Monday, October 21, 2019
We are HOME! No pictures today, just driving. Thankfully the rain held off and while it was cloudy most of the drive there were times of sun. We got home about 4:30 and started the unpacking process and we will have lots to do in the next few days: clothes to wash, groceries to buy, and yard work to catch up on - not to mention all the picture editing I have to do. I also plan to do a "Tips" page for anyone who is thinking about a fall trip to New England and I will update the itinerary with things that we actually did and things we left out due to weather, time, or expense. I have also taken off the password since we are now home. Miles Driven Today: 468.5. Total Miles For the Trip: 5,082.1
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Sunday, October 20, 2019
I didn’t take a single picture today. We woke to cloudy skies and rain predicted to begin in about an hour. We decided not to try to hike to Bish Bash Falls since it would mean hiking in the rain and spending more miles driving in the rain. The rain started about an hour, light at first. It rained most of the rest of the day. It was only heavy one time for a short period, just constant light rain. We stopped in Port Jervis, NJ for gas thinking we were in Pennsylvania and learned that in New Jersey you can’t pump your own gas; it must be pumped by an attendant. We stopped for lunch at a Panera in a suburb north of Scranton. We made it to our hotel right off of I-81 in Chambersburg, PA. We had dinner from the Yeti in our room. This is our last night to spend in a hotel, YEAH! Miles Driven Today: 348.6 Total Miles Driven To Date: 4,614.9 Saturday, October 19, 2019 Today was a beautiful clear blue sky day. We began by going back to the three covered bridges in Bennington since when I took them at the beginning of the trip the sky was cloudy. We went to First Congregational church of Bennington where Robert Frost was buried. Close by at the top of the hill was the Bennington Battle Monument. Since it was now 10:00 we drove to the Robert Frost Stone House and grounds which opened at 10:00. This is the house where he wrote his famous poem, “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening.”
This was our last stop in Vermont as we headed south toward Massachusetts. We drove up the Mount Greylock auto road to the top of Mount Greylock, the tallest mountain in Massachusetts at a little over 3, 400 feet tall. We got gas at the near by gas station and headed on to Lenox, MA where we toured “The Mount, home of Edith Warton.” The house and grounds were beautiful. Since we still had about and hour and a half of daylight we went to Wahconah Falls State Park. We only needed to walk about 5 minutes from the car to see these beautiful falls. We headed on to our motel in Great Barrington and had a meal at the restaurant next door since we skipped lunch to get everything in. Tomorrow we will have cloudy skies again and we will stop at one more waterfall and then begin the interstate drive home. Miles Driven Today. 123.9 Total Miles Driven So Far: 4,266.2 Friday, October 18, 2019 We started the day with a little bit of blue sky through the clouds and very cold wind. We went to Quechee Gorge, which was very close to our hotel. It was hard to see the gorge from the trail but you could see it some from the bridge. We got gas in Quechee and went back to get a picture of the covered bridge and waterfall at the Simon Pierce Glass Blowing Factory. We headed to Woodstock and stopped at the Taftsville Covered Bridge where we saw a rainbow over the mountains. We stopped at the Woodstock Town Square and saw the Woodstock Middle Covered Bridge. We did an uphill walk on the carriage road at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Site.
We drove on Highway 4 on to Highway 100A and the town of Plymouth where we visited the Calvin Coleridge Birthplace State Historic Site. We drove back on Scenic 100 and stopped at a few of the waysides along the small lakes that run beside the highway. In Weston the power was restored and we were able to see the Vermont Country Store and had lunch there. We continued our drive on Highway 100 and then drove through Bromely to get to Highway 7 and our hotel in Bennington. We are staying at the Hardwood Hill motel in a cure little cottage where we can see the Bennington Battle Monument. We planned our last day of touring tomorrow before we begin the drive back home on Sunday Miles Driven Today: 99.8 Total Miles Driven To Date: 4,142.2 Thursday, October 17, 2019 We made it through the heavy winds last night but there is still a lot of rain. There are floods and a lot of trees down in the region. We decided to keep to our original plan but leave out all of the outdoor stops. I was very grateful that I found the winter coat in Acadia. I really needed it today as it was in the 40’s with wind blowing at 15 to 20 miles per hour. Our first planned stop was the Country Store in Weston but it was closed because there was no power in the area. Even though it was raining and still very windy it was a beautiful drive. While we won’t have rain and much less wind tomorrow we will still have cloudy skies. We will go back the way the came and not do the original way to Bennington that I had planned so we can make some stops on this famous highway.
We made it to Quechee about 1:00 and decided to have lunch at the Simon Pierce Glass Blowing Factory. It was a beautiful setting overlooking the river and the covered bridge. This was a very special and expensive meal that we greatly enjoyed. We drove on to our hotel and settled in for the day. We will have our microwave soup since there is a microwave in the hotel. Miles Driven Today: 129.7 Total Miles Driven So Far: 4.024.4 Wednesday, October 16, 2019 The sky was partly cloudy when we left Portsmouth We headed toward Rye and Rye Harbor, our last view of the ocean. We drove through Manchester and stopped in Hampton for gas. Our next stop was the Peterborough, the town that Thornton Wilder used when he wrote Our Town. Our next stop was Jaffrey Center where we stopped at the Old Meeting House and Willa Cather’s grave. We drove to Cathedral of the Pines. This is a chapel for all religions that honors military heroes. It has great views of Mt. Monadnock even in the cloudy skies. We drove on toward Keene and drove up the road to the Mt. Monadnock State Park, but decided not to go in since there is only one hike up the mountain.
