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After several weather bombs postponed the last Seacoast ride of the season, 26 riders enjoyed a great day on Saturday! And NESR was more than well represented!
I'd like to start by thanking...
- Everyone who joined this ride...and all the rides this season! It was so much fun tooling around with you all. From the 'Early Season - Ride to the Races' to the Hurricane Mountain and Mt. Washington ride! Curtis Ribs and Ben and Jerry's. It was a great season and you all are the ones that made it great.
- Terry and Giles - You two took up almost all the 'Sweep' duties. People often ask how someone can lead a ride as large as these without breaking them down. The answer is, with a great Sweep! All I did was ride. These guys kept track of the cats! Thanks.
- Seacoast - These guys are stars. All of 'em. Thanks for opening early ...and often on your day off. Thanks for the coffee and donuts! And thanks for the endless patience with my changes and A.D.D!!
OK...so Saturday morning the pundits promised the weather system that was passing the night before would be gone and the day would improve from early on leading to mostly sunny skies and temps in the mid 60s! And as we gathered at Seaoast it did indeed seem to be warming up and brightening nicely!
Thanks to all the veterans of these rides for coming along. And it was aweseome seeing several new folks...including Pete who trailered up from CT. to participate in the Fund Raiser!
I realized that folks might be sick and tired of my Riders Meeting and that, after hearing it a couple times, even my great jokes might be getting stale. (Though, I think the old jokes are the best jokes...don't you!)
So, I asked Rob (Cheese - with the 'C' that no one can reproduce) to run the riders meeting! Great job...and thank you sir!
My friend Mike had approached me to see if I would be willing to help lead a Fund Raiser for a child in his neighbor hood with aplastic anemia. Mikes wife showed up to handle the donations from the Seacoast/NESR riders! And Terry was so impressed he fell to his knees!
As it turned out, with all the delays, and with Seacoasts blessing, it worked out perfectly to link the Seacoast Ride with the Fund Raiser. (I'll let Mike post the results. But as a result of tireless hard work on his part, they were impressive)
We left Seacoast a little after 10:00 and headed through the traffic light gauntlet that is Derry! Soon enough we were on 114 and headed out to the good roads!
Everone was riding really well but the further north and west we went the cooler and cloudier it became. Exactly the opposite of what the weather folks predicted. Of course. Since we had a couple of 'fuel mileage challenged' riders I stopped in Hillsboro to give everyone a chance to fill up for the rest of the ride! And, to put back on the warmer stuff that I had taken off at Seacoast. I was freezing! And a few others did the same!
As we left Hillsboro and reached the intersection of 10, Terry our Sweep came charging to the head of the line and pointed to his jacket. The zipper was half way up and it was opened from the bottom up and the top down. In otherwords, a Super Bowl class 'equipment failure'!
I got everyone lined up on the other side of the road and waited for Terry to fix is jacket and join up. After a little while, most of us shut off our engines. After a little longer some of us got off our bikes. And after a little longer, a couple of folks who weren't watching Terry - who steadfastly refused to look up and kept working at the recalcitrant zipper - started changing their oil and checking valve clearance!
Eventually, he got it all together and off we headed.
Into a light rain, past a couple of cops, across Mountain Road and down into Lempster. By then it was getting darker, colder and the rain looked like it could move from 'light' to 'downpour' at any moment. As we turned back south in Lempster it began to look like the weather would drift back in our favor! As we passed Pitcher Mountain it began to lighten and the roads dried back out and all was good again!
As we pulled into Hancock I noticed the group seemed to have broken so I went back - about 100 yds - and soon everyone flew by me to regroup. Teryy stopped and explained that Giles had a big leg cramp and would meet us at the Trebuchet after he walked it off. (He had the route in his GPS!)
At that point my biggest concern was that the rest of the group would have dismounted and swamped Fiddleheads Cafe...a favorite stopping place! But my fear was misplaced and we were back on our way!
As promised, there was a Covered Bridge.
After snapping this we swept through Greenfield and down 32 to the Trebuchet!
(I used to work for a guy that looks like this...)
After watching a launch which went seriously far...and curved southward as the strong wind pushed it off course, we regrouped and followed Mike on into Amherst for the promised lunch and swag drawing.
Mike did a fantastic job with this whole fund raising effort. I know it made me feel good that I could play a small role in helping this family in need. Sometimes you get overwhelmed with all the hard stuff that happens in the world and you throw your hands up in helpless frustration and just ask how you can possible make a difference. The answer sometimes, is just a little at time. We can't save the world. But we can help a little boy. And that's something.
So ended a great day and a great season. Thanks again to everyone! See you next season!
(Thanks for all the pics too...many of these are from Rachael!)
More pics here:
From Rachael
From Ken
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Originally Posted by DucDave
), and the Boston Moto winning auction bid (congrats Doc!), I am happy to report that we raised $2,055 yesterday! I plan on presenting Drew’s family with the check along with a small picture book of the ride this Friday night at another local event. 
