Days 49 - 52

Day 49
October 4, 2010
Twin Mountain, NH
Today we carpooled to Conway, NH, to ride the Scenic Railway. This was an approximately 50 mile round trip through some very pretty country in the Crawford Notch. If we hadn’t had the heavy wind and rain a few days ago, it would have been even prettier, but a lot of the leaves were off the trees. We made two stops along the way. We were served box lunches on the train. Our group was lucky to have the Observation car, mostly to ourselves. The trip took 5 ½ hours. On the way back to camp, most of the group stopped at the Scarecrow Restaurant for LEO (Let’s Eat Out). The weather also cooperated finally.

Day 50
October 5, 2010
Today was a travel day from Twin Mountain, NH to Ashland, NH. We traveled over the Kancamagus Highway. It was a very pretty drive and had some great views. In the late afternoon, we had a briefing meeting for our next travel day on Friday, followed by a Margarita Party.

Day 51
October 6, 2010
Ashland, NH
This morning, before leaving for today’s activity, I noticed that our patio awning was not all the way retracted. I had it extended a few days ago and it rained, so after our arrival in Ashland, I extended it to let it dry out some more. I retracted it before dark. I tried to bring it back in, but something broke. I didn’t have time to check it out so figured I would take care of it when we returned. We carpooled to Squam Lake, better known as Golden Pond, where we split into two groups and boarded tour boats. The problem was that just as we got situated on the boats, it began to rain. As we got out into the lake, the we were headed into the wind. It turned into a cold, wet, miserable ride. We did get to see the home & docks where “On Golden Pond” was filmed. We were also able to see several Loons on the lake. The lake was very pretty with several small islands with homes on them. I’m sure that it would be a lot prettier if the weather was better. After returning from the boat tour, we went to Walter’s Basin Restaurant for lunch. We were supposed to go to a Natural Science Center, but it was a walk completely outside, so that was scrubbed. When we returned to camp, it was raining to hard to work on the awning. We had our usual Social time followed by pizza provided by the wagon masters. After we ate, we watched the movie “On Golden Pond”. It was neat to watch with what we had seen & learned today fresh in our minds.

Day 52
October 7, 2010
Ashland, NH
The rain continued on and off overnight, but had stopped when we got up. Before we left for today’s activity, I had time to see what was wrong with the awning. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be what I was hoping for, so I had to figure out how to get the awning retracted and secured for the remainder of our trip. The Tail Gunner came by and we came up with a plan of attack for when we got back this afternoon. We then carpooled to Moultonborough, NH to tour the “Castle in the Clouds”. This home was built in 1914 by Thomas Plant, who made his fortune in Women’s shoes. The house sits on top of a hill overlooking several lakes, and sits on 6200 acres. There are several out buildings on the property. After the tour, most of the group did a LEO for lunch at the Corner House Inn in Center Sandwich, NH. After a very nice, leisurely lunch, we headed back to camp. When we got back, there were a couple of guys waiting to help with the awning. Fortunately, the plan of attack that we discussed this morning worked, so the awning is retracted and secure for the rest of the trip.