Day 15: Falling into Fall

Today's journey would take us far into the Appalachian Mountains as we made our journey from North Conway to Ludlow. While we would spend most of the day in New Hampshire today, by day's end we would add another state, ending up in Vermont. We had been warned again to layer the clothing as we would be going up and down the mountains and that we did...

Leaving the hotel, we went up Sugar Hill Road. On this less busy mountain road we made several stops to look across at the Presidential ranges from the other direction, and again Mt Washington could be seen all the way to the top.

There were a couple of lovely spots here as we stopped by the side of the road. We went to a place called "the Flume" and while we were not allowed to walk all the way up because there was not time on the tour, we did get to wander around near the visitor centre seeing more lovely colour. Our final stop in this area was at a bridge, named for one of the revolutionary generals. Here we got another lovely look at some colour and Liz decided to play in the fall leaves. The photos are not so good, but the idea was fun!

Michael had told us that today we would be grazing, and that there was no set lunch and morning tea stops. So that meant that when we arrived in Bath New Hampshire, a tiny little town, it was time to buy a sandwich to graze on as it would be our last opportunity for a while. So we went into the America's oldest continuously operated General Store, which has existed since the late 1700's. They had organised sandwiches for purchase outside so that the bus people could get their sandwiches more easily... having said that, as there were three other buses also in Bath at one stage, I don't think that there were actually any non-bus tourists. Still, it was a lovely little place, and with sandwiches and drinks in hand we headed down to the river to the Covered Bridge. Chris is really taken with these. We rode under one in the mini bus on our day in the Amish country, but this one was something else. It had a dedicated part for pedestrians to walk on and only one car was allowed across the bridge at at time. We saw several cross in the time we were there. Next we went up to the Congregational Church. Now that was an experience. Some of our fellow tourists were there playing the pump organ!! It is a beautiful old wooden church with pressed metal walls and pressed metal ceilings. They had a little women's stall at the front and we bought a piece of Pumpkin Pie which became the envy of many on the bus. The little old lady at the church said that they had had a Turkey Dinner at the Church the previous night and the Pumpkin Pie and Apple Pie that they had cut into segments and packaged, were the left overs from the previous night. I think that is about as authentic as you get. 

Back on the bus and time for a little nap as we wound our way down the Connecticut River valley, New Hampshire side on our way to Hanover for a stop in the Ivy League town that is home to Dartmouth University. Michael reckons that the fees at Dartmouth are "cheap" as Ivy League colleges go, starting at about $45,000 per annum! Ouch! At any rate, Hanover is a pretty little town, it is really a College town, and you can tell that the demographic is young. It would be a lovely place to go to uni in though I think. The buildings are beautiful and the village green is very pretty.

Another bus ride took us across the Connecticut River and into another US state, this time the Green mountain state of Vermont. It appears as though for a time Vermont was actually an independent country rather than a part of the Union, because the New Yorkers were hostile to the fact that the Vermont people would not pay them tax on the land after the American Revolution. All was eventually forgiven in the 1790's but it shows the lack of unity in the United States in those early days. Our afternoon  stop was at the Billings Farm which is a working recreation of an 1890's farm started by the Billings and Rockefeller families... There is that name again. We toured the farmhouse which was actually the home of the farm manager. On its lower level it had a state of the art butter churn that could make about 50 pounds of butter at a time and it was powered by water. Amazing for all those years ago. But what was even more surprising than that was that in the bathroom there was an indoor toilet and a heated bath! Guess it is a good example of money being able to buy an awful lot. We then went through a display of farming techniques and a display of every imaginable type of pumpkin.

The town of Woodstock  was only a short walk from the farm and so, rather than wait for the bus, quite a few of the party walked down into the town, past beautiful gift shops, to discover another covered bridge and then to sit in the autumn sun in the park and really experience FALL.. all around us the autumn leaves were literally drifting slowly to the ground. In a few days this magical display of colour will be gone for another year.  We even saw acorns up close, falling to the ground and Shirley showed us a photo she had taken of a chipmunk eating an acorn.... Chip and Dale eat your heart out. 

WE climbed higher into the mountains after Woodstock before descending just a little to Ludlow. Just out of Ludlow is out accommodation for the night , the Jackson Gore Inn's Okemo Mountain Resort. Now when I say mountain resort, I MEAN mountain resort. There is a ski lift almost right outside our room and it is a massive hotel which obviously does exceptionally well in the ski season. A little like staying in Perisher on steroids.  Tonight we shared a buffet dinner with our travelling companions before heading back up here to finish off the blog. So hopefully tonight good readers, you are reading today's news as we have finally caught up.