks like they have great summer time activities.

The highlight of the day was walking (in the rain) to a nearby restaurant called “Chip Shots”, a local golf themed karaoke bar, for lunch.

COLD night last night. We discovered “features” of our sleeping bag (snaps, drawstrings) that we never knew existed in our effort to stay warm. Woke up to woodpeckers again, but this time they were joined by wild turkeys gobbling (and an occasional gun shot out in the woods).

Started the morning heading into Derry NH to get Sidekick Sue (now wearing socks on her hands) a new pair of gloves. Of course, she bought 2 pair (old habits die hard). The bike shop owner was very helpful and thrilled to know that his store was featured on the maps published by the Adventure Cycling Association. Free marketing that he didn’t even know about.

Somewhere around Hudson NH, we passed a very old historic graveyard surrounded by an impressive granite wall that caught our attention while waiting for a red light to change.

Shortly after, we crossed into Massachusetts (our home state for 20 years). Crossed the Merrimack River into Tyngsboro and found the Comet Diner. Hot, breakfast food sounded good to two cold, hungry travelers. Spontaneously decided to call my dear Lotus/IBM colleague, Robin Alvarez, who lives in Tyngsboro to see if she happened to be around. As luck would have it, she was working nearby and was able to take a short break to visit. It was really fun catching up on the last 15 years in about 20 minutes. This was truly the most fun I had all day.

After lunch we rode some major hills through Dunstable and Groton. The best section of today’s ride was picking up the Nashua River Trail (a rail-to-trail project) between Groton and Ayer. It was flat, yet very scenic. A small creek runs through which is home to many turtles, but they were hiding below the surface because of the cold and the cloud cover. I’d highly recommend a visit to my MA friends.

After a few more hills on the way from Ayer to Littleton, we found our new home at the Boston Minuteman Campground. We got ourselves a cabin (with heat AND electricity) because it sounds like tomorrow is going to be a wet wash-out so we are looking at a potential day of rest (and quite honestly, neither of us is disappointed).

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.

Day 1 is in the books. Rode 39 miles to Meredith Woods Campground near Pemigewasset Lake (just west of Winnipesaukee). Slow start getting out in the morning. Stopped for bagels, the ATM, and the obligatory trip back home for Mark’s raincoat (of course it didn’t rain). A lot more uphill than I expected (I mean, we’re riding OUT of the White Mountains, right?), but none so bad that we had to dismount and walk. Lots of beautiful backroad NH scenery… rivers, mountains, waterfalls, covered bridges, and trestle bridges. Pretty much followed the course of the Pemigewasset River right out of Lincoln. Went through downtown Plymouth and then crossed back under I-93 to have lunch in Ashland at the Village Pizza and Grill. Gotta love the great service and food when you get off the highway. Checked into Meredith Woods Campground around 4:00 PM. The desk clerk was so excited to hear that we biked down from Lincoln that she gave us a free sticker and upgraded our campsite. Great first day. Our butts are sore and our knees are creaky. First order of business was to find the Ibuprofen.