Southern New Hampshire Tour - April 25, 2010
Submitted by: Debbie Christopher, Photos by Sue and Steve Lindquist and Debbie Christopher
What a great day for a drive! We met up at 10am at John Bowe’s shop in Hampstead, NH.
Up until the day before the event the forecast was for rain on Sunday. By Sunday morning things changed
and it looked like the rain would stay to the south and it did.
By the time we arrived at the shop the sun was out and the temperature was warm enough
to put the top down.
There were about 20 people and an interesting assortment of vehicles including 4-wheeled and 2-wheeled Triumphs, a BSA motorcycle, a beautifully restored Austin A30, a ’56 Chevy Bel Air, an Impala, an AMC Pacer wagon, an AMC Ambassador and of course John’s TR2 project car sporting its recently-acquired factory hard top.
After fueling up on coffee and donuts we headed out on what John described as “the longest route
you will ever take to Exeter, NH”. We were an interesting group making our way through Southern New Hampshire
with the British cars at the front, the British motorcycles (2 Triumphs and 1 BSA) in the middle
followed by the American classic cars.
It was a beautiful drive with spring in full bloom along the way.
The Triumph Mayflower and Austin A30 looked great cruising through Exeter, New Hampshire.
We stopped for lunch at the Loaf & Ladle in Exeter. It was so warm by this time that we opted to eat outside
on the back deck. During lunch, Rich (one of the Triumph motorcyclists) told us about the barn that he built and
about Wilhelmina, a cat who moved in as soon as the barn was ready for occupancy. He invited us all to stop by
some time to see it...
... and so we did, right after lunch! The barn is new but was built with old wood making it look like a restoration.
The lower part provides a place to work on cars and bikes, the upper level is his studio.
There is even a balcony on the far end.
We had dwindled down to just five cars and the three motorcycles by this time. This is how the cars looked
from the barn’s balcony. If you look closely you will see Wilhelmina perched on the driver’s side door of the Bel Air.
In case you are wondering if she is expressing a preference for American classic cars, she had just finished checking out the interior of the Mayflower and was making her way down the line. She thoroughly checked out each of the cars in turn.
From here we headed back to John’s shop to say our goodbyes and to thank John for organizing such a great event.
Thanks also to Steve and Sue for providing most of the photos for this article.