45 miles. Our last big climb, crowded roads, heat and into our last state.

We stayed up a little too late last night watching the Olympics with Larry and we knew we could sleep in since the outdoors shop that baby sat our bikes didn’t open until 9. After a nice breakfast at Flapjacks in Lincoln we woke up our cycles and loaded up our panniers and headed out. The climb to Kancamagus Pass started almost immediately from the shop and it was 13 miles of uphill. Due to our superior conditioning (!!!!) the ride wasn’t as tough as we expected and we crested in a little over 1 1/2 hours.

We even had some decent views as the clouds and fog were lifting.

Sadly, the downhill wasn’t as thrilling as the effort to get to the top would warrant but at least it was mostly down for the balance of our ride into Conway, NH, and finally into Fryeburg.

We were able to stop at a few overlooks to take in the scenery but there was a lot of tourist traffic at the swimming holes and falls.

We stopped for a sandwich in Conway at the Sweet Maple Café and while the food was good, they advertise a 10% senior discount and I qualify. I forgot to ask for the discount when we ordered and paid and when I went back in to ask if the missing 10% could be refunded or applied to a cookie, I was refused and was shown the small sign by the register that advises that the discount must be asked for when ordering. Without my reading glasses (I am a senior, after all) I hadn’t read the sign. I asked the manager if she couldn’t make an exception and was coldly rebuffed. Her excuse was that she would have to void the original ticket and start over (so much for the customer always being right).

From the cafe it was a little over 8 miles to the Admiral Peary Inn in Fryeburg and we slogged through the humidity and end of the weekend traffic to pull in much later than we are used to making it to our daily destinations. Our host Donna has made us feel very welcome and pointed us in the direction of our room, the Oriental Room and now we have showered and are relaxing and soon headed to dinner at the 302 West Smokehouse and Tavern.

We have made it to our 11th and last state on this journey and have 4 more days of biking til we dunk our front tires in the Atlantic!!!!