It’s Memorial Day Weekend which marks the unofficial start of summer. While there will be the Memorial Day ceremonies and remembrances on Monday, the crowds of summerfolk started arriving in force before noon yesterday to celebrate the start of summer.
The WP Mom and I had to run a few errands early yesterday afternoon including stops at Walmart and one of our local supermarkets for some last minute shopping. The traffic was heavy and the parking lots were full. We saw a lot more out-of-state plates than we have since last summer, with most of them being from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.
A lot of this goes in line with the boatyards and marinas being busy since the beginning of the month getting boats ready for pick-up by the owners or launching them for owners. That was certainly true for my go-to boatyard as I had to stop by yesterday to make arrangements to store the Official Weekend Pundit Boat Trailer for the summer now that the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is back in the water. (This used to get stored next to the garage at The Manse, but I haven’t been living there since 2018 and there’s no room here at The Gulch.) The boat slips that I could see while out and about were occupied, for the most part. I expect the rest will occupied before the end of the weekend.
All of the seasonal restaurants are now open on more than just the weekends, as they have been since late April, and the few that I passed while out running errands were busy, but not “Saturday or Sunday” busy as we’ll be seeing from now until Labor Day weekend. Some of the attractions will be open just on the weekends for the next couple of weeks until schools let out for the summer.
Another sign of the holiday weekend?
Road construction ceased after Thursday (with one or two exceptions) and won’t restart until Tuesday after the “madding crowds” have departed. (I have no doubt this is true in other states as well.)
When the work restarts around here in the Lakes Region some of it will be going on around the clock, with prep work taking place during daylight hours and paving being performed overnight. One of the reasons for this around-the-clock work is that Motorcycle Week starts on June 13th – which is three weeks from today - and they want to get as much road repair and construction done before then. The 300,000+ bikers expected to attend will start arriving a few days before that, hence the push to get this round of work done. Once the rumble of motorcycles fades away after that week, the road crews will be back at it.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I will not be venturing out onto the lake until late Monday or Tuesday as it is quite often too crazy and dangerous to venture out onto Lake Winnipesaukee during weekends unless it’s first thing in the morning or early evening. There are too many Cap’n Boneheads out on the lake and it can be exhausting to be out there dealing with them. It’s better that I watch their antics from shore.
