Traveling the New Hampshire Highways

The leaves are beginning to turn. They say it is early. So we are wondering how soon we will be heading south. Gary says, "Two nights in the thirties and we are out of here!"

We have been driving through Bethlehem, NH every time we go into Littlelton to shop for groceries or to do laundry and have found it to be a fascinating little town. We noticed it to have quite a Jewish community there. Saturday evening here at the campground we met a couple of NH natives and one was explaining that the conservative Jews have moved in here from New York over the years and kept buying up property. So mystery is solved as to how they settled here. The town has many quaint little shops and antique shops . (We could not get this one all in one photo.) Some of our Salem Sunday School friends would have a good time in this area. Although we have not found too much in furniture yet. This is the Golf Clubhouse in Bethlehem . Note the stone structure. This is a Bed and Breakfast in Bethlehem and the Methodist Church which we thought that you might like to see, Michael. This Inn is for sale for $749,000 with ten bedrooms and nine baths. Think we will run out and buy it for the ambiance!

Yesterday we drove down the road to another location where cell reception is good and decided to check out the Mt. Washington Hotel right around the bend . We checked on line and they have some reasonable rates considering the amenities, like golf course and valet parking. You can see the Mt. Washington in the background but this hotel is on the opposite side of the mountain from the auto road that we took to the mountain top. This Hotel was built in 1902 in Bretton Woods by a wealthy railroad magnate, Joseph Stickney, to attract the fashionable and rich. That sure seems to be a magical time period of construction showing the wealth of that era. In it's heyday as many as fifty seven trains a day brought carloads of people to this resort.

The Silver Cascade is along side the road between the area where we make our phone calls and the Mt. Washington Hotel.

On another day tour Gary checked out The Old Stone Iron Furnace in Franconia where tools were made out of the local iron ore. The furnace structure is still in good shape. Gary needed wire to extend his tow dolly wiring so we drove down the highway (50 miles) to the nearest RV Dealer and on the way drove through Conway and North Conway, NH . Oh, what a tourist trap ! It was the first such shopping area that we found in NH. We did not think that they had much shopping, at least, not like we are used to in Ohio. The had many quaint gift shops and then outlet malls also. So we spent a little extra time looking around. After all, that is what we have plenty of. On the way we saw another ski resort though does not appear as high as the Peabody in the last Blog. Attitash Lodge here seems to be busy even at this time of the year without snow.

There are so many stone churches in this area. The ones I found interesting were made of natural stone , not the quarried stone.

The next time you hear from us should be from Maine. Take care.

Flume Gorge, Franconia, NH

Wednesday was a beautiful day that we decided would be warm and sunny enough to go to Flume Gorge near Franconia, NH. These mountains and Peabody Ski Slopes were sights as we neared the Gorge This is awesome scenery as anyone knows who has traveled through any mountains in this great country of ours. We never tire of it and we hope you do not tire of hearing about it. Often when we see something neat or unusual, it takes too long to get the camera ready to use. I am beginning to travel down the road with it in my hands instead of having it in it's case. We keep hoping to see a moose to photograph, but have not yet. Today when we stopped in a little antique shop, the elderly lady running it was telling that she had seen one just last weekend and also a black bear that decided to feed on apples under her tree. He just laid there under the tree pulling them in with his paws. I would have loved to have a camera ready for that! And it was just a wee bit down the road from our RV park. Oh well, we have not left NH yet! We entered the gift shop to go into Flume Gorge and saw this stage coach used to deliver mail in the Plymouth and Franconia Mountains in by gone days. It's a beauty! As we followed this path we came to the river bottom that was solid rock before going on up hill to the falls and gorge areas. There is so much beauty around that I had to stop just to look around . It is good that it was such a sunny day. We dressed for cool air and mosquitoes, but were not bothered by either, except mosquitoes as we reached the bottom stretch as we got back to the gift shop at the starting point. As you see the path is sometimes man made of wood and later becomes mostly gravel. We cross a bridge to the other side of the gorge and the rock walls become higher and the falls begin as short falls . They show this photograph of the gorge and falls as it was before it was changed with the man made amenities for comfort in walking and climbing. Note the long dress! Then the river levels out before another climb begins . On the way we pass these falls . As we begin our descent we get a look at a still pool . Gary realized that we have cell reception so he decided to make a congratulatory call to a former co-worker who is retiring this week . So Jack we hope you and your wife enjoy it as much as we do! The tree growth is fascinating and we thought of you, Richie, and thought you might think that we saw a dinosaur , no? Grandpa thought that you might want to check out this Bear Den . Still we did not see any bear! We passed what they called Glacial Gardens , looks like rocks to me. Then we came to this pine covered bridge over Pemigewasset River in Franconia Gorge. There was a 175 ft. white pine that stood at this point for more than a century when a hurricane in 1938 brought it down. It was known as the Sentinel and thus the bridge became known as the Sentinel Pine Bridge. There was another story about this very area of the gorge, that a Professor John Merrill built a crude boat in 1853 and began giving annual tours for the next thirty years to this pool and the gorge. The gratuities that he got for these annual tours gave him a comfortable living for the rest of the year. After crossing this bridge we came upon this Wolf Den that we could have crawled through?? We decided to leave this for the children. Thus ends another day of fun for two oldies enjoying retirement! It was a two mile hike and we took three hours to do it and enjoyed every minute of it. I even managed to work out a kink in my knee that had been bothering me day and night for days. So guess we need more exercise! See you down the road at Bethlehem, NH.