A long hot day in the office

After all the rain yesterday, the day started pleasantly cool.

Our plan was to ride a U shaped route into southern Vermont before turning east and finishing up across the Connecticut River.
We stopped for breakfast in Hancock at the old Inn, established in 1788 - the same year the First Fleet arrived in Australia. The pancakes and maple syrup really hit the right spot. Our waitress complained about the unseasonably hot weather. We sat on the verandah and observered the lovely old fashioned flowers in the garde. Quite a few bikers came by on this busy T- junction. Superb riding weather.

Our route then meandered south through pretty little towns, small farms and rolling hills covered in trees.

At Ludlow, the southern-most point of our route we refuelled the bike and turned east for a few miles on a scenic road that meandered alongside a river. Our route then turned back north again.

By that time the heat and humidity were building up as we pushed on north through Woodstock and on to East Brookfield. Here we turned east again and let the GPS choose our route to Piermont in New Hampshire. The GPS wanted to take us down gravel roads on several occasions, but happily found another route when we rode off down the bitumen roads.

We arrived in Piermont around 5 pm, to discover this is not much more than a store at the intersection of two roads and doesn't have a motel.
It didn't matter where we stopped there were widflwers everywhere.

When I consulted the GPS, it showed the nearest motel was 10 miles north in Wells River Vermont. We stayed in this motel when we drove through this region in 2006, and thought it would be fun to stay there again.

When we arrived it was fully booked, so we crossed the Connecticut River back into Woodsville. The first motel had only one room, little bigger than a broom cupboard, and with only a single bed. The other motel in that town had only a large suite that slept 8. We were told our best bet would be to ride to Littleton, 22 miles further on.

We were hot and tired but had no choice but to continue. When we finally arrived, we programmed the GPS to take us to motels. The first motel we stopped at was fully booked. The second had only a double suite (at double the price), and the third was fully booked out.

We decided to consult the GPS again, but this time phoned to see if they had a room before making the trip. The first place we phoned had rooms so off we went. It was 7 pm when we arrived, and the temperature was still 88 F. We were really exhausted and grumpy.

Tortunately we found a really good room that included a continental breakfast in the price, which was very reasonable. Even better, there was a supermarket across the road where we bought dinner. As we ate    a thunderstorm came through with heavy rain that helped cool things off. The streetlights cast an eerie yellow light through the rain.