A Stop in New Hampshire and Some Covered Bridges

We were enjoying another scenic drive as we made our way to New Hampshire when  we heard thunder all around and pouring rain coming down and we then had to drive through narrow busy streets in a small town.

  However, we made it to our destination, Ashuelot River Campground, in Swanzey,NH and it stopped raining..  We and another couple who drove in after us had to wait about an hour as we saw the sign on the door with a back at 5 o'clock noted. It was a Monday and the owner thought he was safe in making a trip to the store for supplies. He was very apologetic and very nice. He and his wife just bought the place a year ago and have been fixing it up. She still works and only comes up to the campground on weekends. They are taking a cautious approach until they see how this owning a campground works out. It is a good size campground but not a whole lot of people there when we were there. Most are in the full hook up sites and we picked an electric only in a large open area with only one tent across the way. We only stayed two nights but would loved to have stayed longer.
 

The river is  on the other side of the trees in the picture above and you can take a nice walk along the river and on a trail right near our spot which Savannah and I did.

We did take a drive to check out the area and drive to some covered bridges in the area. In fact, the campground site did have a warning as some gps's have you going down a road with a covered bridge that would be much too low for any rv. Gracie, our GPS, did not go that way on our way there but when we were out driving in the jeep and returning from a different direction, it did so. On the whole, our GPS has been wonderful. We use it all the time. No more trying to read signs on when or where to turn. Also as it is connected to Joe's smart phone by bluetooth, phone calls come through on it. So hands free. Love her!!!

Any way, we checked out some of the eight covered bridges in the area. Most were built in the early 1800's though some have been rebuilt more recently. Always interesting to see the different styles.

A short stay in New Hampshire but nice. Now onto Maine where we will be for a few weeks.

A Little More Time in Michigan and over the border to OhiO

We traveled a few more hours down to South Higgins Lake SP, which was another nice spot on the water.

We only signed up for two days and someone else was coming in on Thursday and so we continued on our way south, stopped at a commercial campground for one night and then making our way over the border to Ohip. Maumee Bay State Park is a large park on Maumee Bay, which is part of Lake Erie. It has a campground with 252 sites, a lodge and restaurant and boat dock. The campground is way from the rest of the park and so pretty quiet. We found a nice spot in the first come first serve loop on the corner with a large grassy sitting area that is well kept. Lots of bushes between our site and the next one.

We finally got our bikes off the back of the MH and have been doing some riding. There are nice biking and walking trails throughout the park and you can easily ride 3 or  miles just going to the main beach area and back to our campsite. Savannah comes with us in her cart that hooks onto Joe's bike. She cries at first but then settles down and seems fine just looking around.

We have had some rain but it has been warm and sunny most of the time. Besides just enjoying this beautiful park, we have taken a few trips into Toledo. We hadn't thought about Toledo as a destination as we just thought Maumee Bay looked like a nice stop on the way to the Cleveland area. However, it is a city with lots to do and the next few posts will show where we went. Stay tuned.

Along the Columbia River

Our next stop was Elochoman Slough Marina, which is in Cathlament, Washington, on the Columbia River.

RV sites are in a parking lot area like Winchester Bay, where we stayed recently, but smaller. There are some sites right on the river but are a little short for us but we have an end site, with water and electric and a great view of the river anyway.

Can you see our motorhome in the picture below. We are the one of the three rv's and the one on the far right.

 

 

 

The weather was on the cool side but had some great sunsets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove into Long Beach Friday to see if there were any campgrounds we might to stay next but really didn't see anything we liked. We may go farther up the coast. We stopped to take a picture or two in the area including one of the Astoria Bridge.

Almost 2,000 ships and about 700 lives have been claimed by the treacherous waters off the Peninsula over the past 300 years. Ships often had trouble traversing the Columbia River bar, the area in which the gigantic flow of the river rushes headlong into towering ocean waves.

 

 

 

Sunday we went back west to Astoria, this time, crossing into Oregon, into the city itself.

per Wiki

The Astoria–Megler Bridge is a steel cantilever through truss bridge that spans the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon and Point Ellice near Megler, Washington, in the United States. Located 14 miles (23 km) from the mouth of the river, the bridge is 4.1 miles (6.6 km) long[3] and was the last completed segment of U.S. Route 101 between Olympia, Washington, and Los Angeles, California.[4] It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

We headed to Astoria's Sunday Market, which is in the heart of the historic downtown area. It spans 4 blocks and is the second largest farmer's market in Oregon. It is also near the waterfront. Astoria is a very cool looking town right on the Columbia River, where it meets the ocean. Many of the houses sit on top of hills that overlook the town and the river.

 

 

We enjoyed walking around the market, where I got a lot of good produce. We ran into Nick and Terry Russell. We follow their blog, and went to one of their rallies a few years ago. They are full time rv's and travel around the country, publishing the Gypsy Journey that has articles on places they have been. Nick published his own newspaper in the past and is a very good writer. In the last few years, he has been writing a series of mystery books that take place in a small town in Arizona. We both love his Big Lake series and are looking forward to his next book. Besides produce, meats, and other food products, arts and crafts, they have music and a food court at the market. I had some halibut tacos. They were good but not as good as the ones I had in Bandon.

 

 

Back on the bridge which goes down from the Astoria side before straighting out. Interesting bridge.

 

Picture belows shows only a small portion of the many fishing boats out in the water. It is Salmon fishing time!!!

 

We had gone to a number of covered bridges in Cottage Grove, OR last year. Here is one we stopped at in Washington.

 

 

In case you were wondering why some bridges are covered, the bridges that are covered are wooden and the covers were to keep the wood from rotting out in moist climates, such as Oregon and Washington. There are also a lot of covered wooden bridges in the northeast of the country.

Our days here have reminded me of our California June gloom, where it is foggy or cloudy and the sun comes out around 5 or 6 in the evening. Of course, Monday morning, the day we are leaving to head north, is sunny. C'est la Vie. :) We are headed to Lake Quinault, a beautiful campground on the lake, where we stayed on a vacation a number of years ago. It is only about 3 hours up the road.

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

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