House close to Lake Squam
Time to move on again. All the accommodation is pre-booked so we have to get where we're going, and this time we're going to the Green Mountains an Killington in particular.
As usual we pack in as much sightseeing as possible starting with Jackson then all points between here and the 190 miles we will drive to Killington:
Crossing the main road onto the 153 we pass another picturesque lake not on the map but may have been Pequawket and we got it wrong yesterday! Continuing down Route 153 there are some nice lakes with reflections, notably Crystal Lake and Purity Lake.
Lakes and nice views are the order of the day and we take a diversion to Centre Sandwich (and North Sandwich) before getting back on track via Centre Harbor. This way takes us past Lake Squam where the views are of the lake for reflections, but better still there is a nice house nearby with some nice trees, so they make a nice picture:
House close to Lake Squam
More attractive houses loom up along the route.
All this talk of sandwiches has made us hungry and neither Centre Harbor or the next town Meredith had anything to offer - except nice New England views - so we had to try and find a rest area, so abundant in Maine and White Mountains, to eat out own sandwiches. No suitable rest area found -i.e. one with a toilet - so we eventually opt for a meal at Bobby's Girl Diner close to Pemigewasset Lake
Nice atmosphere and nice enough meal to set us up for the afternoon and back on the road Val fancies to have a quick look at Ruggles Mine - she likes rocks. The directions point off the main road but no distance given. More directions still no distance. Eventually it points up to Isinglass Mountain and its also the same way to Ruggles. Two miles later up hill on a track we arrive at the summit and Ruggles mine and too late to go in. From the summit there were good views over red trees to Mt Cardigan in the distance. Worth the detour for the view and a walk round Ruggles Mine shop.
In the shop the have minerals found in the mine, and a feature of the Mine is that you can pick up what you like to keep, but one of the minerals is Uranium Ore. I am not too sure whether the airlines would be too happy about transporting lumps of uranium.
After the return down the mountain its a straight drive to Killington. The lack of stops mainly being due to the views being in mist and rain. What started out pretty sunny ended up pretty rainy and not really pretty at that.
Arrive at the hotel in daylight (6.30pm) and the Hotel and room are both very nice indeed. After eating, in fact probably too soon after eating, we head for the pool and "whirlpool", after which we return to the room tired, weary maybe refreshed but certainly clean.
Last bits of the day spent planning tomorrow - the aim is to keep it below 150 miles.
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