Sunday – September 17 – What a funny morning this was, it was nice and sunny when we got up but then by 9:30 it was all overcast with low clouds. Fortunately about noon it cleared off so we decided to take our chance with Mt. Washington. We took the Cog Railway up, which is the world’s first, and oldest, mountain climbing cog railway with the first trip to the summit on July 3, 1869. The railway has vintage steam engines and replica coaches and is quite an experience.

The round trip was 3 hours with about ½ hour at the summit. The train at one point goes up a part that is called Jacob’s Ladder and the incline is 37.1% and the brakeman/tour guide said that the front of the car is 15’ higher than the rear of the car when on the 37.1% incline. Going up the steam engine pushes the coach and going down the engine pulls the coach. Going up we were on the inside seats so didn’t have the greatest view but coming down we got the outside seats and the view was fantastic. It was interesting when another train was passing, on the way up we got the right-of-way and on the way down we had to pull off into a siding and wait for the other train to pass. Each return trip requires a ton of coal and 1000 gallons of water - I wouldn’t want to be the fireman shoveling all that coal into the boiler!! On the way up the windows were open for a while but there were so many cinders blowing in that they got shut to try to keep the dirt out – a wasted effort. On the return trip the windows stayed closed!!

When we got to the summit it was very windy and cool, the view was pretty good but we couldn’t see the ocean or into Quebec, there were too many clouds in the distance. There were lots of hikers on the summit and it looked like it was a good day for hiking. On the way down we saw a hang glider, but with a difference, this one appeared to be hooked up to a motorcycle – go figure!!! At the summit we could just see a bit of the road which you would take if you do the drive up and that was enough for me as it looked very twisty and Kelly had said that it was pretty scary. By taking the railway John could enjoy the scenery and not have to worry about driving.

On the way home we stopped at the Mt. Washington Hotel, what a beautiful place – all white with red trim. The ivy on the building had turned to bright red so was really pretty. We walked around the terrace to see how the other half lives then returned to our home on wheels, which is quite sufficient for us. By the time we got back and hooked up to leave tomorrow it was another late, but good dinner – chicken wings.