We really enjoyed the first three states of our New England tour (click to read part 1). Next, we contined on with our friends Steve and Joan to visit the remaining three states. It was decided that our adventure of traveling with another couple was a success since, after 6 weeks together, we are all still friends! 😊 While it would have been nice to have more time, we saw some cool sights in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Massachusetts:
We made a quick stop in Massachusetts, where I got to see my first major league baseball game. It was fun to see the Red Sox play the Atlanta Braves at historic Fenway Park. We saw the debut of Vaughn Grissom and cheered as he made a home run and stole a base in his first MLB game ever.
Being near the water, we took advantage of the chance to drive along the coastline. The beaches in this northern Atlantic area are much smaller and had more rocky areas than those we are used to in the South. And of course, we stopped to sample some delicious seafood as well.
We were also lucky to be able to meet up with Joe and Teresa Mitchell. Joe and Mike were crewmates in the F-111F during Desert Storm. It’s been over 30 years since they have seen each other and it was fun reminiscing and catching up.
New Hampshire:
In New Hampshire we spent our time in the White Mountains near the town of Lincoln. The scenery was beautiful along the Kancamagus Highway, dedicated as the first National Scenic Byway in the northeastern US. We stopped at numerous places for amazing mountain views and scenic vistas.
We braved the auto road to Mount Washington which is the highest mountain in the northeastern US. The 7.6-mile drive climbs over 4500 ft to the 6145 ft high summit on a road that has an average grade of 11.6%! The road is narrow and curvy and when we got to the top we were in the clouds. If you aren’t up for driving yourself, you can opt to ride to the top on the Cog Railway.
Friends Don and Lynette joined us in New Hampshire and Vermont, so our three Entegra coaches looked great at the campground. We ate at the famous Polly’s Pancake Parlor which offers breakfast items and of course, a big selection of great pancakes.
Mike, Lynette, and I braved the Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves adventure one day. The self-guided walk is only 1 mile long but includes over 1000 steps and 11 boulder caves where you can get dirty crawling through very narrow passageways. It winds through the gorge along the Lost River where we saw huge rock walls, glacial boulder caves, and several small waterfalls.
Vermont:
Of course, one of our main goals in Vermont was to tour Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory. They offer a fun tour of the factory to see how their delicious flavors are made, plus a sweet sample at the end. Sorry, no pictures allowed on the tour in case we had any spies from Haagen Daaz! 🤣 Interestingly, we learned that one of the cofounders, Ben Cohen, has no sense of smell and very little sense of taste. That’s why their flavors have lots of big chunks because he loved the texture.
We toured the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory where hand-crafted American-made teddy bears come to life. We saw how the bears are cut out and stitched together by hand, and the bear hospital where damaged bears can be sent for repair. All bears even come with a lifetime guarantee.
We made a stop at Shelburne Farms, an educational nonprofit working farm that encompasses 1400 acres near Burlington. They work to cultivate sustainability and have a bakery, cheesemaking, farm animals, and walking trails, as well as an inn and formal gardens. Their 350 cows produce about 7,000 gallons of milk a day – enough for the farm to fulfill all their daily cheese-making needs. This national historic landmark has a beautiful 5-story barn that was constructed in the late 1800s.
Thanks to Don, we learned that Barre Vermont is known as the Granite Capital of the World and is home to the Rock of Ages Granite Quarry. Our visit there started at the visitor center with a short film about the granite industry and how rocks are extracted from a quarry. Afterwards, we followed our tour guide to the overlook of Smith Quarry. It was so cool to look down 600 feet into the largest operating deep-hole dimension granite quarry in the world and hear about their operations.
The beautiful granite produced here has been used at state capital buildings and historical monuments around the country. Later we tried our hand at their granite bowling lane (an idea that never got rolling–lol!).
We would have loved to be able to spend more time in the New England states, but at least we got a taste of some of the fun things in this area. We added a whole new section to our travel map and saw some amazing places. Up next…Pennsylvania!
I hit reply, so I don’t know if you saw it.
I can’t believe it’s been 30 years since Mike had seen his flying partner! And I found myself wanting to like all the photos! And comment on some of the details! Keep logging these entries?
Hey Jacki, It was incredible that 30 years has passed since Mike and Joe saw each other. Luckily, due to Facebook they reconnected digitally a few years ago and then we were able to meet up during our travels. Glad you liked the photos — New England was so pretty and green!
Wow so much to see and do here! Fabulous post thanks for sharing 🙂
Much of New England was new for us. Have you ever been there? We enjoyed all of the beautiful countryside and especially so green.