Day 49 Brattleboro VT to Manchester NH

Day 49
Brattleboro VT to Manchester NH
Miles Ridden 77.9
Climbing 4336 Ft.
Total Miles Ridden 3639.0
Miles To Go 52.5

Next to last day and the last full ride. By now tomorrow's 52 miles are something to be finished by 11:00 AM.  Southern Vermont is  about 50 miles wide so we only had a mile to go from the motel to cross the Connecticut River into our last state. The easiest way to tell if you have entered New Hampshire is to look for the giant state liquor store on the border. They keep their liquor taxes lower than the neighboring states and encourage cross-state smuggling. We got our final state picture and started climbing out of the river valley in heavy fog.

Jeff's daily map with one red dot to go

Last state picture

Lots of climbing early today but it was consisted of  many, many small and medium hills rather than several big ones although some of them were exceedingly steep. After the steepest of these hills we got on Sullivan Road (named after the Revolutionary War general) which led to the Town of Sullivan,  Congregational Church of Sullivan, Sullivan Diner etc.

The roads were pretty rough but the traffic on a Sunday morning was light. We went through very scenic areas of woodland and wild streams and typical well preserved New England villages with picturesque churches and town meeting halls about every ten miles. The area was overrun with weekend touring  motorcyclists who who were enjoying all the hills a little more than us.

Town meeting hall in Greenfield

The stark Greenfield town cemetery

The second half of the ride was (mostly) downhill but there was always a short, steep hill which tested us and made us realize the temperature was approaching 90. We continued the descent into the outskirts of Manchester. The town had a rundown appearance with lots of abandoned old factories, shabby houses and very bad roads. Our motel for the night, a Comfort Inn had the same feel to it.

Evin's wife, Marsha, flew into Manchester for the final days which meant that for the first time in two months, I had a room to myself. We've been together almost 24 hours a day since we left Ann Arbor  and have never had an issue between us. I'd say we are pretty close by now.

We had a catered barbecue dinner tonight which preceded a celebration of the ride. Everybody got up and said a few words. I think we all had mixed feelings about ending the ride. On one level everyone was ready to get home and back to loved ones real life but the shared experiences created a bond among the riders that was about to be broken and we all felt it.

The staff who did a truly remarkable job 

Always upbeat Arlene, who was the group's favorite rider, and was awarded the daily map

Tomorrow we will ride separately to a school near the beach and will then ride in a police escorted procession to the ocean.