October 6, 2008

We woke up to a sunny morning and had breakfast at the condo. Our first stop of the day was at a big tent ski sale. I really wanted a new ski jacket and was happy to find a white one, which was marked down from $200 to $89. There is no sales tax in NH, so I do need to continue shopping.

We drove up the Franconia Notch, which is a beautiful road and state park with mountains on either side. It is a very important recreation area to this state and includes a ski area. We stopped to see “Old Man Mountain”, which is a famous profile of a man in the mountain. Unfortunately, OMM eroded off the mountain in 2003, so we are five years too late to see him. We did see where he “was”. This was the symbol of New Hampshire, so a loss for them. They are in the mist of making a memorial park for him.

By noon the rain began, so our plans of hiking had to change. We drove to a small town, Franconia, at the end of the Notch and had some lunch with some yummy apple cider. Since it was still raining, we thought a road trip to Vermont was probably in order. Even though it sprinkled on us most of the way, the leaves were still beautiful. We drove probably 75 miles through some of the back roads of Vermont. At one point we were only seven miles from the Canadian border.

We drove back to Lincoln and stopped at a pizza place. It s a good day!