Shanna and Mike's Excellent Adventure continued

After leaving the Boston area we headed to Cape Cod. We were blessed again with gorgeous weather. We had great fun discovering Plymouth Rock, lighthouses, beaches and towns going all the way to P-town (that's what the locals call Provincetown) and then doubling back and spending the night at a Bed and Breakfast called The Ships Knees Inn at East Orleans (Orleans here rhymes with beans). The next day it was more lighthouses as we made our way to Salem, Massachusetts.

Since we aren't into witches we didn't do any of that in Salem (Well Michael did take a picture of the Samantha statue)-but did enjoy the four centuries of architecture represented in the town as we walked it. We stayed at the Hawthorne Hotel named after writer Nathaniel Hawthorne who lived and worked in Salem for a time. Nice hotel but tiny room.

We then started working our way up the coast of Maine-more lighthouses, great weather, beautiful scenery and we were surprised to find as we headed inland the day following that Maine had covered bridges too. Our route took us by 3.

Our first stop In New Hampshire was the Auto road up to Mt. Washington-the highest point in the Northeast (6,288 feet). You have to pay to have the privilege of driving up this very narrow 8 mile road to get to the summit. Mt. Washington holds the record for the fastest wind speed-231 miles per hour-yes that's not typo. 231 miles per hour! It happened in 1934. After the drive back down we had more covered bridges (6), quaint towns with old churches and cemeteries and beautiful fall colors.

In Vermont, where we knew they had covered bridges (we found 7) our most important stop was to Sharon, Vermont. Which is the birthplace of Joseph Smith, the prophet. We were early, but the missionary staff let us in and were very kind. Besides the monument we also saw the foundations from some family homes, part of an old fence dating back to the time that the Smith and Mack families lived in the area and an old stone bridge. The weather had changed-some rain, but the sun did come out later. One of the sister missionaries gave us a map showing covered bridges and that helped us in our quest. We stopped the car often for photo opportunities and are thankful that in most cases the fall foliage cooperated.

Continuing west we entered New York state. We spent the night in Lake Placid directly across from the facility that houses the 1932 and 1980 ice rinks. For those of you old enough to remember-that's where the "Miracle on Ice" occurred at the 1980 Winter Olympics. As we ate our pizza at Mr. Mike's (of course we had to go there), it started snowing, yes, snowing! It stopped before we finished dinner after which we walked to the Olympic complex and watched figure skaters practicing at the 1980 rink. Turns out one of them is the current Junior National Champion and an Olympic hopeful. We didn't get her name, but should be able to figure out who she is with that kind of information. We enjoyed the indoor hot tub at the inn before we turned in for the night.

Today (October 1) we woke up to snow on the car! We drove through the beautiful Adirondack Mountains. More beautiful trees, lots of lakes and one covered bridge (although it's a newer one-1985) in Old Forge. We stopped briefly at the Adirondack Museum-would have loved to have spent a lot of time there. We also enjoyed some additional tastes of American Revolution history at Ft. Stanwix in Rome, New York and Fort Ontario, in Oswego, New York. We're spending the night at Oswego not too far from one of the Great Lakes-Lake Ontario.

To be continued...

NS