Monday, Day 7+3, Chez Gear-Lu, 7:30 PM
Hiya Kids,
Sorry for being incommunicado the last few days- The two guest computers at Best Western were even more popular than the bar… Never got a chance to touch them. For those who have been following along, you may or may not know that Lulu and I have been in the process of moving in together in Chez GearMan, (Now officially known as Chez Gear-Lu) and waiting around for the cable guy was about the last thing we had time for in the midst of painting, re-plumbing the whole house, planning, organizing, and marking a 50 mile raining route, moving, training… You get the point. So now, I’m scabbing off the neighbors Wi-Fi (With permission, of course) to try to bring you all up to date on the last little bits of the trip. This will probably take a few days, so keep checking back.
This year, we changed day 6 and 7 routes to accommodate a change in our overnight location- We stayed in Keene, at the rotary, at the Best Western just before Norm’s Ski and Bike- sadly, eliminating them as Rest Stop 3. They have been with us for many years and have always been more than kind to us- opening both their facilities and their hearts to us, and always letting us know how welcome we were. The good news? We knocked off the uphill slog past the Troy Fire Dept. as we weren’t heading to Franklin Pierce. The bad news? Even though we weren’t going via Troy, there was still plenty of climbing to be done in order to get back OUT of the Connecticut River Valley. The good news about the bad news? We were doing it in the morning, with fresh legs, and not for the last 15 miles of a roughly 88 mile day 6 as in years past. This mileage was tacked onto the beginning of day 7, although a few crafty re-routes enabled us to minimize the impact, PLUS add two more ice-cream shops for Rest Stops! The first, in Jaffrey, was literally at the end of the runway of Silver Ranch Airport, site of the annual “Jaffrey Festival of Fireworks“, you can check out a 2 or 3 minute sample from a few years ago, when the theme was movies- “Lights, Camera, Pyro!” I was there for about 12 hours on the first of the two day, round the clock setup for this event, complete with live bands, multiple concert sound systems to broadcast the soundtrack, and roughly 25,000 annual viewers. You should check it out if you get the chance.
Rider feedback was positive about the new routes for days 6 and 7, and were REALLY positive about not staying at Franklin Pierce- Home of the World’s hottest cafeteria, and typically host to 250 soccer or cheer-camp kids at the same time as us… Making for 50+ person lines for food, and not many available chairs in the dining area. The best Western was nice, clean, and featured great food and a really great staff, not to mention our own private banquet room. They also had an indoor swimming pool, so if it rains, you can go swimming without having to worry about getting wet… That’s a really nice feature right there!
OK, Now I’m going to go find some dinner. Check back!
Keep the wind at your back and the downhills in front of you
GearMan