by mark » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:02 am
I ended up doing the ride to NH yesterday after all, but we skipped the Maine part. It was actually dry out when I got up in the morning (to my considerable surprise), and the clouds were moving out with blue sky as far as the eye could see to the west.
Unfortunately, my friend Tim and I were heading east. Made it almost to NH before we hit rain. It rained all the way through NH, but didn't get really bad till we got about 25 miles away from Rochester. By the time we got to where we were going (guy selling a Honda Magna with a sidecar, which Tim wanted to look at for his wife), we were pretty wet. So we asked the guy for a seafood restaurant recommendation, followed his directions (which was easy because we'd passed it on the way in), and had an awesome seafood lunch while we waited for the rain to let up. We just don't have good seafood in Burlington, so it was nice having the real thing.
By the time we were done eating, the weather radar showed the rain having almost cleared the area, so we set off to the west (no point heading up to Maine since it was still raining heavily up that way), and after 10 miles or so the rain stopped and the sun emerged. Headed west through Claremont, NH, then north to Woodstock, VT, and homewards. Made it home at 8:30 with 410 miles on the tripmeter.
Really good ride, despite the wetness. Going to have to do it again sometime with the Maine loop included. Definitely need to eat at that seafood restaurant again.
--mark