October 14, 2003 - Annville, PA - 1
Well, at last we're parked for a "catch-up" couple of weeks, and since it's raining, I'll attack an inside project and bring the journal up to date. Annville is about 9 miles east of Hershey in rolling hills of farmland. Corn fields, pumpkins, a crop I can't identify and plenty of cows. Wonderfully neat and clean too. The colors are about 30% here, and when we left Maine they were about 50%. But more about that later.
The plaque pretty well says it all. We'd ridden to sister Carol and her husband Guy's "camp" with them in upper NH, and then up to the Mt. Washington area where we stopped & visited this sophisticated and elegant hotel in spite of the slanted rain. The brochure describes it as "A masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture" built as a "labor of love" at the turn of the 20th century by 250 master craftsmen. It opened in 1902. It certainly has an important historical significance. It is also the site of NH's largest ski area. What a place!
We wandered around a bit with the camera flashing away like we owned the place. Nobody gave us a second look. Must be used to crazy tourists with their cameras, even in the pouring rain. Carol and Guy dropped us off under the canopy and then played chauffer when we were ready to leave. While showing its age because of the furnishings, the upkeep on this place is impeccable and we'd have been very comfortable staying here, if not a bit poorer. The grounds were very well cared for and included a spectacular18-hole golf course where NH "Opens" are hosted.
No, this little steam engine didn't run into the car in front of it and get its boiler out of kilter. It was built this way so the boiler would be level as the train went up and down the hill. Yup, it's a cog railroad, and in daily use during the season here on Mt. Washington.
That's the beginning of the climb. Remember, it was raining like stink and I'm not a fan of water down the back of my neck or of getting my camera soaked, so this is the best shot I'm getting! Inside the gift shop/ticket sales/restaurant building they have one of the cog wheels on display. This one commemorating the engine built in 1983. The whole thing started in 1852 and by 1869 the world's first cog railway was a reality. For the whole story and some pretty good pictures, go to www.thecog.com. Thanks, Carol, for the URL and the additional information. This is something we have on our "next time we're here" list. I was on the cog railroad in Hong Kong in 1964 and Barb experienced the one on Pike's Peak in Colorado; we'd like to ride this one as well. The operation had shut down for the day by the time we got this far, so we'll catch it next time. Fascinating story about the whole thing on their website.
At their camp, it's obvious what the sisters were doing the next morning. I was wandering about with the camera (this is our "bedroom" while we're here) taking shots of the place.
And poor Guy had to fix his own breakfast (from Barb: yah right!). Tough life, eh? This is called a Park Model, and originally was 12' wide. Guy and Carol added another 12' onto it, and that's the room we're using as our bedroom. Central heat/air, and much like a nice small home in a beautiful setting. Open from May through October and closed during the winter months. The location looks much like a RV park. Everybody owns their own land, the common ground is held in a co-op run by the homeowners association. Pretty well run organization from what I could tell. The weekend we were enjoying up here was the annual meeting where weighty decisions are made. Lots of fun to hear about the local politics of give and take going on. Basic democracy at it's best.
Gee, anybody would think Carol and Barb are somehow related, what with all the pretty flowers around the place.
Some people have screened in their covered picnic area, but don't mention it to Carol. She likes it just the way it is, thank you very much! I liked the brick work and the stainless steel bar-b-que. Bike racks were a common scene at most residences. That's a storage shed hiding in the background.
Looking up and down the street gives an idea of the area. That's a converted Prevost bus peeking into the picture on the left. Converted by Country Coach, and one of our favorites. This is a 1986 model and it was fun to talk to the owner. We'd looked at them pretty seriously before buying the Foretravel. The owner has several lots here, and offered to lease one of them out to us if we'd ever want to come up for a season or even for a weekend. The idea is attractive, and maybe we'll do that sometime. But right now there's still too much we want to see for us to stay in any one place longer than a month. Friendly population as a whole.
The big building is the meeting hall, and the cars parked around it belong to residents who drove to the annual meeting. Lovely log building, and while Barb went to some of the meeting, I do better if I stay away from homeowners association meetings, so I wandered around with the camera.
One of the larger homes overlooking the lake, and the snack shacks and pavilion across from the beach and lake front.
Fairly large swimming area, and the canoe rack gives the impression that lots of the residents like the water. My understanding is that Lake Ossipee is the third largest lake in NH, and the main draw for this park.
Boat ramp can accommodate two unloading/loadings at a time. Typical pretty coastline. We were there in September which is toward the end of the season, so there weren't many boats still in the water.
Children's playgrounds down by the water as well as scattered throughout the park seemed like a great idea for a family oriented place like this. Barb and I enjoyed the time we spent with Carol and Guy up here, particularly since they "let" Barb win 7 out of 10 hands of Mexican Train, and 5 of those right in a row. Besides, we'd been trying to get ready for a garage sale and installing the supplemental braking system and tow bar base plate on the Jeep, and the stress was getting to us. This was a welcome break for us.