Day 3

June 3, 2025

Hampton Motor Inn, Gus' Bike Shop, Camped in Exeter

Total moving time: 1:13, average speed: 9.5 mph, total ascent 348ft

We intended to ride about 40 miles yesterday and thought we would end up at Exeter, to camp. 40 miles turned out to take us to North Hampton to stay at the Hampton Motor Inn. I was getting a shimmy in my front wheel with a slow leak in my front tire. Jonathan was also having some wobble issues with squeaky brake once in a while in his front wheel. Alison from Warm Showers the night before recommended we stop at Gus' Bike Shop in North Hampton .... so it worked out. Our motel was only a half mile from the shop.

This is Judy at Gus' Bike Shop in North Hampton, NH. Former 3rd grade teacher and told me about the Apache Godess (google it) who stopped in on the way to South America. Fun lady and fun to talk with.

...turns out Jonathan's bike lost a spacer on the axle during is travels up to Porland. (probably fell off when he removed the front wheel to be stored on the train or Uber.) The shop didn't have the part, so Jonathan ordered one online to be shipped to Nashua, which was about 45 miles away.

My bike needed the front wheel trued (so it would spin without a wobble). He also added sealant to my front tire to keep it from leaking. TMI?

We both were happy with our fix and the knowledge we gained, but more impotantly, we made new friends and share stories with all of these folks.

This is Steve, on the left who is retired, but loves to work 3 days a week in the bike shop. He enjoys the work, and all the different people he gets share stories with. Tim, on the right, is the head mechanic and is wonderful gragarious guy who dropped everything to help us out. He even took time to take our picture before we left.

It was after noon when we left and we haden't had lunch and weren't sure where we would stay that night. We made it to Exeter, about 10 miles up the road, stopped and had light lunch at a Juice Shop, downtown. While lunching and watching people go by on the sidewalk, we decided that we would camp where we planned for he night before. Thus, the 11.5 miles today.

We were planning to get to the Winding River Campground south of Exeter, NH, yesterday. Our bodies and the clock said "let's cut the ride short by 10 miles and camp

Today's ride: 11 miles (18 km)
Total: 171 miles (275 km)

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