After grabbing a pizza in the town of Hallowell last night, where every few years the spring water surge from ice breaking upstream on the river delivers significant and spectacular floods, we returned to our motel in the state capital Augusta and slept. A hot sticky night.
I woke early intending to shower. A modern looking bath/shower combi looked appealing. Getting water out of it defeated me. Half an hour after my frustration had woken Chris I called the front desk. It’s a macho failure to ask for directions and it’s a disaster of epic proportions to ask how to turn on the shower.
I carried my shame heavily. But who knew it needed pulling out hard before the water would dribble out?
Next up Mount Washington. Well inland but on a clear day you can see the Atlantic from its summit more than 6,000 feet above. An expensive drive to the summit was still $100 cheaper than taking the train. And while the road was quite narrow with no railings to protect you from a big drop I’ve done Montenegro and only lost a wing mirror. This was a doddle.
Temperatures in the foothills dropped dramatically as we approached the summit. The sun disappeared and cloud whisped across. But the views were still stunning. An unused hotel still stands at the peak alongside a well used observatory, museum, gift shop and cafe. We admire views from the absolute peak and enjoyed the museum, which included transcripts and radio conversations of an incident in 1934 when a 231mph wind was recorded. No man has ever recorded higher (although a machine has).
While I’ve been on higher land, this felt pretty bleak. Pretty spectacular. Pretty good. The wind was gusting at around 49mph and that nearly knocked me over. How anybody coped with clearing the snow off their wind measuring equipment in 200mph I’ll never know!
Back to our hotel for the next two nights. The hot tub and pool look appealing.
Seeing the World 