Summer Travel Map

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

A quick stop in Hampton Beach

July 9, 2007
Salisbury, MA

This post will be delayed (for the first time in a long while, we have no Internet connection!) but I’ll compose offline.

We left CT on schedule Saturday, heading for Salisbury, MA. Well, almost on schedule, since I’d planned to leave around Noon and we got under way a little after 1 PM. This was no big deal, though, as I’d planned a later than normal departure and a relatively short hop for the day.

We did quite a bit of the departure preparation on Friday, so we had a relatively easy morning to say our goodbyes and get on the road. I was able to pack all the things I sold on eBay and get them ready for shipment as well. The good news: all the visors and window blinds were sold except for the two traditional Venetian blinds from the kitchen and bathroom. The bad news: everything needed to be packed up! I found the boxes I needed (primarily 6” x 6” x 48” long square ones for the blinds) at The UPS Store in Enfield. Two items were paid for quickly so I was able to get them shipped before we left. One set of blinds was going to Canada, and the buyer asked me to ship them USPS instead of UPS, so I printed out the pre-paid mailer/customs form and took it to the local Broad Brook PO. Well, the lady working there (she’s been there for years) just didn’t like the looks of me or my stinking package. “No, you can’t drop off pre-paid here”. “No, you can’t ship that to Canada”. “No, the postage is wrong”. She had to ask her supervisor every time she tried to stall me, and got overridden each time. Fortunately for everyone involved, both the supervisor and I chose to view the exchange as humorous as opposed to frustrating (easy for me, since I knew I’d already done it right from the online system, which would error out if anything was not to spec). Dropping off the other package at UPS was much easier (drop and go).

Anyway, I picked Salisbury as our first stop for a couple of reasons. First, it’s right on the way to Maine, where we’re headed. Second, it’s about 2.5-3.0 hours drive depending on traffic (which is more of an issue on a Saturday than you might think unless you’re familiar with the crowds heading to the beaches on the weekends). Third, we have a favorite lobster place, Brown’s, where we like to stop. Other than that, there’s nothing else per se we need to see in Salisbury, or in Hampton Beach, the local “hot spot”.

It was cloudy and rain was threatening when we arrived at Black Bear Campground. It was a pretty rustic park, much more so than what we’re used to, but easier to navigate than Rusnik’s where we stayed a few years ago with the “Learning-mobile” (Rusnik’s is where I learned not to hit curbside rocks with the front of the bus while making a sharp turn into the campground). Black Bear bills itself as “big rig friendly”, and we were indeed able to maneuver around OK. Most of the sites are for smaller, older rigs (tight, back-in, 30 amps) and there were a lot of seasonal units in place that you could tell hadn’t moved in years. There were also more travel-trailers and families with kids than we’re used to, but that’s to be expected sometimes. There were a few sites designated for larger motorhomes, and we had a nice 75’ pull-thru that was easy-in/easy-out. All of the roads were packed gravel and crushed rock, and the sites were mostly done in rough cut wood chips (aka “rustic”), so we had some extra work to keep the coach and the pups clean.

We did a “quick deployment” (just slide-outs and window awnings, no outside lights, grill, etc.) because of the weather and the fact that we were only staying a couple of days. Geri spoke with her son Mike by phone, and he told her that her son Peter was in Hampton Beach for the weekend, so we made plans to catch up with him on Sunday. We had a quick pasta dinner with a nice Chianti (no fava beans) and called it an early night.

On Sunday, we got a lazy start. The weather was variable, with the sun peeking out one minute and the clouds overtaking it the next, typical for New England. We headed to Hampton Beach to meet Peter around Noon, and got caught in a horrendous traffic jam. The main “strip” in Hampton Beach is only about 1 mile long and like many seaside towns, is a one way street with the “back street” a block in from the beach going in the other direction. Also like many other spots (think South Street in Philly), a popular activity is to “cruise the strip”. We’d been to Hampton Beach before, but we’ve never seen anything like the slow down we experienced. It took us over an hour to even get onto the “strip”! We parked at the first lot we found (robbery at $20/day but we took it) and walked the rest of the way. You know that the traffic’s bad when Geri, with her breathing difficulties, can make better time on foot.

We met up with Peter and his friend, Val, for lunch. The sky was threatening but we ate outside anyway and had a nice, light meal and a brew. After lunch, Peter and Val went to get their car and Geri and I went to buy “emergency sweatshirts” since the temperature had dropped 10° and the wind had increased 15 MPH while we were having lunch. Temperatures in the low 60s and a threat of rain is nothing new for this area. Why we didn’t plan better and go prepared for weather is beyond me; we know better. Anyway, now we have a set of cheap (2/$30) “Hampton Beach” hooded sweatshirts that will stay in the car.

