We leave the Rutland Ramada Inn, by far the worst lodging I’ve ever experienced. It is old, worn out, dirty, has intermittent hot water, and generally is in disrepair — our room and the entire facility. It is a first-class dump. Heads are going to roll in my travel research department for booking this place. Ramada Inn should be embarrassed and ashamed to charge anyone for staying here. The only positive thing about it is leaving, which we do at 9:15 — in a light rain.

As we leave Rutland, we plan to spend the next 70 miles (about 2 hours) heading south on VT-100, through Plymouth Notch, Weston, Londonderry, Jamaica, Wardsboro — on our way to the Mount Snow resort.

Click here to see why Mount Snow is a decent alternative to Sugarbush, Stowe and the other ski/golf resorts in Vermont. Mount Snow co-hosted the first Extreme Games in 1995, and hosted the Winter X Games in 2000 and 2001. X Games are not pornographic; they’re the Olympics of eXtreme sports, so-named because of their high level of inherent danger. The X Games are eXtremely commercial, and as made-for-TV events, are broadcast on ESPN.

We ride along the eastern edge of the Green Mountain National Forest. The forest takes up nearly 400,000 acres — and is home to a variety of wildlife, including beaver, moose, coyote, black bear and white-tailed deer. Full disclosure: no animals were harmed during the making of this blog; the “no-animals-were-harmed” designation is actually a certification you can get from the American Humane Association. While somewhat tempted, I have not formally applied for that certification. If you want to be a certified protector of animal actors, click here.

Green Mountain National Forest is known as the “granite backbone” of Vermont — which is somewhat odd, since New Hampshire (not Vermont) is nicknamed the Granite State. Vermont is called the Green Mountain State. Vermont is Green; New Hampshire is Granite. Whatever.

But a funny thing happens on our way to Mount Snow: rain. It’s been raining steadily all morning and we’re reconsidering today’s route. Who wants to spend all day soaking up raindrops and squinting through a rain-splattered windshield and helmet face shield?

We had planned to ride VT-100 S along the eastern edge of the Green Mountain National Forest, nearly all the way to the Massachusetts border. But since tonight’s destination is Lincoln, New Hampshire — which is considerably north of here, we decide to re-route ourselves east across Vermont, riding toward New Hampshire. That’ll shorten our day by about 100 miles, and give us a few less hours on the rain-slickened road.

Around Ludlow, we turn east on VT-131. About a half hour later, as the weather worsens, we stop in Acustney, Vermont, at Mr. G’s restaurant. We’re not hungry, though we do grab a bite to eat. We are tired of the weather and hope to sit a spell and ride out the rain. After coffee and pie (raspberry for me and strawberry/rhubarb for Ray), we push on — riding east toward Canaan, New Hampshire.

Eventually, we cross the Connecticut River into New Hampshire. New Hampshire is the state with “Live Free or Die” stamped on its license plates.

“Live Free or Die” is New Hampshire’s official state motto, adopted in 1945. The motto comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire’s most famous soldier of the Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington. Instead, he sent his toast by letter: “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”

Speaking of evils … that reminds me of something worth sharing. In the mid-1970s, I worked as a reporter at KBCI-TV (Channel 2) in Boise, Idaho. The Associated Press bureau chief, Dick Charnock, coined a clever moniker for me: “The Lesser of Two’s Evils.” Tell me that wasn’t worth the wait!

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Among prominent individuals from New Hampshire:

• Senator Daniel Webster, a highly quotable orator (“God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it”)
• Newspaper editor Horace Greeley (“Go West Young Man”), the only presidential candidate to have died prior to the counting of electoral votes
• Astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to travel in space, and the only person to hit two golf balls on the surface of the moon (the second was apparently a mulligan)
• Author Dan Brown, best known for his 1993 thriller, “The Da Vinci Code”
• Franklin Pierce, the 14th US President, often called one of the least effective Presidents ever

With all that knowledge rattling around our helmets, we bypass Keene, New Hampshire, where we’d originally planned to stop for lunch. So I’d be remiss not to tell you a little about Keene, before we resume our ride toward Lincoln, New Hampshire.

