Blueberry pancakes. 

There’s not many better ways to start a day that blueberry pancakes, especially if they’re being served to you at your bed and breakfast.  It’s good fuel to motivate you to attempt to see more of New Hampshire and also small pieces of Maine and Vermont.  One nice thing about northern New Hampshire is that’s it’s relatively “skinny” east/west so both states are attainable for a day trip.

Both owners of the Notchland Inn rally provided great details for each guest if they wanted input as to where to go based on their criteria.  Friday’s trip had a lot of their suggestions in it and Saturday’s events were more of the same.  They showed us a route which put us on some really rural roads which was what we were looking for.  We had no set schedule and no specific place in mind to stop.  We simply were having a carefree vacation with no specific agenda in mind except to see as much of the countryside as we could.

Backtracking almost to North Conway, there was a small road called Hurricane Mountain Road.  For a while it was residential and then once we got near the base of the mountain range it had a gate which closed the path in the winter.  There was at least one sign indicating there would be a 17% grade.  The hill was so wooded we really didn’t see much of the vista once we got to the top but it was also neat being completely surrounded by trees.  I was glad no cars were coming in the opposite direction since the road was expectedly narrow.

When that road ended, we took a short trip on Green Hill Road until that merged with Route 113, heading north.  This little road straddles the border of Maine and New Hampshire.  It’s interesting to see the superficial change in houses where you go from rural areas with locals who have been there all their lives and then you hit a patch of what are obviously summer homes of out-of-staters and well-to-do locals.  You see this in just about any area of the country where there is a point of interest, whether it is a lake area or just a pretty locale.

One of the stops we made on that route was at a trail beginning in Evans Notch.  There was also a historic home there, the Brickett Place, and we had a quick tour done by a very nice, elderly park ranger.  It turns out he had worked and lived in Grand Rapids, MI (Megan’s hometown) in the 1950s so we had a good discussion with him and reminisced about the area.  If there’s one thing I’ve really come to appreciate the past decade, it’s interacting with the elderly and the stories they have to provide.  It’s always neat to go over similarities and differences between the generations.  Let’s just say that, as the father of two daughters, I REALLY liked how he had to jump through hoops just to be able to take his future wife out on dates.

Route 113 ends near Gilead, Maine and we headed west on Route 2 towards Shelburne and Gorham, New Hampshire.  At Gorham, we headed south on Route 16 towards Mt. Washington, the rest of the Presidential Range, and Pinkham Notch.  As was standard for our trip, the scenery continued to be spectacular.  If I sound like a broken record, it's because there were no "ho-hum" areas for most of our trip!

We then made the full rounds (rectangular-shaped route) through Jackson.  They have a beautiful covered bridge at the southern entry point of town and the entire town was what us out-of-staters would call “very New England-y”.  We stopped for lunch at a small place simply called Bakery Café.  Megan and I like local eating establishments since we like to prop up the local economy and there’s also a better likelihood that you’re eating more localized food too.   My lunch was a perfect example – turkey, bacon, white cheddar, and roasted red pepper spread on oatmeal maple bread.  Megan and I shared a pumpkin “cream puff” which was a perfect accompaniment on a sunny, fall day.

We did all this before 2 PM!  (Take a deep breath and exhale.)

Jackson wasn’t far from the Notchland Inn and since we made such good time it was apparent we would have plenty of daylight to head west and dip our toes into Vermont.  Route 302 takes you through the town of Bethlehem (see the stone church picture in the photo gallery) and then we took I-93 north until we hit the Vermont border and the welcome area.  I felt very placid looking out over the Moore Reservoir and seeing Vermont on one side and New Hampshire and the White Mountain peaks on the other.   It was also neat, while waiting inside the rest stop, to view this panorama and also have a roaring fireplace to my left and a giant stuffed moose head looking over me!

We took a small highway (Route 18) for a little while and, at least for that area, Vermont was very pastoral and had more rolling mountains than the steep vertical inclines of New Hampshire.  Both were very appealing to the eye and, like being forced to choose which your favorite child is, I wouldn’t say one is prettier than the other.   If I had to give one nod to Vermont, and keep in mind this is strictly an unscientific sample of a very small part of the state, but the rural houses were maintained better on Vermont’s side.  We passed through a small town of Lower Waterford and the houses in the area were as tidy as they come.  That’s not a knock on New Hampshire in the least, but I did notice that difference between rural towns of each state.

On the way back, we drove through Littleton, NH which had a nice little downtown area.  Having seen three states that day, it was time to head back, relax, and have dinner at the Notchland Inn.  Before that happened though, we did walk on one small trail by the inn to stretch our legs from a day of travelling.

Once again, the 5-course dinner, completely different from the previous nights, was as good as it gets.  We both ordered the filet mignon and I can say with confidence, and keep in mind we’ve eaten at some legendary steakhouses in Chicago and elsewhere, the steak I had that evening was right up there with the best I’ve ever had.  Yes, that’s right; I had a steak at a bed and breakfast in rural New Hampshire that rivalled anything I’ve had in fancy Chicago restaurants.  It was that good.

Another day, another successful sightseeing tour on our own terms and timetable.  This was really turning out to be one of our best trips we’ve taken together to date.  I’ll conclude my observations of the area in a post next week.  At this point, my body and mind had been totally relaxed and I pushed the images of a traffic-and-smog congested metro Atlanta and an energy-sapping job out of my mind.  I was on vacation, dammit, and the only thoughts I had that were Georgia-based were about our two daughters who were having sleepovers at their aunt’s house that weekend.  Besides that, Georgia was definitely NOT on my mind.  Can you tell by now, based on these entries this week, that a calmer, happier James was emerging?  I’ll let you connect the dots as to why that was.

Two random iPhone photos I forgot to post earlier.  The first one was a pun sign that I couldn't resist. It was a general store in Bartlett, NH.  The second picture is our Do Not Disturb sign at the Notchland Inn.