New Hampshire - Day 6 - Weirs Beach

Riverbend Campground
Friday, 6 July 2018

I've called around to other, slightly less expensive campgrounds and found just what I expected which is forget it, this is still a holiday weekend, the Fourth of July lasting a week this year.  But this is a comfortable place, and everyplace is as close to everyplace else in this part of the world.  Look at this map.

today's route

You can see we're not very far from Maine here, and just south of the White Mountains, but the distances are deceiving.  Even though I drove only about 45 miles round trip, it took me a long time to do it.  The road - including US Highway 3 (along the lake) - is 2 lanes, no shoulders, stopping at traffic lights and crosswalks all the way.  It's beautiful, great for convertibles or motorcycles, but not so great for covering distances.  Not that that's important to me here.

I had 3 goals today.  Number 1 was to fill the prescription for my blood pressure medicine, so we drove south to Gilford, which looks small on the map but seems as big as all the other places we went through.  The CVS said they could fill it in half an hour, so I took the dogs out for a walk.  And while we were out it started pouring.  Just pouring.  We were soaked by the time we got back to the RV.  And then the humidity got even worse than it had been before.  The weather people had promised us for days that the "cold" front would come through and bring rain and the result would be that temperatures would go back down to normal and so would the humidity.  It was those results that didn't seem to be happening - after the rain passed the sun came out and it got steaming hot and humid.

I picked up the Rx and went across the street to a grocery store called Shaw's, a chain I've run across from time to time up here that must be part of Safeway because it carries the Lucerne brand of everything.  But they had what I wanted, which was goal number 2: the pet food that I was out of (not the best situation).  We ate lunch in their parking lot and then drove back north more slowly.

Goal number 3 was to see some of the local sights, which were an odd mix.

All day I was driving along Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire's largest lake.  It was carved by a glacier and is 21 miles long and up to 9 miles wide.  All that driving and we only went along part of it, as you can see on the map.

Going north, we stopped first at Endicott Rock Park at Weirs Beach, a village and also the largest beach on the lake.  Very popular and crowded with no parking for something my size.  But I was actually there for Endicott Rock itself, and a very nice staff person let me park where I shouldn't have so I could go take some photos.

the very top of the Rock shows above ground

this is what covers the rock

Endicott Rock has an odd history that I think is best explained by the Wikipedia page found here Endicott_Rock.  To protect the rock from weather and vandals, they buried it.  Seems a little odd to me for a landmark, but it was done in 1892, which may help explain.  There's an engraved stone marker inside the structure that explains what's carved on the rock and what it's all doing there.

stone marker

Just a little way north of the beach is the Funspot, the world's largest arcade, they claim.  Bizarrely drab-looking but, according to the parking lot, very popular.

Funspot

We came next to the Broken Spoke Saloon.  I was appalled when I saw it as I was driving by and decided I had to take photos for my Texas friends.

 The real Broken Spoke is an icon in Austin - I went there myself when I was going to college there in the late 60s and early 70s.  Their website and photos of the real thing are here https://www.brokenspokeaustintx.net/.

The substitute is clearly popular with silly New Englanders who may not know the difference.  Lots of pickups in the parking lot and the PA system was playing, "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere."  (It was actually 1:30.)  Right next to it is a large grassy lot where I walked the dogs.  Apparently it's used as an RV lot for Bike Week.  Dexter found a marmot sitting near a dumpster; fortunately the marmot saw us first and managed to get under the dumpster just as Dexter was mobilizing.  I could barely pull him away - I think he was going to try to get under the dumpster too.

Dexter has also learned the sound a chipmunk makes so he no longer needs to see the actual critter to get excited.  I'm impressed that he learned it - it didn't take him much longer than it took me - but I'm sorry too because it means a lot more excitement than before.

I haven't yet said anything about Bike Week, which is clearly a huge deal around here.  They claim it's been going on since the early 1900s and you can read more under the History tab at their website at Bike Week.  I luckily just missed it since it was in late June and I got here July 1.  Actually, I wouldn't have been able to find a place to stay anywhere in this part of the state, it sounds like, because every place is catering to the Bike Week visitors (and they jack up their rates for them, too).  There are still signs all over everywhere about it that they haven't taken down yet.  It must be the best possible boost to the local economy, which appears to be based mostly on tourism.  Lake Winnipesaukee sounds like it's The resort area in this whole region and I'm seeing lots and lots of out-of-state cars, mostly Massachusetts, for some reason.

Farther down the road I came to Meredith, where I stopped at the Town Docks, which was the only place I could pull off the road, to try to get a picture of the lake.

As you see, all I could get were the boats at the dock and the idea that there's more behind those trees on the right.

The road was absolutely bumper-to-bumper, though now that I think about it, it was a sunny Friday afternoon so maybe that was partly tourists and partly getting-off-work-early traffic.  But that and no shoulders made it impossible to find anywhere to just stop along the road.

This other attempt was taken from a side road out my driver's side window and I was holding up a couple of cars behind me.  But it gives more of an impression of a larger body of water.  The lake really is big.   I'll try again for better shots tomorrow.

The only reason I was able to get back into the stream of traffic after these stops was Pedestrian Crossings.  New Hampshire state law requires cars to stop for people walking in the crosswalks, and they actually do.  Thank goodness.  I'd probably still be sitting at any of those pull-outs if they didn't.

Not far past Moultonborough is Moulton Farm.  They have a permanent farm stand that is amazing.  The manager here at the RV park told me about it so I stopped on the way back.  It has its own bakery and turns out really good baked cider doughnuts, along with lots and lots of other baked goods.  They've got huge farm areas and greenhouses and today were selling different kinds of lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, about 5 kinds of squashes, cucumbers, several kinds of peppers - you get it.  They sell New Hampshire chocolates, which I bought.  They can their own pickled veggies.  They have a very popular seafood counter.  All their cheeses, though, were from Vermont or Massachusetts - doesn't New Hampshire have cows?  I guess I'll find out.  Anyway, glad to know this farm stand is there.

I've decided to stay here a couple more days, making it a full week, and the nice manager gave me a retroactive weekly rate.  Tomorrow I'm going down the east side of the lake and can't find any park that's closer that charges less and has space.  And anyway, this place is fine, especially with a lower weekly rate.