It rained during the night and rain was predicted throughout the day. I was equipped for riding in the rain but didn’t want to spend any more time in it than I had to. I left my motel in Bridgton at 8 a.m. and made tracks on a 23-mile ride to North Conway, N.H., where I arrived 3 1/2 hours later–pretty speedy, for me.

It was raining the whole time I was riding, sometimes quite heavily. I stopped for a breakfast/snack around 9:30 a.m. at a small convenience store in Pumpkin Valley (where I thought of you and your pumpkin patch, Ray and Tracie!) A guy there was changing a tire and we commiserated about needing to be out in the rain. He told me the rain, already fairly heavy, was going to be “wicked bad” this afternoon. I wasn’t quite sure how bad wicked bad was, but it sounded ominous, so I kept pouring on the gas until I arrived at The Bike Shop in North Conway around 11:30. I talked to Anthony at the bike shop about buying new rear pannier bags, since the zipper on one of mine had broken, opening it up to the deluge around us. Thankfully, he had bags that fit my rack. I left my bike there for some derailleur adjustments as well. I will be able to pick it up by 4 p.m. tomorrow so that I can be on my way again Wednesday morning.

In case you’re wondering about my rain gear, it includes rain pants, a rain jacket and waterproof (mostly) shoe “booties”–this photo shows what they look like. There is a hole in the bottom of them so that I can still attach to my petal clips.

All loaded up this morning and ready to ride, my last time with these rear pannier bags (thank you, Jim S.!).

Fryeburg, Maine, was my last town in Maine before heading across the New Hampshire border. And now you know that it was settled in 1763 and incorporated in 1777, making it the oldest town in Oxford County. It is unfortunate that this “welcome mat” sign for Fryeburg is surrounded by litter.

For those of you who have been asking “are you still in Maine?” I can now truthfully respond that I am not. I am in New Hampshire, whose motto is Live Free or Die.

It has continued to rain throughout the afternoon but is starting to taper off. There is a flood watch here in North Conway until tomorrow morning, and you may have heard about flash floods in other parts of the Northeast, including parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. Currently, a sunny day is predicted for Wednesday, with a low of 60 degrees and a high of 80. I’ll take that!