Happy Anniversary To Us

Tim and I are celebrating our second wedding anniversary today.  Being married to Tim is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I am so grateful that he is willing to put up with all of my foibles.  Who would have thought that Tim and I would be traveling around the United States in an RV with a cat on our second anniversary?  Certainly not us, but I can’t think of a better way to celebrate.

Thearaputic Riding Academy Against a Colorful Mountainside

A Beautiful Vermont Country Road

Our drive today took us through southern Vermont and one of my favorite picture postcard villages, Newfane.  It’s as charming as I remembered, but we only took time to snap a few photos.  We were on our way south to the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

Courthouse in Newfane

The Steeples of Newfane

We again encountered damage from Hurricane Irene during our travels.  Our planned journey across the Mohawk Trail in northern Massachusetts was derailed because most of the highway was closed due to road damage.  We were only able to sample a taste of the Mohawk Trail from Greenfield to Shelburne Falls, where we stopped at a wonderful organic market for supplies.

The alternate route, however, was lovely, and it took us south and west along several beautiful scenic byways where we continued to see more and more fall foliage.

Lovely Lake in Massachusetts

Ducks a l'Lake

Sunlight, And Sadness, In Vermont

It has been an unseasonably warm Columbus Day weekend in New England, but we are not complaining.  It’s another beautiful day with lots of sunshine, the perfect ingredients for a drive through Vermont. 

We started in Woodstock, one of the prettiest villages in Vermont, and it did not surprise us that the town was packed with tourists.  We bypassed the downtown area and headed for the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.  A relatively new park created in 1992, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller is the only national park to interpret the history of conservation and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America.



The Farm At the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park



Cows Are Still Raised On the Farm



Pretty Tree On the Farm

The park encompasses the home and farm of the three men who had owned this property since the early nineteenth century.  Remarkably, all three men, George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings and Laurance S. Rockefeller, were early conservationists, and all left behind a legacy of stewardship.  The park is a partnership with the Billings Farm and Museum, which is a working dairy farm and museum of agricultural life.



Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Mansion



Note the 1806 Date On the Gable End of the Mansion



Side Porch On the Mansion

On the way out of town, we found a great restaurant for lunch, Woodbridge Café and Coffeehouse in West Woodstock.  Haddock and chips and pumpkin pie kept us going for the rest of the day.



Pumpkin Pie May Be My Favorite

Our drive south through Vermont was a sad one as we witnessed the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irene just last month.  Flooded houses and shops, washed out bridges and roads and piles of debris were reminders of the destructive power of water.  But we also witnessed the resilience of the local population.  Signs in front lawns thanking everyone for their help lined the roads.  Highway crews were everywhere, and almost every road has been repaired, or is in the process of repair.  For a small state, Vermont has made an amazing recovery, but there is still a lot to do. 



Road Crews Are Everywhere



Repairs Are Underway



Even the Highway Department Building in Grafton, Vermont, Was Damaged

We drove on back roads and witnessed more fall colors here than we have seen in previous days.  There are lots of bright red, orange and yellow leaves, and the colors only add to the charm of the small towns and byways.


This Is the Fall Color We Came to See



Searching For Color and Sculpture

Today was all about the drive.  Our goal was to take scenic byways and back roads to seek out fall colors in New Hampshire.  So far, Tim and I have not seen a lot of color.  Perhaps we are too early, the rains from Hurricanes Irene and Ophelia have muted the color or global warming is taking its toll.  For whatever reason, we’re seeing less color, especially fewer bright colors, than I remember seeing on previous visits.  Today that would change.

I was a bit nervous about traffic when we started out this weekend.  It is Columbus Day weekend, the busiest weekend of the year in New England, and here we are.  We headed for the Kancamagus Highway, one of the most heavily traveled roads in New Hampshire in the fall and hoped for the best.

We were pleasantly surprised as we entered the east end of the highway.  Most of the traffic seemed to be heading to the shopping outlets in North Conway.  As we climbed in elevation, the colors did intensify, and I was finally able to show Tim the beautiful New England fall that I love.  Our timing was perfect, since we encountered an endless line of traffic trying to turn onto the highway as we were departing.



Color on the Kancamagus Highway

We continued our drive on back roads through New Hampshire and enjoyed the views.  A lunch stop beside the road gave Kitty an opportunity to climb fences and walk around pumpkins larger than she is.  At our stop there was a group of pumpkins for sale.  They were priced according to size, with a box in which to place the money sitting on a sawhorse.  There was even money in the box.  As a former resident of Miami, I continue to be amazed at how trusting the people in New England can be.


I Can Walk the Balance Beam



What Are These Big Orange Things?

