KC Rib Shack Bar-B-Cue Manchester NH

We ran NH for water towns and barbecue places today. To offset our absolutely awful experience in New York, we stopped at KC Rib Shack and Bar-B-Cue for lunch in Manchester NH. What a great experience !!




Now I do not profess to be a BBQ expert by any means, but I do know when something tastes good. I had their Cubano Sandwich, which is smoked ham, roast pork with pickles and mustard, hot pressed panini type bread. MeAsWe had their Pulled Pork Sammie and put some great apple bbq sauce. Both sandwiches were outstanding.





But food is only part of the dining experience. Our waitress, Courtney was great, as well. She is originally from Canada, moved to Ohio, and then ended up here. I asked if she missed Ohio and surprisingly the answer was yes. I lived in Ohio for about 10 years and I never missed leaving the state. Hot, humid and no air in the summer, cold, frigid and windy in the winter.

So we have good food, great waitress. Atmosphere is next and KC has atmosphere. The joint is decorated with license plates from all over the place. These we vanity type plates where the previous owners had something special placed on the plates. Other decorations were the signed guitars and music paraphernalia. I asked Courtney if the owner was a picker and he is. The place at one time had live music, but it attracted a particular type of biker, which became to much of a problem so the owner cut out the music.





One of my favorites was the WEDEAD plate.





After we finished our meal, Courtney showed us upstairs where they are expanding the restaurant. This will probably double the amount of seating.

All in all our experience was simply perfect. Hopefully we will make it back one day. KC's more than made up for the lousy BBQ joint we visited in New York.

They are located at N42 58.192 W71 28.779 or 837 Second Street, Manchester, NH. They are set off the street but their sign is right on the main drag. Look em up HERE

Sippin Water in Western CT and NY

30% chance of rain today, 60% chance tomorrow, better head out today. First option was a trip to the Winnipesaukee Lake area, however we were just in NH last week. Need to grab some water for GLMC and maybe some BBQ places for Smoke Chasing 2011. MeAsWe is still sleeping so I bring up MapSource and begin plotting a course out thru western Connecticut. Get out as far as Falls Village and I see Millbrook NY is not that much further. There is 2 BBQ places we can pick up. THATS THE PLAN.

First stops were in Brooklyn CT. For Brooklyn we stopped at the Farm and Pet store. At this place they advertise having healthy foods for your pet and poison for those unwanted rodents and other animal pests. Guess it would be easy to mess things up back home.



Grabbed this over sized Swan for a potential tag in the future



Broad Brook Post Office was on the agenda next



While none of this seems exciting, it is an ends to a mean and the roads to get to these places would not be traveled if not for these places

Stopped in Windsor CT for Nat's place. Was too early to eat thou.



Hit Riverton CT. This is a really picturesque place and is part on New Marlborough CT. I believe this is a National Historic District on the register. I will have to check that out.







Went right past Lime Rock Park. Lime Rock is natural terrain race track owned by Skip Barber. I have been here before, so we did go in.



Cozy Corner Lunch has seen better days



Grabbed the Millbrook NY Post Office for the Water Affair and was heading out of town and just had to stop for a picture of the Millbrook Diner to add to my collection



Next stop was the Fireside BBQ and Grill and I wish we just did a photo and scooted off. In keeping with the Smoke Chasing 2001 treasure hunt, we should eat at some of these BBQ places. This one I can say just keep going. I ordered some kind of sandwich with cheese and mac. Supposedly the meat has been cooking since last night, maybe they forgot to turn the oven on. The chef should check out Kraft's Cheese and Mac for lessons, because theirs was garbage and cold to boot. The only outstanding thing about this place was the price of this crap. Oh that's outrageous, not outstanding. I did take pictures of the food, but I am not going to post them, cause looks can be deceiving.



All day we have been skirting the rain. We arrive someplace and there are puddles around and the road is wet, but no rain on us, but skies were cloudy all day. This is just outside Copake NY and we are heading east for home.



At around 7pm we roll into Mill River, MA. This was a chancy spot to stop at for the Affair with Water treasure hunt. The name of the conforming town must appear on the building and there was suppose to be a general store and a post office someplace. Low and behold they were in the same location. The woman who was working this evening has worked here for 17 years. On the porch there were chairs, with ash trays, so you just knew people would come down here for coffee, read the paper and just spend a time catching up with neighbors. The women said she was anxious to close, since she had already been here 13 hours today. Just around 5 minutes to 7, the cars came pouring in to get something at the last moment. She would stand outside yelling at the customers by name to get their ass in gear and get what they wanted, she wanted to go home, all in a very friendly manner.



MeAsWe asked me how far to get home. I said I would check the GPS. Getting late and most of these back country roads we had been riding thru was prime deer county. Not wanting to ride these roads in the dark, I decided to skip Bash Bish Falls State Park and head for Three Rivers, MA. 71 miles to Three Rivers and not sure how far home. My guess it was 50 miles, but did not want upset MeAsWe.

We passed thru Lee, MA and hit the Pike and headed east. Somewhere along here we ran into this guy who ran out of gas. When I first pulled up I thought I just ran into a classic Honda 750 four, what is considered the first super bike by some. What I first saw was those distinctive stacked tail pipes. Poor guy had run out of gas and was pushing the bike along the break down lane. I lent him my phone to make some calls and we were on our way. He had made contact with his father, but it was going to be a while. I suggested he call the state police, but he said he had registration problems with the bike. I looked over and he had a 2010 stick on it. As we left, the guy started pushing the bike again. Glad he was young.





The last stop was Three Rivers, MA. As I pressed the button on the camera, I got Full Memory Card warning. Good thing.



Pulled in to home right around 9:45PM, some 375 miles for the day. Good training for the up and coming trip to NY for the gallons and gallons of water.

Drinking the Water in Upper New York

Last night I got the itch for a long run and the best way for me to accomplish this is planning An Affair with Water Grand Tour Trip. Last year we never made it to the north part of New York thru the Adirondacks and looking at the overall places we could go, this seemed like the perfect place to head. Ya gotta go somewhere.

Day 1 will be right around 420 miles with the first 140 or so simply getting to the treasures. We should capture around 23 water towns and at least 3 BBQ’s places for Smoke Chasin 2011 Grand Tour. The stop point is Lake Placid.




Day 2 we depart from Lake Placid heading south thru the Adirondacks and then west to end up the night in Watertown NY. An easy 223 miles for the day with the grabbing of 17 water towns.



Day 3 is the turning around point and head for Syracuse NY area and zip zag taggin I-90 but never get on it for the most part. This is the longest in miles, 450, but the least amount of towns at 17. I have us landing home around 10PM on Sunday.



This is the preliminary plan and some adjustment may come with riding longer on Day 2 to shorten up Day 3, but the overall scheme is in place. I do not expect to hit any interstates during this 1100 mile trip, but flexibility is the key. All total we should come home with 55 photo ops to add to our collection. Last year we put in 263 towns, of which 261 qualified and we started a month later in the year. This should be a good run. It will be a good test of the knees and legs for the both of us.