Not our name, but our passion
The oldest railroad covered bridge in the world is the Contoocook Railroad bridge in Contoocook Village, New Hampshire.
The 1849 covered bridge was rebuilt in 1989 and spans the Contoocook River.
The bridge is on the grounds of the Contoocook Railroad Museum which also includes a nice little park and good access to the river.
There a nice access to the river for canoes and kayaks.
The Contoocook Railroad Museum in the New Hampshire village of Contoocook is a great little local park encompassing the museum located in the old railroad depot and an adjoining covered bridge. The museum itself is a well preserved railroad depot with a collection of artifacts inside.
The railroad bridge is the earliest surviving railroad covered bridge in the world.
There is a sizable parking area with a bandstand and nice access to the Contoocook River.
The Blackwoods Scenic Byway is what we as kids used to call the “Cherryfield Woods” long before the area was developed for tourism. We would drive up to Eastport, Maine my mother’s home town each summer for vacation via US Route 1. A short cut we would take was Maine Route 182 which would cut off a large section of the coastal route by bisecting the woods going into Cherryfield. Back in the day the road was quite wild and we would see black bear, moose and dear. Some of my fondest memories were lakeside picnic lunches as we traversed the woods.
There are now numerous opportunities for canoeing and hiking in the area.
Both a useful short cut when heading deep into Washington County and a destination in and of itself for hiking and boating this area is a great spot for a family vacation.
Barker’s farm in Stratham is a family run farm owned by the same family since 1917. The farm stand has a selection of fresh crops in season and a variety of local farm type products.
You can see some of the fields and greenhouses surrounding the farm stand.
There are several picnic tables on the grounds.
We purchased our usual favorites tomatoes, cucumbers and corn on the cob. All were very good farm fresh quality, however the corn did have about 40% of the ears with corn worms in the very tip. We snapped off the ends and the rest of the ear was fine. The corn was good but the today’s pick was not available until about 10:00 am on a Saturday.
In addition to the fresh veggies we bought some smoked cheese and an apple-blueberry pie which were both very good. Their farm products are sourced from local vendors.
A local family farm with home grown vegetables and local sourced product you won’t be disappointed.
The Galen Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor is a combination museum and memorial complex. Galen Cole is an industrialist and philanthropist and was a World War II veteran. He was heavily involved in veteran’s affairs and founded the museum in 1989. The grounds of the museum is studded with veteran’s memorials and vehicles and even has a covered bridge.
The inside of the museum has displays and vehicles ranging from fire equipment to snow plows. Particularly impressive are the number of large vehicles like trucks that you do not find in many museums.
The museum has quite the eclectic collection of vehicles and the grounds are worth a visit in and of themselves.
