Well, I got back safely from New England on Tuesday morning around 4am after driving thru constant rain from Old Saybrook CT to home..8hrs, 120 km/h = LONG drive..heh

But on Saturday, I was in Keene NH at the 15th annual Keene Pumpkin Festival, I'd say about 20,000 people on a pretty dark and damp afternoon, unfortunately the town didnt beat their own record and only 22, 153 jack-o-lanterns were counted. Boston had its own Festival and counted over 24 000 gourds.

Amongst 20K people in a small historic town, a few BC members managed to find me.


Good times...I post pics tonight

All in all, New England is nice, but its nicer to be home.

Im curious..... Who?


P.*. there was a bomb scare in Boston. stupid people... some moron stuffed a pumkin with wires.

She was at Bills place...I'm saddened I was not mentioned :?

She told me She told me!!! But that was on Sunday afternoon and Gumball had left already....in fact, there weren't many BCer'* left at that time. So yes, consider yourself thought of.

For some reason Jim (Gumball) runs from each NEBF early on Sunday afternoon and doesn't help consume the proper amount of beer.

Hailey did mention you and Angie wouldn't be able to make it. We were bummed, would have been good to meet you both.

Ya, to much to do..to little time. But the Essex Steam Train and Rivah () Boat were awesome! We saw Gilette Castle and the Goodspeed Opera house... etc

At the Pumpkin Fest, Angela and I were casually watchin the Childrens costume parade and I briefly noticed Amitys (another BC member) family, then I saw Hailey with them which suprised me, considering the meet at Bills...they came over and said hi, we talked for a few minutes, then we went our separate ways to enjoy the Fest.

I'm gonna submit some of my pics to the Pumpkin Festival website too

I met haily and Rob. but for a few moments though.
I cant help it if they keep showing up late.

Alright alright...

Here is a brief synopsis of my trip.

This being my second trip to New England, I was generally aware of where I had to go. But luckily I still had my directions that Hailey wrote for me 2 years ago. So Angela and I got up at 330am last Thursday, left by 5, fired up the Aurora and we were off. 1hr journey to the border, then crossed into NY at Niagara Falls. We made our way thru morning traffic around 7 as we approached the Interstate 90E.



As we proceeded along the 90E into Utica, we made it into the southern portion of the Adirondacks by about 1030am.



Nice lil bit of colour!...but generally I was disappointed, crappy weather in October and apparently the leaves were suffering and confused.

Around 2pm we were driving thru VT on the 9E and got to Hogback Point, which endlessly looks out towards the East.



Taking the opportunity I took this shot of us


It was windy up there

We arrived in Keene NH around 3 pm to little fanfare, but the weather was nice. This clock tower in the Center Square of town is my favourite architectural feature of this quaint and downright lovely historic town



Post card

We walked around, I snapped this one.



We went to Nicolas for dinner, this cute little Italian restaurant in Keene, I love it...been there twice now! For a small town, it has the most restaurants per capita in the New England area for sure! The next day we toured around abit and drove to nearby Swanzey. We snapped some car pix, some covered bridge pix, and evantually drove down to near Richmond NH, which is very close to the MA border (all backroads...lovely!)



Sig pic material above!!!

Couldnt help it


The next day was the famous Pumpkin Festival as I mentioned above










We missed the fireworks tho :( had to drive down to Old Saybrook CT that night. And that was over 2.5 hrs in driving rain..omg...btw Hartford, from the 91S, beauty of a city, I'd love to go back and really see it.

We visited Essex, apparently voted the most beautiful small town in America...I dont doubt it. Had dinner at the Griswold Inn, the only building in Essex that the Canadians (insert British..lol) didnt burn down in the war of 1812..go us :? we had to eat and drink somewhere right?! haha

On to the pix




Random geese on the beach..hah

The later that afternoon we rode the Essex Steam Engine train and Riverboat. Train from Essex to Chester, back to Deep River, then board the boat from Deep River up to Goodspeed, then back to Deep River. From there back on the train and back to Essex...awesome trip!



I took that one for obvious reasons!!

From the boat





CT residents will know that that Castle is

Then the next day we drove around Old Saybrook CT, its on the coast at the junction of the CT River and Long Island Sound, very nice town, to bad the weather got lousy


We heard the weather was going to get really bad on our scheduled departure day of Tuesday, so we opted to drive home Monday night, we left at 8pm and arrived home at 4am, it rained the WHOLE way home...heh, I guess I was delirious, once we hit the Hudson river, I figured..hey we're almost home..lol, then I saw signs reading 303 miles to BUFFALO...needlessly to saw it was a LONG stressful drive, but I did it.

Nice to be home..lol




Oh and for you non believers, Santa Claus lives....and he spends his Autumns in Deep River CT, and and! he drives an old Dodge Dakota



All these pix are unaltered shots at 800x600 res, I'll be editing some, and others in Photoshop, I'll post more at a later date

Hope you liked!

WOW..... wallopumpkins is cool!!!

can i get more pics of ur centercaps now... are they done?

Gorgeous pics, Jim. Looks like you two had fun!