So I fianlly made it up to Laconia for the first time in years. I live about 30 minutes from Laconia, and have lived within an hour of there my whole life, but I haven't been there in about 7 or 8 years. The last time I went, I think was 99, was so much different than what I saw this year. back then, it was about the bikes, there were more custom rides, mostly modded Harleys and old bikes done up real nice. This year, it just seemed to be about the crap- it was all T Shirt dealers, cheap leather dealers and only a few builders. Don't get me wrong, it was fun for sure, but it definitely wasn't rowdy or the wild party that I remember it being long ago.
I first went up on Monday, and it was DEAD. I drove the Hummer up, since my bike was being worked on. I parked right at the beach ($20 to park? WTF!) and walked all around the boulevard, the drive in, and checked out all the booths there. Lots o' junk, and some bikes. I then headed down to Meredith Harley, again, some cool booths but nothing really spectacular. Again, it was dead down there. I made it down to the Turkey farm, parked right in their (pretty much empty) lot and then headed back up to FunSpot to see what was going on there. Kawasaki had a tent, there were stuntriders, and it was pretty active there. I left after a few hours, it was pretty damn hot and I figured that was going to be my Laconia experience for 2007.
On Wednesday, I ended up riding up with the Fire and Iron crew. The original idea was to assemble at Nashua station 4, and ride up there. Well, I was going to head down to Nashua then ride up with the crew, but it was spitting out, so I figured I would head up and meet the crew at the Tilton Diner, which was the 1st stop/meetup area for the ride. It was spitting most of the way up, enough to get you damp and get the pant legs wet. I was well dressed for the day, in my hoodie and jeans, along with goggles. Of course, people were looking at me like I was crazy as I went up 93, but more surprising was the amount of bikes acutally rolling up that was even in the crappy weather. It was a little cold, but not too bad. Once I got to Tilton, I hung out for a few minutes and the F&I crew rolled in a few minutes later. Some ofthe guys ate the diner, others grabbed coffee and just hung out and admired the other bikes on the lot. It had stopped raining and was looking like it just might want to start clearing out, so we were optimistic that we could get a nice dry ride in up to Weirs. After about 45 minutes, we hit the road on a route that our fearless leader Roundy had plotted out for us. Of course, just as soon as we pull out, it starts drizzling again. Our group was made up of about 20 bikes, and we headed out to the mountains. We hit Bristol, Alexandria and the route around the lakes. There was one very minor layover when one of the guys laid his just puchased Yammie cruiser over, but after a little road repair by Jocko and Freddy, who amazed us what the could do with zip ties and gauze bandages. We started rolling again, and it stopped drizzling and the sun actually showed its face around 12:30. We were back rolling towards lunch at the Common Man in Plymouth, and made it there for a great lunch. After an hour or so, we were back on the road, and of course, it decided it wanted to rain. Again. We couldn't win. We rode back down the mountain and made it into Laconia, where business had definitely picked up since Monday. It stopped raining (again) and was still overcast. The original idea was hang out at Weirs, then head to a local pub for a little while, but our group managed to get separated so by the time I got down to the bar everyone was already gone. I stopped to get patches sewn on my vest and I walked around a bit more, so that took up my time. I decided to do the backroads home, and was rewarded for my efforts when a little silver car pulled up beside me in Concord, and two very lovely young ladies decided that they wanted to show me their goods. It definitely made the ride home a bit nicer, espcially since it decided to rain yet again. I finally got home around 8, a bit cold (but nothing the old hot tub couldn't fix) and hungry, but really happy to go on the ride because it really was a great time. Pics will be up soon.
