New Hampshire

Wednesday 28 September – Adams-Ossipee

We had a slow start to the day and were eventually packed and ready to leave for Lake Ossipee by about 10am. We stopped at Adams for bank, PO and supermarket. Because of heavy rains earlier in the year we had to take a very long detour around a washed out bridge on Route 2.

At Brattleboro we stopped at the Chelsea Royal Diner for lunch. We had stopped there last time Surrey and I were here. It is a real American diner! I had butternut squash shepherd's pie (i.e. shepherd's pie with mashed pumpkin on top rather than potato).

Then we continued on to Hillsboro where we had yummy ice cream (Barre is a bit of an ice cream freak) at the High Tide Take Out (www.hightidetakeout.com). The ice cream was excellent.

At Centre Harbour, quite close to Ossipee we stopped at the Keepsake Quilting Shop (www.keepsakequilting.com ). Marion usually brings me a catalogue from this shop when she visits Sydney but I had no idea it was on the direct route to Lake Ossipee. It is huge and has all sorts of things we don't seem to see at home as well as a wonderful array of fabrics. They even tied my plastic bag of goodies with a fabric offcut.

Then we stopped at the Moultonboro Country Store. This store has been in operation from the 1700s and is full of barrels of foods and all sorts of goods. Another place I have not visited before. We were going to try to visit the Weston Country Store in Vermont but flooding has closed many of the roads so Barre did not want to risk wasting time on too many detours for closed roads.

We arrived at Barre and Marion's summer house at Lake Ossipee by around 5 pm, settled in and had a busy time showing Elaine around, taking photos of the magnificent sunset over the lake and catching up on diary. Dinner was Boston baked beans and ham, a real New England meal.

Thursday 29 September – Conway Scenic Railway

This morning we woke to rain and the temperature was only 15 C at breakfast time. After breakfast we did a load of washing to keep it up to date for Elaine's return home.

We drove up to North Conway to join our Conway Scenic Railway tour to Fabyan and return that Barre had booked for us months ago. This included a sit down cooked lunch as well.

We had a little time to wander around all the trains in the yard including a steam engine about to leave on a down line journey and an engine with a huge snow plough on the front. Our train eventually drew into the station and we were loaded on one by one.

Soon after we started our climb up the valley we went into lunch in the dining car. I had New England chowder and an open burger with blue cheese and bacon over the meat patty. Too big again so I left some, but the ice cream sundae for dessert was yum.

It was a fantastic ride up into the fog with the woodland in autumn colours. We saw some of the areas that had been washed out by hurricane Irene earlier in the year. There really must have been a huge amount of water rushing off the mountains in a very short time.

Our first stop was Crawford Notch then on to Fabyan. Surrey and I had driven the route with Barre and Marion and had lunch in the Fabyan Station so it was fun to retrace our steps by train this time. He would have loved it. Elaine and I certainly did.

On our return trip we were back in the carriage but Elaine, Marion and I walked down to the open air carriage at the front end of the train. I stayed there for most of the trip but the other two got cold very quickly. I revelled in the cold and wet and felt comfortably cool for the first time since we'd left home. I even got some photos of the train going over the Frankenstein Trestle bridge which was over 30 m from the valley floor.

Photography back in the cabin was difficult with so much rain on the window but in the open air carriage I just got completely wet.

Back at North Conway around 5 pm we stopped at Dairy Queen for a Blizzard ice cream. Not bad! Then home via the Madison Boulder. Although I'd seen it before it was still impressive. It was dumped by the last glacier about 10000 years ago that started up in Canada and went as far south as New Jersey.

Back home for crackers, cheese and apples for dinner while we had a brief thunderstorm. Then we had a game of a most appropriate board game that Barre and Marion own called 'Ticket to Ride'. Then diary writing before bed at last.

Friday 30 September – Moose hunt!

Today we set out on an extremely fine day to find a moose so we were on the road again for yet another day.

This time we drove north in New Hampshire stopping at a few lookouts between North Conway and the Mt Washington lookout which is as far as I had been before. We then continued north on Route 16. At Errol we tried to find lunch without luck. There was a Subway but nowhere to sit so we turned onto Route 26 towards Colebrook. The fall colours were magnificent! No photo will really do it justice but we did stop to take a few more anyway. Dixville Notch (the actual summit of the road) was a surprise in its sudden peak. At any higher speed the car could have almost become airborne at the top as the road fell away on the other side quite suddenly.

