Saturday 30 September 2000

Our first big moving day. We were heading for Twin Mountains KOA Campground in the northern part of New Hampshire, about 200 miles away. (KOA - Kampgrounds Of America - is a franchised group of campsites which tend to be more expensive than most but which are meant to have good quality facilities and high standards of cleanliness. So far we've found this to be true). Packed everything away tightly, disconnected the electric, water and sewer connections, and came across our first problem with the trailer - the waste water valve wouldn't close. Not an immediate problem but irritating nonetheless. Got the trailer hitched up with some help, and maneuvered gingerly out of the campground. We were supposed to have a pull-through site, but the number of trees in the campground made getting out a real obstacle course.

Interesting info #3: sites on campgrounds come in two flavours: pull-throughs and back-ins. The meanings are intuitively obvious: in a pull-through you enter from the back and exit at the front, but in a back-in you have to reverse in. Pull-throughs are less common as they take up more space. As reversing a large trailer is a skill which comes with long practice and experience, I was more than happy to be able to get a pull-through.

The drive up was fortunately uneventful, and we found the campground first time. Helpful and friendly proprietor again, who talked us into our site. We'd originally intend to stay for 7 nights, but he told us that next weekend was Columbus Day weekend which is traditionally very busy and hard to find campsite space  so he'd provisionally booked us for that as well. Accepted gratefully.

Dismantled the water valve and found that it was clogged up with bits of wood, plastic etc. which had gone into the waste water tank during the trailer's construction and been washed into the valve the first time we emptied the tank. Cleared out the rubbish, reassembled everything and it worked. A small but pleasing victory.

Internet access is available, but only by means of a phone card and using a telephone on the verandah of the campsite office. Not particularly handy, and very expensive.

Drove into nearby Bretton Woods for dinner. Don't know if this is the one where the famous conference was held or is just named after it - can anyone help?

Sunday 1 October 2000

Day spent mainly driving and walking round the countryside, looking at the fall foliage which really is spectacular. We seem to have caught it at just the right time.

Driving through the town where we knew Christine's brother and sister-in-law were staying the night, we miraculously spotted them as they were walking from their hotel to their car and went and surprised them and had afternoon tea. Arranged to jointly tour the area the next day. Dinner in a fish and chip shop, New England style, i.e. it sold lobster and crab as well as the usual stuff.

Monday 2 October 2000

Drove around most of northern New Hampshire, virtually to the Canadian border. Some of the trees we could see in the distance were almost certainly Canadian, although they didn't look any different. More top quality leaves ...

... and covered bridges ...

... which are a speciality of New Hampshire and Vermont (see 'The Bridges of Madison County' starring Clint Eastwood and Merryl Streep, one of my favourite films,  for more and better pictures). Apparently they were covered to protect them from the elements in the bitter winters.

Wednesday 4 October 2000

Housekeeping morning: minor repairs to the trailer, laundry etc. In the afternoon did a six mile round trip walk (three miles up and three down again) to the Zealand hut where intrepid walkers can spend the night. More spectacular views and foliage (yawn).

Had my first attempt at a camp fire in the campground, which failed miserably as the wood was damper and the firelighters more ineffective than I had thought. We cooked muffins in the toaster instead, and ate the marshmallows straight out of the packet.

Wednesday 4 October 2000

Went to the Canterbury Shaker Village Centre about 70 miles south of us for the day. The Shakers were an unusual group which began with nine people from Manchester who came over in 1792; they were noted for their high-quality workmanship, particularly in furniture, their religious practices which included a great deal of singing and dancing, and their celibacy, an ultimately self-defeating attribute for any sect. The remarkable thing is that they continued for 200 years by means of recruiting new members and adopting children, but the last member living in this village died in 1992. There are still nine Shakers somewhere in Maine; the numbers have recently been swelled from seven due to the conversion of a husband and wife. Another unusual part of their belief structure, in direct contrast to the deliberate simplicity of the Amish, for example, was a positive enthusiasm for labour saving devices on the grounds that reducing the time spent on everyday chores allowed more time for singing and praying. There are many inventions which exist thanks to the Shakers, including the circular saw which was thought up by a lady member who got the idea from her spinning wheel. The buildings are also attractive and well laid out, with every room being individually numbered for easy reference and storage of its designated contents.

Saw 'Chicken Run' in the evening as an antidote to the day's culture.

Thursday 5 October 2000

Christine woke up with a cold - bummer. Booked the next three campsites in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York so we don't have to worry about it for a couple of weeks. Our reading prior to the trip suggested that this shouldn't normally be necessary, but our experience so far has been to the contrary. There are a few public holidays around this time of year - Labour Day, Columbus Day etc. - when people swarm out in their RVs and the campsites fill up very quickly.

Drove up the Mount Washington Scenic Auto Route, with accompanying supplied cassette of matchless prose describing what we'd just driven past. This is actually one of New England's earliest tourist attractions, having been hacked out of the mountain in 1850. Mount W is the highest point in New England, and the peak which stands at over 6000'  holds the world record for wind speed at ground level - 237 mph. There's a permanent weather station up there, manned by masochists as the weather is almost universally dreadful. The vegetation becomes steadily more sparse and weatherbeaten as you ascend; near the peak there are only a few ground-hugging plants and some miserable-looking dwarf conifers. Bitterly cold at the top, as indeed it was last night in the trailer. Had some soup, and drove down again: 1st gear all the way up and down. For the less intrepid, there's a little cog railway which will haul you up and down again ...

Bought a hot water bottle from WalMart due to the cold ...

Interesting info #4: In America, hot water bottles are primarily viewed as therapeutic devices for relieving muscular pains and can be found in the same department as elastic bandages. They come scrunched up in a small box with an interesting array of tubing and other fittings for irrigating inaccessible parts of the body not normally discussed in polite society. No wonder they looked at us a bit strangely when we asked where to find them.

... and a TV / VCR from Sears.

Friday 6 October 2000

Heavy rain and wind last night, which brought down a lot of leaves. Went for another walk in the woods; the paths were beautiful due to the aforementioned leaves ...

However, it was cold and drizzling gently, and the peak we walked up was shrouded in mist, so we came down quickly and went back to get warm. Rented video - 'Mrs. Doubtfire' - to check that VCR worked ok. It did.

Saturday 7 October 2000

Wet and cold again overnight, but it slowly improved during the morning. Went to Heritage New Hampshire, a tourist attraction which takes you on a simulated voyage from Southampton to New England in the 18th century as a colonist. Surprisingly well done. Lunch in Dairy Queen, which is definitely the worst of the fast food outlets we've tried so far. More good foliage and covered bridges on the way home.

Sunday 8 October 2000

Snow overnight - pretty early, even for this part of the world ...

We also thought that we had a leak in the roof of the trailer directly over our bed, but it turned out to be condensation which had formed during the night on the skylight due to the intense cold. Must remember to stop breathing while we sleep.

Did housework stuff, emails etc. and had a very brief walk. Watched the US version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire', but the presenter isn't a patch on Chris Tarrant - not nearly as nasty.

Tomorrow, off to Vermont.