Another rainy day in paradise.

Yes, more rain and a little cold - got down to 45 degrees last night. We are in a really nice campground and I really like the people-to-tree ratio. I also like the managers/owners and the layout. It feels good. (The owner just spent half an hour telling me about how they bought the place and their philosophy, inclulding the use of solar power.) However, they are having some water problems in the campground. They had to take out the stairs that lead to the office in order to get to the water pipes. We had to go through the basement and the shop in order to get to the office. Today they had to pull out the water pipes. A big truck came and was parked in the middle of the only access in and out of the campground. The owners warned us last night. So this morning we moved our pickup outside of the gate so that we could come and go. What a mess for them. Only a slight inconvenience for us.

But it rained all day. We decided to drive around the entire area. The clouds were hanging really low so even when it was not raining we could not see much of the mountains. At one point we drove right into the clouds. On the east side of the mountains it is very touristy. Many hotels, motels, B&Bs, restaurants, family fun, etc. The west side has very little and looks to be almost hard scrabble. Makes you wonder how that happens?

The mountains are very developed. There are lots of trails and "fun activities." But everything costs money. They charge over $30 just to let you drive to the top of Mt. Washington. (We did not even think about doing that today because it was so cloudy and rainy. Maybe tomorrow.) The little historic railroad is more than $60 per person. If you want to park in any of the scenic areas you better make sure that you have paid the daily use fee (unless you have the senior federal pass). All of the roads that do not lead to campgrounds or picnic areas were closed with signs that said "foot traffic is welcome." There were lots of campgrounds (I think we pased seven or eight of them) but they had no water or electricity to the sites. There were hiking trails every half miles or so. There was even a scenic area in which they explained how they manage the area and that it is not really as wild and scenic as they thought.

We took the very scenic road (the Kancamagas Hwy) to go around part of the mountain. As we were driving, it reminded me of the drive along the Clackamas. We are so spoiled in Oregon. we take all of it for granted. Here it is a really big deal. Everyone told us to make sure that we went along this drive, but to us it was nothing special. (Part of that may have been because we could not see any of the mountains because of the clouds, but even so, I have seen the gorgeous mountains as we drive along in Oregon.)

We have decided to stay here for a few more days. The weather prediction is for nice weather. I would like to walk along the Appalacian trail, maybe take the drive to the top of Mt. Washington, and maybe (with any luck) even sit out in the sun around the pool. We will see. But it feels nice here.