I’ve always wanted to drive up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. At 6288 feet, it’s the tallest mountain in the Northeast and the road up can be a white-knuckle ride at times. Just my style!

I was here five years ago doing an ambulance photo shoot but the day I was going to drive the mountain, it was raining and zero visibility so I didn’t get to do it. I did, however spend the better part of a day with Rick Murnick of Bartlett-Jackson Ambulance so when it came time to stop here for a night I called him and got permission to park at the firehouse overnight. I drove Mt. Washington on the afternoon I arrived then Rick and I had dinner together.

The motorhome parked at Bartlett Fire Department.

Driving Mt. Washington’s Auto Road offers some wonderful views of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. At the gate, I received a CD to play while driving. It’s timed perfectly to get you up the mountain and back, telling the history of the Auto Road and centuries of man’s desire to get to the top.

Views of the the White Mountains from the Auto Road.

Near the summit, I encountered heavy cloud cover. It’s pretty cool to drive through clouds but what’s not cool is not being able to see where you’re going on a winding mountain road with no guard rail. This is where the white-knuckle part of the drive came in and I loved it!

Visibility conditions quickly deteriorated near the summit.

At the summit is a visitor center and facilities for hikers brave enough to do this stretch of the Appalachian Trail. An observation deck—although I think its pretty rare that there’s any visibility at the top—where on April 12, 1934, scientists recorded the world’s highest wind speed ever observed by man: 231 mph! I have, however, read that there was a higher wind speed recorded within the eye wall of a cyclone in Australia in 1996 but I think there is still some debate over how the speed was measured.

I’m sure that if I could have seen the view from the summit, it would have been spectacular so that’s where I decided to leave another little bit of Mike. Of course, it’s so windy that I had to choose my site carefully so as not to end up wearing him. Yikes!

Zero visibility at the observation deck at the summit of Mt. Washington.

The following morning, Rick and I had breakfast at a local diner and I told him about my theory on moose (see my previous post about Maine). The next day he texted me a photo of a moose supposedly taken right outside the same diner. I’m skeptical.

On August 28, I left Mt. Washington and drove to southern Maine to meet up with a childhood friend. Barbara lived across the street from my family in Little Silver, New Jersey when I was small. She was the only girl in a family full of boys and we had a house full of girls with only one boy. She spent a lot of time at our house and my mother was grateful for her help with the baby whose name, incidentally, was also Barbara.

We’ve stayed in touch over the years and I have visited Barbara and her husband, Bob, on a couple of occasions when traveling to Maine. Barbe and Bob live in Rockport, Massachusetts but they are seasonal campers at a campground in Alfred, Maine so that’s where I met up with them.

My view of the lake at Scott’s Cove Campground.

The morning mist on Bunganut Lake.

I got a site at Scott’s Cove Campground for the weekend with a view of Bunganut Lake. We had plenty of time to get caught up on things and I even got to see one of her brothers. Dave lives less than an hour from the campground so he and his wife stopped by for a visit. I don’t think I’d seen Dave in at least 40 years so it was really wonderful.

Catching up with old friends Dave on far left, his wife in the middle (with grand-kids) and Barbara on far right.

Barbara took this photo of me at the dump station. Nothing like real life!

Now it was time to move on and get somewhere that had lighthouses so I went to Cape Cod. I stayed at Indianhead Resort near Plymouth, Massachusetts. This was, by far, the most difficult campsite I’ve here had to get into. Most sites have flat, straight-line access or, at most, a curved pull-though drive. At this site I had to back in, going uphill, with a dog-leg bend in the drive, through trees. And I couldn’t back up too far because there was a three foot drop-off at the back side of the site. It was crazy!

 
The uphill, dog-leg turn to get into the heavily wooded site.

The three foot drop off at the back of the site.

I spent some time exploring Plimoth Plantation, where my ancestors came over on the Mayflower and I checked out the ancestry library in hopes of helping my sister, Katy, fill in some genealogy info for her application to the Mayflower Society. Although I couldn’t get what she needed, I talked with the librarian about another branch of my family tree where we’ve hit a wall in our research.

  
Statue of William Bradford (affectionately referred to as Grandpa Bill) on the waterfront in Plymouth, just a block away from Plymouth Rock.

Plimoth Plantation. (The plantation name is spelled in keeping with some early written references.)

Grandpa Bill’s house. To my disappointment, he wasn’t home.

When my father retired in the 1980s, he took up the hobby of genealogy research. He worked on both his and my mother’s sides of the family and wrote a wonderful book showing not just the family lineage, but included stories about our ancestors. On my mother’s side, there have been a long line of Lindsays, all stemming from the first one who took her maiden name (Lindsay) and used it as her middle name after marriage. Dad could never determine who her father was so he was unable to go any further back. He had it down to two possibilities but couldn’t find the definitive proof for either one.

The librarian at the Mayflower Society showed me a book that contained a complete history of Lindsays in America… amazing! This book told me which of the two men was the father and now Katy can work on tracing the family from there.

There are several lighthouses on Cape Cod and I got to most, but not all, of them. I even spent an afternoon on the beach at Cape Cod National Seashore where they charge $20 for access but it was free with my National Park Pass.

Cape Cod (Highland) Lighthouse.

Nauset Lighthouse.

Three Sisters Lighthouses. Moved from another location to be restored as a museum near Nauset Lighthouse.