Pumpkins For Sale

We finally made it to the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire, despite Lucy, our harebrained GPS unit, who sent us there via five miles of dirt roads.  The site preserves and interprets the home, gardens and studios of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America’s greatest sculptors.  He is perhaps best known for his public monuments, including the Sherman Monument in Central Park in New York, the Standing Lincoln in Chicago and the Shaw Memorial in Boston.



Shaw Memorial at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

This property was Saint-Gaudens’ summer home in the late nineteenth century and his permanent home from 1900 to 1907.  It’s a fascinating site, particularly since so many of his works are on display here.  We couldn’t have had a more perfect day to explore the grounds.


Little Studio on the Left, and the Residence on the Right



Tim Thinking, "I'm Glad I Don't Have to Mow This"



Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge Over the Connecticut River,
the Longest Wooden Covered Bridge in America



Heaven On Earth

Our main destination for the day was the Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire, where we were made “kindly welcome.”  Canterbury Shaker Village was founded in 1792 and was the sixth of nineteen Shaker communities from Maine to Kentucky.  The Shakers lived apart from the world in self-contained communities, and their goal was to make their villages a “heaven on earth.”  Shaker beliefs were revolutionary for the era and included common ownership of goods, pacifism, dancing in worship, equality of the sexes and races, celibacy and living simply. 



Meeting House



Brothers Enter Through the Door On the Left,
Sisters Enter On the Right

Canterbury Shaker Village is now preserved as a museum, and we took a wonderful tour with Jim, our knowledgeable guide.  Our tour included the 1792 Meeting House, Dwelling House and Laundry.  What I found most interesting is that the buildings have not been restored to a particular period.  Various rooms in the Dwelling House, for example, interpret not only the nineteenth century period of significance, but also the early twentieth century period as well. Many of the other 25 original buildings are open to the public for self-guided touring.



Dwelling House



Trustees' Offices

We sampled Shaker fare at lunch, including corn pudding and chicken pot pie.  Although the meal was very good, it took what seemed like an eternity to get our food, thus cutting into our time for touring for the afternoon.

We did have time to drive through the lakes region of New Hampshire, including a loop around Lake Winnipesaukee.  We’ll save the Kancamagus Highway for tomorrow.



Fall Reflections

Kitty has been enjoying her walks at our last two campgrounds, both of which have been heavily wooded with lots of small critters.  Kitty is particularly fascinated by chipmunks and is hoping to get her paws on one of them.  We hate to disappoint her, but that’s just not going to happen.


Where Did That Chipmunk Go?



I Can Hide In These Leaves

An Industrial Revolution

Our last stop in Maine was Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.  The Kennebunks are charming New England towns with incredible architecture, and both were bustling today in anticipation of the holiday weekend.  Of course, the most famous resident of Kennebunkport is George Bush, and we made the obligatory drive by the Bush compound on our tour of Ocean Avenue.



The Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk



Greek Revival in Kennebunkport



How About A Carriage Ride?



The Coast Along Ocean Avenue



Stretches On the Rocks

Before we made our way to New Hampshire and Vermont, I wanted to visit Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, so we made a slight detour to the south.  Lowell has been on my radar since 1978, when it became a unit of the National Park Service, but I had never managed a visit.  I persuaded Tim that we should go, and we are both so glad that we did.

Lowell National Historical Park tells the story of the American Industrial Revolution through exhibits and canal and trolley tours at various buildings and sites throughout the city.  I had always known that Lowell was an important mill town, but I did not realize that Lowell was America’s first industrial city.



Tim, Trolley and Train



Sarah At the Trolley Stop

Lowell’s location at the falls of the Merrimack River was key to its industrial development as the waterpower was harnessed to run the machines of textile mills.  A system of canals was built to power even more mills, and by 1850 ten huge mill complexes employed more than 10,000 people.

The park interprets not only the rise and fall of the city’s textile mills, but also the human history of mill life as well.  Mill girls, who came from the farms of New England to work in the mills, lived in company-owned boardinghouses, and one of the houses has been reconstructed with rooms furnished in the style of the 1850s.  This building also tells the story of the immigrant mill workers, who gradually replaced the mill girls after the Civil War.



Boott Mills Boardinghouse

My favorite exhibit, however, was at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, where we saw a 1910s weaving room with operating looms.  Cloth is still being woven today, and items produced here are offered for sale.  The Boott Cotton Mill is a fabulous brick building built in 1836.  I love mill buildings, and this is a great one.


Boott Mills



Wonderful Mill Architecture



Weave Room At Boott Mills



Operating Looms at Boott Mills



Cloth Is Still Being Produced

The National Park Service has partnered with the City of Lowell to preserve the city’s industrial heritage, and I was amazed to find out that approximately 80 percent of the square footage of the city’s mill buildings has been adaptively reused.  The new goal is 90 percent.  The loft spaces and condominiums created in these buildings must be amazing.

Ranger Lowell Has Joined Our Happy Family

Tim and His Laptop Kat