Riah is swimming with his Daddy right now. Lest you all think I am a terrible momma, I did go watch him for awhile, and he is having a lot of fun down there.
I went like 48 hours with no cell phone service, and no computer access, and I felt so out of it! I think we all need to be thankful for the ability to communicate so easy these days. I feel sort of bad for these folks up here in the Great North Woods area. I do value having a cell phone when we travel in far out places, but you know, if it doesn't get service, it's not much good if you need to call AAA! Maybe 48 hours of no phones and emails was a welcome change! At any rate, I am back in the civilized world of being connected! So let the recap begin!
Today was awesome. It was more than awesome, it was like mega awesome. We had planned to spend the day moose hunting in Northern Maine and New Hampshire, because the forecast last night looked bad for Mount Washington. But to our surprise, when we drove by the mountain, it appeared clear except at the very tip top! So, we dished out $32.00 to drive the private road to the summit. Now I know what some of you are thinking, I was thinking it too as I handed over the cash (The credit machine was broken, hit by lightening the night before!). I thought it was a terrible price to pay to go to up a mountain. I mean, we have stood on much higher peaks out west, so why fork over the money? The mountain passes out west are technically higher in elevation than Mount Washington! But you know what, it was worth every penny! Everything is relative, and today atop that mountain, it felt like I was on top of the world.
Wayne admitted at the summit, that he was a bit nervous driving up. This road is like nothing we had ever been on. It's narrow, steep, no guardrails, and you have to ascend and descend in low gear. Pump the breaks and chances are they will still stink by the bottom of the hill coming down. Gas it too much and you'll flood your engine and over heat your radiator going up.
Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern United States. It recorded the highest wind gust ever, and it is commonly known for having the world's worst weather. But today, it was perfect. It was chilly at 50 or so degrees, but the wind wasn't that bad and we explored and had a blast. We hiked into the alpine zone and Riah learned about life above the treeline. We found the geographical survey marker at the summit and checked out all the views. Riah loves to rock climb, so the boulders at the summit made for lots of fun.
I slipped and landed hard on my knee on a wet rock, but all is fine now. Just a tad swollen! Riah would have stayed much longer up there, but I knew Wayne was feeling a bit anxious about the drive back down, so we eventually climbed back in the van.
Once we got back on the road after Mount Washington, our moose hunt began. Now, you know I shot with a Nikon, not a gun! We drove into Maine to the town of Rumford. Why? Because there was a Muffler Man there. I know, we are so strange! But, we headed north from there, determined to find a real moose today. And once we headed into the deep woods on Route 17, I saw her. She was ugly as could be, standing in the thicket. Wayne backed up about two hundred feet to try to find her to take a picture, and she came out onto the road! Well, I snapped four of her, and though they are not the best, I was happy as could be having found myself a real moose!
The ride through Maine was so pretty. We have always liked Maine, but had never been to the northwest corner. At some point the rain began, and all I could think was, I am so glad this didn't happen in the morning on Mount Washington! And, it also decreased our visibility, so we may have seen even more moose, but all we really concerned ourselves with was making sure we didn't hit one. They are huge and can really damage a vehicle and people in them.
When we got to New Hampshire, we saw three more! The rain was coming down though, so once more, the pictures were less than perfect by my standards. But I still had a blast snapping them. The bull moose was the best. He had a dewlap and everything! Woo Hoo. We saw MOOSE on our Moose Trek. I am such a happy camper! Well, the hotel is cool tonight, an award winner and we are pleased to be settled in. I need to shrink and upload. Sign the guest book folks if you haven't yet. I need to post a link to read it, as I forgot to place one in the page design. You can get to the view guestbook area through Frontier Faulkners or Toseeacactus though. I archived all the old entries prior to this trip, so it's all new stuff there. See ya tomorrow folks!