In Lyndonville VT we stop for a burger for him and a salad for me at a McDo's. The town has a unique metal sculpture shop, and many properties feature the artist's creations, mainly the giant flowers.
A while further south we pick up interstate 93, and enter New Hampshire, now we are in the White Mountains. (They are still green.) These are considerably more rugged than the Green Mountains. The road takes us through Franconia Notch State Park. It narrows to one lane each way for a while, and the view on both sides is amazing. Some shots of the mountain taken while driving actually turn out to be pretty good. We stop at a small body of water, and there is a substantial beaver dam and large lodge. Nobody home however. (Hopefully just shy.) There is not much time to explore here, we have some distance to travel, so we choose to move on.
Along the way I am once again amazed that we have run out of places to name parts of the world. We pass such towns as Berlin, Hanover, Derry and Londonderry, Manchester, Canterbury, Alexandria, Bethlehem, Plymouth and Woodstock, (but not the famous ones), and Orleans and Pembroke, which we both have near Ottawa. (And there is an Orleans on the Cape as well.) We will see the same pattern once we get to the Atlantic coast, and at some point during the trip I read an explanation somewhere. Explorers would give the map to the English king, and he got to name his property. So that's why you have a Yarmouth and a Harwich on the Cape.
And there was Braintree. "Where did you say you live?"
We chose to go straight through Boston in rush hour. The highway that would take us around would probably cost as much extra time as the possible traffic jams. It turns out it is really not so bad. People drive fairly aggressive but the pace is kept up. Too bad the road surface is in bad shape, even compared to Montreal. I can now say that I have been in Boston twice, each time for about 45 minutes and my feet never touched the ground. I don't think it counts. The highway takes us directly by the home ice of the Boston Bruins, and we notice that they are sponsored by TD Bank. To our surprise we see plenty of TD banks all over New England during our trip.
After Boston we hop onto the Pilgrims highway #3 to Plymouth MA, where we have reservations for one night in the Best Western Cold Spring. This turns out to be a cute and tidy group of buildings, some little houses, some motel style stretches, on a very nice corner property.
We drop off our stuff, and head for a place to have dinner. They recommend the East Bay Grille, and one other place. We choose the Grille, and have a nice dinner of steak tips, baked potato, vegetables and a nice glass of red wine, on the patio right on the edge of the Atlantic shore. Even though we ordered lighter fare, we are too stuffed for dessert.
We make a little stroll around the bay area, and make our way back to the hotel. This town still features fire boxes, and they are mounted to street lights with a red globe at the top. Pictures must be taken, and after many adjustments a picture results in which you can see the box, the post and the globe. By now we are pretty tired, so we go back to the hotel to watch (of all things) some Kojax reruns.
Whenever we go into New England I marvel at the details that are put into the construction of many older houses. (Dare I guess many are 75+ years old?) The details on window trim, over doors and at the roof line is amazing. Many of them are larger than the traditional Ontario farm house, and feature many dormers, balconies and porches. In this area everything is clapboard or wood shakes. No vinyl siding or stucco to be found.
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