SUN for a day

I haven't blogged much for the last few days. It has been raining. We drove around the white mountains, but with all the rain it was hard to see anything. And everything costs money. You couldn't even walk up to the falls or drive to the top of a mountain or park a car without it costing. We didn't want to pay with all of the clouds. Yesterday it was a little clearer so we took a ride that we had taken on a prior day. There was more to see the the mountains are nice. But it was still cloudy and rainy.

And to make matters worse, I got a terrible migraine. We were in a nice campground, but it was muggy and damp and the mosquitoes were voracious. We couldn't sit out more than five minutes or even take a walk without covering ourselves in 100% DEET. With the migraine, I couldn't enjoy much. It is hard to get out and do stuff when your head feel like it is going to come apart. (But I am much better now.)

There were some interesting things in New Hampshire. The area was covered with what they called Shelburne Birches. Apparently they were planted by the state and were on both sides of the highway for miles. There were some very interesting homes built of rock. Not very sturdy in earthquake country, but I bet they hold in the heat. There were signs about moose everywhere. "Break for moose. It could save your life. Thousands of collisions." We didn't see a single moose, although we almost ran into two deer. I was sorry that we did not have the opportunity to walk a little on the Appalacian Trail. Maybe another trip.

This morning as we were leaving, the cloud cover was much higher. We could actually see the tops of the mountains. It was a very different view without the cloud cover, but I wasn't going to stay around waiting to see if the sun actually came out. Mt. Washington is nice enough, but no snow at the top - like I am used to seeing. There were some gorgeous views driving along the valley. One interesting thing is there were a lot of amusements aimed at children and many of them had a western motif, such as cowboys and indians or a small western town that needs to catch the bad guys. (Why western in northern New Hampshire?)

We crossed into Vermont and it immediately felt different. Less touristy and more real. I felt more comfortable. It was interesting how fast that happened. We did stop to buy some Vermont maple syrup. I loved the little store. When you walked in there was a little sign that saide "If you are in a hurry, you are in the wrong place. In fact, are in the wrong state." what a nice sentiment. The scenery in Vermont really reminded me a lot of the areas around Portland.

We got to Burlington and the sun was out. We put up Honey and then walked down to the beach and we spent about an hour in the sun. Yeah. Yeah. We grilled steaks and are sitting outside. We will be here for a few days and I hope the weather stays this nice.