Laconia! Oh, we hate and love thee...

I hopped onto the bike this past Saturday and rocketed northward. My destination? The (once) infamous Laconia, NH, central point of the annual New Hampshire Bike Week festivities. I say "once" infamous because the LEO's have done a bang-up job of turning something that used to be a real blast, into a boring and watered down pretend biker event. It's because of this that for the past 4 or 5 years, I only do a half-day trip up there. Just long enough to set the kickstands, do a bit of walking around, come to the realization that nothing has changed, and make a quick break for home.

The weather had been pure ass all week long, but the Saturday forecasts were calling for the rain to hold off until the afternoon. Our plan? Hit the highways and hit them hard. Be in and out before being caught by either the heavy traffic, or the rain that was looping back toward us.

As fate would have it, I got a bit of a late start but made up for things by hammering the throttles all the harder.

I arrived in Laconia-proper and the traffic was stacking up quickly. I managed to avoid most of the heavy congestion right up until I was about a mile away from Weirs. I foot-stepped my way along this last stretch of roadway until I was finally crossing over the bridge. I took my chances and hung a right onto Weirs boulevard when what do you know? Bikes were pulling out of their parking spots, right in front of me!! I quickly sliced over and filled one of the just-vacated slots, happy that I'd found a temporary home for my steed.

Bikes locked up and off I went, making the trek along the sidewalk/boardwalk, checking out the vendors. I picked up a souvenir pin, and then... Well, that was it once again. That was Weirs. I thought about going across the street to check out the vendors behind the drive-in theater, but opted to cut my losses and head back home. Besides, I had a lawn to mow before the rain moved in.

I'm going to do a quick blurb tomorrow morning about the jello shots I made, as well as a rogue bolt that I found waiting on the road, just outside my driveway. The fu*ker was lying in wait for the bikes tomorrow morning. Can you imagine the setback if one of us had picked it up in a tire as soon as we were pulling out? The bastard! But I'm happy to say that it's safely sitting in the trash barrel and won't be causing any problems for us.

That'll do it for now. Gotta try and get some sleep tonight before we roll out and...

Ride Hard, Take Chances