We drove through Keene and to the Chesterfield Gorge State Wayside Park. We did a 1 mile hike through the gorge. The skies were cloudy but there was no rain. After the hike we headed back to Keene and checked into our hotel. Since we only had a granola bar for lunch we decided to eat at a restaurant. We chose a Chinese restaurant in downtown Keene which meant braving the central square traffic circle with heavy traffic. On the way back to the motel the rain started from the Nor’easter which is passing through the area tonight. Since we had several hikes and outside things planned for tomorrow we are considering changing our plans and going a different route to Queche that involved some indoor activities. Miles Driven Today: 151.1 Total Miles Driven To Date: 3,912.7 Tuesday, October 15, 2019 We began the day with a sunrise shoot at Portland Head Lighthouse. While there I saw and spoke to Tony Northup, the author of one of the first photography books that I used to learn about photography and still occasionally watch his YouTube channel. We returned to the hotel to get ready for the day, have breakfast, and pack up. We got gas at the station next to our hotel. We went to Two Lights State Park to see the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse. We tried to find the Audubon Preserve to see the Wood Island Lighthouse, but the road has now become a private road so we were unsuccessful. Our next stop was Kennebunkport where we saw the Bush Compound and drove through the small tourist town. The Nubble Lighthouse in York was our next stop.We had hoped to have our picnic lunch there but there were no picnic tables so we stopped at a small shopping center and had our sandwiches and then at nice desert at the bakery in the shopping center. This was our last stop in Maine.
In Portsmouth we went to Prescot Park to see the waterfront. Our next stop was in Newcastle Island at the Great Common. Since the Fort Constitution Historic Site was closed for construction, we were able to view the Portsmouth Head Lighthouse. It has been a beautiful clear blue sky day and we are glad that we changed our original schedule and stayed in Portsmouth instead of trying to drive to Keene. Miles Driven Today: 116.8 Total Miles Driven To Date: 3,761.6 Monday, October 14, 2019 We woke up to a foggy harbor and were glad that we did sunrise yesterday. We packed up and headed to Bailey’s Island and the Giant Stairs Trail in the town of Harpswell. It was a nice walk along the rugged shore. The skies were mostly cloudy with just a bit of blue every once and awhile.On the way to the island we crossed over on the Cribstone bridge. It is on the national register of historic places. It is a very unusual bridge built with stacked slabs of granite.
Our next stop was Brunswick, Maine, the home of Bowdoin College. We walked by the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, which was closed for the holiday. We also saw Uncle Tom's church, the church that the Stowe's attended while Harriet was writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. We walked a short way on Maine Street and then had lunch at Seadogs Restaurant and Pub that overlooks the Androscroggin River. We drove from Brunswick to South Portland and checked in to our hotel. We decided to go straight to downtown Portland since it was 3:00 and the museums closed at 4:30. We made it to the Portland Observatory Museum but didn’t make it to any of the other museums. We did drive on Congress Street and down to the waterfront. We stopped at Bug Light Park and saw one of the three lighthouses in Portland. We drove to Portland Head Light but when we saw that you had to pay for 2 hours of parking no matter how long you stayed and it was sunset and almost time to close we decided to not stay. We will come here tomorrow for sunrise. Miles Driven Today: 119.1 Total Miles Driven To Date: 3,644.7 Sunday, October 13, 2019 We got up early and walked down a short distance to the 1,000 foot footbridge that cross the end of the bay. After we had breakfast we went to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful. We had a picnic lunch in the car. Our next stop was the Hendricks Head Lighthouse. This one is on private property but there was a small public beach that provided a partial view of the lighthouse. The next lighthouse we had to do a little hunting. We found the Ocean Path trail in Boothbay, but there was a wedding that filled the parking lot and all along the road with cars. We were able to find a place and were able to walk on the short trail and see the Ram Island Lighthouse. We drove on around the point, which was very picturesque. Our next stop was the grocery store where we got a salad kit for supper and resupplied our food. We headed back to our hotel for supper and sunset. The sky was truly beautiful tonight and this was my first sunset in a harbor. I did a few night shots of the harbor.
Miles Driven Today: 32.6 Total Miles To Date: 3,525.6 Saturday, October 12, 2019 We took our time getting ready this morning and enjoyed our breakfast at the motel. After packing up we went back to see the harbor in Camden. We found Megunticook Falls, which is the most unusual setting for a waterfall. These waterfalls enter into the harbor in downtown Camden, surrounded by buildings and a park. Many of the big sail boats in the harbor were covered for winter. We drove to Rockland to see the Farmington Art Museum. Many 20th century American artists lived in and around Rockland. This museum had many of the Wythes' (all of them) paintings and other American impressionist painters. After visiting the museum we went down to the harbor. It was not raining exactly but mist quickly covered my glasses. We had lunch at the Subway.
Since the weather wasn’t improving we decided to do the other inside activity that we had planned for the trip, a visit to the L. L. Bean headquarters and outlet in Freeport. We stopped in Waldoboro for gas. I made several purchases for myself and others. After spending a little time looking for our car in the very large parking lot, we headed back up the coast to our motel in Boothbay. It is another budget hotel, but it is right on the harbor. We will be here for 2 nights and the weather should improve tomorrow to partly cloudy. Miles Driven Today: 118.4 Total Miles To Date: 3,493.0 |
Daily Jouranl
Daily updates on our trip beginning with the most recent day. ArchivesCategories |