Peter and Val finally arrived (they had to go 10 blocks, after all), and we fought the traffic to the end of the “Strip”. Traffic just disappeared where the turn for the back street is, just like magic. We took a ride north on 1A, the shore road, past some beautiful vacation homes. Some were older estates, with manicured grounds and an older feel. Others were newer, with a faux age to them. A few just looked out of place, but there’s no accounting for taste. All in all it was a nice ride until we got back to Hampton Beach, of course. Traffic on the back street was even worse later in the day, as weekend/day visitors joined in. We finally got close enough to where we were parked to hop out and walk the rest of the way. Peter and Val were planning to continue their drive south to Salisbury Beach, and the head back to CT on Monday.

We fought the “exit traffic” all the way back to the campground (which is right near I-95 and the I-95/I-495 junction) and relaxed for a while with the dogs and a glass of wine before heading to Brown’s for dinner. We waited until after 8:30 PM to leave, and traffic was gone by then. We got our first “lobster fix” (I’m sure there will be more to come on this leg of the trip!) with a 2-pounder for Geri and a 3-pounder for me. We like Brown’s because a) they steam the lobsters instead of boiling them and b) they serve clarified instead of melted butter. We benefited from our late arrival (there was a line out the door waiting when we went by around 5:30 PM), as we had out pick of tables and no wait. People thought we were “professionals” since we brought our own tools (they crack the shells but we like to bring our own crackers and picks to get all the good meat out) and we had a nice bottle of “Sweet Cheeks” Chardonnay that I brought back from Oregon in the spring. We ended up being the last ones to leave around 10:30 PM and they closed the doors behind us.

Monday morning brought the same variable weather, so we did some cleaning up around the coach in the morning. I made a “Dunkin’ Donuts” run for breakfast, and we got everything ready for our Tuesday departure. Just for grins, I connected the park’s cable TV and the darn thing worked. We’ve had problems with cable in the past, and I assumed that (eventually) I’d have to trace the coax and re-wire something. This wasn’t a priority since we usually have our DirecTV working. Now I need to figure out what I did right this time (or wrong the other times) if we need it again. Not all parks have cable, but it’s nice to have that option if we need it. It’s good to have the local version of The Weather Channel sometimes, since the satellite version doesn’t show local forecasts and radar.

We decided to head back to Hampton Beach in the afternoon for an early dinner, because we know there are a variety of food stands there. We decided to go into Hampton Beach “the back way”, heading north on US-1 then east on NH-101. Traffic was nil, and we found a $3 parking spot. There must have been a big exodus, because things were pretty quiet. We had a huge slice of pizza (every shop has “the largest slice on the beach”) that was really two “normal” slices and, as we were eating, the clouds darkened and it started to rain. We decided that it was a sign that we needed to get inside, so we went to “The Purple Urchin” and sat in the upstairs bar area for a brew. Geri had a Stella Artois and I had a local wheat beer; both were good. While we were sitting there, the wind shifted to the east and a heavy thunderstorm came through. Since the water was blowing 25’ into the bar area, we headed for a drier place to wait it out.

In the “it’s a small world department”, we chatted with a couple at the bar from East Hartford, CT, who were on vacation with their kids. Geri lived in East Hartford “BG” (“before George”), and we lived near there for many years. Since we were Internet/TV-deprived, we weren’t aware of the tremendous temperature difference across New England. While we were relatively chilly at 62°, temperatures in the Hartford area (about 120 miles away) were in the mid-to-upper-90s. We could have used some of that warmth!

After the storm let up, we headed for our next “snack”. Geri had a craving for fried clam strips and I had a batch of fresh-cut French fries. Just as we started to eat, the rain started again, so we quickly walked a couple of blocks to the nearest arcade and found a table among all the carnival games. Noisy, but dry. During the next break in the weather, we finished off our grazing up and down the “Strip” with a couple of fried doughs. We finished up just as the lightning started again, and we just made it back to the car before the rains came again, so we headed back to the campground to bail out the pups. Typical for New England, it hadn’t even rained at the campground, less than 5 miles inland. Since we’d already eaten enough, we just finished off the evening with a Yellow Tail Shiraz and some Key Lime Pie ice cream; oh, yeah!

On Tuesday morning, we head for Maine, so we pretty much got everything ready before calling it a night.

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