A Visit to Concord and Manchester New Hampshire…

Our drive from Vermont into Hew Hampshire went without a hitch which is just the way we like it. When driving in the northeast on the smaller state routes we never know for sure what we'll encounter. We meticulously check for low bridges, drive our route using google earth and when in any small town we always use the middle lane if available because many of these towns are notorious for having low branches and/or leaning telephones poles on mostly narrow roads.

Speaking of narrow… when we pulled into our next park at Saddleback Campground we encountered the truly narrow. As we pulled up a steep dirt entry road we were positioned into a parking spot by the owner for check-in. Afterwards he waved me to pull forward in between two buildings on each side of the dirt road leading to our assigned site. I mean I had no more than 6 inches of clearance on each side… if that!!! Whew, at least the exit won't pass back that way.

After squeezing through with both mirrors intact we pulled into our site for the next several days. Thankfully our site was a very easy pull through with our porch facing over the small pond in the campground. This is a cozy campground where all of the sites surround a pond. Situated in the middle of the woods with leaves beginning to change overlooking the pond made this a nice stay despite the big squeeze coming in the park.

We added a day as the weather was predicting rain for the most of our planned three day stay. We were able to sneak out for a few excursions between rain events. One excursion took us over to Concord New Hampshire to explore the small town which is home to the state’s capitol. Again the capitol building was closed so we were not able to tour inside but it was quite scenic even though it is the smallest capitol building we remember seeing. We did like the town of Concord as it was clean and pristine though we found it odd that most of the buildings all looked alike.

Another day we slipped over to the city of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city. Parking was inexpensive at 75 cents an hour allowing us to take plenty of time for an urban hike around town and around a small lake in one of the town’s parks . Manchester is a very walkable city and we stopped in at a local tavern for lunch and a brew. The Thirsty Moose Taphouse was a lucky stop for us as it has a great lunch happy hour on Tuesday with half priced appetizers and buck off beers. We opted for some local favorites called Moose Rolls and Naughty Tots. Both were a splurge for us as they are both fried foods which we don’t often eat but every now and then a little naughtiness adds some fun to the day…

The Moose Rolls were coleslaw and BBQ pulled pork wrapped up in a crispy egg roll shell, served with a tangy soy BBQ dipping sauce. The Naughty Tots were golden fried Cajun crusted parmesan tots served with a spicy sausage, green chili & tomato queso sauce with a hint of a flavorful IPA. Both were very tasty and decadent. The food was a real road treat!

We also enjoyed chatting with the bartender who told of us a story about one day when the town was snowed in during a raging Winter Storm and they were the only place in town open. Making the day interesting was the fact that they also decided to serve dollar Stella Beer all that day. She said it was a very crazy day and super busy! Too funny…

We have one more day in Northwood, NH then it is off to Maine for awhile as we keep an eye on Irma watching where it will eventually end up and deciding how it will affect our travel plans....…

NOTE: We Move on over to Maine today as we have a planned stop in Saco for a few nights and then over to the Hampton Beach area of New Hampshire while still keeping an eye on  Hurricane Irma’s path…