Well, we’re on our way to Maine.  We just finished up a brief visit to Concord–following our visit to Vermont’s capitol, Lisa wanted to visit New Hampshire’s–and are now southbound on I-93.  I came down with a pretty nasty cold yesterday morning, so aside from one brief drive I’ll mention later, Lisa has been handling the driving today.

After a surprisingly stressful time doing laundry in Burlington (how were we supposed to know that the guy in jean shorts and a ripped T-shirt–the one Lisa at first was a street person–was actually the laundromat attendant?), we headed east to a number of scenic drives through the White Mountains, most notably the Kancamagus Highway.  The drives were pretty, although in retrospect I wish we’d had more information going in.  While we stopped at a number of the scenic overlooks and took a number of exceedingly short walks of the highway, it would’ve been nice to do something a little more substantial, like the hiking we did back in New York.   (We’re currently in a section of the trip that was originally planned to have us in Nova Scotia, so we’re kind of making this up as we go along right now.)  Then again, whatever kind of cold it is that I currently have was already making itself evident, so maybe it’s best that we stuck to driving.

We spent last night at a KOA near Twin Mountain, New Hampshire.  The folks running the campground has originally planned on putting us in one of the secluded tent-only sites, but due to recent visits by “the neighborhood black bear,” decided to move us closer to the main building.  While walking to our site we passed a little yellow sign stating “trespassers will be eaten,” with bear tracks painted across it.  Lisa was not amused by the sign, and, as it happens, became even less amused early this morning when she encountered the bear while walking to the bathroom.

(Lisa just told me she now thinks the bear was cute.  While I earlier told her that her initial reaction to the bear–to scream and run–was not appropriate, I guess I now have to deal with whatever implications finding black bears cute may involve.)

After packing up this morning, we headed out for a few more drives around the White Mountains before heading to Maine, including a spectacular drive up the Mt. Washington Auto Road.  While the price of entry was steep ($27 for car, driver and passenger), it was completely worth it.  The view was spectacular, and the drive right up there with the Needles Highway, one of my all-time favorite drives.  (Lisa has a thing about heights, so it was the one time of the day I drove.)

From there, it was down to Concord, kind of a long drive, but we had nothing else planned.  It was cool to see the state house–we squeaked in eight minutes before it closed–and found a quick dinner on the mostly deserted Main Street.  (It looks like Concord’s downtown closes up at 5:00.  Not sure where the locals go.)

And now comes Maine.  More later.