Live Free or Die

Yes, that’s the New Hampshire slogan on their number plates, or as a lady said to us about the bikers, descending on towns and brew pubs… Live Free and Die (she did say she shouldn’t say that really, but she still did) Our first stop was Littleton, being close to The White Mountains, quite touristy and dominated by The Thayers Inn, a hotel dating back to 1843. Built to accommodate the growing numbers of rail travellers, its a landmark property. Another icon of the town is Chutters, with The Worlds Longest Candy Counter. It had the certificate to prove it! It was one of those places that took the pounds from my purse and put them elsewhere! Pollyanna looked on with the cheerful disposition she has, out front of the library. The author was born in the town, hence the bronze statue reminding us all to find the good in everything.

Before moving on we had breakfast (which also covered lunch) at The Littleton Diner. We were the curiosities of the day, the lady who worked there had also checked us in the previous night at the campground and had just been talking about us there. It was our ears that were burning not the food! After a plate of cholesterol we headed out for a hike at The Basin which is defined as a ‘Glacial Pothole’ in Franconia Notch State Park. A great example of a bowl hewn by abrasive rocks, tumbled about by the water. Close by was Lincoln a tourist haven full of hotels, inn and water parks, yuk. So we headed on to Woodstock.

No, not ‘The’ Woodstock, this was more serene we thought until we realised that we’d yet again, stumbled upon a bike week, “Laconia” which is even bigger than the previous one at Lake George, doh! It claims to be the oldest motorcycle rally in the world. We became curiosities again driving through the middle of it all, with hoards of people sitting roadside in the chairs with beer laden coolers just watching the procession of bikes (mainly Harleys) and us 😉 Shame we didn’t have the same swagger! Woodstock itself was a lovely stop though, a tiny old historic town.

New Hampshire has a real countryside feel to it, really gorgeous driving, especially through The Pemigewasset Valley, it was really pretty although some of the tourist cabins had seen better days. Probably all the clientele these days are at the water parks rather than the real parks. The area isn’t heavily populated, until arriving in Plymouth. Its a college town and 75% of the town is the college itself. Thus, pretty tidy, good coffee, a deli etc etc. Remarkably, the bank still had a ‘walk up ATM’ versus the norm, a drive up ATM. Great buildings though.

The route to our camping, took us close to the Squam River which was stunning, lots of winding, gentle, undulating roads… the roads Americans always ask how we cope with driving on. The same way they do, by looking ahead and concentrating, well some do… 🙂 (they can’t get the RHD thing!) That evening we camped at Lake Winnipesaukee, with the Harleys… Actually, the Lake was serene, with the sailing boats bobbing along. Heading to Woolfeboro we felt like we were in the English Lake District although they call it Cottage Country. It is similar but without the local planning laws it seems, so there’s second homes everywhere. With that comes numerous estate agents, coffee shops and homeware stores… perhaps the lady of the house has to update every year?! Doubt they go to the shop selling VHS and DVD’s though.

Woolfeboro seemed to have a lot of US flags and banners around and the customary Trump signage. We hardly ever see pro Biden, maybe his supporters aren’t as shouty? We were shocked to see Trump in the back of a pick up though, while eating ice cream by the waters edge. We were underwhelmed for the first time by the mountain bike trails although we did see a turtle basking on a rock, a bit like Trump does as he’s also from the stone age (IMHO obvs!) Back into the town for the vegetarian food of choice, which seems the only choice for us, a ‘grilled cheese’ and people watching finished off the day before cycling back, past the oversized houses with their ‘Lanai’ (verandas with bug screen to you and me) It’s a wealthy place for sure.

Final stop in NH was Sebago Lake State Park. We got their via Tamworth, Conway and Fryeburg which for any UK reader, will think we took a wrong turn but we are in New England from Old England after all. In Fryeburg there was a fantastic ‘Pythagorean Lodge’ which was super, from all angles. A great forested, lake side campground, it was superb until we saw the ‘no pets’ sign… Jigsaw was not impressed… she had to play stealth cat with us and there was no chance of a walk. We had neighbours from Virginia, full timers, with a gnome on their table. We googled what having a gnome means on campground pitches, as we’ve seen a few and thought it was just a bit of fun…. well it is a bit of ‘fun’ if you’re that kind of couple who likes to share… we kept our heads down! Anyway, great riding, lots of oxbow lakes along the River Songo. We came across a ‘lock’ which was manned, the guy said it’s because the boaters can’t be trusted, goodness knows the chaos if they headed along The Kennet & Avon Canal at home! After a ton of peddling, ice cream in Naples…. we were really off course!