Day 3 - Mt. Washington to Acadia

What an exciting day today turned out to be! We woke up before the alarm (always a plus) and decided that pancakes sounded like a good idea. So after a quick review of Yelp, we found a highly rated place called Polly's Pancake Parlor and hit the road at 7:30. We arrived at about 8:00, and it was packed!! Our 20min wait wasn't too bad, and they fill the tables, so we had breakfast with a lovely couple visiting the area from Albany. Oh. My. Goodness!! Polly makes some mean pancakes! You chose the "base", whole wheat, oatmeal buttermilk, cornmeal (and two others I've forgotten) and then can add "add-ins". We had oatmeal buttermilk with walnuts and cornmeal with coconut. You get six three-inch pancakes in an order, and they bring them out three at a time so they stay warm. They also have maple sugar for the coffee, or you can just use the syrup like Larkin did. :) Simply amazing. :-) The couple we ate with hadn't been there in 15 years because the last time they visited their wait ended up being 5 hours! They were happy with their 10min wait this time. :) I'm surprised I haven't seen this joint on Triple D with as hopping' as it was. Perhaps I should write an email... :)

After breakfast, we got back on the road to head to Mt. Washington. Rick our innkeeper from the night before warned that it may be foggy and to not go up if we couldn't see the peak from the bottom, because there'd be nothing to see when we got to the top. Well, we could see the peak from Polly's so we figured it couldn't be too bad. The GPS took a shortcut that include 4mi of gravel road. Not too bad and it was a fun little ride. VERY pretty. :-)

Lucky for us, due to the clouds and haze, there was no line to climb the mountain. So we paid our $30 and headed up. It was okay at first, lots of trees and no downhill traffic, although the road was pretty narrow. It got sketchy when the road open up and you could see straight down the side I the mountain!! There is also a dirt section, and while it's scary to think about riding on dirt, up a mountain, on a motorcycle, it actually was packed pretty well, so it wasn't so bad. None the less, it was a pretty intense ride for two people who are generally less than thrilled when it comes to heights. But the view from the top? MORE than worth it! Amazing views 360. AND we had cell service. We had a race to see who could check us in to FB first. I think Verizon won. Apparently there's lots to see if it's not so hazy/cloudy, but we still had some great views. You can see all the routes at Wildcat Ski Resort, which appears so close. The views at the top were amazing, and the climb to the top was a feat I was definitely proud of. I'm so glad we lucked out with the weather to be able to climb it. The descent was a little sketchy at first (downhill on dirt?!) but after that it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way down (we were smelling some serious brakes of the cars ahead of us).

So we got off the mountain and set our sites for Acadia. We mostly just wanted to get there (but still take a fun route). We were so ready to get off the road for a few days. It'll be interesting to see how next year goes. We have some high mileage days planned.

We stopped for lunch in Bethel, ME, right inside the border. Neither ME or NH have helmet laws. It's so weird to see so many riders not wearing one. For lunch we had a lobster salad sandwich. A 12" sandwich we split was only $5! Eat it subway! It was very tasty! A check of the weather looked clear the rest of the way, so off we went.

We were clicking along, doing good, until about the last two hours. That's when the fog and mist rolled in. We pulled over, Larkin put his rain gear on, I just put my bootie covers on and didn't bother with my jacket. It wasn't really raining, it was just really annoying mist. We kept plugging along, it kept getting worse. We were feeling pretty defeated as we got close to Acadia. Headsets were dead so we couldn't talk anymore. GPS got us to camp at about 7:30 though, and the Bodenheimers were the smiling faces we needed!! They made us coffee and filled our bellies with some TASTY pea soup. Earlier in the day Kendra had sent me a text saying sorry for the rain and that Mica was making pea soup for dinner to warm us up. At that point in the day, we hadn't gotten wet, although I had told her about our escapades from the day before. In my mind we wouldn't need warming up when we got to camp, but pea soup sounded tasty. Well, I guess she knew something we didn't!! Thank goodness for smart friends! :-)

So we had coffee, soup, wine, and enjoyed some nice chatting around the campfire. Time to hit the rack. Our itinerary is set for tomorrow and we're going hiking. Can't wait!!