At Colebrook we had lunch at Howard's Diner (restaurant). Again the food was excellent but this time I was able to have just a sandwich (BLT) and orange juice. Our placemat at the diner had lots of ads for local businesses. One was for a quilt shop further north out of Pittsburg on the main road. When Barre asked if we wanted to stop I said yes for a bit of a break but in fact it was a fabulous shop. Smaller than others we'd seen, under a lady's house, but lots of fabrics and all on special. The shop (Moose Country Quilting) was surprisingly busy for somewhere so remote. Marion found another waterlily fabric and Elaine and I both found other fabrics but had to be strong or we would have bought far too much. Fat quarters were only $1.99 each, even the ones she cut for us.

We then drove on as far as the Canadian border and even took some dirt roads to try to find a moose but no luck so we turned and came home a lot more quickly.

We followed Route 3 south to Twin Mountains, followed the train line from Fabyan to Bartlett then skirted the towns on a back road.

Home by 7:30pm and quickly got a toasted cheese sandwich before we went next door to visit Gordon (Barre's cousin) and his wife Merilee. I had stayed with them in 2000 when they lived at White River Junction and Barre was in Dartmouth hospital.

Merilee had made extra corn chowder for us to share so I had a small taste and it was fabulous. Potatoes and onions fried in butter, sweet corn off a cob, salt, cumin and all in milk after they are cooked.

What a long day in the car! It was great to eventually collapse into bed.

Saturday 1 October – Ice Hockey

Before leaving Lake Ossipee Elaine and I were able to take a walk along the shore of the lake then back via the road. We were on the road again by 10 ish, this time to the south eastern Maine coast and then west to Durham, New Hampshire.

It took us a while to get away this morning but eventually we left in very foggy drizzle conditions. We drove to the coast at Wells where we had lunch at Mike's Clam Shack. I had a shrimp ceasar salad that was delicious but I still had to leave half the lettuce. Just too much.

On then to Nubble Light at Cape Neddick. It is out on a rock and so isolated and exposed even though we could have yelled to anyone out there. It was even sounding the fog horn as it was such a heavy fog. However, we did have the Atlantic Ocean lapping at our feet which was quite cool.

Our sightseeing over, we headed to Dick and Katy's house in Durham. We arrived at about 2:15 pm and sat chatting until it was time to go to the UNH ice hockey game about 2 km away. Katy, Marion and Elaine walked while Dick, Barre and I got a lift with friends Linda and Tom up the hill.

The game was quite an experience. So fast! University of New Hampshire (UNH) playing University of New Brunswick (UBC) from Canada. It was unfortunate that the microphones the two singers used for the two national anthems were not working but it was quite ethereal to hear the fans singing very softly to support the singers rather than drown them out. It was in fact very moving.

UNH had a band (it was their home arena) that played every now and then or just made noises or chanted their chants. But the PA noise and 'music' was unbearably loud and echoed so much you could not actually understand what was being said. UNH won 3:0. There are 3 sections of the game and at each interval many of the audience get up and walk around the back of the arena for a bit of exercise.

After the game we returned to Dick and Katy's for dinner with Linda and Tom as well. It was a great time sitting and chatting around the table but eventually both Elaine and I did a quick email check now that we are back online then collapsed into bed quite late.

Katy had left both Elaine and I a little jar of maple syrup on our beds. It was so welcoming.

Sunday 2 October – Durham-Ossipee

Up at 7 am to another drizzly day after a bit of a sleep-in. Katy and Dick made us a fantastic breakfast of sausages, onions, capsicum and scrambled eggs with English muffins.

After a little chatting we left and travelled west towards Adams again. Our first stop was at Piece Time Puzzles, a shop where Barre had his waterlily photos made into jig-saw puzzles, a shop full of puzzles of all sorts.

Then on to Brattleboro for lunch at Friendly's. We all had seniors meals. Mine was a hamburger followed by a hot chocolate sundae over coffee ice cream. Elaine and I also shared a coffee Fribble (a sort of iced coffee).

On and on we drove, arriving in Adams by about 4 pm. We had time for Elaine to sort and pack ready for leaving tomorrow, for me to sort all the photos so she could take a copy of everything home with her, and for Marion to sort quilting things and do a load of washing. Of course there was also the usual diary homework.

Dinner was New England hot dogs.