RVing With a Purpose

Thursday, July 13, 2023

As planned, today we took the 8:30 Cog Wheel Train to the summit of Mount Washington.  Wow!  We were blessed with a sunny start to the day.  You get to choose the bio-diesel or the steam engine for the trip.  We chose the coal fired steam engine.  The trip to the summit is a little over 3 miles and takes about an hour in the steam engine.  It is a little less time in the Bio-deisel.  If you aren’t familiar with a cog wheel train follow this link.  You can feel/hear the cogs attaching and releasing as you go up the mountain.  The Mount Washington Cog is the first mountain climbing railway in the world.  With an average grade of 25% and some as high as 38% it’s also the second steepest in the world.  You also need to remember the horribly harsh conditions at the Summit (6,288 feet) for much of the year.  It is said that Mt Washington has the world’s worst weather.  The highest temperature ever recorded was 72 and the lowest -47.  The average temperature is 26.

It was an interesting trip up.  In about an hour you go through 3 climate zones to arrive at the top of New England.  It reminds us of the frozen tundra in Manitoba or Alaska.  When we reached the top the temperature was down to 52 with a 30 mph wind.  So thankful we read the instructions and dressed warmly.  Yes, there were people at the summit in shorts!  The wind was pretty brutal.  We spent about an hour on the summit – some out in the cold exploring and the rest inside at the museum.  The trip back down was just as interesting although slightly faster.  The brakeman really had to work to keep the train under control on the way down.  Very glad we decided to take the Cog to the summit.  We definitely recommend it.

After fixing some lunch, we left base camp and enjoyed a beautiful drive to Freeport, Maine – our fourth new state.  We spent the afternoon wandering around Freeport, visiting some of the many shops including several of the L.L.Bean Shops.  It was another great day.

2003 Summer Road Trip Day 8

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Last night we were at our second campground of the trip – Crazy Horse RV Park.  It’s locally owned by a very sweet couple.  The landscaping was very nice – lots of flowers blooming and the grass all mowed.  We were very grateful they found us a spot as we were escaping the Vermont floods.  We got our walk in this morning and then headed to a very small town, Sugar Hill.  It’s the home of Polly’s Pancake Parlor.  What a great place!  It’s family owned and was opened originally during the depression as a tearoom serving pancakes as a way to market the family’s maple products.  It’s now into the fourth generation of pancake makers.  They stone grind their own flours, except for white flour which is King Arthur flour.  Interestingly, your server cooks your pancakes and delivers them to your table while the cooks in the kitchen handle the eggs/bacon/omelets etc.  It’s been that way from the beginning.  It takes someone special to be able to be a server at Polly’s.  You can actually go to a counter and watch your server make your pancakes.  We had buckwheat and plain pancakes, both flavors with blueberries.  They were wonderful along with the bacon and excellent maple syrup.

From Polly’s we drove northeast to Mt Washington.  At 6,288 feet it is the highest peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the highest peak in the northeastern US.  The ears did some popping today and we are still at the base camp.  Today we toured the museum and tomorrow will be the Cog Wheel train trip to the top.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Well, we survived the night.  It stopped raining about 9pm with just some light stuff after that.  This morning vehicles were going both ways on the road in front of our site and the sun was shining brightly. It was a good start to the day. We took our time for breakfast and getting ready to travel.  We wanted to wait until all the morning updates were posted.  We continually monitored New England 511 which is a web site that has the most current information about road openings and closings.  Things were bad, really bad, less than an hour north of us.  In Montpelier, state capital, there were homes and offices completely flooded – water midway up the doors to state offices.  That’s the way we were planning to travel this morning.  The tour we planned to take today, Rock of Ages Quarry and Factory Tour would have taken us to the largest operating deep-hole, dimension quarry in the world.  We would have been camping at a campground next door to the quarry. Due to the flooding, the tour was cancelled and the campground told us they did not want us to come.  They said we needed to stay at least an hour away.  We were very thankful that we were on top of a very high mountain.  Now the challenge was finding a way down while avoiding the closed areas.  Google Maps and 511 were very helpful.  We had to take indirect routes, some narrow and curvy, and did have one bridge that closed just before our reaching that point.  However, another better bridge, was opened so all was good. We were so very blessed to avoid the storms and aftermath.  Thank you, Lord! On our way out of Vermont we stopped to find a couple of geocaches and plan to visit Vermont again at a better time.

We drove east to New Hampshire.  We found a little town along our route, Littleton, NH.  It’s between the White Mountains and the Connecticut river.  Goggle told us Littleton has been named one of the best places to live in America and has been voted as having one of the best Main Streets in the US.  What a great little find after the morning’s disappointment.  We spent the afternoon visiting main street, the covered bridge and just walking through the quaint areas of town.  Tomorrow, we plan to do at least one of the local hikes and maybe try a recommended restaurant for some pancakes.  Live is good.

Monday, July 10, 2023

We awoke to a misty, foggy, cooler morning.  We finally needed our lightweight jackets.  Before getting on the road, we looked out the window and saw some sled dogs harnessed in front of a 4-wheeler.    Our host had forewarned us that we might see a dog sled team during our stay and this morning we did.  The 4-wheeler was doing the work but the dogs seemed to really be enjoying the run.  They are elderly, retired, sled dogs that are living out their lives in rural NY. (Previously lived in Alaska.)

The rural countryside of New York is beautiful.  We began our road trip today driving through another rural area for about 30 minutes until we arrived in Oneonta.  Oneonta, NY, the sister city of Oneonta, AL.  We stopped at one of the several parks and green spaces and got our steps in for the day because the forecast was for rain most of the day and it wasn’t raining yet. Nice park and good walk.    We also visited the Chamber of Commerce and met the director who gave us some suggestions on things to do.  It was a quick but fun visit and discussions about the two Oneontas.  Then we were on our way to Cooperstown, NY, an interesting and quaint little village and the home of the MLB Hall of Fame and Museum.  It is definitely a community of all things baseball.

Then we were on to our Harvest Host site for the night.  It started raining again and is still raining.  Suppose to rain all night. We received a text from a friend this morning asking if it was flooding near where we were.  It wasn’t, but now it is.  We didn’t realize how bad the flooding had become until we stopped at the Vermont welcome center.  They started telling us of all the closed roads.  Anyway, we are now completely weather aware, and no roads are closed yet in the area we plan to travel tomorrow but…we will check everything again in the morning and may alter our route a little to get further away from the problem areas.

Our host for tonight is a maple syrup enterprise – Mom and Pop’s World’s Best Vermont Maple Syrup.  We met “Mom” today and learned they made over 24,000 gallons of maple syrup last year.  They tap around 20,000 trees each year.  Due to the weather, we couldn’t go outside and look at the trees, but they had a mockup of trees with the taps and lines in their cooking building. Big operation and wonderful maple syrup.