Thursday morning we rode for 10 miles or so along the Burlington Bikeway--wonderful cool, crisp morning, with some gorgeous views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains of New York on the other side in the distance. We had gotten some new biking jackets when we stopped at LL Bean in Freeport and they really proved their worth this morning. Was downright chilly when we started, but the new jackets really kept us comfortable--and quite visible with their bright colors!! Anyway, a great start to the day! For any RVers out there, if you're ever in Burlington, we highly recommend the North Beach Campground--a really wonderful place, especially for a city park, and you're right there by the lake. The bikeway can take you into town or off the direction we went, toward Canada, and it's right there through the campground. A lot of the leaves had already fallen, but there was a spectacularly beautiful tree right by our campsite.
Since we were on the western side of Vermont, we spent most of the day driving east across the state, toward New Hampshire. It was a lovely day for seeing some great fall colors and some quintessential New England small towns. We just love seeing all these little churches with high, narrow, pointy steeples, and a lot of the town halls look very similar. Some of them look like they may have been churches at one time, but a lot of them have dates on the front from the 1800's so it may be that they just were originally constructed like that. Anyway, it's been great to see this part of New England, even though from time to time in places it appears that we may have missed the absolute peak of the leaves, since many trees are already pretty barren.
As we neared the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, we had thought we would spend the night either in Norwich or in Hanover, NH. But, the only campgrounds we could find had already closed for the season. So we drove around Hanover a bit, to see some of the Dartmouth campus, since that's Ken's alma mater, and found Hanover to be a lovely town. Seems so like the iconic New England college town, with much of the campus right in the town. Trisha and I both went to college in St. Petersburg, FL, where our campus was on Boca Ciega Bay, quite a different setting. It was really beautiful, but it was out from town and set way back off the road, so it was pretty much off to itself; so we both remarked on how different it would be to go to school in a place where the town and campus seemed so intricately intertwined. Also thought about how much the world has changed since the '60's, when we were in school, especially for all the Ivy League schools that had been traditionally male only institutions--especially when we saw this one coed walking along with a long braided pigtail, in multiple shades of bright blue--LOL!
So, before leaving Hanover we did some looking on our handy dandy ipad app and found a campground near Holderness, NH, right by Squam Lake, where On Golden Pond was filmed. Took us a couple hours to drive there, as we took the backroads, but it was just a beautiful wooded campground. Like a lot of New England campgrounds, this one was just about to close for the season, so it was quiet with not too many folks there. Here, like a lot of these places, there were a number of rigs that appear to be there essentially all the time, with some having built little decks or patios. Apparently a number of folks use these as their summer getaway places and just winterize the units and leave them there, rather than unhook and move them back home. But a lovely place. We got in a little too late to explore the area, but it was another wonderful day!
Looking out across Lake Champlain toward the Adirondacks as we started out on our bike ride
Along the wonderful Burlington Bikeway!
Here we are in our new bright yellow/green biking jackets!
Beautiful little wooden tour boat, tied up below the bridge where I took the sunset pictures from the night before
This gorgeous house along the bikeway, right on the lake
North Beach Campground, taken from our site
This lovely tree greeted us when we opened the door of the RV!
Driving toward New Hampshire
Green Mtns look blue today!
Loved driving alongside this river!
Closed for the Winter
Coming into Hanover
Downtown Hanover
Since we were on the western side of Vermont, we spent most of the day driving east across the state, toward New Hampshire. It was a lovely day for seeing some great fall colors and some quintessential New England small towns. We just love seeing all these little churches with high, narrow, pointy steeples, and a lot of the town halls look very similar. Some of them look like they may have been churches at one time, but a lot of them have dates on the front from the 1800's so it may be that they just were originally constructed like that. Anyway, it's been great to see this part of New England, even though from time to time in places it appears that we may have missed the absolute peak of the leaves, since many trees are already pretty barren.
As we neared the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, we had thought we would spend the night either in Norwich or in Hanover, NH. But, the only campgrounds we could find had already closed for the season. So we drove around Hanover a bit, to see some of the Dartmouth campus, since that's Ken's alma mater, and found Hanover to be a lovely town. Seems so like the iconic New England college town, with much of the campus right in the town. Trisha and I both went to college in St. Petersburg, FL, where our campus was on Boca Ciega Bay, quite a different setting. It was really beautiful, but it was out from town and set way back off the road, so it was pretty much off to itself; so we both remarked on how different it would be to go to school in a place where the town and campus seemed so intricately intertwined. Also thought about how much the world has changed since the '60's, when we were in school, especially for all the Ivy League schools that had been traditionally male only institutions--especially when we saw this one coed walking along with a long braided pigtail, in multiple shades of bright blue--LOL!
So, before leaving Hanover we did some looking on our handy dandy ipad app and found a campground near Holderness, NH, right by Squam Lake, where On Golden Pond was filmed. Took us a couple hours to drive there, as we took the backroads, but it was just a beautiful wooded campground. Like a lot of New England campgrounds, this one was just about to close for the season, so it was quiet with not too many folks there. Here, like a lot of these places, there were a number of rigs that appear to be there essentially all the time, with some having built little decks or patios. Apparently a number of folks use these as their summer getaway places and just winterize the units and leave them there, rather than unhook and move them back home. But a lovely place. We got in a little too late to explore the area, but it was another wonderful day!
Looking out across Lake Champlain toward the Adirondacks as we started out on our bike ride
The fall foliage is really starting to get pretty.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed it is. This is why we wanted to come to New England in the fall! And even though we've missed the absolute peak in some places, we still some really brilliant and beautiful colors--loving it!!
ReplyDelete