Saturday 3 June 1995 Jackson
NH
It was a misty moisty morning when we woke. Just what we like. As Rab
flicked through all the channels on the television she spotted a game of rugby.
It was a World Cup game, but not between any of the major players. Ivory Coast were playing Samoa
of all teams at Potchefstroom or some such venue. Such is the extent of modern communication. I
managed to get hold of a program and found that there are games all day today –
unfortunately finishing before we arrived here – and there are more tomorrow. I
don’t really mean to watch any of the games with so much to see and do, but
will try to get some news to see if I can find out who has been winning what. Samoa won and we went down to breakfast, again enjoying
the toast, muffins and bagels plus some fresh fruit.
We were on our way about tenish and had an interesting trip across Maine. Rab has polished
her map reading skills to a high level and, working our way through the
secondary roads we never put a foot wrong all day. Once you get to know the
system (and know where to look for the signs) it works pretty well, I must say.
We headed for Conway and aimed to see some
covered bridges on the way which it was claimed were a feature of this area –
which is just north of Madison
County. (That reference is to the
film Bridges of Madison County which had been released earlier in the year) well, we thought they were a feature but it seems
we were the only people interested in them.
Rab was thrilled when we finally
tracked one down and we are hoping to find more tomorrow. Conway was a bit of a surprise to us because
we were expecting a sleepy little country town. But it appears that based on
its success in winter as a major skiing area, it grew to provide summer
facilities. These include shopping malls and outlet stores by the dozen. I was
hoping to make a quick trip to the top of Mt Washington
(said to be the highest in New England – Mt
Cadillac it turn out is the highest peak on the coastline. And I thought
it was only Australia
which had this hang-up about the biggest, largest, highest etc in the Southern
Hemisphere.) but (a) it was too late and (b) it was raining. (We had an opportunity to
make this drive some years later. It was quite an experience driving on the
‘wrong’ side of a dirt road with no side rails and sheer drops of hundreds of
feet. But the views were magnificent.)
We had a look at several inns and motels which abound in the area and
settled for The Lodge which is very comfortable and pleasant at only $79 for
the night (that was not the winter rate however!). it has a lovely trout stream running through the grounds. Wish I had
my rod with me. The area is full of streams which look as if they should be
teeming with fish and with a mayfly hatch taking place at the moment, they
should be biting. Saw a couple of blokes in one of the rivers as we went by.
Dinner this evening was at a marvellous restaurant. I had had enough of
fish and non-grilled food so that was what we focussed on. We landed up at a
lovely spot called the Berenhof, part of which is the Black Bear Pub which
looks great fun and has over fifty beers to choose from. Rab and I both felt
that the meal we had there was the best we have ever had in the US. I had a
well cooked (not well done) bit of steak, dark on the outside and pink in the
middle, served with a chicken sausage, also well done, and some very tasty
vegetables including roast peppers. Rab had a delicious crispy duckling. The
servings were not too big and were just what we wanted. The sweets menu had a
terrific choice but we declined on the basis of weight watching.
So all in all a pretty good and interesting day with some delightful
scenery along the road.
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