Davo Attenborough goes Loose...
They spent most of the time sitting on her porch seeing what the bird feeders attracted. They live on a property in the New England area and it is very lush with lots of wildlife. Here is just a sample of the hundred pictures or so that the Mustang took...
Squirrel, Blue Jay and Chipmunk in one picture.
{It's not a squirrel, it's a dove, but who am I to correct him? Time for new glasses?.}
...Squirrels!
This one cuter than the others we see on the roadside.
We missed the skunk that usually visits the porch in the evenings. However, I have now driven past a dead one by the side of the road with the window down. No way to describe the smell except perhaps a visual image of dissolving a body in a bath of acid, a la Breaking Bad.
Look! New camera with a zoom (that works!)
On our way and more cemeteries to see...
Civil War veterans graves (1802)
White Mountain National Park and another trail to climb...
The Mustang sets the pace after I blew an ankle again... (!)
Actually it's so she has something soft to land on if she slips and falls. The money shot is up here...
I found it easier to climb rather than walk...
The money shot...
Not bad on one leg.
Back at camp and I think this little guy needs to go into rehab...
White Mountain was busy as it was the 4th of July weekend so we drove through the rest to find a small town to participate in a small town USA 4th of July...
Ah ... the ambience.
Reflective Lake...
The Mustang reflects on what she's got into....
Good luck getting those wheelchairs up that hill...
The 4th of July... this really deserves a post by itself but here we are in Lincoln/Woodstock. They are separated by the interstate but are really the same town. We found a great little "Mom and Pop" motel to stay at. It was like travelling back in time. Complete with Formica furniture and lamp shades. It was only missing the plaster ducks on the wall. Like living in a museum dedicated to the 50's except immaculately maintained.
Not "The Land's End" but still time travel.
Our Small Town America 4th of July kicked off with a parade....
Not many people on the sidewalk - cause they're all in the parade!
Didn't have a parade queen - they do things different in Woodstock - the parade was led by the Grand Marshall, who this year was the town barber! Queue Monty Python music now (yes, it gets worse)...
Chief Marshall Charlie waves his clippers at the crowd (me).
Then came the town's cheerleaders waving their pom-poms...
They cheer for the local weightlifting team!
Everyone gets a guernsey...
But it's a nice view up Main Street.
Just grab a trailer and chuck the wife and kids and whatever else you've got lying around the back yard on it...
Redneck swimming pool - in case you can't read the sign.
The string section...
Followed by the bass section...
This guy from Mad Max Thunder Road. Yes, he drives it around town.
And after an hour of everyone going by, the highlight was...
This little red wagon that brought up the rear.
In the afternoon the Woodstock crowd gathered at a local park for some live music...
Prozac and Viagra has really taken off here since the sixties.
You then get to queue for ice cream...
All the way across the Main Street.
Red white and blue ice cream.
And of course the finale ...
They spelt my name out in fireworks - see if you can spot it....
Absolute cracker of a 4th of July here. Woodstock certainly lived up to the hype of expectations, even though nobody set fire to a guitar whilst playing the Star Spangled Banner.
After a well-earned night's sleep, it's back on the road and back into the White Mountains to spot that elusive moose. I could have hired a moose-spotting tour in Woodstock, but it actually costs money. On the way, the Mustang gets her BOF on.
With Pegasus...
and a heavy metal moose. It's domesticated, so it doesn't count (no cheating here).
A short walk before camp the Mustang strikes a Druid pose...
Ancient monolith (the rock, that is).
Look! Chipmunk!
Still recovering from our injuries, we decided not to hike up Mount Washington. We caught the 1860 Cog Railway instead...
Joining the queue with the other lazy fatties.
Kind of glad we didn't walk...
26% grade.
Now, Mount Washington has really changeable weather, and about 200 people have died trying to climb it. It has recorded a top wind speed of 240 mph (that's 386 km/h). So of course we went prepared...
for the beach!
The Mustang catches a tan at the summit.
Thongs at 6,289 feet.
Back to another campsite in another National Park.
The firewood is getting a little out of control. The Mustang is starting to covet the telegraph poles.
No luck with moose in the White Mountains, although they are supposed to have been re-introduced. So we'll head up to Maine near the border. On the way, we stopped at F-Troop's fort...
AGARN!!!!!!!!!
Finding spots by the side of the road that isn't privately owned is quite difficult. But we can always...
Stop in a cemetery and boil a cuppa. They're everywhere.
A bit of a drive, but we made it to Mount Desert Island, which is as far north as we'll go. It contains Acadia National Park, which is a drive trail. And picture-postcard scenery...
except for the weather.
It was so cold, the Mustnag was brave enough to check the North Atlantic water temperature. She announced it officially....
bloody cold!
A perfect afternoon spent watching the otters in Bass Harbor, just near our camp....
Still a shame about missing summer in Maine. Apparently it happened last Tuesday this year.
We're working the new camera, and this is the first timer photo attempt. Pretty flash, eh?
If you believe this was the first attempt, you'll believe anything.
The next day we went into the main town, Bar Harbor. No Titanic Museum, but everything has a lobster theme...
Lobster ice cream?
Doing our driving loop around the park - GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!
This young buck was just begging for it...
No other tourist could get a shot like this...
...cause we scared him off!
BOF on the rocks.
Nature.
The loop road makes a detour up to the top of Mount Cadillac, the highest point. What a perfect opportunity to use the new timer photo technique to get the Cadillac on Cadillac!
Check out the view! Would have looked nice last Tuesday.
"Get back in the bloody car now and stop mucking around with that camera!"
Bar Harbor is world renowned for its lobster, so no trip is complete without a wee sample. There are plenty of roadside lobster pounds where you choose your live lobster...
I got the guy to throw this one to me so I could catch it myself.
They then stuff it in a rope bag and boil it outside.
in wood-fired pots.
And then the fun begins!
The bib was needed. Just ask the New Yorkers we shared the table with. They left after the first bits of shell started to fly.
Serious work this... drool out both sides of the mouth just to prove the floor was level.
Verdict: Yum, yum, butcher's bum! The smile is memories of Safety Bay.
This is as far north and east as we are going.
Otters - check.
Moose - check check.
Lobster - check check check.
Squirrel!
