... adrien had the day off, so she showed up at eight o'clock in the morning with a plan that we "just sorta wander around northern new hampshire" ... hmmmmm, what is it they say about acorns and how far they roll ...
... adrien did all the driving and navigating, leaving me with nothing to do but enjoy the view ... after stopping do do some errands and get breakfast, we drove the kancamagous over the mountains and stopped in lincoln to do some shopping at "the world's longest candy counter" ... we then continued along route 112, following the ammonoosuc river to where it empties into the connecticut river ... along the way adrien spotted a most delightful swimming hole ...
... in addition to the cool water, there were also wild raspberries and beautiful flowers ...
... after a leisurely wander along the heights looking down into the connecticut river valley, we headed west to find some lunch in littleton ... as we passed beneath i93 adrien did a u-turn and took us down a gravel road to this little beach she'd spotted jutting out into the huge moore reservoir ...
... we spent quite some time skipping stones, because, after all, why else would they have damned up the river and left so many smooth flat stones along the shore ...
... we stopped to eat at the littleton diner, naturally, and i managed to snap a picture of the courthouse ... with diners new england excels, but when it comes to county courthouses ohio still takes the prize ...
... huge storm clouds building in the west, we headed into maine to drive over evans notch to the hurricane mountain road ... adrien spotted this sign posted almost directly upon the maine/new hampshire border and pulled the car over to investigate ...
... after a brief excursion driving a rather potted semi-mud road into the wilderness, we returned to the turn-off to find that the "old man" was actually a hundred feet down the highway ...
... peeking out from the woods was the "old man" ... we've missed him so much since years ago when he fell of the mountain in franconian notch, so we were very excited ...
... i thought to myself, "hmmmmm, i'm not sure this is the actual 'old man' ... if you ask me, he looks like a visitor from easter island" ...
... adrien was less polite ... "arghhhhhh, if you don't tell me where the real old man is i'm going to flatten your nose even more" ...
... after that we drove down route 113, stopping to admire the new bridge ... last time adrien and i were in this spot was the day after we'd been trapped in evergreen valley by a hurricane that hit new england ... on that day the old bridge that for years had crossed the river at this point was smashed into tiny pieces along the banks of the river ... this is a nice replacement, even if it does move back and forth when you walk across it ...
... as we descended the hurricane mountain road the brakes started smoking ... luckily, the storm hit and the rain was so intense there was no way they'd actually ignite ... the ride back to freedom was punctuated by intense bursts of lightening and huge sheets of wind driven rain ...
... adrien plus wanderabout = a+ ...