Day 25 - North Conway, NEW HAMPSHIRE # 2

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Well here is another blog update for your enjoyment. I’ve done what is called a quiet publish of the blog so if you’ve not read anything since I published Day 24 a while back, then go and have a read and keep posting your comments as you read them if you find anything interesting or have any questions as they are always great to read and sometimes funny too ! So as of today you can keep reading through until Blog Day # 30.



Big sleep after a big day and we did not get up until after 8 and had a quick breakfast of bran cereal, strawberry yoghurt and some cream cheese on toast and we hit the road around 9am. Today it is cold around 4 degrees and cloudy with maximum expected of around 12.



We headed north past downtown North Conway and first stop was an unusual place where an old covered bridge on the side of the road next to a hotel had been converted into a gift shop. I spotted a New Hampshire licence plate but it said “Live Free Until You Die” which is the state motto so hopefully I can find a better version somewhere. Kerry bought a special moose coffee mug and we hope that is a good sign as we are in Moose country so eyes are peeled.



We had a little drizzle as we made a couple of stops for photos and we also stopped at the lookout for the majestic Mount Washington Hotel but the Mountain behind the hotel was hidden by low clouds. It actually looked like there was some snow on the higher elevations here. The odd shower soon cleared away and a bit of blue sky appeared. It is amazing that as soon as some light hits the trees the colours just pop so brightly.



We headed towards a town called Littleton where we made a beeline for its only diner which opened in 1930 so has lots of history and character and found the last car park space in a nearby car parking lot and even at midday we had to wait around 15 minutes but scored our favourite spot being a booth seat in the corner where we can focus on people watching which is one of our favourite activities !



The menu choice was amazing but I went for their famous # 3 meal called Top Of The Morning (Corned Beef Hash and eggs) and a side of Bakes Beans and Kerry ordered a Clam Chowder Bowl. The food was great but the service was the worst we have had. The coffee was not even served for about 20 minutes and until I asked her as a follow up when she said “sorry I forgot”.



After exploring a couple of shops we headed south on this loop road to the town of Lincoln as we were doing this drive in an anticlockwise direction (just as the american’s drive around their roundabouts) and it was not too long before we ran into traffic on i95 and google maps told me to take an exit to save time so I did what I was told however it then told me to go straight back onto the i95 on ramp again which slowed us down by about 30 minutes and we were back in the same traffic jam again but this was nothing with what would follow later !



We stopped for a nature break at the Franconia Notch park entrance and were lucky to get a car park space near the entrance and there was signs saying “no more tours today”. Entry was by prior booking only and when I looked later this might have been a good thing to have seen !



Soon we were back on the road and arrived in Lincoln around 3.45 pm and I found my New Hampshire licence plate for only $10- so I was very happy. The receipt said we left at 3.57 pm and next was a drive on the world famous Kancamangus Highway to complete the road loop back to North Conway which is one of best scenic byways in USA and goes for about 60km and should take an hour or so.



As soon as we left Lincoln the traffic started building up. We soon got bored as we were moving at a snail pace and traffic going the other way was even worse on this single lane highway. Kerry started a game of eye spy with the Letter L and after coming up with Leaf Peeping, Lexus and the car we were following (conveniently for this game I referred to it as an “Lectric Tesla”) ! Well Kerry ended the eye spy game then and there but the traffic was getting worse and we would literally not be moving for 5 minutes and then move around 100 feet and stop again so we decided to play the “find the licence plate” game which we used to do when the kids once travelled with us to try and see how many different states car licence plates we can tick off. This is usually best done in a big tourist car park (like Disneyland or Gracelands) but we were going so slow (sometimes not moving at all) hence it was easy to watch the cars going by. In fact we were going so slow I realised after a few minutes that for some cars that did not have a licence plate at the front of the car I could look at the rear licence plate as it drove by as there was no safety issue when driving so slow.



I recall looking at google maps at one point and it said 51 km to go and it took what felt like 20 minutes to drive 1 km. This road goes across a mountain pass with a few spots to pull out and stop for photos but we ain’t doing that. It was kind of funny watching cars pullover in a hurry anywhere they could find and seeing guys run into the trees to relieve themselves or take the kiddies our for a wee (I hope that was what they were doing ?) It seemed like the journey was going to take us until 9pm to get back to North Conway instead of the 5pm we had thought when we left Lincoln ! And it was drizzle rain with low clouds so the view was nothing spectacular either (considering what we have seen over the last 4-5 days anyway).



However as soon as we passed the summit the traffic disappeared in an instant just around sunset time and initially I strangely reacted with some disappointment as I was now unable to read the licence plates as we were going too fast to read them ? I had sighted 23 different states’ licence plates and was so close to getting to the half way mark of 24 states. There was 1 all the way from California another from distant Oregon and a few flashy Mercs from Florida but without doubt the most frequent with around 90% were cars from Massachusetts. Oh by the way in this game I chose to ignore 2 of the states being Hawaii and Alaska so 48 states in total was what we were looking for and hence half way is 24. Rationale being that in my calculations it would take a super human effort (or a lot of money) to bring a car here to the mainland from those 2 states.



We eventually got back to our room by 6.30pm so it took 2.5 hours to cross the Kancamangus Highway and we did a quick FaceTime with Elise before checking out the Christmas Shoppe down the road which was a complete waste of time. No need for dinner so just finishing off the cheese and crackers and Rose we bought at Newport a while ago. It was shame the traffic was so bad as this road was meant to be a super highlight but the weather was quite dreary and the views on the whole day of driving are just so amazing anyway no matter where you go so all is good.



A little footnote is that when we we were at Littleton for lunch earlier today I realised we were only a short distance (maybe 20 minutes away) from Vermont but alas tomorrow we will head west to cross the state line and officially tick off visiting our 50th state of the USA.

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Photos

Yes ! A New Hampshire licence plate.
However it could do without the”Or Die” reference.

Comments

[Amy]

Scenery
Just stunning photos guys! The colours are just amazing! and all good in the hood at home - keep travelling - nothing to see here! oh but the sun has finally arrived yesterday - with the heat and humidity !!