OUR NEW HAMPSHIRE TRIP
Written by Ron & Glo Mentzer
Reprinted From PA Chapter “A” Newsletter
What do you do after one year of planning and orchestrating a National Rally to fill your time???
Since our anniversary (48 years) is October 5th, we decided to go camping in our new rig, to our favorite state.
We left Lancaster at 7:50 AM Friday morning September 30th and arrived at Silver Lake Camp-ground in Belmont, NH about 4:00 PM. We made really good time going up.
It didn’t take long to set up our rig and make a quick supper. Toured the lake and campground and settled in for a restful evening.
Saturday we headed to Mount Washington. Had to take the new trike to the top! They had to make a call to give us permission to go to the top since they had a snowstorm a few days earlier and had sanded thickly iced road and were not letting two wheels up the mountain.
We got permission and away we went. The car route was really busy since it was a beautiful, clear, sunny, 73-degree day so traffic was moving very slow.
Well, those big 1800 Hondas just do not like to go slow. Five to ten miles per hour, on an uphill climb behind a slow moving car, is not for them. In no time the heat gauge was at the “H”. We pulled over, checked the water lever (it was OK), and waited for the engine to cool down; when it was safe to go we started out again. Conditions were the same and again we heated up. And again we pulled over and waited. We did this one more time before we reached the top.
The place was packed with hikers, cars, people, The Cog Railroad Passengers, and us. The temp at the top was 43 degrees. Really warm for 6288 feet! The sky was clear. This was the fourth time we had been to the top and the first time we had clear weather.
Sunday we road the Kangamangus Trail. Lots of motorcycles and cars. More Harleys than Hondas, but all were friendly to us and really liked our trike. We saw more color on the “Trail” but only at the highest point.
Monday we went to the Maine coast. When we got to Maine we started up Route 1A thru Old Orchard. This town is the “shore town” of Maine. But getting there in the first week of October is a No No because they had already pulled the blinds and hung out their signs, “See you in the Spring.” We did find a “Local” and she told us where we could get a good bowl of Lobster Stew. After the stew, we had about a 1-1/2 hour ride back to the campground.
Tuesday we started down the road to see the racetrack at Laconia. From the racetrack we kept going south to Concord. At Concord we decided to go see the Old Man of the Mountain. We jumped on 93N, set the cruise on 80 and away we went to Franconia Notch. It was amazing how clean a break the stone had left on the mountain after the face fell off. Since we were this close to Vermont we jumped over the Connecticut River into Vermont and picked up Rt. 5S along the river. We followed this route south until we could jump back across the river and pick up Rt. 11 back to Franklin, NH and the Silver Lake Campground.
Wednesday we headed to North Conway again and road those roads. Thursday we decided to head to the ocean again, so we head southeast on side roads to Rt. 101. This takes us to Hampton Beach where we picked up Rt. 1A again and traveled north. This road is right beside the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean was fogged in. This was really neat to see. Fog on the ocean, but it stopped as it to the land.
The weather was sunny and 70’s all week. We saw some color in the trees, but they had such warm weather for so long the trees were late to color. The campground is open from May 15th until Columbus Day. They have campers there all year and people rent the ground on a yearly basis. There were two couples still there and they filled us in on the “locals.” There is a couple that comes up in May from Florida and stays until October then goes back to Florida to live in the same type of campground until it is time to go North again. Some kind of life!
Friday morning about 8:30 AM we departed for our journey home – and arrived at 7:45 PM. Yes, that is one long day. It took us four hours from Allentown to Lancaster, normally it takes under two hours. There was heavy, and I do mean heavy, rain, accidents that were jamming the roadways somewhere and construction everywhere. We traveled three miles in twenty-five minutes. Needless to say, the natives were restless. But we sure were glad to be in the truck! We stayed dry.
Since we are now initiated into this camping life we are looking forward to next year. For now, our toy box is unpacked and the “driver” is getting ready for hunting season. Yes, our married life goes into hibernation from October 15th until January 15th (or something like that). This has been going on for so long I consider it MY VACATION.
The lesson to this vacation for us, and a thought for you riders to keep in mind is: Watch the temp gauge while going slow on these big play toys. THEY ARE BUILT FOR SPEED. That is why we call the Wings!
Ron & Gloria Mentzer aka Spider & Moose bait