Day 14-15, N. Conway to Burlington, CT via Mt. Washington

Adding water at the
half way point

We left N. Conway at a reasonable hour to head towards my brother's house in Burlington, CT.  Just as we started to leave, Nance said we really shouldn't leave without driving up to Mt. Washington.  The weather was fair, the mountain was unshrouded by its usual cover of clouds. Bill agreed, thinking it was an opportunity not to be passed up.  It was going to add about 70 difficult miles to our trip today.

The toll for the Mt. Washington auto road is rather expensive (about $50 per car) but it is waived for old cars.  Up we went, on a very steep, narrow and curvaceous mountain road.  The average grade is 12%, much steeper than any grade you encounter in the real world.  Bill started in 2nd gear and the LaSalle was able to maintain about 20 mph up the hill. About half way up, traffic was slowing us down and the engine temperature quickly pegged to hot. Bill pulled into a rest area and the LaSalle blew off considerable steam. We waited for 10 minutes to cool down, added about two quarts of water. Nance visited with folks from the Netherlands and fellow Gliddenites stopped to commiserate. Starting again, we stayed in first gear and the engine stayed cool. We finally crested the road meeting a 1940 Buick Phaeton from the Glidden Tour in the parking lot.

Nance rejoices at the summit

The mountain top is quite a scene.  It's rugged and rocky, leaving no doubt this area endures some of the most severe weather on the planet day after day.  We enjoyed inspecting the ancient looking cog trains that had just arrived with passengers from all around the world. Hikers waited in line for photo-ops at the summit and visitors crowded the museum to learn about the extreme weather research.

The way down was still hard on the heart, we stayed in first gear and avoided using our brakes as much as possible.  Overall it was a very significant experience for us, but I don't recommend old car touring on this road.  The climb and descent was obviously challenging to all our nuts, bolts, bearings and gears, I don't think we will expose the LaSalle to a challenge like this again.  We do need this car to keep running so we can get back to New Mexico!

And so we motored on to the south, passing by some of the attractions we saw on the AAA Glidden Tour. We continued SW on I-93 to Concord, NH 9 and 10 to Keene and Northfield.  We finally joined I-91 and headed south, enduring the congestion of Springfield MA and Hartford CT to get on secondary roads to Burlington CT.  There we met my brother and sister in law, ending Saturday at dusk and covering 409 miles.  We did have two major losses this day.  Nance lost her cell phone, we think it fell out of the car after we repacked after the Mt. Washington descent.  Bill left our antique original locking gas cap at a gas station.  We replaced it with a rather ordinary looking modern one. Both of these items were mourned and missed.

Sunday was our first non-driving day in two full weeks.  The LaSalle got a rest while Nance and my brother walked in the beautiful Sessions Woods.  We enjoyed a great visit with Bill's cousins from Hudson NY.  They drove over for dinner and memories as we talked for hours about all the good times we had as young folks in New England....