The beach at Cape Cod National Seashore.

Campers are allowed on the beach at Cape Cod National Seashore. I didn’t try it.

I really splurged and took a day trip to Martha’s Vineyard. The ferry cost $165 to take a car over and my meals were outrageously expensive but what the heck. Martha’s Vineyard is beautiful and I drove around the entire island. I photographed four of the five lighthouses and visited a number of locations used in the movie “Jaws.”

Gay Point Lighthouse sits atop breath-taking cliffs at the southwest point of Martha’s Vineyard.

Gay Point Lighthouse.

Edgartown Lighthouse.

 
L-R: West and East Chop Lighthouses, located a couple miles apart on either side of the town of Oak Bluffs.

  
“Jaws” locations: L: the bridge to the pond where Chief Brody runs in search of Michael when he’s sailing with friends. R: The ferry to “Amity Island” in the movie is actually the “Chappy” ferry that takes you from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick on the eastern end of the Vineyard.

The fishing village of Menemsha was used for the location of Quint’s shack.

   
As I waited for the ferry back to Cape Cod, I struck up a conversation with the gate attendant. I told him he looked like Albert Einstein to which he replied, “People used to say I looked like Paul Newman!”.

I had an ambulance photo shoot to do near Plymouth and the salesman, Dave, who lives in the area, went with me. This was just before Labor Day weekend so Dave invited me to join his family for a barbecue at the campground where his parents are seasonal campers. They have a site on a lake with a dock and a boat and I spent a wonderful day getting to know everyone.

Ambulance photo shoot in Kingston, MA. The house belonged to one of my Bradford ancestors.

Dave’s parents have this seasonal site at another nearby campground.

The site comes with a boat slip on the lake.

L-R: Dave, his son Jack and his dad, Dave Sr.

As I was leaving my campground to move on to Rhode Island, I had a mishap at the dump station. Not what you might think… I didn’t spill any waste! Just as the campsite was hard to get into, the dump station was hard to get out of. You have to make a U-turn, which is incredibly difficult in a motorhome. I don’t know how people do it with long travel trailers. A sign said to make a wide turn (duh!) so I did, but I didn’t allow enough room for the rear end of the RV to clear the post holding the water spigot. The spigot got embedded in the side of the RV and tore a horizontal hole through the fiberglass much like the iceberg did to the Titanic.

Some of the damage caused by my run-in with a water spigot on a post.

I also ripped the spigot off the post, sending water spraying everywhere so I went into the office to inform them of the mishap. The teenage girl behind the counter simply said, “Okay, thanks,” so I covered the damaged fiberglass with duct tape and hit the road figuring I’d get it repaired the next time I’m in New Jersey.

I headed to Rhode Island to photograph lighthouses in Narraganset Bay. I spent two nights in a Walmart parking lot in North Kingstown and took a sightseeing cruise around the bay. While waiting in line, I struck up a conversation with a couple from Pottstown, Pennsylvania and it turned out the husband, Mike, used to sell rescue trucks for my company back in the 90s. I took a photo of him and texted it to the VP of rescue sales who was astonished at my ability to find randomly-connected people wherever I go.

 

 

 

 

Mike from Pottstown who I randomly met
on a boat in Narrganset Bay and used to
work for the same company as me.

 

 

 

Castle Hill Lighthouse.

Conanicut Lighthouse was used in “Moonrise Kingdom,” a quirky Wes Anderson film. It is privately owned and they removed the lantern to discourage people like me from bothering them.

Dutch Island Lighthouse.

Goat Island Lighthouse is located on the grounds of Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina and is often used as a wedding venue.

Beavertail Lighthouse.

You can barely spot the tiny lantern of Lime Rock Lighthouse, just above the enclosed deck.

Plum Beach Lighthouse… no beach in sight.

Poplar Point Lighthouse is part of a private home.

Rose Island Lighthouse was built on the remains of an unfinished Revolutionary War fort.

From here, I had a couple of rescue truck photo shoots scheduled. First stop was Agawam, Massachusetts. I’ve been here before to photograph an ambulance a few years ago and had gotten to know the Deputy Chief pretty well so I had no problem asking permission to park at the firehouse for the night. This allowed me to be there for early morning photos when the light was best.

I spent the night at Agawam, MA Fire Department.

One of our ambulances going out on a call.

Early morning photo shoot of their light-duty rescue truck.

Next up was Sandy Hook, Connecticut. I didn’t need to stay overnight there but they have a huge parking lot behind the building that could easily accommodate me if I’d needed it. As it was, I needed to hang around for several hours waiting for the late day sun to come around to the front of the firehouse. When the chief asked the members of the fire department where in town they thought the photo should be taken, they unanimously voted for right in front of the firehouse. The building is rather nondescript but there are 20 stars on the roof as a quiet memorial to the teachers and students killed at the elementary school next door in 2012.

Sandy Hook, CT rescue truck at the firehouse.

My two week route through New England.

 

Upcoming post:

It’s not easy getting on and off Long Island with a motorhome.

My name is Lindsay Reed and I’m a photographer and retired graphic artist with a passion for both lighthouses and road trips. I am living as a full-time solo RVer in my 31 foot Coachmen motorhome and plan to spend the next few years traveling the U.S. and Canada photographing not only lighthouses, but everything else there is to see in this wonderful land. I hope you enjoy my blog and will follow my adventures in the months and years ahead.