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…

Visiting Cabot, Ben and Jerry’s and Montpelier VT…

Morning came and our next planned stop would be in Barre, Vermont. After turning off  Interstate 89 our route took us for a climb on a pretty steep hill (it was not marked but we think it was 10% grade or more!). Atop the hill is Lazy Lions Campgrounds, our home for the Labor Day weekend. It is a cozy, well-appointed park. Although their rate is more than I like to spend we were happy to find availability to hide out for the busy holiday.

We knew some weather was coming in and it was going to be chilly a few nights then raining on Sunday so Saturday we headed out for a long (over 100 mile) loop drive to cram in all things we wanted to see and do in the area in one day. Then we could simply sit around on the rainy Sunday and not feel as if we were missing anything.

Our first stop on Saturday was the Hope Cemetery. We don't often visit cemeteries but we read that some of the headstones are quite unique. Descriptive words won't be needed as the photos best illustrate the uniqueness.

The next stop was a bit further down the road as we drove to Cabot, VT to visit the Cabot Cheese Factory. This is the east coast’s version of Tillamook out west in Oregon. There were lots and lots of cheese samples to try with our favorites being the Habanero Cheese and the Orne Meadows Cheddar, so of course we bought one of each to take with us.

After Cabot we continued on our loop through the scenic hills of Vermont. There were lots of trees giving us sneak previews of the Fall colors to come as some trees are already bright red while others were just beginning to change. We passed by an old railroad track covered bridge we had to stop at to admire and photograph as we love seeing the old covered bridges in this state.

As we approached the ski basin between Burlington and Montpelier we entered Smuggler’s Gap. This is notorious for eating semi trucks even though there are ample signs warning them not to take this road. There is about a five stretch that is very narrow with boulders on each side and tight turns. Compound that with the loads of cars parked alongside the road on Labor Day weekend it was even tough for us to get through it in our CRV. Very scenic though…

As we approached Montpelier, Vermont’s state capitol, we stopped at the famed Ben and Jerry’s for a tour. We stood in line for a bit but since the line was immensely long we opted to buy a pint from the gift shop. As we tried to eat it we found it was too frozen and needed to soften a bit so we left and headed on into the city of Montpelier.

We had hoped to tour the State’s Capitol building but it was closed for the holiday so we did the second best thing. We sat on the capitol steps to eat our Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Butter Chocolate fudge ice cream. What a perfect ending to our perfect day in Vermont!

NOTE: With Labor Day behind us we moved on over to Northwood New Hampshire and then possibly into Maine. Plans will be made now based on where Hurricane Irma decides to cause havoc…