New Hampshire - Day 27 - NH's eastern edge

White Birches Camping Park, Shelburne
Friday, 27 July 2018

today's route

Today I drove from the southern part of New Hampshire to the southern edge of what they call the North Country.  Besides changing campgrounds, I wanted to visit Dover and the Madison Boulder.

Along the way, I was delighted to see the first fireweed, which I loved in Alaska and have missed in Texas.

I also passed the sign of a business advertising itself as "New England's largest recycler of ferrous and non-ferrous metal."  It just seemed like an odd thing to put on a business sign.  Ferrous and non-ferrous?

Dover was founded in 1623 and claims to be NH's oldest town.  I don't think any of these buildings is anywhere close to that age, but they do look like they've been there a while.  Surprisingly, though, most of the buildings I saw looked no more than 100 years old or so - Portsmouth looked much much older than Dover.  Maybe Dover had a bad fire or something.

Driving in rural New Hampshire, as I've been doing lately, I've seen a LOT of cemeteries, large and small, in unexpected places.  I stopped at a grocery chain store (Hannaford's - very common up here) and walked the dogs in the large parking lot and stumbled across a small cemetery with gravestones dating to 1806.  The large cemeteries are around, of course, near town with old and new grave markers, but there are a surprising number of small cemeteries out in the middle of what's now nowhere.  I'm assuming they're telling us where people used to live.

I've been learning on New Hampshire Public Radio that the state legislature is having a fit over a recent Supreme Court ruling saying states must collect sales tax from merchants selling online.  New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax and desperately wants to keep it that way - I guess they figure they're making it back in increased sales from residents of other states.  Anyway, the legislature is tying itself into knots trying to figure out what to do next.  Interesting.  I suppose that explains the fact that you can find a state-owned liquor store close to the border on any road that crosses from the surrounding states.

I drove north from Dover and bypassed Rochester.  Part of me didn't want to do it, but I searched very hard - including on the city's own website - trying to find anything like a sight to see, a historical note, anything.  And could find absolutely nothing.  How can a town that's the 5th or so largest in the state have nothing worth visiting?  So anyway I gave it a miss.  Onward.

Dexter's an interesting copilot.  He'll often sit up on the passenger seat and look at the scenery.  Sometimes a bird will come swooping by the window and Dexter will whip around to see where it went.  You should have seen him with the gulls at the coast.  Pretty funny.

When Gracie sits in that seat, she's usually telling me she's feeling a little queasy and I always open the window for her.  After a while, she'll lie down on the seat and I'll gradually close the window again.  Sometimes Dexter gets interested in the open window and will come join Gracie on the seat - it's a tight fit having both the dogs there, and I doubt if it's helping Gracie with her queasiness.  What a pair.

Even if I hadn't missed the boulder field a few days ago, I'd still have wanted to visit the Madison Boulder, and it turns out I was right.

 I don't know if you can read this sign very well, but basically it says the boulder is one of the world's largest glacial erratics, being 83' long, 37' wide, 23' high above ground, plus a likely 10'-12' below ground.  When I came around a corner and saw this thing I gasped.  My pictures don't do it justice.  You can find more information at https://www.des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/publications/geologic/documents/madison-boulder-brochure.pdf.









On an entirely different note, remember Claude Rains?  Capt. Louis Renault in "Casablanca?"  He's buried in Moultonborough at the head of Lake Winnipesaukee, where I spent almost a week earlier in the month.  Wish I'd known - I'd have paid my respects.  I passed near there on my way north but I remember those roads well and didn't want to go down them yet again just for this.

The last hour or so of the drive was through the White Mountain National Forest, and much of that was alongside what's known as the Presidential Range - the mountains are named Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams, Mt. Madison, Mt. Monroe, Mt. Pierce, Mt. Eisenhower, Mt. Jackson and, of course, Mt. Washington - the highest point in New Hampshire at 6,288'.  I'd have stopped to take a photo but ran out of chances by the time I thought of it.