October 14 Anywhere but the Kancamagus
We headed northeast on Monday, Columbus Day. All the roads were going to be crowded, but particularly the Kancamagus Highway, the gold standard of fall foliage. We had to stop to photograph the “Pumpkin People”. It’s an area thing: set up little scenarios with pumpkin figures.
We wound up at Crawford Notch SP. We went for a relatively short walk along the Saco River Trail.
Ripley Falls was our next walk. It was very pretty up there with lots of people enjoying the scenery.
We drove back to our motel and collected all our dirty clothes – it was laundry day. We read our books outside the laundry on a sunny fall afternoon. We celebrated the clean jeans with dinner at Deacon Street and called it a night.
October 15 The Kancamagus and problems
Having no more excuses, this was our day to travel the 30 miles of the Kancamagus Highway. But first, we stopped at the laundry to retrieve our laundry bags that I left there.
We got information on a few hikes we could do and began the drive down Highway 112. It runs along the Swift River and it has wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. Everyone visiting the area drives it. We figured it would be a lot less busy on a regular work day and it was, but that is not to say it wasn’t very busy. The capacious parking lots were almost full most of the time.
At one of the stops, Dave realized his credit card was missing and that he must have left it in the restaurant last night. He couldn’t call because there was no phone reception so that would wait until later.
At Lower Falls, I was rock hopping, photographing leaves in the dark pools of water. I was changing from my regular lens to my long lens when I dropped the lens cap into the water. I don’t know how I did it, but then I dropped my lens into the water. I stood there for a moment, horrified, and then scrambled down the rocks to retrieve them. The lens was full of water and is probably ruined. Depressing. The remainder of my photography will be done with a long lens or with Dave’s borrowed lens.
We reached Sabbaday Falls and hiked the quarter-mile up to the falls. A lot of the red maple leaves are now on the ground but all the yellows and golds were lovely. The falls runs through a narrow flume and is fun to play with photographically.
It was around 3 p.m. and I was ready for hot coffee and a cookie. We traveled into the pretty town of Lincoln, got a couple of cookies and sat by Pemigewasett River, enjoying the sunny afternoon. Dave called the restaurant and they did have his credit card so that was a relief. My chiropractor called and we discussed a bill which felt strange doing while on the other side of the country.
We started to head east on the Kancamagus. Dave remembered that we had camped at the Hancock Campground in 2008 and we drove in there to take a look at the river that runs next to it. The sun had just gone down behind the mountain but it was still beautiful.
We finally stopped at Lincoln Woods to walk along the Pemigewasett but there wasn’t much light left.
The drive home was lovely as the light got lower and the colors of the foliage softened. I was hankering for Italian food and we found a great little place in Conway with a slide show of Italy running on the walls.
We finally got back to the motel, gathered everything from the car, and got it all repacked into our suitcases. Tomorrow, we head back to Boston and Thursday we head for New York.
October 16-17 Traveling
We hit the road pretty early and sailed south on NH-16, stopping only to photograph Lake Chocorua. We eventually got back onto I-95, stopping for lunch at a Chili’s Restaurant. One remarkable thing is how friendly all the people are in New England, always taking time to talk. It’s a nice change from everywhere else, including our home town.
We arrived at the Wakefield Lakeside Inn to find some cops in the lobby talking to a group of people. It didn’t seem tense or an emergency. The hotel is in the back of a business park . It is unprepossessing, to say the least. Actually it looked like a convalescent hospital. The lobby didn’t help much. The room was fine but our view of the lake was impeded by some type of smudge on the outside. It was pretty gray and cloudy by then. Weather forecasters were predicting a “bomb cyclone” to hit the Noretheast, with extra heavy wind and rain. We were hitting the sweet spot, arriving in Wakefield before it hit and heading south as it was heading north.
After dumping the baggage in the room, we returned the car to Boston Airport. That process went smoothly. Then we made our first call to Lyft to get a ride back to the hotel. It worked perfectly.
After a quiet night of watching the Trump Administration imploding, we slept well and arose early. Another Lyft ride to the Amtrak South Station in Boston took a while because of heavy traffic. The winds and rain had knocked out thousands of homes and businesses and many schools were closed. But we got to the station with plenty of time for coffee and croissants.
The 4 hour train ride was pretty comfy. We watched the wind blowing trees and lakes from the comfort of our seats. The weather was unpleasant when we disembarked at Penn Station in Manhattan. We got in line for one of the new (to us), clean little yellow taxi-vans and marveled at how much worse NYC traffic is compared to San Francisco.
We were welcomed to the Hilton (courtesy of our friend, Michael) and settled into a luxurious, roomy suite. After resting a while, we visited the lounge and dined on crudities, pita bread, guacamole, chicken wings with a few glasses of chardonnay. Bliss! And we didn’t need to leave the hotel.
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