Exeter, NH


Beth, Sandy, and I arrived at the Me and Ollies cafe for breakfast 10 years ago on the last day of our ride across America.  In another 20 miles, we would be dipping our front wheels into the Atlantic Ocean.


The town of Exeter was settled in 1638 one of four towns in New Hampshire.  The townhouse once located near the present one was the site of the New Hampshire Declaration of Independence in 1776.  Today Lady Justice graces the top of the townhouse cupola.



The Sea Dog brewery was once a textile mill on the Squamscott River.  There were several mills and dams on the river that generated the huge textile industry.  In 2016, the last dam on the river was removed allowing the river to flow freely for the first time in 369 years!


The back deck of the Sea Dog Brewery was a relaxing place to enjoy a Blueberry Ale with blueberries!  The beer exuded antioxidants!


A young bald eagle was fishing further downstream with a blue heron along with the seagulls.




On our second day, we rode several miles of Rockingham County rail trail.  It was quite rough and loose since horses also use it and in the winter it is a snowmobile trail.


At some point in our 30-mile ride, we took to the local lightly traveled roads for roadside history and floral arrangements.  :>)




At the end of our ride, we sprang for chocolates and ice cream to cap off a fun couple of days in this fine town.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lubec, ME.

Image
From Bass Harbor, we headed up the coast of Maine to Lubec, right on the Canadian border.   We camped right next to Johnson Bay part of the Quoddy Narrows, a river that rises and falls with the tides. Of course, we had to ride to the border and to the top of the bridge to step to the Canadian side. Campobello lighthouse and island on the Canadian side were Franklin Roosevelt's summering place.  He spent many of his summers here growing up.  At 39 years old, he contracted polio here and was not able to walk again.  Campobello was turned into an international park in 1962. Soon we were looking riding around town taking in their Lubec resident's artwork and taking advantage of an open ice cream parlor. The clouds were telling us that rain may be coming but we had to ride to the Quoddy Lighthouse.  It surely was not going to rain on us! On our ride to the Quoddy Lighthouse, Beth eyed a porcupine who decided he needed to move on when we took an interest. A farm gate ...
Read more

Connecticut and Colchester

Image
  After our adventures at Jim Thorpe, we left Pennsylvania for Connecticut via New York City.  We crossed over the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge, a bridge I have crossed on my bike during the two "Escape NYC" rides I rode before Covid. Later in the day, we arrived at the Nelson Family Campground at a lovely spot next to their lake in East Hampton, CT. The next morning we rode the AirLine State park trail, with the first stop being at the Chandlers Ice Cream shop a short ways from our campground.  Fortunately, we arrived before the store opened and were saved from an early energy rush.  When we returned from our ride later in the day, they were open, and we enhanced our recovery from our ride.  :>) At the start of our ride, a cranberry bog supported many lily pads at this time of year.  Soon we are riding through the "Bishop's Cut," where the rocks were most difficult to cut during railroad installation being over 200 million years old, some of t...
Read more

Pembroke, ME

Image
  This next morning was warm and ride-worthy.   We first rode to a Lubec coffee house downtown for coffee and a Maple Smoked Bacon Cinnamon roll.  It was the breakfast of champions! Simple homes along the street looked inviting, along with the attractive yards. The Lubec water tower, at first glance, looked to be a convenient location for a cell tower.  However, given all the hardware, it is more likely a border patrol setup. While sipping coffee and munching on a great cinnamon roll, a local (at least for 6 months and 6 months in Colorado) began telling us of the great gold swindle in 1896.  A preacher and one of his congregation came up with a great plan to leach gold from seawater.  He hired around 100 local people to help with the leaching process.  Investors poured in from NY.  After 6 months, the local people got paid, and the preacher disappeared.  The investors lost everything.  Hmmm....  The book, however, looks like a...
Read more