The best road in Vermont, well-paved and SMOOTH!

Start:  White River Valley Campground, Gaysville, Vermont
End:  Comfort Inn, Lincoln New Hampshire

Mileage:  80 miles
Weather:  Perfect in the morning, RAIN int he afternoon

States Conquered:  Washington; Idaho; Montana; North Dakota; Minnesota; Iowa; Illinois; Indiana; Ohio; Pennsylvania; Ontario, Canada; New York, Vermont
State Being Conquered:  New Hampshire
States to be Conquered:  Maine

Particulars:  The bicyclists have made several comments about the condition of the roads in Vermont and New Hampshire.  Hannah and I agree for the most part, but had to report on one road that was the smoothest, most well-paved road that we have driven in Vermont.  Unfortunately, the men didn't get to experience Dairy Hill Road in South Royalton, Vermont.

Now, why would this road be the exception?  It's not even a main highway AND it becomes a dirt road immediately after the most often visited destination located on this road.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Yep, at the the end of the road is the Joseph Smith Birthplace and I surmise that it wasn't the State of Vermont or federal tax dollars that funded the paving.

We'll get the interesting observations about the Joseph Smith Birthplace out of the way before I get to the best part of our visit.  Is this sign grammatically correct?  Anyone?  Anyone? (Can you tell one of my favorite movie's is Ferris Bueller's Day Off).  There is a hyphen between "Worth" and "While".  I've always understood that when you use a hyphen, the two words should be able to stand alone.  That doesn't seem to be the case in this phrase:  "We hope your visit has been worth" and We hope your visit has been while" just don't make sense.  Is there some old rule for this word that allows for a hypen?  Oh well, when I uploaded the picture, I noticed the image number is "666".  Coincidence?

Thank you for allowing me to point out some of the oddities we noticed.  Hannah and I really did enjoy our visit to the Joseph Smith Birthplace and the grounds are BEAUTIFUL with large sweeping grassy areas, a long tree-lined drive to the monument and Visitor's Center, and flowers as beautiful as Temple Square.  There were six sets of couples who are full-time missionaries at this historic site--three assigned to tours and three assigned to facilities management.  Because we were pulling a trailer, we had to park in a lower parking lot and when we finally arrived for our tour, a bus pulled up!  Plus, the Exeter, New Hampshire Stake was holding their Youth Conference at Camp Joseph so we had lots of company!  Fortunately the missionary couples were very good at crowd control, and we proceeded to tour the grounds.

The monument was erected in 1905 in honor of Joseph Smith's 100th birthday.  It is 38 1/2 feet tall in remembrance of Joseph's age when he was martyred.

A report from Joe Thompson:  Friday was a hard day due to humidity, rain, mountains, and me not eating enough and managing to induce an energy "bonk" near the end of the day as we started our climb up a pass in the White Mountains. We rode from Gaysville VT to Lincoln NH, 80 miles. Having never been in either state, I have been gawking like a schoolboy at the form of the land and the impressions of the place. The motorists are terrible dealing with bikes. We get shouted at hourly with "get off the road" or told that we are the jerks that give cycling a bad name etc. I assign this to a combination of narrow roads, the fact that we are several riders together, and the roads are quite narrow. I also share the stereotype impression that the people match the land here, and are "flinty" New Englanders".

A report from Kelly Thompson:  This covered bridge in the rolling hills near Piermont NH. The good news....its beautiful. The bad news...the roads are rutted and bumpy.

Village chartered in 1761. Wall built soon after. Wow that is old.


Interesting People Along the Way: