New Hampshire, Vermont

 13 Sept     St Martin, New Brunswick - Somerville, Maine     299 miles

We left New Brunswick a day early because Hurricane Lee is on its way. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is right in its path. Going through customs at the border was no problem. 

We made a stop at Walmart and continued to Somerville, Maine to stay with our friends Clyde & Donna. 

We just spent a couple of days with Clyde & Donna. Joe ordered a part to fix our AC that went out a few weeks ago. We had it shipped here and Joe was able to fix it. Always nice to see them. 

15 Sept     Somerville, ME - Twin Meadows,  NH          161 miles        4 hours

New Hampshire is a new state for us and we're so excited to explore this area. 

We're staying at Twin Mountain Motor Court & RV Park for 5 nights. They have a Good Sam rate here total for 5 nights $284. This park is pretty nice. Pull through sites with full hook ups. Convenient location to explore the White Mountains. 

We did an awesome hike. The Flume Gorge is a natural gorge extending 800 feet horizontally at the base of Mount Liberty in Franconia Notch State Park. Cut by Flume Brook, the gorge features walls of Conway granite that rise to a height of 70 to 90 feet and are 12 to 20 feet apart. 

The granite rock which make up the walls of the flume was forged many millions of years ago in ancient geological time. At a later period dark colored lava in a molten condition was pushed up from below filling a great crack and smaller side cracks that had been formed in the granite. This lava solidified to form dikes. As ages passed the main dike was worn away leaving the flume gorge. Its been further widened by frost and water action. 

We had to make advanced reservations and purchase tickets online. Little expensive, $38 for both of us. We went on the earliest time slot and that was good because by the time we were finished, it was getting very crowded. 

Glacier Boulders - At the time of the ice sheet, about 25,000 years ago, these giant boulders were carried upon the great glaciers, and left here as the ice sheet melted with climatic change, retreating north and land appeared. 

We had a fun day at the Mt Washington Cog Railway. The main attraction at any railroad are its powerful locomotives. The Cog operates a fleet of 7 Biodiesel Workhorses. They continue to run a pair of original, 1875 and 1908, coal-fired Steam Engines. 

I booked the first train in the morning and paid $188 for both of us. We rode the steam powered train to the summit and had to make a stop halfway up to fill with water. Very steep, average grade of 25% then going up to 38% grade. We crawled up the mountain at about 2 mph. 

It was pretty cold and windy at the summit but the skies were clear and we had very good views. We were given one hour to walk around and check out the museum and get something warm to drink. Coming down the mountain was pretty scary. The brakes are controlled by a brake person manually. Everyone was quiet on the way down. 

A very good experience for us, we really enjoyed ourselves. 

The Kancamagus Highway is New England's most superb scenic drive. Particularly during fall foliage season. 

On a peak day, more than 4,000 vehicles traverse at least a portion of the famous route. We are a little early for fall foliage but the leaves are definitely starting to turn. 

Sabbaday Falls required a little hike to view the picturesque waterfall. This is one of the most popular spots on the Kancamagus Highway. This was my favorite spot. 

The Rocky Gorge Scenic Area required another short hike. The trail continued through the woods to Falls Pond. Very pretty area. 

At the end was a covered bridge that we could drive through. 

20 Sept     Twin Mountain, NH - Montpelier, VT     66 miles     1 hour 30 minutes

Vermont is another new state for us. We're staying one night at Bragg Farm Sugarhouse in Montpelier. This is a Harvest Host location and its a good one. 

The Bragg family has been producing Vermont Maple Syrup for 8 generations. The pure maple syrup is made the traditional way, using buckets and a wood-fired evaporator. We did a tour of the facility and sampled the different grades of maple syrup. We bought a ton of stuff.

21 Sept     Montpelier - Ferrisburgh, VT     69 miles   2 hours

We're at a Boondockers Welcome location for 4 nights in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Beautiful property, nice spot to park, quiet, and they offer electric hookup if you want. Beautiful sunsets here. 

We took a drive into Burlington and walked around the harbor. There's a nice boardwalk area so we enjoyed it. Then we took a drive up north and just cruised along and enjoyed the views. 

There's a lot of covered bridges in this area so one day we took a drive and managed to find three. 

This stay was very relaxing for us. We did some sightseeing and just enjoyed doing very little.