Got up early to get ready to go, and was greeted by some stunning vistas across the road. As you’ve seen from early pix, there’s a lake, then mountains across from us, and this morning, after a misty night, there was a fantastic cloud layer at eye level and below. It reminded my of home, when the valley we overlook makes clouds like that. Truly stunning and impressive. Had to get some pix of that! Once we packed up, we headed out, using my new smartphone’s Navigation system, whose map, unlike Verizon Navigator, exactly matches the print map I pulled off the internet. Not too surprising, as they’ve both powered by Google maps. In any event, we had planned to stop for breakfast at a little diner in town, but discovered the parking area was WAY too small for us, so we headed back on the road until we found a Dunkin’ Donuts at a gas station. We had never eaten there before, but I had stopped at one a few months ago and discovered they serve breakfast all day, which is perfect for those times when we get a late start. Anyway, it was very good for fast food. The croissants seemed bigger than at Burger King, and the hash browns were laced with some lovely herbs, giving it a really nice flavor unlike any other breakfast potatoes we’ve ever had at any of the usual chains. Anyway, we soon arrived in Littleton, where we bought oats at Tractor Supply, groceries at Shaws, gas for the van and the generators, propane at a 100-year old hardware store, and picked up some of Hubby’s favorite brandy on sale! All within about 100 yards of each other, it was a very efficient stop. Finally headed out again, arriving at New Discovery State Park in less than an hour. We were greeted warmly by the ranger, and soon the woman I had spoken to last week came out to welcome us as well. They said we were going to have the place to ourselves at the horse camp, so feel free to pick any site that we wanted and to spread out as much as we liked. Love that kind of freedom! Since it was a mostly open area, we were set up in no time. Each campsite here had what the rangers called "corrals", but in fact were posts with clips on them so that if you have your own electric fence, you could create a corral, but since we don’t carry that, we fixed up a highline between a couple of trees. We put the horses out on their anchors so they could mow and fertilize again, which has been a great way to keep our hay use down! Took a walk to the ranger station to ask where the nearest cell phone signal was, and they said stand by their mailbox by the side of the road was a good spot. Forecast calling for temps in the 30s, so we put the winter blankets on the horses before going to bed, trying to avoid them growing too much of a winter coat before we head south. Had a relaxing evening, especially since there was zero cell phone signal here in the campground, so I had to get off my computer for a change!
Got up early to get ready to go, and was greeted by some stunning vistas across the road. As you’ve seen from early pix, there’s a lake, then mountains across from us, and this morning, after a misty night, there was a fantastic cloud layer at eye level and below. It reminded my of home, when the valley we overlook makes clouds like that. Truly stunning and impressive. Had to get some pix of that! Once we packed up, we headed out, using my new smartphone’s Navigation system, whose map, unlike Verizon Navigator, exactly matches the print map I pulled off the internet. Not too surprising, as they’ve both powered by Google maps. In any event, we had planned to stop for breakfast at a little diner in town, but discovered the parking area was WAY too small for us, so we headed back on the road until we found a Dunkin’ Donuts at a gas station. We had never eaten there before, but I had stopped at one a few months ago and discovered they serve breakfast all day, which is perfect for those times when we get a late start. Anyway, it was very good for fast food. The croissants seemed bigger than at Burger King, and the hash browns were laced with some lovely herbs, giving it a really nice flavor unlike any other breakfast potatoes we’ve ever had at any of the usual chains. Anyway, we soon arrived in Littleton, where we bought oats at Tractor Supply, groceries at Shaws, gas for the van and the generators, propane at a 100-year old hardware store, and picked up some of Hubby’s favorite brandy on sale! All within about 100 yards of each other, it was a very efficient stop. Finally headed out again, arriving at New Discovery State Park in less than an hour. We were greeted warmly by the ranger, and soon the woman I had spoken to last week came out to welcome us as well. They said we were going to have the place to ourselves at the horse camp, so feel free to pick any site that we wanted and to spread out as much as we liked. Love that kind of freedom! Since it was a mostly open area, we were set up in no time. Each campsite here had what the rangers called "corrals", but in fact were posts with clips on them so that if you have your own electric fence, you could create a corral, but since we don’t carry that, we fixed up a highline between a couple of trees. We put the horses out on their anchors so they could mow and fertilize again, which has been a great way to keep our hay use down! Took a walk to the ranger station to ask where the nearest cell phone signal was, and they said stand by their mailbox by the side of the road was a good spot. Forecast calling for temps in the 30s, so we put the winter blankets on the horses before going to bed, trying to avoid them growing too much of a winter coat before we head south. Had a relaxing evening, especially since there was zero cell phone signal here in the campground, so I had to get off my computer for a change!
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