New Hampshire---"Oh...Faye...this is so scrumptious! Is this hand shucked?"

Brent and Beth got up with us and we went over the route because there were a lot of turns. The weather forecast called for high humidity and temps in the mid 90's, so I was anxious to get started. Thanks again, Brent, for all of your help with the routing...(he printed off about 15 pages of details for me...) and thanks for riding along with us for awhile...that was really fun!





We zigzagged our way west and north towards Concord, but with all of the hills, Karen's shifting capability was not going to be satisfactory. We stopped, explored our options, and decided she should drive to Concord to a bike shop and come and find Laura and me along the route after she was done.





Laura and I were treated to the cycling trifecta of hills, heat, and headwinds. It nearly did me in. We never did find Capt. French Rd. near Loudon, and from then on, I was using my GPS to try and get back on the route Brent and I had discussed. We finally got on Highway 4 and then 4A. At the end of the day, I had a whopping 5812' of elevation gain, 100.5 miles, and an abysmal average of 12.36.


Karen had called to say that the bike shop had gotten her in quickly. Robert put the bike up on the rack before the shop was even open, but they waited for Tyler, who is the index shifting expert. He looked at the shifter and went to his parts box...it was a lower quality shifter that Karen had on the bike, but Tyler had it on her bike and shifting smoothly before the shop opened its doors. Karen spent a bit of time chatting with Tim Farmer, the owner of S&W Sports, thanking him for squeezing her in and getting her back on her bike.





She met us along the route near Boscawen, I finished up my mileage, and we headed to a McDonald's to update the blog. I had some cramping in my fingers...sort of like trigger finger, and when I got out of the truck at McD's, both my hamstrings started cramping. Karen pulled out the mustard and I downed a couple of tablespoons. The turmeric in the mustard is supposed to be good for muscle cramping. I suspect I didn't drink enough and was a little dehydrated...and combined with the heat and hills, the result was cramping. No worries...it got better. Our overnight spot for the night was the Rest n Nest Campground near Thetford, Vermont. The tent sites were located near a swampy pond and the garbage dump. :(

Still, we had much to be thankful for today...we had shade on some of the route so that the heat wasn't as unbearable as it might have been, Karen's shifter was fixed, and the route WAS beautiful and low traffic. But next time I do a century in New Hampshire, I'm going to follow a route that is along the coast...Brent said it's beautiful AND flat...

maybe you can't...because you won't...