Colors of Fall

Week of 10/13 – 10/19/2012

 

Rainy Day

 

One of hundreds of beautiful, old churches

in New Hampshire

 

John under Boise Rock

 

Yeah, I guess that sounds like a good idea?????

 

Gena & John on Conway Railroad

 

The great debate - cracked me up.

 

Spent a week in Lincoln, NH – a much needed time to be in one place for more than a few days. We arrived late Saturday after spending afternoon in Bennington, VT. We unpacked and snuggled in for the entire next day – it was raining, so it didn't feel like we were wasting the day.

Monday, foggy and sprinkling, we drove to Conway, NH, through the beautiful White Mountains that cover about a quarter of New Hampshire, so there are many sites to see, camping and hiking. All along the way they have “Brake for Moose” signs – like one is just going to say “I don't think so and crash into a moose”?????   We found it interesting that there was a Boise Rock so, of course, we stopped to see it. 

Took tons of pictures showing the Fall color. Drive, stop, drive, stop. It took us quite awhile to make progress, but we weren't in any rush . I was glad that I hadn't decided to take pictures of all white, rustic, beautiful old churches with steeples. Also decided not to take pictures of every home that had great architecture. Churches and those homes could take a life time, so hopefully I can remember lots of the beauty we saw.

We were going to go to Mount Washington which is the highest peak in the NE US and is famous for dangerously erratic weather. Until 2010, the summit held the record for the highest wind gust measured on the Earth's surface, 231 mph in 1934. John loves weather, but we learned the wind was blowing 55-62 mph, and temperature with wind chill at -2, so we decided to pass on that experience.

We saw colors, rivers, rocks, flowers, mushrooms with our big bonus of seeing two separate groups of wild turkeys – each group with 5-6 turkeys. They were just by the side of the road. It was neat.   No bear or moose and that was fine with us.

Wednesday we took a 5 hour train ride from North Conway down the tracks about 27 miles and back.  It was fun to travel through the trees and listen to the narrative history of the area and the important part the railroad played in the development of the area. After the train ride, we took a little time to see the “Return of the Pumpkin People” in the town of Jackson. There were many clever ideas (see Romney/Obama debate above) and it was fun to drive around and take pictures of the scenes.

On our last full day in beautiful New Hampshire, we took a drive south and went around Lake Winnipesaukee, the largest lake in the state at 21 miles long and from 1 to 9 miles wide. The lower elevation and being close to water gave us more orange and red color in the leaves – thus more pictures.

It is so weird as I write this and realize that without all the pictures I've taken – with each photo showing the date – I am not sure if I could say what we have done.   In writing this today, I've had to go back to my pictures and refresh my memory.   This is all moving along so fast and with the continual seeing of so many new things every day, doing new things – it just doesn't all register. That surprises me and maybe if I were younger I could hold on to each memory. We've driven over 7,000 miles so far and have been gone for 52 days.

We're still married, just a “few” arguments along the way, but still laughing and ready for our next adventure.   I know our humor is what makes this all possible – oh, and the fact that John is an angel to put up with me.

I've still got to work on …. s l o w i n g   d o w n ….. but I guess I just don't want us to miss anything.  As Willie would say, "On the Road Again"..........going places I've never been..................