2013 Granite State BMW Riders Rally, Madison, NH

[nhmaf]

 This past weekend I zipped out of the house to the somewhat hidden little burg of East Madison, NH and the Purity Springs Resort.  Our small local BMW club rally is held there each September, and it is a fairly low-key/laid back affair.   We all have breakfast and dinner at night together, and one can either tent out on the grass, rent a cabin, or have a full hotel room (for extra fees of course).   The club has been having a hard patch with membership dwindling and attendance dropping, though even at the best of times I guess we only had 50-60 rally attendees (this year we just broke into the 30s).

In spite of some cool and rainy weather on Saturday, I did get out and explore around some bits in both Maine and New Hampshire, and as always I took pics along the way.   This was one of the least-miles-ridden rally that I have EVER done – don’t think that I rode more than about 300 miles for the whole weekend – pitiful!  But sometimes one can find some treasures virtually in one’s backyard..

On Saturday, I looped through a section of southern Maine that included going round Sebago Lake, which is a popular summer vacation spot.   There is a state-run campground on its shores where my family would often go to camp when I was a kid.   One of the interesting things to do would be to walk a short distance from the campground to watch pleasure boats going through a hand operated water lock that has been in operation since the 1830s when it was built as part of a 50+ mile long water freight&transportation system to the Portland seaport.  There are many interesting sights in this area of Maine, and the town names are also a bit peculiar - within a couple hours' drive one can go from Naples to Limerick, Norway, Poland, Paris, Oxford, well, you get the idea...
I also tend to stop or detour to interesting-looking historic sites or signs I might encounter, so there are also some pics of a few such things I found along the way in my wanderings about that nearby area of New Hampshire.

On Sunday afternoon, I was returning to my home and I stopped by the American Police Motorcycle Museum in Meredith, New Hampshire.  It is a fairly new business venture (opened ~ 2 years ago) and it contains thousands upon thousands of antique (and more recent) police memorabilia, uniforms, equipment, badges, training films, manuals, etc. and MOST importantly… MOTORCYCLES.    The proprietor has almost 50 fully working police patrol motorcycles (almost entirely US police force) ranging from 1912 up to 2005.   They have three floors’ worth of stuff, plus some antique toys, etc. of police themes, some antique patrol cars and even a restored WWII Willys Jeep (GP).   I had a nice chat with the proprietor, who restores the bikes himself, along with help from another expert antique motorcycle restorer.   The only BMW he had in the place was a 2005 R1100RTP from the Boston Police Dept, but he is looking for and would LOVE to find an authentic police airhead from any police force.   While there are alot of Indians and H-Ds in the museum now, there still are others including Kawasaki, Norton, Honda, and even a MotoGuzzi and BMW.

Here is a link to my photobucket collection of pictures – I do have more but figured these would be a good representation in case anyone was interested in learning more about anything.

http://s159.photobucket.com/user/nhmaf/library/GSBMWR%20Rally2013

Slideshow version -
http://s159.photobucket.com/user/nhmaf/slideshow/GSBMWR%20Rally2013

[montmil]

Enjoyed your photos, Mike. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[suecanada]

Thanks Mike. I wished I had been on that wee tour with you!
Do they call the mechanism that the lockmen use to open and close the manual locks, a Crab? The Rideau Canal where I worked was built between 1826 and 1832 and the "pulley' wheel idea was called a crab. We have it engraved on our retirement ring. The Rideau is now designated a UN World Heritage site....runs from Ottawa to Kingston in eastern Ontario. Was built to outwit those pesky Americans   from possibly been able to blockcade and control the St. Lawrence River, and thus cause great grief to the Canadas after the War of 1812.

[nhmaf]

HI Sue, I think that I have heard it referred to as a crab, but I wasn't able to ask the fellow who was running it at the time that question.     When I was a kid my parents would also go camping along the St Lawrence and both sides of Lake Ontario - sometimes we'd just sit for a few hours at the lock in Massena, NY just to watch the ships going in and out.

[Lucky_Lou]

Nice pictures thanks for sharing  them.
Lou

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Thanks Mike!  That was fun!
I had to check out that bridge by the lock:
http://goo.gl/maps/n4CWS

I've been across a rotating RR/converted to car bridge across the Wabash River.  It no longer moves.

http://www.stephenbottcher.net/photos/springrally2006/DSCF0772.JPG

[nhmaf]

It is a very old bridge - I didn't get a good pic of it to tell the name/manufacturer tho.  It is an interesting one for sure - one guy inserts an 8 foot long bar into a keyway in the center of the bridge deck and walks around in circles to rotate the bridge - probably has to go round 10-12 times to pivot it to its fully open 90 degrees.   I've gotta  find out some more about it - it is still working these days - last time I saw it was over 30 eyars ago, and it will probably be working another 30 years from now.   Up here at least during the winter it doesn't have to move as the lake and river are frozen hard!