Miscellaneous pictures from along the ride.
Barns. Notice the dirt ramp up to the barn door.
This is a real olde time house that is very typical of this area, from the late 1600s to the mid 1700s. You can always tell these houses by the central chimney. Inside, all the rooms will have a fireplace in the chimney for heat except for the kitchen which will have a cooking fireplace. Often there is one or more iron pins in the fire place with a swinging arm so you can hang a kettle and swing it in and out of the fireplace for heat control as well as access to the pot. We had a house from this era that also had beehive ovens built into the chimney for bread baking too. If the houses are in original condition they will have the same number of windows, in the same location and a central door. Inside the ceilings are often less than 7'.
This is the entire business district of Newfields. Note the unloved motorcycles on the left side of the picture.
Then we rode into this stop and no go situation.
It was a major power line upgrade.
The helicopter was pulling a cable from a spool on the left side of the road along the poles on the right. It was extremely windy with huge wind gusts, I don't know how the pilot could do his job. Pay the man.
When we got to my mother's place this hen was working over the parking lot. Deer and bear also cruse through. When a bear went walking past my mother's window her cat flipped out, hissing and yowling.
On our ride back I took a favorite road along the Little Bay and Great Bay. At 25-30 mph it is very scenic and pretty. At 35-40 mph it's quite the sporting road; at 40 mph you will be grinding hard part from side to side. These two bays and the associated salt marshes play a significant role in the ocean fisheries off New England. This is looking left, at the Little Bay.
This is looking to the right. Note the roof of the house. What you see is called either a Captains Walk or a Widow's Walk. This is one of the classic styled walks. The captain would stand on this elevated platform and watch for his ships coming in. Alternatively, this is where the captain's wife would stand hoping that she would see her husband's ship coming in. Back in the sailing days many ships didn't come back.
The area is covered in little salt mash estuaries similar to this. The estuaries have awesome powerful tide surges.
Many of the houses, businesses and mills in Newmarket were made of cut stone and locally made red bricks. Red brick mill buildings are classic New England buildings.
The river is the Lamprey River and you are seeing the Lamprey Falls that powered a huge mill complex. Yes, lamprey as in the eel. Just down stream from the falls, at Schanda Park they maintain an old school Indian fish weir. At low tide someone will come out in a skiff with a dipping net and dip the weir. I'm always stunned at the amount of fish that come out, typically menhaden, pogies and shad.
Newmarket is close enough to Durham's University of New Hampshire that the students flock to this town. Normally the sidewalks are packed. Just out of sight is a gazebo right next to the street where bands setup and play for the people strolling around the town.
So, another ride comes to a close. We got a good heat cycle in on the new tires and I thoroughly enjoyed the new rubber.
Danke. Beautiful.
That was one of the longest miles she ever walked.