One off the Bucket List...

Ever since we moved to New England around 33 years ago and I started seeing the bumper stickers, “This Car Climbed Mt. Washington,” I've wanted to go see what it was all about. Last week I managed to remove that particular item from my Bucket List when Greg, Olive and I drove up to the summit of Mt. Washington in Gorham, New Hampshire. Mt. Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern US, standing at 6,288 feet and is the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River.

On the day we left, the weather wasn't the greatest and we were a bit afraid that the Auto Road would be closed. But we shouldn't have been worried. The Auto Road was open and we were in business.

The old Mark Twain saying about the changeable weather in New England is doubly true for Mt. Washington. As we started out, it was sunny enough but the clouds quickly covered the tallest hills masking them completely and then the clouds were gone again.

At the Summit, the fog was really socked in...or was it? Like Twain said, just wait five minutes.

I wasn't the only one who was fascinated by these changes, as you can see.

The wind was another thing! The day we were there, it whipped around from 20 mph to 50 mph, but the highest land wind speed was recorded in Mt. Washington in 1934, when they measured the wind at 231 miles per hour. I'm glad I wasn't there then!

The chains that hold down the roof of the Mt. Washington Stage Office building are reminders of the fierce and changeable weather at the summit.

We looked around for a bit and then started our decent, watching the weather change as we drove down.

In the distance, we could see the ski trails on another mountain, which reminds me that I would really like to go up there in the winter time so I guess, I only half crossed Mt. Washington off my list.

Closer to the bottom of the mountain, we stopped among the thick woods to let our car breaks cool down.

But the best part is that now I won't have to be jealous each time I see a car with one of these.

The Things You See Along the Way: Why I love New England…

Earlier this week, Greg asked me and Olive, the pug, if we wanted to go for a ride to do a little Leaf Peeping.  We both said yes, of course, and off we went.  I let him decide where we would go and Olive and I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

We headed up north toward New Hampshire where the leaves are nearing peak.

  Here are a few things we saw.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man...

Was there ever any doubt?

When we got close to Hillsborough, New Hampshire we saw a sign indicating that the Franklin Pierce Homestead was close by so we stopped to admire his beautiful house on that fine fall day.  For those who don’t know, Pierce was the 14^th President of the United States from 1853 to 1857 and the only President from New Hampshire.

Moving on, we finally made it to Keene, New Hampshire where we had a nice lunch outside with Olive at a local establishment called Local and then a little after two o’clock, we turned around and admired the leaves all the way back to Massachusetts.

I love fall in New England!  It simply sings and dances with color.

  What can be better than that?

Nothing, in my book.

Bumper stickers of the day:  Do you think this woman likes horses?

The things I saw…

It was a beautiful day here in Massachusetts yesterday…not too hot or humid.  Greg had to go over to a town a few towns away from ours to run an errand so I went with him.  Here are some of the things I saw along the way:

The sky was full of cirrus clouds.  At one point I noticed that there was a cloud that was kind of red in the middle of a bunch of regular white clouds so I took a picture of it.  What causes this, I have no idea but it’s kind of cool, I think.  It was red for a while.  Then it turned blue.  Then it just went back to being an ordinary cloud.  Do you see it there?  It's three lines down.  I guess it just wanted to assert itself for a little while.

The traffic was horrendous.  We thought we would save time if we got on the highway but this is what we encountered once it was too late to get off.  It turns out there was a rather serious accident up ahead on the other side of the Turnpike.  I guess it was that age-old gawk factor that had us backed up.  I hope everyone involved in the accident is okay.

For a while, we were behind a truck from Madbury, New Hampshire.  I think that is a funny name for a town – Madbury.  I looked on line but couldn’t find an explanation for the name.  It made me wonder if, when they named the town, they also considered the names Happybury and Sanebury and those names were voted down by the folks at their town meeting because they wanted the town to have a certain kind of reputation.  Probably not, but it’s kind of fun to think about.  Anyhow, I highlighted in green the fact that this business’s phone number is 593-EGGS and below the letters (EGGS) they also put the numbers (3447.)  I appreciate that.  If I ever had to call Siegel Egg Co., I would be very glad that they put the numbers there and I wouldn’t have to translate EGGS into numbers.  One  of my bugaboos.

On our way home, we went by the Pigmobile for Carl’s Oxford Diner.  I ate at Carl’s Oxford Diner once a few years ago.  They make one heck of a breakfast in there but, believe me, the Pigmobile is an apt symbol for the place.  One of the YELP reviews I read of this place states:  “if you order keilbasa and eggs you will get an ENTIRE Keilbasa!”  Well, that’s true.  And if you order bacon, you get practically a whole pig.   So if you are hungry, I would recommend Carl’s Oxford Diner but be prepared to wait in line to get in.  Apparently, there are a lot of hungry people in these parts.  And, oh yeah, the bus doesn't pick people up and take them to Carl's Oxford Diner.  It's just there for show.

That’s what I saw yesterday.