Thursday, September 20, 2018

A new state of mind......

7:01 am - Thursday - September 20th - Shelburne, NH - 55º F, 82% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast.....cloudy, cold....with a forecast high of 66º F.

After spending 4 days in the Cabela's parking lot, and having driven many miles around the area seeing and doing stuff it was time to move along.  We've been in the state of Maine since May 12th, and while we have loved our sojourn in the 'Vacation State', it is time to see another state.....why not New Hampshire?

First things first, though......we hadn't dumped our black tank for two weeks, and it was getting pretty full.  Fortunately, Cabela's offers a free (so far) dump station for the use of its patrons, and overnight visitors.  We had thought about dumping when we first arrived, but I had determined the black tank was about 2/3's full, and we could make it for a few more days, which we did, but now it was time to dump it at last.  

We only had about 95 miles to drive Wednesday, so there was no big rush to get on the road, and no real hurry to dump our tanks.  We just took our time, not worrying about the time, and before we knew it we were ready to roll.  It was just 10 am......




Still free as of 9/19/2018

....as I have written previously, other than interstates, secondary roads in New England rarely, if ever, run in a straight line for very long.  Over the intervening 95 miles we would change highways some 6, or 7 times before arriving at our destination.  For much of our drive Wednesday we were still in Maine, only entering New Hampshire after the first 88 miles.

We had covered about 80 miles and it was time for a restroom break, and as we exited the small town of Bryant Pond we found a small roadside rest area, and exited the highway immediately for a break....


.....you never know what you will find while driving secondary roads, and this day was no different.  Apparently the last hand cranked magneto telephone system in the nation was operated in Bryant Pond until 1981 when it was sold by the proprietors to a larger phone company, and integrated into the national dial system.  I felt just a little smarter after this stop than I did before we stopped.....




......the scenery became quite mountainous as we steadily climbed into the White Mountains, and at one point we reach the lofty elevation of 1,000' before descending to 715' at our destination for the day......Shelburne, NH.....





.....at last we saw the 'Welcome to New Hampshire' sign, and knew we were just a few miles from our final destination, which I mentioned above.....Shelburne, NH.  Why Shelburne?  Easy.....it's just a few miles from Mt. Washington, which has been a bucket list item for us for quite a while.

We arrived at the RV park we had chosen for this stay early afternoon.  It was quite cloudy, and cold.  It's the first time we have been this far above sea level in months, and we are enjoying it.  The air is a little dryer, and temps a little cooler......perfect!  We arrived early enough that we could have driven up to Mt. Washington in the VW, but it was raining up there according to the weather report, so we decided to wait until Thursday hoping to get better weather then.  Mt. Washington sits at 6,288' above sea level, and boasts the highest wind velocity ever recorded by a surface weather station at 231 mph!

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1 comment:

  1. Welcome to NH. Hope you get a clear day when you go to Mt Washington. That's a white knuckle road for sure. I've driven it a couple times.
    Jim

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