American Stonehenge

Wednesday we went to America's Stonehenge, which is about 20 miles from Manchester in Salem NH. It was really cool! It is about a 20 acre site that is on top of a hill, covered with trees. Archeologists have decided the stone buildings there were built about 4000 years ago, but have been used off and on since then, right up to the colonial period when a family settled there and built a house, but used the existing structures for storage. Thank goodness they didn't destroy the main buildings!

The whole area is surrounded by rock walls, which not only surround the site but also interesect, like rock walls between rectangular fields. The stone used is granite, with huge stone slabs for roofs on several of the structures. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, I don't have my camera with me. We hiked all around the place for a couple hours, but it's easy walking, the hill isn't very steep, so I could even walk it pretty easily. The same family has owned the property for many years, and have done a good job preserving the site, while they live next to it. They have alpacas there also, I wanted to take one home!

Mom made it to Manchester today, and now we've taken her motorhome to another mechanic to check her brakes; the transmission mechanic fixed a leaking brake line and told her she needed them checked, but he didn't handle brakes. So, another few days at the shop, it looks like. We took it to a truck/bus/rv shop in Weare, NH, which is about 20 miles north west of Manchester. They could take it today, and hopefully fix it on Monday, the other places I called couldn't even look at it until Thursday, and I want to be on the road again by then.

For some reason, Mom doesn't want to walk up and down the 3 stories to the kids apartment, so we got a hotel for the weekend, which allows me to have internet. I made it up and down those stairs several times a day for the past 5 days, and boy, I'm glad to have a bed and an elevator! Heather signed up for internet today, but we haven't had a good connection for the past several days at their apartment, so I'm taking advantage of the good connection here.

Tomorrow we are driving to Center Harbor, NH, where Patternworks has a yarn shop. I've received their catalog for years, and when I realized they were 60 miles away, well, I have to go to the yarn store, and who knows? I may buy some yarn, cuz I can never have too much! I'm working on a summer sweater now, a short sleeve one made with a ribbon-type yarn, I just about have the back done now.

If it's Sunday this must be New Hampshire

What a week! We have crossed 14 states in the past week, and lost my Mom in Scranton PA. Well, we know where she is, but she's not with us in NH. We pulled into Scranton Saturday evening, I was driving the motorhome. Just after I came off the highway toward our hotel, the front of the motorhome started smoking. At first I thought it was the car in front of us, but then I realized it was us! I couldn't tell where the smoke was coming from, and we were within a mile of the hotel, but I got a powerful feeling that I had to pull over immediately. I found an empty parking lot and drove off the road and up as far as I could, by then the vehicle was smoking really bad. Mom said "take your purses, in case this thing starts on fire" We jumped out of the cab, the whole front smoking like crazy, and saw fluid pouring onto the ground. It was the transmission, and we aren't sure if it was because we had the car dolly on and were pulling up and down a lot of hills coming into Scranton, or the transmission was problematic before. There was some whining in the motorhome even before we left Cottonwood, but I'm sure dragging a dolly didn't help.

Mom found a tow truck, and amazingly they were just a mile or two away. I called Uhaul, and a young man came down, hooked up the dolly and took it back to their lot. Everyone has been so nice there, it was a great relief. Mom insisted that we go on, and since we had to get the other trailer back by Tuesday, we really had no choice but to keep going. David plans to check on her tomorrow when he leaves here. Most people would get a little panicky, but not Mom. I wanted to stay with her, and she said "What are you going to do here, hold my hand?! I'll be fine, I'll rent a car and get to know Scranton for the next few days." She plans to drive over here when the motorhome is fixed, and spend at least a few days here before we start our trek back across the country.

David and Nic are only here one full day, and they spent most of the day helping put together furniture and unpack. They are superheroes, I think. They are planning to drive cross-country in 4 days, and since there are two of them to trade off driving, they may make it sooner. I wish they could go sightseeing with us for a couple days, but they both have to get back to work. This is the busiest time of year for Best by Farr, and Nic doesn't have much vacation time, so they have to get back.

I haven't uploaded any photos yet, I'll try to do that tomorrow. It's really pretty here, so many trees and so green! For a desert rat like me, it's a little surreal, I keep looking for the sprinklers and irrigation systems, but I think they just rely on rain to have such nice lawns and greenery. Manchester has over 100,000 in the city, and 250,000 in the immediate area.