Fall In New England

Stories from the Road
October 11, 2016
Hancock, NH

The road was playing a Technicolor movie today, as we drove through the hills of southern New Hampshire. Hancock, Francistown, Bennington; these small towns were displaying brilliant, fall foliage. The air was crisp, the sun was out, and I was being transported back to my New England childhood.

Hancock, where we are staying is only 90 minutes from Boston, but it feels like another world. There are few cars on the road, and there are ample parking spaces in any town near us. The biggest surrounding town is Peterborough, a beautiful village set amongst rolling hills on the banks of Contoocook River. Mary Rose Olenik, a friend from Del Mar, lives there, and last night we had dinner at her house with her and her sister, and brother in law from Colorado.

We are staying at the Hancock Inn, a Yankee Classic. The Inn has a tavern and restaurant, and all the rooms are furnished with colonial type furniture. Some of the rooms have fireplaces in them. There is a friendly golden retriever here, and I am enjoying hanging out with him for some of the time. Tonight Mary Rose will join us for dinner here.

Today we will cruise and take more foliage photos. I particularly like to find small ponds with bright trees around them and reflected in the water. They aren’t hard to discover! The local churches are fun to photograph also, as are the saltbox houses, which Vicki and I like.

Across the street from the Inn is a country store, which sells worms, sub sandwiches, and a variety of dry goods. Usually there are some salty locals sitting around drinking cups of Joe. One of them gave me a hard look yesterday and then made a joke about the Red Sox. He burst out laughing and patted my shoulder in a friendly way. I laughed in response, though I never heard what he said.