Advertisement
Published: June 21st 2009
Lancaster Covered Bridge
The Lancaster Covered Bridge in New Hampshire.Today is our day to tour the Northern and part of the Central regions of the White Mountains. First, we headed up to Lancaster to check out the Fuller’s Sugarhouse and their real maple syrup. Lancaster was a nice small town and Fuller’s had a great assortment of maple syrups and products. We ended up buying a larger jug of medium amber for our girls and smaller jugs of light amber and Grade B for us. Soon after we left Lancaster on our way to see the Mt. Washington Cog Railway, we noticed a car stopped on the right side of the road with what appeared to be 3 ladies. Figuring at first that they had car trouble, I slowed down and realized that they were stopped to photograph the Lancaster covered bridge just across the road that I’d failed to notice before. After grabbing a couple of photos of the bridge, we continued down Route3 to Route 302 and the Cog Railway. The cog railway has been around since the later 1800s, taking passengers/tourists up to the top of Mount Washington. They still use these tiny little nose-down steam locomotives to push a
Cog Railway locomotives and passenger car
One of the Cog Railway locomotives and passenger car getting into position for a run up Mount Washington. passenger car up the STEEP inclined rail, over 6,200 feet up to the top, taking about three hours with a 20-minute stop at the summit. After watching one going up and another coming down, we decided we weren’t all that interested in doing it, especially at $59 each! That’s a lot of money to be terrified for almost three hours!
We did take some good photos and a bit of video though, and I got another flattened penny. We had originally considered doing the Mount Washington Auto Road, but it just seemed a bit silly to pay $27 to drive your own car up and back down again. I wasn’t at all sorry for not doing the drive, if the piece of road climbing steeply along the cliff was part of that trip. Besides, it would have been an extra hour to drive around to the other side of Mount Washington. On our way to Attitash to try their alpine slide, we caught a glimpse of the famous Mount Washing ton Hotel and had to stop, turn around, go back and take some photos. This is the hotel that inspired the movie “The Shining” and was the subject of Cog Railway Engine number 9
Engine number 9 on its way up the track. at least one episode of Ghost Hunters. What an awesome sight, even from the highway! By this time it was getting to be 2pm and we still hadn’t eaten lunch, so we bypassed Attitash to find a place to eat. With growling stomachs, the DQ in Bartlett looked pretty good. The food wasn’t that great, but it filled our tanks for the return to Attitash. We’d both done an alpine slide before, but this one was supposed to be a lot longer, at almost a mile, so we had to try it just once. Tickets were $15 for one run or $30 for a half day. Manoli went up first so I could take a video of her, plus you can bring cameras, purses or backpacks on the ride, so we would have had to store them in a locker anyways. She rode the chair lift up with a couple of young girls so she’d have someone to keep her company and I waited below for her .. more rapid return. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later her she came, with a big grin on her face. Next, it was my turn. I rode the lift up with an older Cog Railway's First Engine
J.C. posing in front of the first engine they used back in the late 1800s. man and his two teenage sons and we chatted pleasantly all the way up. The ride down was quite harrowing, even with the brake slightly on quite often! I think though that it is a pretty safe ride as long as you don’t get to crazy and slow down when the signs tell you to. I got a little brave on the third section that was posted slow and the left front corner of my sled got very close to the edge of the trough! After Attitash, we made our way to Conway to see the Conway Scenic Railroad. Manoli was a bit surprised at how many people stopped by the side of the road just to watch or film the train come by. Along the way, we stopped briefly at the Covered Bridge Gift Shop in Barlett. A nice gift shop, but the covered bridge was the main attraction. We finally made it to Conway and the Conway Scenic Railroad. It was well after 4pm by this time and I think the last train was pulling out as we pulled in, but I did get another flattened penny. There are three different trips that they make, plus the Chocorua Cog Railway Engine number 2
Engine number 2 coming down the last incline to the station. Dinner Train, and the prices seemed quite reasonable. After Conway, we took the scenic Route 112, or the Kancamagus Highway back to I-93 then up to our KOA near Littleton in time to rest a bit before the Saturday Night Ice Cream Social. We shared a sundae, then went to the local Applebees for something light. We ended up getting their trio of appetizers special for $11.99 and had Spinach and Artichoke Dip with tortilla chips, Spicy Fried Shrimp, and Sirloin Tower Wrap. All three were excellent and we both ended up with happy, full tummies. Tomorrow we leave the Littleton/Lisbon KOA en route to the Herkimer KOA in Herkimer New York to mine for Herkimer Diamonds on Monday. If you can’t wait for the next installment to find out what Herkimer Diamonds are, look it up on the internet.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 15; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0402s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
tanyason
non-member comment
sweet
awesome that ya'll saw that hotel from the shining....spoooky though. must have been a long episode for the ghost hunters...glad ya'll got maple syrup- love it! alpine slide - I remember that! So much fun...way to be brave mamasita! well, hope you got my email....HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!! Love you and be thinking about what special meal you would like!! by the way, unless you'd rather go out. love you guys! peace