Nan and Bear on the Road in Maine

Our first stop in Maine was a home that Robert Frost the poet used. There is still a resident poet here so you can't go in the house.

The house is small, but great for a resident poet to stimulate his mind for writing poems.

A path was there for a self guided tour, some of Frost's poetry was displayed on post for you to enjoy, we read them and then picked rasberries to enjoy as a morning snack.

There are flowers there to enjoy. Saw a group of turkeys but wasn't fast enough with my camera to catch them.

These planes were taking off pulling a glider behind them for anyone to enjoy a glider ride. An airport was close to where we were.

Here is a glider being pulled along. Want to go for a ride?

We are still in a very mountainous area. I am still in awe of the beauty of the mountains.

We stopped in a visitor's center and this old car was there. You see a lot oof old cars on the road here.

Stopped at a rest area to have lunch. Found this sign about Benedict Arnold. Rapids on this river were large and he managed to get his boats through.

Here is a statue of Paul Bunyan. Not sure he was ever here but he is their hero.

This is a resevoir that has signs that it can fill rapidly. It takes the stream run offs from the surrounding mountains.

Here is a great restaurant for lobster. Of course they explained that Lobster pound meant they were not a restaurant but sold lobster by the pound. You could eat your buy there, take it home live or they would cook it and you could take it home.

Here I am hungry and ready for my first Maine Lobster. This is in Bar Harbor Maine. All the education I shared with you sure works up a great hunger.

Inside they opened a large cooler and said which one do you want. Picked one out and they put it up to be weighed.

Here is my soon to be lunch. After he is weighed, he is then put into a mesh bag with a number on it and you are given a ticket with that same number. You will get what you paid for.

Outside they have #10 washtubs in this brick holder with fires under each. First pot is for mussels and claims, second one is for corn, and the rest are for lobsters.

Now we are down to business. In goes the two lobsters Liz and I bought...now we wait for 20 minutes.

After 20 loooooonnnnnggggg minutes, he takes them out of the pot.

And they serve it up in a pan, with a tub of melted butter. MMMMMMM good!!

and yes, I ate the whole thing..

After lunch, we headed to the national park to begin our tour.

Nan and Bear on the Road in New Hampshire

Entering the area of New Hampshire where we would visit for a week, saw this old brick building. Asked later and found it was an old factory, probably a cabinet shop, long ago closed.

Remember the old swimming hole?  Long ago before swimming pools. Well guess some of you don't. But we had them. When it was hot you went to the hole, jumped in and cooled down. New Hampshire has the old swimming hole in use today. It is called the Eddy's. There are two pools of water and a water slide down the rocks. The rocks have cracks in them so the water appears to be flowing through the rocks. Now can it get better?

We went down and watched Liz's nephews swim, with our chairs sitting in the edge of water. It was beautiful  and cool. As you can see we had to go through a covered bridge to reach our destination. It looked like a river of rocks, but the kids enjoyed climbing on them.

A view of the covered bridge the way we saw it as we drove through to the swimming hole. The area was called swiftwater from 1819.

One of the pools of water. It then flows out and down to the next level.

A butterfly let me talk her picture.

One of the many steel bridges we have seen on the travels.

Liz is hand painting a design for her brother and sister in law on a sign for their hunt camp. It is called Pines and Needles. He hunts, she sews...neat name.

Sign is finished so now it is being installed.

It had to be just right on the side of the house.

Liz and her brother then went on a hunt for Maple Syrup, New Hampshire style.

After such a hard day, we had to go to Slicks for ice cream. mmmmm so good.

We went on a moose, bear, deer search one evening and all we found was this beautiful lake.

Our camp site at the hunting camp.  Couldn't have had a better location. Liz's sister in law prepared some great meals, which include venison burgers.

Natural stone used for a bird bath. This little dove was enjoying it.

A full moon. The kids that were there put on skits for the adults. Amazing talent. The moon came up over the mountain. What a great sight.

It is time for us to say goodbye to the hunt camp and head on to Maine.

Stay tuned, Maine is just around the next curve.

Nan and Bear on the Road to New Hampshire

It has been a bit over a week since I last posted so need to catch everyone up on where I am.

We are on the road from Vermont into New Hampshire. The scenery is always beautiful

Liz stopped in Lyme, Vermont and showed me the carriage stable where her grandfather kept his wagon when he came to town.

This is the Lyme Inn. Would love to take a peek inside and see how they decorated it.

This is the general store in Lyme. Quite a neat place. Looking for something out of the ordinary, you can probably find it here.

One of the churches. Beautiful building and quite old.

Just think they might have parked their carriages in the stalls and came here for church.

On the way out of town, saw this sign about houses on the ridge. Stopped took some pictures so you could see some of the architect.

This fine old house probably held dozens of children in its day. Playing on the lawn.

Another of the homes on the ridge, couldn't get them all, too much growth in front of the homes. Since these homes were owned by business, imagine the fine parties they held here.

A child's swing now sits idle on the front lawn, but it has been swung a million times over the years. Dreams were built here.

The old style metal bridges are still very much in use here.

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But with an old bridge you need this romantic old car for that Sunday afternoon drive across the old bridge.

Stay tuned, we will be in New Hampshire shortly.

Nan and Bear on the Road to Woodstock and the Maple Sugar.

We were passing through the little town of Woodstock, Vt. Stopped at a park and walked the dogs and took pictures.

A covered bridge was in the downtown area of Woodstock. It is a one lane bridge with a pedestrian walk and used daily.

A view of some of the downtown area of Woodstock.

Some of the buildings in the area are eyecatching.

A beautiful old home.

We then moved on to the Maple sugar farm. We crossed through this covered bridge. I hesitated until I saw the sign that said 13 feet 6 inches.

I didn't get a picture of the other side of this sign, but Liz said when the developers were buying up farms for their golf course, ski resort and Inns, this farmer refused to sell. The house is still here. Saw a bit of a garden behind him.

Looks like a neat old house. Wish we could have stopped and looked closer, but no where to pull off.

We drove down a narrow dirt road, not bad to drive on, and came to this working farm that produces cheese and maple syrup.

This is the aging cooler for the cheese. We had a tasting of the cheese and the syrup.

This is the sugar house where the maple sapp is cooked down to syrup.

On the way in, passed this sign saying how many inches of snow they had in any given year.

The record was 128 inches. That is a lot of snow.

Liz taking pictures of the beautiful countryside.

An old hand drill used 25 years ago to produce the hole for the sapp plug.

Now there is plastic hosing and these items below to collect the maple sapp.

While walking around this bird stopped and posed for me.

Plastic tubing below is connected in a series of maple trees to collect the sapp.

This tree has many holes from previous years drillings.

These are the horses that are used to pull the sliegh used to collect the sapp in Jan, Feb and Mar.

One of the son's built this chapel to be used for his wedding. By the pictures there, many weddings have taken place there.

Liz inside the chapel looking.

As we were leaving saw this baby calf.

This was a great trip today. Saw a process I had always wondered about. This was a working farm not just pictures to look at. It made the visit even better.

As we continued down the road, we came to a bridge across a gouge called Quechee Gouge. Of course we stopped to take pictures and share them with you.

It is sure deep. The water appears to be fast moving too.

On the opposite side it looked as though water had cut its way through rock.

As you can see by this sign, it is a very old bridge.

Stay tuned for further exciting adventures right here. Never know what we will stumble across.