Keene is home to Keene State College, whose students account for one-fourth of the city’s population. Click here to learn more, or to submit your application for admission. On campus, you’ll find the Keene Swamp Bats baseball team, part of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. At least you’ll find them during baseball season, in spring. But with Major League baseball playoff fever currently in full bloom, the baseball story of the moment is taking place on national TV and not in Keene. The two biggest events of the year on Keene’s calendar: The Pumpkin Festival (held this year on October 20) and the Keene Music Festival (held earlier this summer).

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We now find ourselves in Canaan, New Hampshire, home to the Cardigan Mountain School, a boys-only private boarding school, which is the town’s largest employer. Canaan Mountain School was named after Canaan, Connecticut — hometown of many early settlers. Canaan, Connecticut was named after the biblical land of Canaan.

It’s been a long day on the road, and we’re ready to relax, so we head for the luxurious Comfort Inn in Lincoln, New Hampshire, only 40 miles away. It’s, by far, the nicest place I’ve stayed on a motorcycle trip. On a 1-100 scale, I’d give it a 99. Last night’s dump was a 0.

Lincoln is the second-largest town, by area (130.9 square miles), in New Hampshire. It has a population of 1,662 — according to the 2010 census. Lincoln is at the foot of the White Mountain National Forest, which we will explore tomorrow.

We continue northeast through Danbury, Canaan, Warren, and on to Lincoln, where we will park for the night. Lincoln is just east of I-93 (which we cross, but do not ride), and a few miles north of Woodstock, New Hampshire.

In the northeast US, seems like every state has a Woodstock. The most famous former resident of Woodstock, Vermont, is three-time PGA tour winner Keegan Bradley, who was an all-state ski racer at Woodstock’s Union High School before deciding to focus on golf. Also from Woodstock: Laurance Rockefeller, a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family, who owned the Woodstock Inn. Ladies Home Journal named Woodstock the “Prettiest Small Town in America.”

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Woodstock, New Hampshire, and Woodstock, Vermont, have their own claims to fame. But they have nowhere near the history and cachet of New York’s Woodstock, famous for lending its name to the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair. That watershed rock festival was actually held at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm almost 60 miles away in Bethel, New York. Click here to take a stroll down memory lane and reminisce about Woodstock, where Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix rocked the house in front of a half million concert-goers, a pivotal moment in popular music history. Three-day tickets were $18 in advance; in comparison, a three-day ticket for Coachella 2013 is $349. Draw your own conclusions.

Organizers of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair underestimated their attendance by 400,000; they expected 100,000 — and half million showed up. As a result, food and water had to be flown in by US Army helicopters.

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The last 15 or so miles of today’s ride are in the White Mountain National Forest. Toward the end of the ride, we cross the Connecticut River, which defines the border between Vermont and New Hampshire.

Tonight, we set an all-time ride record for most expensive motel on a Harley ride: $122.40 tax, for a room at the Comfort Inn in Lincoln. (It’s believed that someone on a Harley once overnighted at the Ritz Carlton, taking advantage of their legendary motorcycle valet parking). For those prices, I hope there’s at least a mint on the pillow. Or complimentary tickets to Coachella.

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Day Ten Summary: Exploring Green Mountain National Forest, Living Free — but not Dying, The Lesser of Two’s Evils, Woodstock in 2012. Total (rain-shortened) miles today: about 145.

To view today’s entire route (planned, not actual) from Rutland, Vermont, to Lincoln, New Hampshire, click here.

What will tomorrow bring?

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Special Reminder: Tonight at midnight EDT is the deadline for entering “Guess Gary’s Globetrotting,” the contest where you can become rich and famous for estimating the number of miles I’ll ride on this trip. If you haven’t entered already, simply send me an e-mail (glesser@dc.rr.com) with the subject line: “Guess Gary’s Globetrotting.” In the e-mail, guess the total number of miles I will ride from Farragut, Tennessee, and back. The trip should end in about a week. Hint: we are averaging about 250 miles a day. The winner will be announced when the ride ends, and the prize will be awarded shortly afterward. FYI — the leader in the clubhouse, and you know who you are, Todd — was in Chicago for the Ryder Cup. If you can’t be a Harley rider on the road, watching the Ryder Cup in person is an acceptable Plan B. Congratulations, Europe 😦