May 26th 2013: ATVing in the White Mountains

Today, my friend and I headed into the White Mountains to have our first experience at riding an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) in a tour organized by Outback Kayak in Lincoln NH.

After a 2.5 hour drive and doing our paperwork, we were told to drive into Woodstock NH to a place along Route 3 to find where all the ATVs were parked. Unfortunately, no address was available, so we were pretty unsure of whether we had passed the place on several occasions. Thankfully, we managed to find it in the end without having to make a U-turn.

After getting suited up with helmets, gloves and jackets in the cold weather today, we selected our ATVs, with me taking the slightly tank-like one, while my friend took the one which looked more like a bike. That was pretty much a mistake as I realized that it was much harder to turn the vehicle, and it felt more unstable as well, as though I could possibly tilt over at any moment. The whole way I was on the vehicle while going through mud puddles, trees and rivers, all with the surrounding mountains in the background,

I had a really uncomfortable time, even getting stuck at some points, and I was starting to think that ATVing is going to absolutely be a once in a lifetime thing for me. Thankfully, I had an opportunity to ask my friend to switch vehicles with me, and while I was on his vehicle for the rest of the tour, I had much more maneuverability, and it felt like I was back on my snowmobile again and back in my element.

I guess one important lesson I learned today was that the machine matters for ATVing.

After our fun time in the White Mountains, we headed away from there to find something to eat, settling on the Sunny Day Diner, a small diner in Lincoln NH along Daniel Webster Highway near its intersection with Connector Road.

As always, my friend decided to get an omelette together with a Root Beer Float,

while I got the Salmon Stack (fresh poached salmon atop a bed of steamed broccoli, scrambled eggs and a grilled wheat bread slice, with homemade Hollandaise sauce on top, served with hash browns).

The Salmon wasn't too bad, but overall, the place was just like any other small town diner in terms of food and ambiance.

With that, we headed back to Showcase Cinemas in Lowell MA to watch Fast and Furious 6, which was definitely better than Iron Man 3, after which we went back to my place to pick up my other friend who had been staying at home all day to take her out to a Japanese buffet dinner at Minado in Natick MA, where we had a great time for the rest of the night before my best friend went home to NYC.